Natural Remedies For Supressed Hormones
Hormone changes, deficiencies within the body and subsequent imbalances proved to the be the root cause for women who continually complained of lethargy, hot sweats, emotional swings, weight gain and a life that wasn’t normal to them, says Dr. Erika Schwartz. She saw a pattern when her patients presented with the same symptoms yet their medical tests returned back normal. As a medical doctor she wasn’t seeing results and instead turned to natural remedies.
Schwartz says, “I relied on conventional therapies to treat women in their middle years for menopausal symptoms, the mainstays of which were synthetic estrogens and progestins. If the period was gone headaches and migraines overwhelmed the women.”
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After experiencing the same effects herself she became a detective trying find solutions that worked, naturally, because as she says, “It seamed as though nothing could help me or my patients feel normal again.” She goes on to say, “After ten years of practicing medicine I found this to be ridiculous.”
Schwartz says hormones are usually the root cause of why women suffer from a less than substantial life. The hormones are linked to the thyroid and once they are working correctly, you feel like you’re in your prime. She says, “When we are young, it is the abundance and perfectly tuned balance of hormones that makes us vital, wrinkle-free, sexually turned on and quick to recover from colds and flu.”
She turned to natural hormone treatment and says after practicing twenty years she has seen both sides of the medical community as well as what works.
Synthetic hormone therapy is receiving more scrutiny recently as more and more doctors are experiencing the same thing, patients who are simply not getting better. USA Today published an article saying, “At the same time that HRT’s benefits are becoming murkier, the potential risks of long-term therapy — mainly an increased risk of breast and ovarian cancer and blood clots — are becoming more worrisome.”
They go on to say, “It’s not difficult to find Web sites or even articles in scientific journals touting HRT’s beneficial effects on the heart and brain. But those notions stem from the inconsistent findings of studies that involved women who chose to go on HRT. Skeptics question whether other characteristics of those women, and not HRT itself, might deserve the credit.”
JAMA published an article saying basically the same thing.
At that time the NIH did a study. They tested women seeking natural treatments including black cohosh, red clover, soy products (which are not advised or recommended for human consumption), St. John’s wort, valerian root, motherwort, kava kava, ginseng and others. They reported, “Phytoestrogen extracts, including soy foods and red clover appear to have at best only minimal effect on menopausal symptoms but have positive health effects on plasma lipid concentrations and may reduce heart disease. St. John’s wort has been shown to improve mild to moderate depression in the general population and appears to show efficacy for mood disorders related to the menopausal transition.”
They further said, “Black cohosh appears to be the most effective herb for relief of menopausal symptoms, primarily hot flashes and possibly mood disorders.” They concluded more research needed to be done.
Yet The Boston Globe, recently published a study saying antidepressants were just as effective as hormone therapy. However, several findings through the largest antidepressant study ever done, STAR*D, including the NIH showed antidepressants don’t work. Click here to read more.
Schwartz says she sees more success with natural hormone therapy and other supporting herbal and supplementation according to what is applicable than she ever did with synthetic Hormone Replacement Therapy.
She says, “Even now, endocrinology, with its focus on disease – diabetes, thyroid, pituitary, and genetic hormone imbalances – is not a popular specialty. There has never been a glut for endocronologists, which very well may be the reason why the study of hormones and how to balance them has become an area for wellness experts and anti-aging specialists.”
To learn more about Schwartz’s findings and practices click here for her book The Hormone Solution.
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*Nourishing Plot is written by a mom whose son has been delivered from the effects of autism (Asperger’s syndrome), ADHD, bipolar disorder/manic depression, hypoglycemia and dyslexia through food. This is not a news article published by a paper trying to make money. This blog is put out by a mom who sees first hand the affects of nourishing food vs food-ish items. No company pays her for writing these blogs, she considers this a form of missionary work. It is her desire to scream it from the rooftops so that others don’t suffer from the damaging effect of today’s “food”.
Other sources:
http://www.bostonglobe.com/lifestyle/health-wellness/2014/06/01/antidepressant-effective-for-treating-hot-flashes-study-shows/GgnHRdTixtpwEaLI277pPO/story.html
http://blog.drerika.com/
http://clinicaltrials.gov/show/NCT01418209
https://drerika.com/
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1764641/
http://www.peoplespharmacy.com/2014/06/04/women-have-two-new-options-to-treat-symptoms-of-menopause/
http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/health/2001-06-13-hormone-cover.htm
1 Comment
As a male who has had two post-menopausal wives and my own male versions of the same hormone problem, I can clearly speak to the wisdom of this post. When your hormones are properly rebalanced the weight gain stops, the symptoms go away and health is restored. It took many days (not hours ) of reading and research to determine the facts, as the current medical community has yet to see the light. They are addicted to the one pill one problem for all approach and that method will not work with hormones which accounts for the variable results from the available research.
To add to the list of resources above I offer the book on hormone replacement ” Ageless” by Suzanne Somers, and “Hormone Hell to Hormone Well” by Dr. Randolph. For even more information look at the web site of LEF.ORF and search for hormone replacement.
As I noted, one-size-fits-all does not work for hormones, so to get the real facts on your own body, look for a doctor certified as an A4M doctor at A4M.com. Unfortunately, most of these doctors do not take insurance as insurance will not pay for and Medicare will not allow the prescribing of the hormones needed to make changes in your body. They believe that the hormone changes are just a natural part of aging. For example, I tried to get a bioidentical hormone prescription from a standard medical doctor for over 5 years – even providing many research papers with no results. I got the required injections on the first visit to my A4M doctor.
Many will claim that insurance will pay, but Insurance only pays for problems represented by diagnostic codes and pays for treatment with treatment codes and there is no reasonable treatment code for excess belly fat, feels lousy, has no energy, and subject to “flash anger”, etc
My current wife and I are on hormone therapy to restore our youthful energy and at age 72, I have never felt better in my life. We are still working as wedding photographers, we have started section hiking the Appalachian trail, and I am looking forward to my first hang-gliding experience later this year. Life is good and I wish the same to you and yours.