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Prepare to have your health questions answered here on Safe, Effective, Natural Solutions

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with Dr. Todd Binkley, owner of Binkley Healing Center in downtown Ventura.

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Now, here's Dr. Todd.

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Good afternoon. I'm Dr. Todd Binkley, board certified doctor of non-force chiropractic

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and practitioner of functional medicine.

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Functional medicine means I identify conditions that other doctors miss by doing tests that

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most doctors just don't do for a number of reasons.

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Among them, hormone testing, especially salivary hormone testing, testing hormones in saliva.

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So last week I talked about hormones.

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I got a lot of response to last week's episode, a lot of questions and a lot of people just

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calling and sending a message and saying, thanks, what a great episode, who knew?

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It was mostly about a couple of articles that were published recently in the medical press.

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Among them, this conversation published between two experts, two medical experts, Dr. Rachel

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Rubin, urologist, sexual medicine specialist.

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And she was interviewing Stephanie Faubion, director of the Mayo Clinic Center for Women's

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Health and medical director for the Menopause Society.

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So Dr. Rubin was interviewing Dr. Faubion about the women's health initiative study

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that came out 20 years ago and basically put the kibosh on hormone replacement therapy.

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They were lamenting the fact that so many physicians to this day don't, not just that

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they don't prescribe hormone replacement therapy, because there's good reasons to not give traditional

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chemical, toxic, not toxic, but just the standard hormone replacement therapy that was used

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for so many years isn't ideal and there's good reasons to not do that for many women.

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But they were lamenting the fact that because the women's health initiative, this huge study,

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thousands of women, some retrospective studies or they did some follow up studies on 28,000

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women showing that standard hormone replacement therapy, estrogen alone can increase ovarian

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cancer risk.

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And they stopped doing many so they were lamenting the fact that so many doctors stopped doing

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hormone replacement therapy at all because of a slightly increased risk of breast cancer

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and cardiovascular disease that many family physicians just stopped treating women for

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menopause.

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They acted like there's nothing you can do for menopause.

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If you don't want to risk your increase your risk of heart disease or breast cancer, then

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you just need to do some deep breathing exercises or reduce your stress, eat a healthy diet,

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etc.

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And this was shocking to me.

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These are major experts that people look up to, that other doctors from around the country

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seek their advice, go to this Stephanie Fabian in charge of this center for menopause, is

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basically saying that far too many doctors aren't helping women who have menopause symptoms

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and they're not educating themselves about when it is appropriate to use hormones and

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what risks can be avoided, how to mitigate some of those risk factors and instead just

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putting telling women to take Prozac, do something to manage their mood, relaxation, etc.

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So women are coming into doctor's offices with fatigue and anxiety and a laundry list

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of symptoms that are often related to menopause or pre-menopause, perimenopause or post-menopause,

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whether you're before, during or after menopause.

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And there's lots of things that can be done to help these women including certain types

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of hormone replacement therapy.

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Not necessarily, well so they were talking about even appropriate uses of standard hormone

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replacement therapy, which I don't recommend.

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And the most important thing is with proper testing, usually the therapies that most people

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are tending to use now are transdermal creams that you put on your skin, whether it's estrogen

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or progesterone.

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And even Dr. Fabian from the Mayo Clinic mentioned this, a lot of these risks can be completely

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avoided by using transdermal preparations of estrogen and progesterone, particularly

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with lower doses.

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And this is something I find in my practice all the time.

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The standard, I talked about how it's important to do salivary hormone testing.

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So blood is the gold standard for testing many things, most things that you go to a

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doctor for, but there are exceptions and one of the main ones is for menopausal women,

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it's often better, especially as the first line testing to do to evaluate how are you

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doing, do you need some help, what's the best form to resolve your issues, how are we going

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to help you the best.

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It's better to do salivary, saliva, testing the hormones in the saliva rather than doing

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a blood test.

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And this is because hormone levels in your blood, in your serum, hormone levels in your

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serum are constantly going up and down, up and down, every 10 minutes.

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You look at a graph of it, it's all over the place.

