Q. Why can't I start them on a 1/2 dose and titrate up?
A. The minimum dose used by the Basic Wiley Protocol may seem a bit high; but it is actually the least amount needed to show consistent improvement clinically and even approach the bottom of the reference range in the blood work for healthy young women. The only women eligible for less are women 60+, who have not had exogenous hormones ever and then only one month at a time for three months maximum. Estrasorb is the only FDA equivalent that is equal to baseline dose of the Wiley Protocol.
Q. What is wrong with giving Vaginal E3 (Estriol)
A. There's no need because if the Wiley Protocol is adjusted to a therapeutic optimum, within 3 months the vaginal tissues will have renewed and will retain moisture. After all, vaginal mucus is the hall mark of ovulation and normal hormonal peaks.
Q. Why do patients feel fine on static dosing?
A. Any hormone in any way is better (in terms of quality of life) than none at all. The dramatic improvement on the Wiley Protocol in all areas, in quality of life and clinical markers like bone density, hot flashes, etc...is far more pronounced. And, of course, Dr. Taguchi's work has shown a significant reduction in cancer risk compared to no hormone restoration at all.
Vaginal E3 is usually recommended when restoration of urogenital function is required. E3 is a metabolite of E2. If the urogenital system requires help, so do the rest of the hundreds of places in the body where estrogen is needed. Estradiol will convert to estriol and give the same benefits to the UG system as E3 alone, there is always metabolite to precursor ratio. Many physicians are afraid to give E2 due to fear of breast cancer, yet there is no data to support that giving E3 is safer than E2 anywhere.
This misconception is based on the widely publicized fact and conclusion by Dr. Jonathan Wright that E3 is the major estrogen in the third trimester pregnancy, and that pregnancy is linked to less breast cancer, therefore E3 might be breast tissue protective. The extremely high levels of E3 in third trimester pregnancy come from the fetal adrenal glands. There are studies that show if breast cancer occurs in pregnancy or very shortly after, it is more aggressive. The decreased risk of breast cancer is more closely associated with the number of pregnancies, age of first pregnancy, breastfeeding and other hormones, not E3 levels. With respect to the current data the WP does not see the benefit of supplementing with spent metabolite, again there would in nature never be more metabolite than precursor of E2. There is no substantial data to support that E3 is breast tissue protective.
Hormones are dose dependent. For example, when a woman approaches menopause the amount of estrogen produced by the ovaries steadily declines. Many internal changes take place without a perception of such...such as increased bone loss, loss of skin collagen and elastic tissue, decreased rate of nerve tissue repair, etc. However, when a critical point is reached many women experience hot flashes, psychological disturbances, sleep difficulty, which then brings them to their doctor. Many of these later symptoms can be relieved with small static doses of hormones, even synthetic ones. Many women with healthier adrenals can go through menopause without much difficulty. Logically to optimize mind and body function, hormones should be dosed and administered as close as possible to how nature did it, it is not scientific to ignore this. Remember, hormones are signals, they work in concert with one another and the environment, and they cannot be on all the time. Hormones have rhythms which we must respect.
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Thursday, September 24, 2009
Hormone Regulation
Call my office to set up an appointment or email me 815-476-5210 or jones.gretchen@gmail.com
Hormone Regulation
The levels of hormones circulating in the blood are tightly controlled by three homeostatic mechanisms:
When one hormone stimulates the production of a second, the second suppresses the production of the first.
Example: The follicle stimulating hormone (FSH) stimulates the release of estrogens from the ovarian follicle. A high level of estrogen, in turn, suppresses the further production of FSH.
Antagonistic pairs of hormones.
Example: Insulin causes the level of blood sugar (glucose) to drop when it has risen. Glucagon causes it to rise when it has fallen.
Hormone secretion is increased (or decreased) by the same substance whose level is decreased (or increased) by the hormone.
Example: a rising level of Ca2+ in the blood suppresses the production of the parathyroid hormone (PTH). A low level of Ca2+ stimulates it.
Hormone Regulation
The levels of hormones circulating in the blood are tightly controlled by three homeostatic mechanisms:
When one hormone stimulates the production of a second, the second suppresses the production of the first.
Example: The follicle stimulating hormone (FSH) stimulates the release of estrogens from the ovarian follicle. A high level of estrogen, in turn, suppresses the further production of FSH.
Antagonistic pairs of hormones.
Example: Insulin causes the level of blood sugar (glucose) to drop when it has risen. Glucagon causes it to rise when it has fallen.
Hormone secretion is increased (or decreased) by the same substance whose level is decreased (or increased) by the hormone.
