Just a Case of “The Blues” or Something More?

April 11 2011

Oftentimes the face of depression does not always fit the mold: a successful career, loving spouse, wonderful children, seemingly good health and finances. From the outside life appears perfect, so why are you depressed?
A staggering 230 million antidepressant prescriptions are filled each year, and the number of people suffering from depression continues to climb – currently, 19 million Americans suffer from it. Since May is National Mental Health Month, I would like to provide insight into this serious health problem plaguing America.

It is possible that depression doesn’t stand alone. Instead, it is a symptom of an underlying health problem. Individual symptoms should not be treated as separate entities, but as pieces to a puzzle, which can assist in locating the root problem. Unfortunately, the modern day medical paradigm looks no further than prescription drugs. For symptoms of depression, an antidepressant is the immediate go-to. However, each drug tends to have its own side effects, and before you know it, your list of symptoms has grown along with the drugs in your medicine cabinet. Even worse, you aren’t feeling any better.

An Unlikely Suspect

Constant fatigue and lack of energy is a common side effect of depression, but if you look more closely you might notice how many symptoms of depression coincide with symptoms of low thyroid function: extreme fatigue, migraines, insomnia, depression, hair loss, constipation, joint pain, muscle aches and weight gain. Hypothyroidism is often overlooked as a diagnosis. In fact, it’s estimated that more than 13 million Americans are suffering from untreated hypothyroidism. To evaluate the likelihood you suffer from hypothyroidism, take this online hormonal quiz.

What you can do

Numerous studies have shown there are effective natural alternatives to relieving symptoms of depression. The following healthy lifestyle factors can play a critical role in your overall mental health:

• Exercise regularly: Your emotional state affects your overall health, and exercise has been shown to improve mood, relieve stress, anxiety as well as reduce tension, anger and fatigue. Set a goal of 30 to 60 minutes per day. A good place to start is by walking.

• According to American Journal of Preventive Medicine, a 2005 study found among study participants who were all diagnosed with mild to moderate depression that depressive symptoms were cut in half for those who participated in 30-minute aerobic exercise sessions three to five times a week after 12 weeks, and those who did stretching flexibility exercises 15 to 20 minutes three days a week averaged a 29 percent decline.

• Take key vitamins to help boost your mood:

Vitamin D –a vast majority of Americans have low levels of vitamin D. Ask your physician to check your vitamin D level to see if you need to supplement with a high quality vitamin.

Fish Oil – supplement with high quality omega-3 fats, such as fish oil.

Magnesium Citrate (Mg) – a mineral essential in the formation of our cells’ energy molecule which controls the activation of our nervous system. It specifically aids in alleviating the following:

Depression – serotonin which elevates mood is dependent on Mg

Anxiety & panic attacks – Mg keeps adrenal stress hormones under control

Fatigue – Mg deficient patients commonly experience fatigue because dozens of enzyme systems are under-functioning.

Migraines – deficiency in serotonin can result in migraine headaches

Vitamin B-6 – aids in improving depression by balancing neurotransmitters.

Vitamins to alleviate stress: L-Tyrosine; Phosphatidylserine; L-Glutamine; B-complex; Vitamin C; and GABA.

Vitamins for thyroid support: Selenium; Tyrosine; Iodoral; Magnesium.

Clean up your diet:

• Avoid foods containing high saturated fats. Instead choose good types of fat, which are high in Omega 3’s, such as fish and dark green vegetables. Avoid highly processed foods including artificial sugars, diet sodas and anything with high fructose corn syrup.

• Check your hormones: Whether it is the body’s thyroid hormone or sex hormones, hormonal decline begins to occur as we age. It can also be triggered during certain stages of life, such as after childbirth, menopause and puberty. Maintain healthy levels of the body’s naturally occurring hormones: if you have low levels resulting in an imbalance, you can supplement with bioidentical hormones known as bioidentical hormone replacement therapy (BHRT).