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So if you do a blood test, measure the amount that's in your serum at any given point during

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some single day, you're only getting a snapshot of something that's widely varying.

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Whereas when you do a saliva hormone test, you're getting an average of your estrogen

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and progesterone and DHEA, the precursor for estrogen and testosterone throughout the day.

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And you're also, if you do it comprehensively, the standard comprehensive panel, salivary

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hormone panel that I use is done by Doctors Data, one of the premier labs in the country

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for this type of testing.

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And it's basically four little tubes that you spit in.

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And we need four tubes because we're also testing your adrenal function.

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So all of your hormones work with one another, your endocrine system, all of your, all of

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the glands that produce hormones throughout your body work together.

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They function together.

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They interact tremendously.

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So if one of them is off, there's a very good chance that others are going to be off slightly

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as well.

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And symptoms of one deficiency or excess of one can be very closely related to symptoms,

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to problems with the other.

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So for example, cortisol, the adrenal glands and the thyroid work hand in hand together.

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The adrenal glands, cortisol wakes you up in the morning.

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They are involved in your sense of energy throughout the day, as is the thyroid gland.

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You can think of the thyroid gland as kind of like the furnace of your immune system.

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Thyroid makes everything burn hotter, faster if it's too slow.

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So when it's deficient, you feel sluggish.

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And so those two work hand in hand.

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But all of your sex hormones, estrogen, progesterone, testosterone, there is a normal amount of

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testosterone in women and there is a normal amount of estrogen and progesterone in men.

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And all of these things are constantly interacting with one another.

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So comprehensive test, saliva test, includes four cortisol tests, four tests for your adrenal

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function.

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I said it, I misspoke last week.

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The first one is a half hour after you wake up in the morning at lunchtime again, dinner

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and bedtime.

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So half hour after you wake up, lunchtime, dinner time and bedtime.

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Those four times a day you test, spit in the tube.

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We're going to measure the cortisol levels.

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And then the lab takes those four samples and takes a little bit from each one and makes

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a fifth tube to measure the sex hormones, the estrogens, progesterone, DHEA and testosterone.

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And that way you're getting this average throughout the day.

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So why is this so important?

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Well, saliva hormone testing measures active bioavailable hormones.

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That's the best way to monitor topical and sublingual hormones that bind, most of which

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bind to red surface of red blood cells.

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So they don't spend a lot of time hanging out in the plasma that is tested on most blood

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tests, but they do show up in saliva.

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And when a lot of clinicians only measure serum levels of hormones, because they tend

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to look low, they tend to look lower than they are actually functionally in the body.

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And so people get overdose, people are taking in addition to the fact that they're taking

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synthetic oftentimes synthetic hormone replacement therapy instead of plant-based hormone replacement.

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They're often taking way too much.

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So many times I see they come back.

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Oh, my doctor said it was normal when they did my blood test.

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We do the salivary test and the levels are just off the charts.

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And sometimes just taking them off of that.

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Just I tell them to go back, talk to the person that they prescribed that and say, Hey, can

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we do a trial, lower my dose to see what happens.

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But the bottom line is far too many people are taking weight.

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Women are taking way too much estrogen or sometimes progesterone, but it's much more

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common that they're taking too much estrogen.

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And men, men that were taking testosterone are often taking too much testosterone.

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Men love to think that how it's impossible to take too much testosterone.

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Well, if you take too much of anything, then number one, your body will stop making it

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and your cells that those things bind to can become sensitive to them so that you reach

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a point of diminishing returns.

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And the more you take, the less effect it has.

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This is huge.

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And that's way too complicated to talk about right now.

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I promised I was going to talk about another case study.

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So this is a 76 year old female.

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I talked about how it's actually possible to do hormone replacement therapy without

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increasing your risk of breast cancer.

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But what about breast cancer survivors?

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When you have breast cancer, they test you to see if your cancer is what's called ERPR

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positive, estrogen receptor and progesterone receptor positive.

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Basically does your cancer have receptors on it that bind estrogen and progesterone

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that will therefore make your cancer grow faster if you have high levels of estrogen

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and progesterone?

