Go Forth and Be Drugged OR Go Forth and Be Well…the Choice is Yours!

I think you’ve probably heard the word on the street that our reason for being, our passion, is educating and empowering women to live their best life naturally. Such a great cause and one that is desperately needed in our society today. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: if women were better and felt well, as they aged, then we wouldn’t be so busy! If, when issues developed,   doctors were treating the root cause of the issue, instead of just band aiding these issues to get rid of the symptoms, women would be better. But women aren’t better! I see it every day as they stagger into our offices with obvious hormone imbalance issues of fatigue, weight gain, low libido, hair loss, sleeplessness, brain fog, adrenal fatigue, thyroid issues and no joy of life. And the worst part is that the traditional approach to dealing with these issues is just NOT working. Hormone levels are rarely, if ever, checked. Women are told every day by their doctors, “Oh you are too young to be in menopause. Or you are too old to need hormones. Or, having a hot flash? Well, here’s an estrogen patch. Or, not sleeping? Here’s a sleeping aid. Or, what thyroid issue? Or, my favorite-feeling depressed or anxious? Here’s a prescription for an antidepressant.” What we know to be true; what has been done for 25-30 years in Europe (where, by the way, the women are remarkably healthy and happy!); what we DO have clinical studies on are bio-identical hormones. We know that replenishing depleted hormone levels with these bio-identical hormones, AFTER checking a woman’s existing hormone levels and then customizing bhrt for that woman DOES work. Our women ARE better! That using natural hormone replacement as we age, considering the entire health of the woman holistically, and working at the PREVENTION end of the spectrum is a relevant anti-aging strategy! And women WANT natural! Women also really want to go to their trusted health care practitioner and be heard. They want to tell their story and be validated. So what’s the problem? The problem is that the traditional approach to medicine focuses on drug therapy with a one-size-fits-most, big pharma-driven, very limiting belief system where thinking outside the box isn’t valued. Whereas OUR approach to women’s health deals more in the world of FUNCTIONAL medicine. What is this? Functional medicine is a personalized approach to medicine that deals with primary prevention and underlying CAUSES instead of symptoms, for serious chronic issues. This is a science-based field of health care that is grounded in several principles:
-patient centered
-dynamic balance of internal and external factors
-interconnections of body systems
-health as a positive vitality
Functional medicine uses the patient’s story as the key tool for diagnosis and is focused on patient care rather than disease care. And it is anchored by an examination of core clinical imbalances that underlie various conditions. So I think it is clear what our goal for 2012 needs to be. We need to push our traditional doctors to begin to open their minds to a more patient-driven, functional approach to medicine. There are classes , seminars and workshops offered in functional medicine. If our doctors are motivated enough, they CAN get informed outside the realm of traditional medicine and feel comfortable   thinking outside the box of current standard of care. Obviously what is going on in traditional health care today in this area of women’s health isn’t working. So frankly, isn’t it time? Isn’t it past time where you can go to your doctor and partner with him to discuss options for keeping you healthy? The choice is yours-go forth and be drugged or go forth and do what it takes to feel better? I think the choice is clear! Oh, and by the way, when you do nothing at all to replenish your depleted hormone levels that deplete with age, (maybe because you currently aren’t having any issues)  you are setting yourself up for failure. For example, when your estrogen levels deplete, and we know that estrogen does 300 jobs in the body (!), how are those jobs going to get done if we don’t replace those levels? When you go to your doctor with a disease that could have been prevented, it’s already too late. Education is key to eradicating misconceptions and wrong assumptions.
I urge you to strongly encourage your doctor to work with you to explore more natural options for your healthcare!

Lyn

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