1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:06,960 Prepare to have your health questions answered here on Safe, Effective, Natural Solutions 2 00:00:06,960 --> 00:00:12,320 with Dr. Todd Binkley, owner of Binkley Healing Center in downtown Ventura. 3 00:00:12,320 --> 00:00:14,560 Now, here's Dr. Todd. 4 00:00:14,560 --> 00:00:15,560 Good afternoon. 5 00:00:15,560 --> 00:00:20,880 I'm Dr. Todd Binkley, board certified doctor of non-force chiropractic and practitioner 6 00:00:20,880 --> 00:00:23,400 of functional medicine. 7 00:00:23,400 --> 00:00:27,760 Functional medicine means using the same tests all doctors use, but instead of using tests 8 00:00:27,760 --> 00:00:33,840 to diagnose and treat disease that you already have, practitioners of functional medicine 9 00:00:33,840 --> 00:00:39,640 use the same tests, usually more of them, and a different yardstick, a better way of 10 00:00:39,640 --> 00:00:46,080 measuring for normal health, for places where normal function has started to fail, where 11 00:00:46,080 --> 00:00:49,520 things are no longer working as they should. 12 00:00:49,520 --> 00:00:50,520 Guess what? 13 00:00:50,520 --> 00:00:56,720 When things aren't working as they should, you don't feel the way you should feel, and 14 00:00:56,720 --> 00:01:02,280 the reasons for that are identifiable with standard testing, but with measuring for different 15 00:01:02,280 --> 00:01:07,000 levels of certain things on those tests where normal function is lost. 16 00:01:07,000 --> 00:01:12,440 Not bad enough to require a prescription or a referral to a specialist or a scan, but 17 00:01:12,440 --> 00:01:16,640 just things that aren't the way they used to be when you were in your 20s, when you 18 00:01:16,640 --> 00:01:22,680 were teens, when everything is working perfectly, that can be remedied with better food, exercise, 19 00:01:22,680 --> 00:01:23,680 and supplements. 20 00:01:23,680 --> 00:01:28,040 One of the most important realms of human health and healing and disease where this 21 00:01:28,040 --> 00:01:33,920 is just hugely applicable and can make such a big difference is with hormones. 22 00:01:33,920 --> 00:01:36,200 So today we're going to talk about hormones. 23 00:01:36,200 --> 00:01:41,280 I'm going to present a really exciting case about a 58-year-old female with overwhelming 24 00:01:41,280 --> 00:01:46,160 stress and fatigue and brain fog and irritability. 25 00:01:46,160 --> 00:01:47,600 These were her main symptoms. 26 00:01:47,600 --> 00:01:50,520 There were several others, and she got amazing results. 27 00:01:50,520 --> 00:01:57,320 Once we did comprehensive testing to identify the things that needed support in her body. 28 00:01:57,320 --> 00:02:03,480 We're also going to talk about the most appropriate forms of testing for hormones in particular. 29 00:02:03,480 --> 00:02:06,120 Gold standard for most tests is blood. 30 00:02:06,120 --> 00:02:11,680 Blood tests are the gold standard for most conditions, but there are important exceptions. 31 00:02:11,680 --> 00:02:14,920 Intestinal pathogens don't show up on a blood test. 32 00:02:14,920 --> 00:02:21,560 Metallic toxicities, mold exposure, heavy metal toxicities, and importantly, hormones, 33 00:02:21,560 --> 00:02:24,600 especially estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone. 34 00:02:24,600 --> 00:02:33,440 These hormones for menopausal symptoms for men with low testosterone and women with perimenopause, 35 00:02:33,440 --> 00:02:35,640 menopause, and postmenopause. 36 00:02:35,640 --> 00:02:39,640 The best way to often, the best way to test for these is not with a blood test. 37 00:02:39,640 --> 00:02:44,640 Your hormones in your blood, your serum levels, you're actually measuring serum levels. 38 00:02:44,640 --> 00:02:49,360 And these, if you look at a graph of serum levels of estrogen and progesterone, they're 39 00:02:49,360 --> 00:02:54,240 up and down, up and down, up and down, all day long, every 10 minutes for six hours. 40 00:02:54,240 --> 00:02:57,360 I'm looking at this graph and it's just up and down. 41 00:02:57,360 --> 00:02:58,360 It's all over the place. 42 00:02:58,360 --> 00:03:03,200 So when you do a serum test of that, you're getting a snapshot in time of something that's 43 00:03:03,200 --> 00:03:05,100 constantly changing. 