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And they make part of the treatment is to take medications that block estrogen or block

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progesterone or both.

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So the thing that they don't always explain very clearly is that if you test and find

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out that your estrogen levels are low, lower than normal, and you take tiny doses of estrogen,

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then it's not going to increase your risk of breast cancer, especially if it's a plant

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based form and not the horse urine, estrogen or synthetic progestins, which are carcinogenic.

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So this 76 year old woman came in, she's a breast cancer survivor.

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She had afternoon fatigue.

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Everything was fine.

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She's in remission.

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She's been in remission for a few years.

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But all of that, everything that happened with her remission as far as her follow up

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tests for her tumor markers are all fine.

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But she has tremendous afternoon fatigue.

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She's just exhausted all afternoon.

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She has low mental sharpness.

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She's got some allergies, some night sweats, muscle loss.

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She was thin, but she'd always been thin, but she was really starting to lose even more

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muscle mass.

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And she had low libido.

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She's 76 years old.

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Why shouldn't a 76 year old woman have a normal libido as well?

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So a lot of people are even afraid to admit that.

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It's on my form.

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I ask everybody about it.

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It's on my form.

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We don't have to talk about it if they don't want to, but no one should have to suffer

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any of these things if they don't want to and they don't have to.

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So we did the salivary hormone test and her cortisol was really, really low in the morning.

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Started to come up in the afternoon, went a little high.

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Basically it's the type of pattern.

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It's kind of hard to describe it because I'm looking at a graph that you can't see.

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But it's classical early stage adrenal fatigue or late stage, actually late stage adrenal

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fatigue where there's just, it's not making enough.

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If it's not making enough to wake you up in the morning, that's a definite problem.

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And your body's trying to compensate, crank out a little bit more in the afternoon and

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even more in the evening when she doesn't even need it.

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And so the cortisol levels, the adrenal function was a mess.

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And the DHEA, which is a precursor for estrogen and testosterone, was low.

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So at her estrogen levels were low normal.

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So estradiol is the estrogen that most people hear about, but there's also estrone and estriol.

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So they all have similar functions, but estradiol can aggravate some cancers.

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Estriol is cancer protective.

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It actually reduces your risk of cancer.

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So this is all measured on the test.

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And the simplest way to explain it is she had severe issues with her adrenals that needed

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some support.

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She had low DHEA, which is a precursor for estrogen, and her estrogen was low normal.

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So if I give her something that's going to very, very slightly increase her estradiol,

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but has very little chance also, and her testosterone was really, really low, unmeasurable, which

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is not unusual than a 76-year-old woman.

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So DHEA is a precursor for estrogen and testosterone.

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If I give her some DHEA, which is what I did, I gave her some support for her adrenal glands

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and some DHEA.

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You may have heard, a lot of people have heard of DHEA.

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It's not a good idea to take it if you haven't been tested, because some problems can happen.

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You can buy it over the counter, but I don't recommend taking it unless you've been tested.

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Bottom line is her DHEA was low, her estrogen was low normal, and her testosterone was off

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the charts low.

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So what's going to happen if you give her something that is a precursor for estrogen

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and testosterone, and her testosterone is really, really low, then most of it is going

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to be converted into testosterone, and small amounts of it are going to be converted into

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estrogen, enough to give her some symptom relief, but not enough to increase her risk

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of breast cancer at all.

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So that was what I explained to her.

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That's what we did.

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Four months later, her DHEA did exactly what I told her it would, it raised her testosterone

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from basically undetectable up into the normal range for women, and it had no effect on her

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estrogen levels.

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Her estrogen levels were basically unchanged, were completely unchanged.

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Her estradiol was one picograms per milliliter on the first test, and four months later it

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was exactly the same.

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It was unchanged.

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And guess what, all of her symptoms were much better.

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Everything that she came in with, the fatigue, the mental sharpness, the allergies, night

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sweats, she was exercising more because she had a little more energy now.

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She was building some muscle mass back up, and her libido improved.