Example: a rising level of Ca2+ in the blood suppresses the production of the parathyroid hormone (PTH). A low level of Ca2+ stimulates it.
Sunday, September 6, 2009
Sleep Statistics; are you interested?
The biggest change human beings have lived through in the last ten thousand years happened less than seventy years ago. Electricity and the widespread use of the lightbulb qualify along with the discovery of fire, the advent of agriculture, and the discovery of antibiotic treatment as a point of no return in human history.
In 1910, the average adult was still sleeping nine to ten hours a night. Now the average adult is lucky to get a full seven hours a night. Most of us don't. Those numbers add up to an extra five hundred waking hours a year. In nature, we would sleep 4,370 hours out of a possible 8,760, or half of our lives. Eighty years ago, we were down to 3,395 hours. Now we are lucky to get a measly 2,555. If nature keeps score, and we bet she does, that means we only get to live about half as long. We may have doubled that figure with surgery and antibiotics, but think how long we could live if we slept too.
In the 1970's, Americans devoted 27 hours a week to "leisure" time. In the 1990's, we're down to 15. And we work at least 48 hours a week, compared to 35 for the average worker in the 1970's. Then we had hobbies, we were players of baseball and builders of model ships, members of the garden club and Boy Scout troop leaders. Now, in the 1990's, and 2000s', although the number of hours we devote to work and leisure are approximately the same, the ratio has shifted considerably. In the thirty years since 1970, we've found new passions to add to the old duties--exercising, going ot the doctor, commuting through ever-increasing traffic, watching 150 channels, and real movies on cable TV, and high speed internet, Email, and eBay. No wonder there's no time left to sleep or take care of our children.
So why didn't the guardians of our health look at stress and lack of sleep before they placed the entire blame on food? Go figure. And even when they did examine the diet of Americans and offered advice, they got it BACKWARD. They told the public to eat sugar and avoid fat!!!
Sleeping controls eating, eating and stress control reproduction. Sleeping, eating, and making love control aging.
The hormones melatonin and prolactin are major players in your mind-body-planet connection. They communicate with your immune system and metabolic energy system about light-and-dark cycles. Insulin and prolactin orchestrate the brain chemistry governing serotonin and dopamine in your brain, to control your behavior and mood. Serotonin and dopamine control your behavior toward food and sex. Bottom line: Not enough sleep makes you fat, hungry, impotent, hypertensive, and cancerous, with a bad heart.
The sun's energy is the catalyst for all life. The amount of light that hits you informs your "system controls" about the rotation and orbit of the planet we live on. This global positioning helps our instincts to keep a bead on the food supply. It is this cosmic communication that has been telling us, since time began, when to eat, what to eat, and when to reproduce to maximize food availability. We and all other organisms on this planet evolved with the spin-in and out of the light of the sun.
The fact that you are reading this means the system was successful.
That fact that you want to read this means the system is breaking down.
Most Americans are sick and tired of watching their weight and worrying about their hearts.
The National Institutes of Health confirms that it is a scientific "given" that light and dark cycles
*Turn hormone production on and off
*Activate your immune system
*time neurotransmitter release daily, and especially seasonally.
The only person to benefit from sleeping is you.
Whether or not we want to go to bed earlier and work fewer hours is really what's at stake here. I know that 24 hour shopping centers, 900 channels of television, and Net surfing all night is appealing, but I'm just out to make going the way of the dinosaurs a PERSONAL choice, not a federal one. I think the public deserves the facts, and accurate nutritional advice, from our government.
Every American knows that Washington thrives on secrecy, but it's a little hard to swallow that while the surgeon general's office is telling the public to eat a low-fat, 58-percent carbohydrate diet to cure obesity, diabetes, heart disease, and cancer literally ACROSS THE STREET the NIH is proving that it is the excessive consumption of carbohydrates brought about by sleep deprivation is among the causes those diseases.
We pay for it.
Call my office to set up an appointment or email me 815-476-5210 or jones.gretchen@gmail.com
In 1910, the average adult was still sleeping nine to ten hours a night. Now the average adult is lucky to get a full seven hours a night. Most of us don't. Those numbers add up to an extra five hundred waking hours a year. In nature, we would sleep 4,370 hours out of a possible 8,760, or half of our lives. Eighty years ago, we were down to 3,395 hours. Now we are lucky to get a measly 2,555. If nature keeps score, and we bet she does, that means we only get to live about half as long. We may have doubled that figure with surgery and antibiotics, but think how long we could live if we slept too.