44 00:03:05,100 --> 00:03:13,640 So it's better for women with menopausal symptoms to test for their hormones with a saliva test. 45 00:03:13,640 --> 00:03:15,680 And there's a lot of great things about that. 46 00:03:15,680 --> 00:03:18,520 Number one, you don't have to get a blood draw. 47 00:03:18,520 --> 00:03:23,920 Saliva test is measuring an average of your levels of these hormones throughout the entire 48 00:03:23,920 --> 00:03:24,920 day. 49 00:03:24,920 --> 00:03:32,480 And if you're going to address any deficiencies in these hormone levels with transdermal creams 50 00:03:32,480 --> 00:03:36,560 or oils, other transdermal remedies, which is the most common way to do it, then it's 51 00:03:36,560 --> 00:03:41,680 much better to measure the levels that you have currently with the salivary test because 52 00:03:41,680 --> 00:03:45,100 that will also show how you're responding to the treatment. 53 00:03:45,100 --> 00:03:52,120 When you treat hormones with transdermal therapies, the levels that show up in serum do not accurately 54 00:03:52,120 --> 00:03:57,440 reflect what's happening in your body, whereas a salivary test does. 55 00:03:57,440 --> 00:03:59,680 So we'll talk about that a little bit later. 56 00:03:59,680 --> 00:04:03,280 But first I want to dive into a headline in the medical literature that came out this 57 00:04:03,280 --> 00:04:04,280 week. 58 00:04:04,280 --> 00:04:11,520 Two, the headline is ovarian cancer risk doubled by estrogen only HRT. 59 00:04:11,520 --> 00:04:12,520 Hormone replacement therapy. 60 00:04:12,520 --> 00:04:19,880 So estrogen only without progesterone, hormone replacement therapy doubles the risk of ovarian 61 00:04:19,880 --> 00:04:20,880 cancer risk. 62 00:04:20,880 --> 00:04:26,160 This is from two decades after the landmark women's health initiative, which changed the 63 00:04:26,160 --> 00:04:31,720 way clinicians thought about hormone replacement therapy and cancer from two of the WHO's 64 00:04:31,720 --> 00:04:37,680 randomized trials, which found that estrogen alone in women with prior hysterectomy significantly 65 00:04:37,680 --> 00:04:43,560 increased ovarian cancer incidence and mortality in post menopausal women. 66 00:04:43,560 --> 00:04:49,480 So estrogen and progesterone together did not increase ovarian cancer risk and significantly 67 00:04:49,480 --> 00:04:52,960 reduced the risk of endometrial cancer. 68 00:04:52,960 --> 00:05:00,520 So this is by Dr. Rowan Chablowski and presented these results at the annual meeting of the 69 00:05:00,520 --> 00:05:03,600 American Society of Clinical Oncology. 70 00:05:03,600 --> 00:05:08,480 Rowan Chablowski, MD, PhD, presented these findings at the American Society of Clinical 71 00:05:08,480 --> 00:05:14,720 Oncology and he and his colleagues conducted an analysis from two randomized placebo controlled 72 00:05:14,720 --> 00:05:22,720 trials which between 1993 and 1998 enrolled nearly 28,000 post menopausal women aged 50 73 00:05:22,720 --> 00:05:27,720 to 79 years without prior cancer from 40 centers across the United States. 74 00:05:27,720 --> 00:05:37,880 From one of these trials, 17,000 women with a uterus were given equine estrogen plus synthetic 75 00:05:37,880 --> 00:05:42,880 progesterone standard hormone replacement therapy, Premprote. 76 00:05:42,880 --> 00:05:46,020 So horse urine plus synthetic progestin. 77 00:05:46,020 --> 00:05:49,880 This was the standard hormone replacement therapy for decades. 78 00:05:49,880 --> 00:05:57,340 And another trial, 11,000 women with a hysterectomy were given estrogen alone or a placebo. 79 00:05:57,340 --> 00:06:02,960 Both trials were stopped early because the estrogen only trial caused an increased stroke 80 00:06:02,960 --> 00:06:10,160 risk and the combined therapy of horse urine, estrogen, and synthetic progestin caused an 81 00:06:10,160 --> 00:06:14,240 increased risk of breast cancer and cardiovascular disease. 82 00:06:14,240 --> 00:06:19,320 So 20 years later, 20 years follow up, this is what they just did, the mortality information 83 00:06:19,320 --> 00:06:28,320 available suggested that ovarian cancer doubled among the women who had taken estrogen alone. 