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So she was very happy, and that would never have happened if she had just gone the traditional

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route with which most doctors do, and only tested serum levels of her hormones.

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I'm Dr. Todd Binkley.

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You're listening to Safe, Effective, Natural Solutions to Almost Any Health Challenge.

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So who should get a saliva hormone test?

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Well, anyone who's taking conventional hormone replacement therapy and doesn't feel the way

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they should feel, or bioidentical hormone replacement therapy, or basically some, I

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have people who come to me who are going to other progressive, functionally oriented practitioners

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who've done some of the same things that I do and just weren't getting the results.

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And oftentimes in the case of those, it's because they're being overdosed, they're

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being given too much.

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I've had some amazing cases where all I did was suggest that they go back to the practitioner

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that prescribed the hormones they're taking now and say, hey, can I do a trial?

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I'm doing some different testing here.

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This other doctor said I should just stop taking some of this stuff for a while.

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Is that okay?

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I'm not going to tell somebody to stop doing something some other doctor told them to do.

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I make sure that they go back and discuss it with that prescribing physician.

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But the bottom line is, many people are given too much estrogen.

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They just stop taking that, take a much lower dose, and especially a plant-based form, and

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they feel a lot better.

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So anyone who's unsatisfied with their current hormone treatment, if they're taking it, or

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is worried about side effects and are not taking it, or people with fatigue, depression,

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chronic inflammation, which drives so many, almost every condition in your body, hormones

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affect every part of your body, but also especially heart health, memory loss.

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Osteoporosis is, there's a lot of times, osteoporosis, when I have patients with osteoporosis, we

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can resolve it just with nutrients like bioavailable calcium, adequate amounts of vitamin D, vitamin

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K2, just those three, actually, often will make a huge difference in pre and post testing

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on DEXA scans, bone density testing.

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Sometimes collagen is also important, and sometimes insufficient estrogen is the missing

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link, is the reason that whatever else they were, they might have been doing is not keeping

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their bones strong.

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And anything else with osteoporosis also helps in rare instances where people have fractures

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that never heal.

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So anybody that has an issue with bone density or bones that are not healing properly, and

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then anyone who has low testosterone.

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So most people know the common symptoms, the most common symptoms of low estrogen, hot

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flashes, mood swings, anxiety, irritability, insomnia, vaginal dryness, night sweats, and

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depression.

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Most people have heard of these things, the classic symptoms of menopause, but there's

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many, many other symptoms of low estrogen, varicose veins, urinary tract infections,

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palpitations, panic attacks, strange dreams, memory lapse, hair growth on the face, weight

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gain, and if you get tested properly, and it's usually very low doses that are recommended.

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Once we do this type of testing, you don't need massive doses, and I'm certainly never

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going to recommend horse urine, estrogen, premarin, and synthetic progestin, which was

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what was in Prem Pro, the classical combo hormone replacement therapy that so many millions

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of women took for decades.

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Instead, we do the plant-based forms.

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And what does that do?

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It does the benefits of taking just a little testing and making it to see if you need it,

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taking just low, very low doses of plant-based natural estrogen, increased metabolism, better

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body regulation, regulation of body temperature, improved sleep.

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It can prevent muscle damage.

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Estrogen can increase blood flow and decrease arterial plaque, maintain collagen in the skin.

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Estrogen can decrease blood pressure and bad cholesterol.

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It can improve your mood.

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It can reduce your risk of heart disease, obviously, with those other two.

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It decreases wrinkles, enhances energy, enhances increases concentration, increases your good

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cholesterol, helps maintain bone density and sexual interest, decreases colon cancer, and

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helps maintain memory.

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So these are good reasons.

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People you know that are having these issues recommend that they get a saliva hormone test.

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So the focus is the saliva test for hormones.

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But blood tests are important, too.

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One of the questions I got from last week was, when do you need blood tests for hormones?

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Well, the most obvious is thyroid.

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You can't test thyroid.

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And the thyroid panel is included on the blood tests that I order on every patient.

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Unfortunately, when you go to most doctors, they're going to test your TSH levels alone,

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if that.