In the 1970's, Americans devoted 27 hours a week to "leisure" time. In the 1990's, we're down to 15. And we work at least 48 hours a week, compared to 35 for the average worker in the 1970's. Then we had hobbies, we were players of baseball and builders of model ships, members of the garden club and Boy Scout troop leaders. Now, in the 1990's, and 2000s', although the number of hours we devote to work and leisure are approximately the same, the ratio has shifted considerably. In the thirty years since 1970, we've found new passions to add to the old duties--exercising, going ot the doctor, commuting through ever-increasing traffic, watching 150 channels, and real movies on cable TV, and high speed internet, Email, and eBay. No wonder there's no time left to sleep or take care of our children.
So why didn't the guardians of our health look at stress and lack of sleep before they placed the entire blame on food? Go figure. And even when they did examine the diet of Americans and offered advice, they got it BACKWARD. They told the public to eat sugar and avoid fat!!!
Sleeping controls eating, eating and stress control reproduction. Sleeping, eating, and making love control aging.
The hormones melatonin and prolactin are major players in your mind-body-planet connection. They communicate with your immune system and metabolic energy system about light-and-dark cycles. Insulin and prolactin orchestrate the brain chemistry governing serotonin and dopamine in your brain, to control your behavior and mood. Serotonin and dopamine control your behavior toward food and sex. Bottom line: Not enough sleep makes you fat, hungry, impotent, hypertensive, and cancerous, with a bad heart.
The sun's energy is the catalyst for all life. The amount of light that hits you informs your "system controls" about the rotation and orbit of the planet we live on. This global positioning helps our instincts to keep a bead on the food supply. It is this cosmic communication that has been telling us, since time began, when to eat, what to eat, and when to reproduce to maximize food availability. We and all other organisms on this planet evolved with the spin-in and out of the light of the sun.
The fact that you are reading this means the system was successful.
That fact that you want to read this means the system is breaking down.
Most Americans are sick and tired of watching their weight and worrying about their hearts.
The National Institutes of Health confirms that it is a scientific "given" that light and dark cycles
*Turn hormone production on and off
*Activate your immune system
*time neurotransmitter release daily, and especially seasonally.
The only person to benefit from sleeping is you.
Whether or not we want to go to bed earlier and work fewer hours is really what's at stake here. I know that 24 hour shopping centers, 900 channels of television, and Net surfing all night is appealing, but I'm just out to make going the way of the dinosaurs a PERSONAL choice, not a federal one. I think the public deserves the facts, and accurate nutritional advice, from our government.
Every American knows that Washington thrives on secrecy, but it's a little hard to swallow that while the surgeon general's office is telling the public to eat a low-fat, 58-percent carbohydrate diet to cure obesity, diabetes, heart disease, and cancer literally ACROSS THE STREET the NIH is proving that it is the excessive consumption of carbohydrates brought about by sleep deprivation is among the causes those diseases.
We pay for it.
Call my office to set up an appointment or email me 815-476-5210 or jones.gretchen@gmail.com
HORMONES AND SLEEP, THIS IS YOUR LIFE!
Sleep loss is the new American deficit. This deficit is a yawning chasm we can't hope to close. Apparently, when we lose sleep it's like chasing a moving train on foot. The problem is, with sleep, you really CAN'T catch up. Why not?
Your hormones don't spring back like that.
Hormones and SLEEP? That's a new one.
Hormones like estrogen and, occasionally, testosterone are always in the news. DHEA and HGH even surface once in a while now, but these hormones are always in news stories about AGING. The only hormone ever connected with sleep to make the news is good old melatonin, and everybody knows you can buy that over the counter. If you need it you can get it, right?
So why let sleep loss keep you up nights?
Because when you sleep less than you're meant to, melatonin isn't the only hormone affected. There are at least ten different hormones, as well as many more neurotransmitters in the brain, that go sideways when you don't sleep enough. Melatonin is just the tip of iceberg, so to speak. It is all the other shifts that change appetite, fertility, and mental and cardiac health.
So why isn't everybody talking about hormones and sleep?
Perhaps it's because the news is buried separately in five to six different disciplines in academia. For example, Dr. Eve Van Cauter at the University of Chicago calls the hormonal shift she records in her sleep-studies lab "sleep debt". Catchy sound bite. Now losing sleep may get some attention. Somehow relating sleep loss to being owed something or owing someone something, just like money, gives it a new importance. Money always talks: that sleep debt you're acquiring has a direct annual cost to the nation of $15.9 billion, and an indirect cost of more like $100 billion in lost work time and accidents. But we're going to tell you that the cost is really much higher.