84 00:06:28,320 --> 00:06:34,640 Conjugated equine estrogen, horse urine, estrogen, Dr. Chablowski reminded everyone at his presentation 85 00:06:34,640 --> 00:06:39,320 in Chicago, was introduced in the US clinical practice in 1943 and used for over half a 86 00:06:39,320 --> 00:06:40,640 century. 87 00:06:40,640 --> 00:06:48,520 So the question of its influence on endometrial and ovarian cancer, he says, remains unsettled. 88 00:06:48,520 --> 00:06:51,800 Endometrial cancer and ovarian cancer are the fourth and fifth leading causes of cancer 89 00:06:51,800 --> 00:06:59,040 deaths in women and horse urine, estrogen reduces the risk of one and increases the 90 00:06:59,040 --> 00:07:00,040 other. 91 00:07:00,040 --> 00:07:05,480 Well, to add to confusion oncologist Eleanor Tepelinsky, MD of Valley Mount Sinai Comprehensive 92 00:07:05,480 --> 00:07:11,240 Cancer Care in New Jersey said that 20 years ago, the women's health initiative showed 93 00:07:11,240 --> 00:07:14,200 that hormone replacement therapy increases breast cancer risk. 94 00:07:14,200 --> 00:07:17,760 So everyone stopped taking hormone replacement therapy. 95 00:07:17,760 --> 00:07:23,200 And now people are pushing back and saying, wait a second, it was estrogen plus progesterone 96 00:07:23,200 --> 00:07:27,200 that increased breast cancer, not estrogen alone. 97 00:07:27,200 --> 00:07:28,480 So what's the problem with this? 98 00:07:28,480 --> 00:07:34,160 Well, the problem is many doctors are more likely now to prescribe estrogen only and 99 00:07:34,160 --> 00:07:39,600 unopposed estrogen, estrogen without adequate progesterone to balance it out, creates a 100 00:07:39,600 --> 00:07:41,220 lot of problems. 101 00:07:41,220 --> 00:07:45,640 It is one of the main things a functional practitioner is looking for when we test your 102 00:07:45,640 --> 00:07:47,640 hormone levels. 103 00:07:47,640 --> 00:07:52,680 Progesterone reduces the risk of ovarian cancer and the increased risk of breast cancer, even 104 00:07:52,680 --> 00:08:01,560 when taking synthetic progestin, progestin, synthetic progestin instead of natural progesterone 105 00:08:01,560 --> 00:08:04,040 was always minimal. 106 00:08:04,040 --> 00:08:10,680 The risk, the increased risk in breast cancer of taking even the horse urine, pro, pro, 107 00:08:10,680 --> 00:08:12,240 prem pro. 108 00:08:12,240 --> 00:08:13,560 Premorin is horse urine. 109 00:08:13,560 --> 00:08:19,560 That was the brand name for horse urine estrogen and prem pro was the brand name of the combination 110 00:08:19,560 --> 00:08:23,840 of horse urine estrogen and synthetic progestin. 111 00:08:23,840 --> 00:08:28,200 Even when taking that, the increased risk of breast cancer was minimal, equivalent to 112 00:08:28,200 --> 00:08:32,920 the increased risk of drinking one or two glasses of wine per night, equivalent to the 113 00:08:32,920 --> 00:08:37,620 risk of inactivity or just being overweight. 114 00:08:37,620 --> 00:08:43,720 So if there's this much confusion among mainstream doctors, whatever primary care provider may 115 00:08:43,720 --> 00:08:50,740 be your regular doctor, your internist or your gynecologist or gastroenterologist, let 116 00:08:50,740 --> 00:08:54,920 alone endocrinologist, how are you, if the doctors are this confused about it, how are 117 00:08:54,920 --> 00:08:58,080 you supposed to figure out what's best for you? 118 00:08:58,080 --> 00:09:03,720 Well, before we get to that, here's another excellent article that just came out, headline, 119 00:09:03,720 --> 00:09:08,720 don't fear hormone replacement therapy, but prescribe it correctly. 120 00:09:08,720 --> 00:09:14,320 So this is Dr. Dr. Rachel Rubin MD, urologist and sexual medicine specialist. 121 00:09:14,320 --> 00:09:18,400 She says menopausal complaints are not just hot flashes and night sweats. 122 00:09:18,400 --> 00:09:24,400 We see so many sexual health problems, genitourinary syndrome of menopause, low libido, pain with 123 00:09:24,400 --> 00:09:26,760 sex, arousal disorders, orgasm disorders. 124 00:09:26,760 --> 00:09:32,680 And so she interviewed Stephanie Goubian, director of the Mayo Clinic, women's health 125 00:09:32,680 --> 00:09:36,520 and medical director for the Menopause Society. 126 00:09:36,520 --> 00:09:41,800 And so Dr. Fabiana, the Mayo Clinic says the women's health initiative came out, study 127 00:09:41,800 --> 00:09:45,000 this women's health initiative study, the one I was talking about a little bit earlier 128 00:09:45,000 --> 00:09:46,000 came out in 2002. 