Why Do I Have to Take Supplements, and Diet and Exercise? I Just Want Hormones!

Dr. Maupin discusses her multi-dimensional approach to treating patients and making them healthy again.

Biobalance Health began in 2002 as a medical practice that provides the best, most effective delivery system for testosterone replacement for men and both T and Estradiol for women.  This is still the foundation of our practice because hormone replacement is necessary or the other methods of staying healthy after 40 to actually work.

I have seen thousands of patients who follow my individualized directions on testosterone and estradiol replacement, diet and supplementing their diet, weight loss, exercise, and lifestyle changes realize their goals of feeling and looking younger. These patients become truly healthy through these combined treatments. In contrast, I have seen the patients who want a quick fix with hormones who ignore the recommendations I give to them to become the younger healthier person they desire to be. These patients fail to achieve their goals. There is NO QUICK FIX to become healthy!  If you don’t want to participate in your goal of developing a healthier body and mind and just want to take a pill or get a pellet, then you don’t want to see me!

There is a primary rule in medical care called the Law of Intention: Achieving health requires the intention of the doctor to heal her patient, AND the intention of the patient to follow the treatment plan of the doctor to get better! Intention not only means you think about getting better, but that we both work toward that goal!

 There are thousands of medical studies that back up my treatment method of following a multi-pronged approach to health and they are right, but it isn’t easy! I recommend my female patients receive testosterone pellets after age 40, and men when they begin to have sexual erectile function symptoms, around 50-55.

At the first office visit I present a treatment plan that includes several paths of treatment. I call it a “parallel approach” for hormone replacement, weight loss (if necessary), following a healthy diet, finding an exercise that they can stick to in any weather for at least an hour 3 x a week, as well taking temporary medications or specific supplements to prevent the diseases of aging like diabetes and heart disease, and taking other supplements to specifically attend to a patient’s deficiencies.  All these changes and treatments must be worked on at the same time, which is why I call it medical care “in parallel”…following a plan for every area of health at the same time.

Story: One of my patients had trouble losing weight and she did weight loss consults with my Nurse Practitioner who advised her on every area needed for her to achieve her goal.  My NP came to me frustrated because after several visits and multiple medications and supplements she still wasn’t losing weight.  I joined them in the consultation and asked some direct questions, “ Do you still eat candy and drink soda?” “yes”, she said sheepishly. Do you take the supplements we have told you to take?” “Well… I start the new ones that you suggested but I stop the  ones you told me to take in the beginning..I don’t like pills”. “How about the medications we asked you to take? Metformin, and phentermine? “ I take the phenteramine!”  I asked and she told me that she thought we just wanted her to take the last one prescribed to her, but not the first medication, even though my NP had told her to stay on both meds!  So here is a formula for failure that many doctors experience with their patients.  Start one thing and when it doesn’t work  stop I  start something different…over and over again!  This method never gets anyone with a weight problem to lose weight.  You have to add meds and supplements to a treatment plan when someone is not responding to the one med alone.  Weight loss treatment is not forever and these meds are temporary!  Following all of our directions and taking the meds and supplements we prescribe  is necessary for weight loss patients to succeed.  They took years getting unhealthy and unbalancing their metabolic system by gaining fat, and it takes time and multiple concurrent treatments to lose fat!

Think of a 6 lane highway, all going the same direction with the same end point.

Each lane is a different area of your life to prevent and treat diseases and the symptoms of aging.

Lane 1 is replacing the hormones that decrease with age: Testosterone for both sexes, estradiol for women and balancing the other hormones that are deficient.

Lane 2 is your fuel to feed your body—your diet must be right for your genetics, lifestyle and the diseases you already have.

Lane 3  Supplements to your diet for vitamins and minerals you don’t get in your diet or you don’t get where you live (anywhere north of Florida needs Vitamin D), al people who don’t live near an ocean need Iodine replacement . Diseases such as Osteoporosis not only need E2 and T but need the building blocks of bones: Vitamin D3, Vitamin K, Vitamin C, Calcium and Magnesium.

Lane 4  Medications to treat diseases you already have. For example Insulin resistance and Pre-diabetes is rampant in people over 40 who are overweight. To combat this disease and prevent it from progressing. For this I use an old medication called metformin ER to treat Insulin resistance which allows the patient to lose fat and obtain normal weight. When they reach normal fat % 19% for men and 26% for women we can stop the medication.

Lane 5 Feed your gut Biome.  You have more bacteria living in your gut than you have cells in your body, and they are necessary!  The bacteria in your intestine digest your food, protect the delicate wall of the intestines so it doesn’t become leaky and lead to autoimmune diseases. Good bacteria help the gut produce the neurotransmitters in your brain that not only help you to think but also keep you from being depressed and anxious. The more types of bacteria in your gut the better and the closer you will be to your ideal weight.  Antibiotics and steroids like prednisone kill good gut bacteria and promote bad and dangerous bacteria. It is important that everyone take a Probiotic and eat a salad and or raw vegetables to feed and protect their gut bacteria.  We are symbiotic with the bacteria in our gut..neither of us can live without the other!

Lane 6 Exercise daily! We have not evolved from our ancestors days on the savannah where we ran after and caught and killed our food or gathered it from bushes and other plants. We were made to be physically active all day! We have created a sedentary world where we sit and that is very BAD for our health.  I think exercise choices should be based on any disabilities or injuries that you have and on your personality.  In her Book, The Eight Colors of Fitness, Suzanne shares the type of exercise that is best for each Meyer’s Briggs personality type.  If you don’t have a clue what exercise you would like to make a part of your life then reading her book is my advice…then just do it!

My practice BioBalance Health is meant to guide you and treat you with the most effective methods needed in your life to reach the goal of health.  When making a plan for achieving health think of these 6 areas and follow the plan…all at the same time!

This Health cast was written and presented by Dr. Kathy Maupin, M.D., Bio-identical Hormone Replacement Expert and Author. www.BioBalanceHealth.com • (314) 993-0963.

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