It's your life.
Sleeping through your alarm, or falling asleep as the keyboard and knocking your coffee over on your desk, is not the major disaster facing the sleepless, it's death.
And I don't mean in a car crash.
As a nation, we are sick because we don't sleep. We are fat and diabetic because we don't sleep. We are dying from cancer and heart disease because we don't sleep. An avalanche of peer-reviewed scientific papers supports our conclusion that when we don't sleep in sync with the seasonal variation in light exposure, we fundamentally alter a balance of nature that has been programmed into our physiology since Day One. This cosmic clock is embedded in the physiology of every living thing that exists.
Read "Lights Out, Sleep, Sugar and Survival by TS Wiley and Bent Formby. They prove that obesity and the major killers correlated with obesity--heart disease, diabetes, and cancer--are caused by short nights, by working ridiculously long hours, by, literally, burning the candle at both ends, and by the electricity that gives us the ability to do it. The cause is most certainly not overeating fat or a lack of exercise.
When extended day length created by artificial light-and-dark cycles became the NORM a short SEVENTY YEARS ago with the widespread use of the lightbulb, obesity, diabetes, heart disease, and cancer suddenly became the official causes of death on the coroner's reports, instead of the usual widespread use or injury common before the advent of the lightbulb.
Ever since these diseases began to surface as major killers around mid-century, the efforts on the part of science and medicine to explain the startling rise never examined any other overwhelming environmental change except diet. And all these years later, as Americans continue to die, the doctors and the researchers all continue to fish in the same pond.
It's time to see the light.
Call my office to set up an appointment or email me 815-476-5210 or jones.gretchen@gmail.com
Your hormones don't spring back like that.
Hormones and SLEEP? That's a new one.
Hormones like estrogen and, occasionally, testosterone are always in the news. DHEA and HGH even surface once in a while now, but these hormones are always in news stories about AGING. The only hormone ever connected with sleep to make the news is good old melatonin, and everybody knows you can buy that over the counter. If you need it you can get it, right?
So why let sleep loss keep you up nights?
Because when you sleep less than you're meant to, melatonin isn't the only hormone affected. There are at least ten different hormones, as well as many more neurotransmitters in the brain, that go sideways when you don't sleep enough. Melatonin is just the tip of iceberg, so to speak. It is all the other shifts that change appetite, fertility, and mental and cardiac health.
So why isn't everybody talking about hormones and sleep?
Perhaps it's because the news is buried separately in five to six different disciplines in academia. For example, Dr. Eve Van Cauter at the University of Chicago calls the hormonal shift she records in her sleep-studies lab "sleep debt". Catchy sound bite. Now losing sleep may get some attention. Somehow relating sleep loss to being owed something or owing someone something, just like money, gives it a new importance. Money always talks: that sleep debt you're acquiring has a direct annual cost to the nation of $15.9 billion, and an indirect cost of more like $100 billion in lost work time and accidents. But we're going to tell you that the cost is really much higher.
It's your life.
Sleeping through your alarm, or falling asleep as the keyboard and knocking your coffee over on your desk, is not the major disaster facing the sleepless, it's death.
And I don't mean in a car crash.
As a nation, we are sick because we don't sleep. We are fat and diabetic because we don't sleep. We are dying from cancer and heart disease because we don't sleep. An avalanche of peer-reviewed scientific papers supports our conclusion that when we don't sleep in sync with the seasonal variation in light exposure, we fundamentally alter a balance of nature that has been programmed into our physiology since Day One. This cosmic clock is embedded in the physiology of every living thing that exists.
Read "Lights Out, Sleep, Sugar and Survival by TS Wiley and Bent Formby. They prove that obesity and the major killers correlated with obesity--heart disease, diabetes, and cancer--are caused by short nights, by working ridiculously long hours, by, literally, burning the candle at both ends, and by the electricity that gives us the ability to do it. The cause is most certainly not overeating fat or a lack of exercise.
When extended day length created by artificial light-and-dark cycles became the NORM a short SEVENTY YEARS ago with the widespread use of the lightbulb, obesity, diabetes, heart disease, and cancer suddenly became the official causes of death on the coroner's reports, instead of the usual widespread use or injury common before the advent of the lightbulb.
Ever since these diseases began to surface as major killers around mid-century, the efforts on the part of science and medicine to explain the startling rise never examined any other overwhelming environmental change except diet. And all these years later, as Americans continue to die, the doctors and the researchers all continue to fish in the same pond.
It's time to see the light.
Call my office to set up an appointment or email me 815-476-5210 or jones.gretchen@gmail.com