129 00:09:46,000 --> 00:09:53,520 And after that, we quote, really left women with few choices about what to do, how to 130 00:09:53,520 --> 00:09:57,160 manage their symptoms, which created a huge vacuum. 131 00:09:57,160 --> 00:10:01,540 Basically after that clinicians decided they no longer needed to worry about being educated 132 00:10:01,540 --> 00:10:05,360 about menopause because there was really nothing to do for menopause. 133 00:10:05,360 --> 00:10:09,200 And we weren't going to use hormone replacement therapy. 134 00:10:09,200 --> 00:10:11,760 And where we've come is now women are having symptoms. 135 00:10:11,760 --> 00:10:12,760 They're having a problem. 136 00:10:12,760 --> 00:10:16,960 I'm still quoting Dr. Stephanie Fabiana of the Mayo Clinic. 137 00:10:16,960 --> 00:10:22,720 It's affecting all aspects of their lives, their relationships, their quality of life, 138 00:10:22,720 --> 00:10:24,200 their ability to work. 139 00:10:24,200 --> 00:10:26,700 And they're saying, Hey, this isn't right. 140 00:10:26,700 --> 00:10:29,360 We need to do something about this. 141 00:10:29,360 --> 00:10:31,960 There's still very little research in this area. 142 00:10:31,960 --> 00:10:36,960 We have a lot more to do and they're demanding answers as they should. 143 00:10:36,960 --> 00:10:41,560 So says Stephanie Fobion, director of the Mayo Clinic for Women's Health and medical 144 00:10:41,560 --> 00:10:43,560 director of the Menopause Society. 145 00:10:43,560 --> 00:10:47,680 And she's being interviewed in this article by Dr. Rachel Rubin. 146 00:10:47,680 --> 00:10:52,280 So Dr. Rubin says we have a lot of tools in our toolbox that are evidence-based that really 147 00:10:52,280 --> 00:10:54,480 work and help people. 148 00:10:54,480 --> 00:10:55,480 We can help these people. 149 00:10:55,480 --> 00:11:00,360 I always say to my patients, you have a generation of clinicians who were not taught how to do 150 00:11:00,360 --> 00:11:02,080 this well. 151 00:11:02,080 --> 00:11:08,120 Hormones are not all good or all bad, all right or all wrong, but they require some 152 00:11:08,120 --> 00:11:13,140 understanding of when to use them and how to safely use them. 153 00:11:13,140 --> 00:11:14,720 Because women are being underserved. 154 00:11:14,720 --> 00:11:17,400 Menopause is not just about hot flashes. 155 00:11:17,400 --> 00:11:23,240 There's sleep disturbance, mood symptoms, irritability, just not feeling right. 156 00:11:23,240 --> 00:11:28,800 She talks a lot about one of the main complaints of women, postmenopausal and postmenopausal 157 00:11:28,800 --> 00:11:30,240 women walking into her office. 158 00:11:30,240 --> 00:11:35,880 One of the main things they always say is, I just don't feel right or I feel anxious. 159 00:11:35,880 --> 00:11:38,600 And joint aches also enter the picture quite frequently. 160 00:11:38,600 --> 00:11:43,160 So it's important, she's saying it's important to remember that estrogen affects every tissue 161 00:11:43,160 --> 00:11:45,760 and organ system in the body. 162 00:11:45,760 --> 00:11:51,120 And when you lose it, you have effects in pretty much every system and organ tissue 163 00:11:51,120 --> 00:11:55,960 in the body, which is really important because we're speaking to the primary care world. 164 00:11:55,960 --> 00:11:58,520 This is Dr. Rubin, I'm still quoting Dr. Rubin. 165 00:11:58,520 --> 00:12:02,460 The way medicine is set up, you're allowed to have one problem. 166 00:12:02,460 --> 00:12:05,740 But menopause is never one problem. 167 00:12:05,740 --> 00:12:10,080 These women are getting diagnosed with a mental health condition, with fibromyalgia, with 168 00:12:10,080 --> 00:12:14,520 dry eyes, with sexual dysfunction, with depression or anxiety. 169 00:12:14,520 --> 00:12:20,460 They're getting 10 diagnoses for what is actually one underlying hypogonadal problem, a lack 170 00:12:20,460 --> 00:12:22,800 of hormones. 171 00:12:22,800 --> 00:12:28,400 So Dr. Fabian from the Mayo Clinic says, at the Mayo Clinic, a physician came to see me 172 00:12:28,400 --> 00:12:29,880 as a patient. 173 00:12:29,880 --> 00:12:34,960 An internist traveled across the country because she's gaining weight, she's losing her hair, 174 00:12:34,960 --> 00:12:35,960 she's sweating. 