• Check all the signs and symptoms before resorting to antidepressants, and be aware of the side effects accompanying these drugs. Take charge of your own mental and physical health by incorporating lifestyle changes as well as turning your focus towards alternative methods for improving depression. Break out of the vicious cycle of placating one negative side effect with the addition of yet another drug. Lastly, do your research and be your own health advocate.

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Would You Rather Prevent or Treat Heart Disease?

February 15 2010

This year 750,000 American men and women will die of a heart attack.  That is 2,055 Americans each day, eighty-five per hour and nearly one and a half deaths per second.  More than 47 percent of these deaths occur before emergency help arrives.  It is the silent fear of all middle aged men, as often the first symptom of a heart attack is a heart attack.  Men fear heart disease like women fear breast cancer.  However, you may be surprised to know, it is the number one killer of both men and women in the United States.  The question we should be asking is why?

What do you believe is the cause of heart disease?  Most Americans would answer that cholesterol is the cause of heart disease.  This may be the opposite of anything you have ever heard, but cholesterol is NOT the cause of heart disease.  Did you know that cholesterol is essential to the human body?  Cholesterol is in each cell of your body and believe it or not, you want it to stay there.  It plays a vital role in stabilizing your cells, providing structure to your cell membranes.  It’s similar to the role of nails in that holding your house together.  If you removed each nail, what would happen to your house?  It would fall apart!  Cholesterol is also a precursor to your body’s hormones such as testosterone, progesterone, and estrogen, as well as vitamin D production.  If cholesterol is so bad for our health, why is it so important in our body?

You may be wondering: well, what about statin drugs.  Hundreds of thousands of Americans are “trusting their hearts to Lipitor”.  Conventional medicine is lowering cholesterol, but is it preventing heart disease?  Do you really want to abnormally lower something that is so vital to your health, in exchange for the likelihood of having negative side effects, such as memory loss, amnesia and muscle and joint pain?

If cholesterol isn’t the cause of heart disease, what is?  Well, there are many factors that contribute to the cause of heart disease, and the following is a vital piece of the health puzzle. Believe it or not: A deficiency in vitamin C, in the cells of the blood vessel walls, is a major factor in the cause of heart disease. When lesions form in our arteries, the body needs collagen to properly repair itself, and our body needs vitamin C to form collagen. If your body does not have a sufficient amount of vitamin C, it will compensate in an unhealthy way with a sticky substance that forms sticky plaques. Dr. Matthias Rath found that this sticky substance in the artery walls is actually made from a similar cholesterol-based protein called lipoprotein(a). These plaques then build up and cause blockage in the arteries, which then cause heart attack and stroke.

Consequently, the presence of vitamin C in your body is vital. However, humans, guinea pigs and monkeys are the only species that do not have the ability to make their own vitamin C. If our bodies completely lacked vitamin C, we would get scurvy, and then the lesions would rupture causing us to die from internal bleeding. Vitamin C is also needed to convert cholesterol to bile, and to keep cholesterol and lipoprotein(a) from building up in your bloodstream.

Equally important is the body’s thyroid hormone level, which has been shown to be directly correlated to the rate of heart attacks deaths. A truly remarkable finding: Dr. Broda Barnes performed a twenty year study of the relationship between supplemental thyroid hormone and reduced risk of heart attacks, which demonstrated a decreased heart attack death rate of 95 percent in patients who received natural thyroid hormone. With this in mind, please remember thyroid production declines as we age. Specifically, fifty-year-olds produce 50 percent less thyroid hormones than they did in their twenties.

Prevention: Forget about drugs or surgery, you can prevent and reverse plaque build-up in your arteries through proper vitamin and mineral supplementation. The protocol I recommend for prevention of heart disease consists of the following daily regimen: vitamin C, L-Lysine, L-Proline, Coenzyme Q10, Alpha Lipoic Acid, Omega 3 and Magnesium Citrate, as well as lowering your homocysteine levels by boosting your levels of B12 and folic acid.

