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From:TheBahamasWeekly.com Radiant Health - Angelika Christie
When we are young we are oblivious to aging; aging is for old people. Depending on your age, ‘old’ is anywhere from the thirties to the eighties, meaning that a teenager finds you ‘old’ in your thirties, just like fifty years old people see old age more in eighty years old people and beyond. It is all perception, but there are actual physiological changes triggering the aging process as early as 20 years into your life.
Dr. Eric Braverman, a highly respected physician and director of the “PATH medical services and research foundation in New York, has brought a deeper understanding into the actual processes of what he calls the “pause model” of aging and disease.
The onset of aging is according to the decline in hormones in our bodies. When we think of hormones, we often just remember the sex hormones like estrogen and testosterone, but did you know that there are 24 ‘pauses’ that are related to a decline in hormones way beyond estrogen and testosterone? I will not go through all of them, but would like to encourage you to educate yourself so you do understand the changes in your body and moods better, and also have a choice whether you want to do something about it or not.
Here are some of the conditions that are related to a decline in hormones:
Lower sex drive, fatigue, weight gain, irritability, depression, arthritis, dryness, hair loss,
smell, touch and hearing decline, memory decline, sleeping problems, joint pain, low overall energy… and so on. Do you recognize yourself in some of these conditions?
You may think that this is just a natural process of aging; that the aging process is responsible for the decline in hormones that we had in our youth, but it is actually the other way around: We age because our hormones decline. The onset of the declines vary between the age of 20 to 50 according to which hormones are involved, your inherited genes, your stress level, your eating habits and brain activity.
We cannot do much about our inherited genes, but they do not play as much of a dominant role as we often think, or use as an excuse for not taking responsibility for our conditions. There is much we can do to postpone the aging process, and later, age without disease and mental decline. When it comes to hormone replacement, many people immediately discard the idea. But why? There is often a misunderstanding about what hormone replacement does and how to do it safely.
First of all let me remind you that my intention is to educate you and make you aware of the choices you have. Since I am not a medical doctor, you always have to consult with a qualified physician. This may be your doctor if he is knowledgeable in this field, or you may have to look for a specialist in anti aging and bio identical hormone replacement therapy. What is important is that you go about this in the most beneficial way without harming your body in any way, which means to stay away as much as possible from pharmaceutical preparations when it comes to hormones. The reason for this is clear: you cannot improve on Nature. Everything we need to stay healthy into our ‘golden years’ is provided in the mineral, plant and animal kingdom on our planet. When we ingest a synthetic substance, our body does not recognize it; it may relieve symptoms of a disease, but mostly at a price of unpleasant side effects at best, and cellular damage at worst.
Most of us have heard about pharmaceutical hormone replacement for the symptoms of menopause in women. For decades women got prescriptions from their physicians to eliminate the typical symptoms of hot-flashes, vaginal dryness, mood swings etc. The most prescribed medication for hormone replacement was, and still is, ’Premarin’ which actually comes from the hormone of a pregnant horse, a mare. Why in the world would a woman’s body agree with a horse’s hormone is a mystery to me. Of course, although the unpleasant symptoms of menopause were often eased, this kind of hormone replacement showed severe side effects in an increased danger for breast cancer and others. After this study was released, many women refused any hormone replacement out of fear. Today we have much better research and approach regarding beneficial and no risk hormone replacement through “bio-identical” hormones, which come from natural sources such as the plant kingdom, which our bodies recognize, accept and work in synergy with.
First of all we have to find out what our natural baseline of youth hormones is. This test can be done through a blood, urine, or saliva sample. Most health insurances will pay for the blood test, but unless you specifically ask, it is not part of your annual checkup. It is also important that, if you are over the age of 50 years, you listen carefully to the wording in the report. You do not want to know what is a ‘normal’ level according to your age, but how your hormones can be brought back to a level of your biological age of thirty years old. Yes, you read it correctly: thirty years of age can be achieved naturally through bio-identical hormone replacement and healthy life style which will not only give you the vigor, but also prevent many or all of the typical age related diseases I mentioned earlier.
Angelika Christie
ND is the managing director of Radiant Health Center
You can reach her at 242-352-1010 or radianthealth1@mac.com
www.radianthealthcenterbahamas.com
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You bet it is, at least when we speak about the physiological aspects of the aging process. If you are over the age of thirty-five, you may feel that your body, and especially your energy level are not the same as when you were in your teens and twenties. You are still young, but the aging process is well underway since you passed your mid twenties. Shocking? Yes and no.