175 00:12:35,960 --> 00:12:40,520 She thinks there's something horribly wrong with her, like she must have cancer or something. 176 00:12:40,520 --> 00:12:46,000 But when you put it all together, the palpitations and the rest, it was all menopause. 177 00:12:46,000 --> 00:12:49,800 Think of the expense to come to the Mayo Clinic and be evaluated for that. 178 00:12:49,800 --> 00:12:55,880 But no one, including this practicing physician, had put together that all of these symptoms 179 00:12:55,880 --> 00:12:58,320 were related to menopause. 180 00:12:58,320 --> 00:13:06,000 Dr. Rubin goes on to say that primary care physicians were raised on the idea that hormones 181 00:13:06,000 --> 00:13:07,000 cause cancer. 182 00:13:07,000 --> 00:13:08,600 Well, what are the data in 2024? 183 00:13:08,600 --> 00:13:11,600 Am I going to die if I take hormone replacement therapy? 184 00:13:11,600 --> 00:13:14,840 Am I going to risk blood clots and horrible cancers? 185 00:13:14,840 --> 00:13:20,360 Dr. Fabian of the Mayo Clinic replies, when it comes down to cancer risk, the Women's 186 00:13:20,360 --> 00:13:23,920 Health Initiative found that if you have a uterus and you're taking both estrogen and 187 00:13:23,920 --> 00:13:30,280 progesterone, specifically horse urine and synthetic progesterone, the risk for breast 188 00:13:30,280 --> 00:13:32,160 cancer was slightly increased. 189 00:13:32,160 --> 00:13:39,160 And when I say slightly, I'm talking about the increased risk of, I mentioned this before, 190 00:13:39,160 --> 00:13:44,060 this doctor from the Mayo Clinic suggests that that slight increased risk was really 191 00:13:44,060 --> 00:13:50,360 equivalent to drinking a couple glasses of wine a night or being overweight. 192 00:13:50,360 --> 00:13:54,560 One case per thousand women per year after about five years of hormone therapy. 193 00:13:54,560 --> 00:13:58,480 So it was a very small increased risk. 194 00:13:58,480 --> 00:14:02,800 In contrast, the data showed that the risk for breast cancer did not appear to be increased 195 00:14:02,800 --> 00:14:06,600 in women who did not have a uterus. 196 00:14:06,600 --> 00:14:13,640 And the blood clot risk associated with estrogen hormone therapy can be minimized with transdermal 197 00:14:13,640 --> 00:14:17,800 preparations of estrogen, particularly with low doses. 198 00:14:17,800 --> 00:14:19,240 So I'm going to come back on that. 199 00:14:19,240 --> 00:14:20,720 That's a really important point. 200 00:14:20,720 --> 00:14:27,480 All of these risk factors are from the Women's Health Initiative are studying the effects 201 00:14:27,480 --> 00:14:34,760 of horse urine estrogen and synthetic progestin, which is not, it's not even the same chemical 202 00:14:34,760 --> 00:14:37,100 as progesterone. 203 00:14:37,100 --> 00:14:43,480 So when you do transdermal therapies of plant-based estrogens and progesterone, most of these 204 00:14:43,480 --> 00:14:48,520 risks go away, especially when you're using really low doses, which often work better 205 00:14:48,520 --> 00:14:54,160 than the high doses of standard hormone replacement therapy, as most people know it. 206 00:14:54,160 --> 00:14:57,800 So Dr. Rubin goes on, we can learn new things, right? 207 00:14:57,800 --> 00:15:02,860 By adding back hormones, maybe we can keep muscles around, keep mental health better, 208 00:15:02,860 --> 00:15:08,960 keep bones stronger because osteoporosis and fractures kill more people than breast cancer 209 00:15:08,960 --> 00:15:10,280 does. 210 00:15:10,280 --> 00:15:16,700 So as a primary care clinician, how can we learn to write prescriptions for hormone therapy? 211 00:15:16,700 --> 00:15:19,800 How can we learn to counsel patients properly? 212 00:15:19,800 --> 00:15:21,520 Do we have to go back and take a fellowship? 213 00:15:21,520 --> 00:15:26,360 Do I have to, how do I learn to integrate the evidence into my practice? 214 00:15:26,360 --> 00:15:28,320 So how astounding is that? 215 00:15:28,320 --> 00:15:36,240 This is a public, public paper published by Dr. Rubin talking to a fellow clinician admitting 216 00:15:36,240 --> 00:15:42,720 basically that most doctors are not well-educated to address and deal with the problems that 217 00:15:42,720 --> 00:15:46,720 menopausal women walk into their offices with every day. 218 00:15:46,720 --> 00:15:52,240 So Dr. Fabian replies, it's an easy thing to gain confidence, an easy thing to do is 219 00:15:52,240 --> 00:15:53,360 to take a course. 