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If you have complaints that are consistent with low thyroid, they're probably just going

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to test your TSH.

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And you really need to test.

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TSH isn't even a thyroid test.

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It's a pituitary test.

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Thyroid stimulating hormone is made by your pituitary gland to tell your thyroid to make

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more thyroid hormone if it's low.

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But it's important to make sure that your body is able to produce adequate amounts of

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thyroid directly by testing thyroid levels, T4, and also by testing free T3 levels, the

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only functional active form of thyroid.

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You need to know if your body is actually converting that into the active form as well.

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So those are always blood tests.

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I do those on almost every patient as a matter of routine.

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And then the other big one is anything to do with pregnancy and the menstrual cycle.

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So if you're people that are wanting to know if they're ready to get pregnant, if everything's

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working normally, just want to screen, or if they're having difficulty with infertility,

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you're going to measure FSH, follicular stimulating hormone, and LH, luteinizing hormone.

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These are things that can only be sexual binding, globulin, these are things that can only be

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measured in the blood.

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So if it's a pregnancy related issue, then that is obviously a hormone that you do have

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to measure in the blood.

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I personally see far more people with menopausal symptoms than with difficulty getting pregnant,

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but I do see some women that have helped women who are having difficulty getting pregnant

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as well.

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So if the FSH and the LH, the hormones of pregnancy or ovulation are off, they're not

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able to get pregnant, or for whatever reason they can't get that testing to normalize,

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then there's lots of things that can often be done by testing for other things.

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First, there's their basic blood panel, their basic levels of health.

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Do they have vitamin B deficiency?

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Are they fighting off a chronic infection that's stressing their system?

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Do they have adequate levels of protein?

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A lot of times people have toxicities, chemical toxicities, mold toxins, heavy metal toxicities,

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these things are super important and can stress a woman's body and make it difficult to get

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pregnant.

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So there will always be a place of importance for blood testing for thyroid issues and pregnancy

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related issues.

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But if you know someone who's having menopausal symptoms and only being tested with blood

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tests for their hormones, then tell them about what may be possible with a salivary hormone

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test.

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So I've been talking mostly about estrogen.

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Progesterone is also super important to test.

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In fact, one of the most common problems when we test people for hormones is an imbalance

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between estrogen and progesterone.

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Your body stops making progesterone after menopause, the ovaries stop making it, but

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it is still made in small amounts in the adrenal glands from pregnenolone and it performs many

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functions in the body.

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I'll probably talk about this next week.

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We're going to run out of time here pretty soon, but briefly progesterone aids as a diuretic.

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It's anti-inflammatory.

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You know, apart from the effects on pregnancy, progesterone to pro-generate it obviously

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is the most important function is for pregnancy.

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But it also has effects on GABA, one of the most important neurotransmitters in the brain.

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It enhances the action of thyroid hormones.

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It has a positive effect on sleep.

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It helps build bone.

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Progesterone helps maintain bladder function.

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The list of functions of progesterone is a long one.

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So I'm going to come back to that next week.

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So send me your questions, email me, text me if you have questions about hormones.

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I'd love to answer them on the air for you no matter what you've been told or whatever

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your experience has been thus far.

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If you or someone you love is struggling with conditions, symptoms that you suspect are

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related to hormones, then there are always options.

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If you haven't done a salivary hormone test, for example, or haven't seen a functional

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practitioner that's going to look for how to restore normal function versus just treat

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disease with drugs, then I'd really love an opportunity to help them.

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Thank you for listening.

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Tune in next Friday.

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I look forward to speaking with you then.

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Send me your questions.

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Have a wonderful weekend.

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Do something to be healthier this weekend than you were last week.

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See you next Friday.

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You've been listening to Safe, Effective Natural Solutions with Dr. Todd Binkley.

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If you have a health question you want discussed on the show, email your health questions to

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drbinkley at binkleyhealingcenter.com.

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Take advantage of this opportunity to ask questions for yourself and for your loved

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ones because our health matters.

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Join him next Friday at 4 p.m. for Safe, Effective Natural Solutions right here on

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98.3 The Word, KDAR.