HORMONES AND HEALTH: It's all about healthspan
At the very root of longevity medicine lies the firm belief that a clinician's role is to not merely help patients live longer, but to live more satisfying lives throughout the entirety of the aging process. As a cornerstone within the practice of longevity medicine, hormone health and bioidentical hormone replacement therapy serve as a key tool in allowing patients to maintain full and healthy lives regardless of age.
Hormones perform vast and vital roles in the body’s system.
Healthy hormone function is important for overall health. Health can decline with age for a variety of reasons including the decline in reproductive hormone levels: due to hormone messages being drowned out by stress, by environmental toxins, or by the competition for hormone receptors by artificial estrogens (xenoestrogens) in our food and environment.
With hormone decline, physical health may deteriorate, mental wellness decreases, and chronic diseases arise. Physical changes may include:
- Increased resting heart rate
- Rise in blood pressure
- Amplified immunoreactivity
- Decrease in short term memory function
- Changes in body fat distribution and composition
- Thinning hair on head, arms, legs, and pubic area
- Increased facial hair
-
Blood chemistry changes such as:
- Raised cholesterol levels and elevated fasting insulin / glucose levels.
- Increase in bone turnover markers
- Positive ANA and increased inflammatory markers
The graph below illustrates the prevalence of chronic disease with age, and as hormones decline in the body:
- Arthritis
- Heart Disease
- Cancer
- Diabetes
- Sinusitis
- Asthma
- Kidney Disease
Pharmaceuticals, sadly, are often the first-line therapy for many to address these symptoms and markers of disease. With physiologic restoration for bio-identical hormone replacement therapy, clinicians an prevent this downward spiral. Restoring natural sex hormone cycles, observing a healthy diet, utilizing therapeutic supplements and exercising can support a more optimal functioning of all the body systems.
Grounded in the most recent and well-supported research, this symposium will provide in-depth knowledge on the relationship between hormones and overall health and identify effective ways in which clinicians can wield effective tools such as bioidentical hormone replacement therapy to treat a variety of conditions.