220 00:15:53,360 --> 00:15:56,520 The Menopause Society has this annual meeting in Chicago. 221 00:15:56,520 --> 00:15:59,960 We do a Menopause 101 course for clinicians there. 222 00:15:59,960 --> 00:16:05,680 She says, I put out my plea to primary colleagues in internal medicine and family medicine, 223 00:16:05,680 --> 00:16:07,600 you need to do this. 224 00:16:07,600 --> 00:16:08,600 Think about it. 225 00:16:08,600 --> 00:16:12,480 You're already an expert on brain health and bone health and heart health. 226 00:16:12,480 --> 00:16:17,640 You should be most comfortable in dealing with hormone therapy that has effects throughout 227 00:16:17,640 --> 00:16:19,280 the entire body. 228 00:16:19,280 --> 00:16:23,920 It's important for us as primary care providers to really have a handle on this and to be 229 00:16:23,920 --> 00:16:28,160 effectively managing menopause for women in midlife. 230 00:16:28,160 --> 00:16:31,380 Dr. Rubin replies, I couldn't agree more. 231 00:16:31,380 --> 00:16:36,960 My clinic is full of 50 something women who came back and said, sex is good. 232 00:16:36,960 --> 00:16:38,400 My relationship is good. 233 00:16:38,400 --> 00:16:40,280 I'm kicking butt at work. 234 00:16:40,280 --> 00:16:44,560 I have a patient who just started law school because she feels good, so good. 235 00:16:44,560 --> 00:16:47,480 And she says, I'm keeping up with the 20 year olds. 236 00:16:47,480 --> 00:16:53,080 It's incredible to see women who feel terrible and then watch them blossom and get better. 237 00:16:53,080 --> 00:16:58,880 Dr. Fabian replies, we know a lot of women who are missing work, not taking a promotion 238 00:16:58,880 --> 00:17:03,480 or avoiding a leadership role because of their menopausal symptoms. 239 00:17:03,480 --> 00:17:10,280 Women should never be in the position of compromising their work lives because of menopause symptoms. 240 00:17:10,280 --> 00:17:17,440 So Dr. Rubin finally says, our big takeaway is believe your patients when they've driven 241 00:17:17,440 --> 00:17:22,440 and parked and arranged childcare and showed up to your office and waited to see you when 242 00:17:22,440 --> 00:17:28,320 they're telling you they have all these symptoms and they're not feeling like themselves. 243 00:17:28,320 --> 00:17:35,920 Maybe before you jump straight to prescribing them a serotonin reuptake inhibitor Prozac 244 00:17:35,920 --> 00:17:40,960 for their depression and anxiety or just saying do some yoga and deep breathing. 245 00:17:40,960 --> 00:17:45,600 Instead of that, maybe really dive into the menopause literature and understand the pros 246 00:17:45,600 --> 00:17:49,400 and cons and the risks and benefits of hormone therapy. 247 00:17:49,400 --> 00:17:50,400 Wow. 248 00:17:50,400 --> 00:17:56,640 So these are prominent physicians interviewing, discussing this subject with one another in 249 00:17:56,640 --> 00:18:00,040 a medical paper that was just published. 250 00:18:00,040 --> 00:18:05,200 And sure, it's encouraging to see prominent physicians having discussions like this because 251 00:18:05,200 --> 00:18:10,540 hopefully many other mainstream traditional doctors will listen to them and give more 252 00:18:10,540 --> 00:18:13,520 women the care they need. 253 00:18:13,520 --> 00:18:15,240 But think about it. 254 00:18:15,240 --> 00:18:20,960 These prominent physicians are admitting in public that there's a huge gap in effective 255 00:18:20,960 --> 00:18:26,520 care that's happening for women all across the country on their watch. 256 00:18:26,520 --> 00:18:32,120 These doctors, these mainstream physicians come to these experts for their continuing 257 00:18:32,120 --> 00:18:33,320 education. 258 00:18:33,320 --> 00:18:36,200 They consult with them for difficult cases. 259 00:18:36,200 --> 00:18:41,200 And these experts are saying that most doctors aren't doing a good job with women who show 260 00:18:41,200 --> 00:18:47,440 up with multiple symptoms, all of which are often related to menopause. 