Our sex hormones (estrogen and testosterone) are necessary for us to maintain a healthy and productive body.
What we call AGING is basically the destruction of our vital tissues and the loss of immunity as we age. Think about it: Bone loss (osteoporosis), sarcopenia (loss of muscle mass), a shrinking brain (dementia), poor or inability to fight viruses, bacteria and cancer cells with the aging immune system, accumulation of plaque on the arteries are all conditions that don’t generally occur in people under 40. They are all signs of aging that lead to severe disease conditions that lead to disability and death.
So, what happens after 40 that breaks our body down and makes it unable to protect itself?
The TRIGGER is a total loss of TESTOSTERONE and ESTROGEN in women before and at menopause, and a constantly lowering of TESTOSTERONE production in men. It is a simple concept to understand…we were built to self-destruct after we stopped being able to procreate! Our sex hormones (estrogen and testosterone) are necessary for us to maintain a healthy and productive body! When they stop being produced by the ovary and testicles, we begin to self-destruct!
Why don’t you get this important information from your doctor? We doctors were taught to handle emergencies, and acute medical diseases extremely well. That means we can handle well established chronic disease (diabetes, heart disease and dementia) after they were well under way. We were NOT taught to prevent the diseases before they start! American medicine leads the world in sick care, and we are dead last in preventive care!
So, I am here to give you the truth about prevention of disease as you age. The facts that follow are not just my opinion from 46 years of practicing medicine and 23 years of providing preventive testosterone and estradiol to aging patients, everything I will tell you today is backed by solid scientific research.
Aging is a multisystem progressive disease that can be slowed so that aging is not filled with disease and pain. There are many systems of the human body involved in aging and responsive to estradiol and testosterone replacement with pellets. Let’s start with the most obvious sign of aging, osteoporosis and muscle loss.
The visual sign of aging is one that is obvious when observing people in a nursing home or …on a cruise. The obvious visible signs are kyphosis or a “humpback”, slow gait, muscles and skin that hang off the arms and legs, poor balance and frequent falling, or when severe, the inability to walk. However, I don’t want you to progress to these irreversible skeletal and muscle aging endpoints. So….what can you do?
If you are female and menopausal or have had your ovaries removed at any age, then you should know where you stand with your bones and muscles. If you are male and have low testosterone that is unreplaced or have been on steroids for any period of time you need to be tested to find out where you stand.
The two tests you should get are a Dexa Bone Density test, and a Body Composition test, to test your bone strength and your muscle mass.
I recently checked my Dexa bone density at an advanced center called SHERO in St. Louis County. The results of my Dexa scan are shown here. Most of my bones are those of a premenopausal woman because I have never been without estradiol and testosterone, starting replacement at 47 when my ovaries were removed. My lifestyle work and hormone pellet replacement, twice weekly work out with weights, supplements, and high protein and low carb diet have paid off.
However, you cannot prevent everything. My genetics plus lifting heavy patients onto the operating table and in the office, caused me to have scoliosis and that slowly destroys vertebrae in my lower back.
I would recommend that every post-menopausal woman find out where she stands in terms of her bones. My consultation with at SHERO told me that the strength of my bones was due to my weight training twice a week at FITNESS EDGE with Cassie, plus 24 years of estradiol and testosterone pellets. I knew that, but it was reaffirming to hear it from another physician.
The second test that is necessary is the Body Composition test to determine if muscle mass is healthy and sufficient to assist with putting tension on the bones to strengthen them. A Direct Body Composition is a very accurate test of how much fat, muscle, and bone there is in a person’s body. Because we have an electronic body composition machine, I compared the two and our measurements were equal to the direct body composition, yet it was very affirming to see the results matched.
No matter who you are or what you have thought or been told about your bones and muscles, you need both radiologic evaluation and replacement estradiol and testosterone in pellet form to achieve an adequate bone density.
If you are normal, then congratulations! Yet time will whittle away at your bones and muscles if you don’t support them with non-oral testosterone and estradiol, and lifestyle changes.
Let’s talk lifestyle….the DIY you can do on your own:
- Weight training exercise is the most important activity you can do for your muscles and bones. Aerobic exercise is good for your heart, but it is not the answer for preventing osteoporosis, and muscle loss. Either exercising with weights, rubber bands or even your own body weight will improve muscle mass and bone mass, but you also have to feed your muscles!
- Eat a diet high in protein, preferably animal/fish protein/ number of grams of protein equivalent or higher to at least half your weight in pounds, every day.
- Eat calcium rich foods which usually are whey, cream, milk products, cheese, yogurt. Supplements with calcium generally do not help the bone but deposit all over the body.
- Vitamin D, K, C and Minerals magnesium, selenium, and zinc are necessary to support bone growth.
- Stretching before and after exercise is the only way to prevent complications of exercise induced muscle spasms.
- Avoid smoking, alcohol, fast food, preservatives and pesticides.
I want to address the medications often given to patients for treatment of osteoporosis. Only if you can’t take hormones then these medications are the next best thing, but they have many side effects that bio-identical non-oral hormones don’t have.
Achieve ideal weight with diet exercise, or Zepbound or Wegovy if necessary. This will take the strain off your joints when you are exercising and reduce the strain on your heart.
Aging well is not easy, but the outcome is a long life lived independently and without physical disability. Protecting your healthy bones and muscles is the first step.
