Our Cincinnati-Dayton area has a plethora of outstanding networking groups with events and meetings. I have been to 4 of them in the past week and I’ve met some nice, fascinating women. Many, okay, most of them need my services and those of my staff at my Happy Hormone Cottage. I always scan the crowd to check out the demographic and typically, this is what I see:
- women fanning themselves (hot flashing!)
- women who are overweight (partly from estrogen dominance….estrogen is a fat storer)
- women who appear harried and stressed (cortisol issues….adrenal fatigue)
- women who appear tired (loss of progesterone starts around age 35 and often younger; progesterone’s big task is healthy sleep)
- a few women who look healthy, at their ideal weight, rested and not as stressed. These are typically younger women in their 20s and 30s.
At last week’s event, I met a woman who was probably mid-to-late 50s. She was talking about how she and her husband are downsizing and getting ready to take life a little easier by cutting back at work and traveling. She mentioned that they had been working on a financial plan for their future for quite some time. I listened and then I said to her, “Great! But how about a health plan? You know, a plan for your health for your future?” She looked at me for a while and then began to talk about how she and her husband try to eat right (lots of salads, limited salad dressing). She continued with, “We have noticed how much less I eat than him, yet I can not lose weight and, in fact, I have gained weight in my stomach and mid-section and it won’t come off.” I began to educate her on ESTROGEN DOMINANCE. I explained that women over the age of 35 begin to lose their progesterone (one of the 3 sex hormones: estrogen, progesterone, testosterone) and this makes them estrogen dominant. ESTROGEN IS A FAT STORER! This is why women gain weight around their middle and in their stomach as we age. Most people don’t know that estrogen is an extremely important hormone that performs over 300 tasks in our bodies…..not the least of which is heart health. So it stands to reason that as we age and also begin to lose estrogen during and beyond menopause, our heart health begins to decline and we begin the downward slope to heart disease. This explains the rise in heart attacks and heart disease of women in their 50s, that rivals the risk of heart attacks in men….lack of estrogen. So doesn’t it just make sense that we REPLACE this estrogen and progestrone (that balances out estrogen dominance so we don’t gain weight around our middle) as we age for our best quality of health? THIS IS THE BEGINNING OF OUR HEALTH PLAN FOR OUR FUTURE. What really got her attention was when I said this: “Did you know that disease starts 10 years before symptoms appear?!” She had no idea! Think about this for a second. Here we are planning for our future, putting money in a 401K or an IRA, saving for our children’s college, possibly early retirement…..but no one is thinking about a health plan. The truth is that for most of us, we take our health for granted until we no longer have it. We must realize that by then, it is too late! If disease truly does begin 10 years (!) before symptoms appear, (diabetes, dementia, heart disease, cancer) then doesn’t it just make sense to have a health plan today? I recently wrote what is probably the most important blog of my life entitled “What We Do Every Day Matters.” This is my truth and it is substantiated by the data of today’s leading health experts like Dr Daniel Amen, Dr Joseph Mercola and Dr David Purlmutter. Every choice we make every day with our health does impact our health for our tomorrows: that donut you eat for breakfast, the work-out you skip, that fast-food meal for lunch, the soda or diet soda you drink…..all of these choices negatively impact our health for our future.
For the gal I spoke with at yesterday’s networking event, I told her my mantra from renowned Dr Prudence Hall, “Hormones are to women, what water is to plants.” We lose our hormones (estrogen, progestrone, testosterone) as we age beginning around age 35. Just because we may not really notice it or equate our issues with this lack of hormone until Perimenopause and menopause, does not mean our hormone imbalance is not going on. Again, disease starts 10 years before real symptoms appear. Hormones perform hundreds of significant jobs in our body. Without them, disease sets in. So a big part of our health plan must include restoring optimal hormone balance. (We know using customized hormone creams with physiological doing based on each woman’s needs is optimal) And this begins in our 30s and 40s. Restoring hormone balance PREVENTS DISEASE. The sad truth and the reason I do what I do, is that there is a huge disconnect between this truth on the prevention of disease and the current standard of care our doctors subscribe to. So I fill in the gap by educating women on the truth of their options because they probably won’t get this information from their doctor. The bottom line is we must educate ourselves on our best chances for our best health for our tomorrows. Women are lucky they have places like my Happy Hormone Cottage to go to for help. It is up to each of us to Own Our Journey to a healthy future. Create a health plan just like you create a financial plan. Your very life actually does depend on it!
To schedule a step one consultation ($25) call us at 513-444-6343 or 937-773-1778. Note: we are happy to do your step one phone consultation over the phone for our out-of-state clients BUT we can only treat clients who come into see our nurse practitioners in person.