261 00:18:47,440 --> 00:18:54,840 This is huge, mainly because among other reasons, apart from that horrible lack of getting the 262 00:18:54,840 --> 00:19:00,440 care that these women need is that this type of care has been available for years if you 263 00:19:00,440 --> 00:19:02,160 know where to find it. 264 00:19:02,160 --> 00:19:08,240 This is standard practice among functional medicine practitioners. 265 00:19:08,240 --> 00:19:15,120 This is a classic example of an instance where functional medicine can change someone's life 266 00:19:15,120 --> 00:19:21,280 doing comprehensive testing to identify all areas of your body where normal function has 267 00:19:21,280 --> 00:19:28,120 gone by the wayside, where support is needed and using better food, exercise, and supplements 268 00:19:28,120 --> 00:19:33,080 to restore normal function to all of your organs and tissues and systems, including 269 00:19:33,080 --> 00:19:39,940 your endocrine system that makes your hormones with safe plant-based and often very low dose 270 00:19:39,940 --> 00:19:47,720 transdermal hormone therapy can change your life or the life of someone you love. 271 00:19:47,720 --> 00:19:48,840 I'm Dr. Todd Bankley. 272 00:19:48,840 --> 00:19:53,080 You're listening to Safe, Effective Natural Solutions to Almost Any Health Challenge. 273 00:19:53,080 --> 00:19:56,360 I promised I was going to talk about a specific case of mine. 274 00:19:56,360 --> 00:20:03,000 This is a 58-year-old female who came in with overwhelming stress, fatigue, brain fog, and 275 00:20:03,000 --> 00:20:09,440 irritability, and I did a comprehensive salivary hormone test, salivary hormones. 276 00:20:09,440 --> 00:20:13,360 Instead of a blood test measuring hormones that are going up and down, up and down, all 277 00:20:13,360 --> 00:20:15,760 day long, we did an average. 278 00:20:15,760 --> 00:20:19,920 We did four, she spit, basically the test is you spit into four little tubes and it 279 00:20:19,920 --> 00:20:25,360 measures four readings of your cortisol levels, your adrenal function throughout the day, 280 00:20:25,360 --> 00:20:29,640 a half hour before you wake up, lunchtime, dinnertime, and bedtime because there's a 281 00:20:29,640 --> 00:20:32,560 natural curve in your adrenal gland activity. 282 00:20:32,560 --> 00:20:37,160 And then the lab, Doctors' Data, the preeminent lab for this type of testing in the country, 283 00:20:37,160 --> 00:20:40,340 makes a fifth tube with an average with a little bit from each of those four tubes to 284 00:20:40,340 --> 00:20:46,920 get an average throughout the day to measure your three estrogens, your progesterone, testosterone, 285 00:20:46,920 --> 00:20:51,360 and DHEA, a precursor for estrogen and testosterone. 286 00:20:51,360 --> 00:20:58,680 So anyway, this 58-year-old female's adrenal hormones were basically flatlined, just low, 287 00:20:58,680 --> 00:21:04,000 all of them were super, super low, and her estrogens were all super, super low as well. 288 00:21:04,000 --> 00:21:07,840 Her progesterone was okay, her testosterone was okay. 289 00:21:07,840 --> 00:21:13,640 So I put her on some supplements to build up her adrenal function back up and a little 290 00:21:13,640 --> 00:21:15,760 bit of estrogen support. 291 00:21:15,760 --> 00:21:19,920 Six months later, her overwhelming stress, she's still working, she's still doing her 292 00:21:19,920 --> 00:21:25,520 life, her stress is probably never going to be gone, but her stress is now tolerable, 293 00:21:25,520 --> 00:21:27,160 from overwhelming to tolerable. 294 00:21:27,160 --> 00:21:28,780 That was huge for her. 295 00:21:28,780 --> 00:21:31,520 She has dramatically less fatigue at work. 296 00:21:31,520 --> 00:21:34,000 The brain fog is gone. 297 00:21:34,000 --> 00:21:36,480 And when I asked her, what about her irritability? 298 00:21:36,480 --> 00:21:40,160 She says, well, I'm no longer irritating. 299 00:21:40,160 --> 00:21:44,920 Other people are still irritating, but my irritability is gone. 300 00:21:44,920 --> 00:21:47,100 That's the way she phrased it. 301 00:21:47,100 --> 00:21:48,600 So hormones are a huge topic. 302 00:21:48,600 --> 00:21:49,840 We're not going to get to all of it today. 303 00:21:49,840 --> 00:21:52,760 I'm going to come back and probably talk about this again next week. 304 00:21:52,760 --> 00:21:58,760 But just to close out, common symptoms of low estrogen are hot flashes, mood swings, 305 00:21:58,760 --> 00:22:04,500 anxiety, insomnia, irritability, vaginal dryness, depression, night sweats. 