The choice is yours on how you can prevent or treat heart disease. It is my intent to insure you are educated about some of the risks associated with conventional pharmaceutical approaches to symptoms, such as high blood pressure and cholesterol, and to present you with natural options so that you can make an informed decision. I encourage you to take charge and be proactive with your health.

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The Truth Behind the Hormone Controversy

December 17 2009

For years you’ve heard conflicting messages about hormone replacement therapy drugs. Confused by all the mixed messages? Who can blame you?

In November of this year, two juries awarded verdicts totaling $113 million over synthetic hormone replacement therapy (HRT) drugs, Prempro and Premarin, which are manufactured by pharmaceutical giant, Pfizer.  The verdicts ruled in favor of two women who developed breast cancer while taking the counterfeit hormones, Prempro and Premarin.  Now, Pfizer faces steep damages.  Are the damages too steep, or are they justified? You be the judge.

The juries found that Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, now owned by Pfizer, knew that Premarin and Prempro were dangerous prior to the negative findings of the 2002 Women’s Health Initiative (WHI) Study. WHI studied more than 15,000 women, between the ages of 50 and 79, and concluded that Prempro and Premarin significantly increased the risk of breast cancer, heart attack and stroke. However, Wyeth continued to push these drugs. As a result, more than 10,000 cases are awaiting trial from women who claim they developed breast cancer from taking Premarin and Prempro.

Amidst all of these trials and the controversy surrounding hormone replacement therapy drugs, mainstream media and medicine remain silent. It’s time to uncover the truth – separating the good guys from the bad.

Women are confused when it comes to hormones.  To make matters worse, so are their doctors.  You hear it all the time: hormones cause cancer.  This statement has women paralyzed despite the fact that they are suffering from menopausal symptoms such as hot flashes, night sweats, loss of libido, insomnia, depression, etc.  But think about it:  Women’s hormone levels peak in their twenties.  If hormones cause cancer, wouldn’t women in their twenties have a high incidence of disease?

Instead, what we find is that when women reach mid-life and their hormone levels begin to drop we begin to see cancer, cardiovascular disease, stroke, osteoporosis and degenerative diseases.  So there is something about the statement – hormones cause cancer – that mainstream medicine is missing.

The answer to the hormone controversy lies in the definition of a hormone.  The media and mainstream medicine make no differentiation between bioidentical hormones and counterfeit hormones such as Prempro and Premarin.  Because the term ‘bioidentical’ is often labeled a marketing term, it’s time to set the record straight.   Bioidentical hormones are molecularly identical to what our bodies make.  Because natural progesterone and the estrogens are biologically identical in structure to the hormones produced by the body, your cells respond to them in exactly the same way that they respond to the hormones produced by your own body.

Meanwhile, counterfeit hormones are the result of manipulating the original structure to make it patentable without giving any concern to what these counterfeit hormones are doing to women’s bodies.  Counterfeit hormones, by definition, are not hormones.  And your body doesn’t recognize them as such either.  It’s like putting Chevy parts in a Ford.  It just doesn’t work.

The WHI found that hormones increased the risk of cancer, but no one seemed to note that the WHI’s findings were based on counterfeit hormones, not true bioidentical hormones.  On the contrary, bioidentical progesterone has actually been shown to decrease the risk of breast cancer. Yet, no one is talking about it because there isn’t any money in something that you can’t patent.  You can’t patent what God has made.

Do not be left subject to the misinformation and bias presented to you.  Educate yourself about hormones, and if it’s not something that works naturally with your body, analyze it and you are certain to find a catch.  Let’s put an end to the confusion.  Biologically identical hormones, along with those that your body produces naturally, are the only ones that deserve to be called hormones. Now the truth has been told, I urge you to adhere to this truth and stop taking these harmful drugs.

Listen to Dr. Hotze’s “Health & Wellness Solutions” on KSEV 700 AM radio or online at www.ksevradio.com, M-F, 12-1 PM.  Purchase Dr. Hotze’s book Hormones, Health, and Happiness at local bookstores, www.amazon.com or www.hormoneshealthandhappiness.com

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