306 00:22:04,500 --> 00:22:08,720 Most people are familiar with those, but they may not be familiar with some of these. 307 00:22:08,720 --> 00:22:16,320 Varicose veins, urinary tract infections are symptoms of low estrogen, panic attacks, palpitations, 308 00:22:16,320 --> 00:22:23,640 flutter in the heart, loss of sexual interest, hair loss, osteoporosis, strange dreams, memory 309 00:22:23,640 --> 00:22:27,440 lapses, weight gain, hair growth on the face. 310 00:22:27,440 --> 00:22:28,800 Weight gain is always important to people. 311 00:22:28,800 --> 00:22:33,320 A lot of people don't realize that low estrogen also increases your risk of osteoporosis. 312 00:22:33,320 --> 00:22:36,840 So we're going to talk more about this next week. 313 00:22:36,840 --> 00:22:38,400 Benefits of estrogen. 314 00:22:38,400 --> 00:22:43,880 Increased metabolism helps regulate your body temperature better, prevents muscle damage, 315 00:22:43,880 --> 00:22:46,600 increases blood flow, improves sleep. 316 00:22:46,600 --> 00:22:48,680 These are benefits of estrogen. 317 00:22:48,680 --> 00:22:55,880 Decreased arterial plaque, maintain collagen in the skin, decrease blood pressure, improved 318 00:22:55,880 --> 00:22:59,160 mood, decreases bad cholesterol. 319 00:22:59,160 --> 00:23:00,160 Hormones are really important. 320 00:23:00,160 --> 00:23:01,980 Are you getting this? 321 00:23:01,980 --> 00:23:06,680 Benefits of estrogen reduce risk of heart disease, decrease wrinkles, enhanced energy, better 322 00:23:06,680 --> 00:23:14,040 bone density, increased sexual interest, better cholesterol, decreased risk of colon cancer, 323 00:23:14,040 --> 00:23:15,680 helps maintain memory. 324 00:23:15,680 --> 00:23:21,080 If you're not getting this already, hormones affect literally every part of your body. 325 00:23:21,080 --> 00:23:24,680 So who should get a saliva hormone test? 326 00:23:24,680 --> 00:23:29,700 Well, any woman who's unsatisfied, who's already on conventional hormone replacement therapy 327 00:23:29,700 --> 00:23:35,640 and is unsatisfied with the results or worried about side effects. 328 00:23:35,640 --> 00:23:41,240 Women you know who have fatigue and depression and chronic inflammation. 329 00:23:41,240 --> 00:23:45,520 Anyone that you know with heart health issues or memory loss, osteoporosis. 330 00:23:45,520 --> 00:23:49,280 And I keep talking about women because most of the people that come to me for this are 331 00:23:49,280 --> 00:23:50,280 women. 332 00:23:50,280 --> 00:23:53,320 It's mostly menopausal women that benefit the most from this. 333 00:23:53,320 --> 00:23:56,080 But men have manopause, right? 334 00:23:56,080 --> 00:24:00,880 So low testosterone affects the heart health and memory loss in men. 335 00:24:00,880 --> 00:24:04,840 And several of those other symptoms that I mentioned that you think of in women also 336 00:24:04,840 --> 00:24:07,360 affect men with low testosterone. 337 00:24:07,360 --> 00:24:10,880 And there are even normal levels of estrogen and progesterone that men need as well. 338 00:24:10,880 --> 00:24:15,380 And the only way that you know if you have enough is to get comprehensive testing. 339 00:24:15,380 --> 00:24:17,240 So we'll talk more about this next week. 340 00:24:17,240 --> 00:24:18,640 Email me your questions. 341 00:24:18,640 --> 00:24:23,320 I'd love to help someone you love get the care they need so that they can feel the way 342 00:24:23,320 --> 00:24:24,320 they should. 343 00:24:24,320 --> 00:24:25,320 Have a fantastic weekend. 344 00:24:25,320 --> 00:24:31,920 You've been listening to Safe, Effective Natural Solutions with Dr. Todd Binkley. 345 00:24:31,920 --> 00:24:36,440 If you have a health question you want discussed on the show, email your health questions to 346 00:24:36,440 --> 00:24:41,000 drbinkley at binkleyhealingcenter.com. 347 00:24:41,000 --> 00:24:45,680 Take advantage of this opportunity to ask questions for yourself and for your loved 348 00:24:45,680 --> 00:24:48,680 ones because our health matters. 349 00:24:48,680 --> 00:24:56,640 Join him next Friday at 4 p.m. for Safe, Effective Natural Solutions right here on 98.3 The Word, 350 00:24:56,640 --> 00:25:19,920 KDAR.