I admit that I recently sat down in front of my television to watch Oprah.  It’s amazing how much authority Oprah has over women in the western world. If Oprah says it, then it must be true, right? So I was interested in listening to what she and her guests had to say about that day's topic: the endocrine system and ‘women's health issues’.  

Many of Oprah's shows over the past few years have been geared toward health matters.  She’s brought Dr. Oz, Bob Green and many others on board to cover a variety of health-related issues that are troubling her and the rest of the world today.  I commend her for  shining the light and addressing these issues rather then ignoring them, but it's important to remember that issues of health are often more complex than can be presented in a one-hour talk show.

The episode I watched featured women troubled by hormone imbalances pre-, during and post-menopause.   The guests were experiencing change within themselves: mood swings, poor energy, poor memory, lack of sleep, hot flashes, ‘running on empty’, etc. They all wanted to gain control and to start living again.

Bioidentical hormones (hormone replacement therapy or HRT) were recommended to help these women deal with their hormone imbalances and to regain their vitality. Is this an optimal solution?

In my opinion, treating a person with complex issues should include more analysis than just lab work.  Doctors tend to look at the grid and your blood test results on paper, and make their decisions on how to treat an individual while leaving everything else out.  A better way is to, as the saying goes, ‘treat the person with the disease and not the disease’.

The norms on most conventional blood tests are far too broad to pinpoint specific problems, and the way the numbers are derived is also not ideal.  But we had to come up with a system that would work for most of us, so we did!  Another key factor that must be considered is what was the individual doing prior to testing, or if it’s a 24h saliva test, for example, what was the person going through that day?  Not being aware of what is going on in the patient's world will often lead to mis-diagnosis and false treatment.

Of course, I think hormone replacement therapy is important and may help some people feel better when faced with hormonal problems. I just feel that treating these types of issues without acknowledging the person as a whole will not heal the person, let alone help the person stay healthy in the long run. 

When your choir is not in tune
First of all, when someone does have health issues (and most of us do), we need to figure out what caused for these issues to appear in the first place before deciding on appropriate therapy.  Discovering whether your cortisol level is too high, testosterone is too low, insulin is out of whack, or your thyroid just quit on you, etc., is important. Yes let’s treat those problems, but before we do so, let’s figure out what really caused these catastrophic events to take place.  Only once we have that information can we finally treat this person and get them on the way to full, long-term recovery.

The human body, including hormones, is meant to react and respond to triggers, whether positive or negative. As Charles Poliquin (world renown strength coach) says, ‘Genetics are the gun, evironment is the trigger’, meaning your interaction with the environment, your ability to handle ‘life’ stressors, your relationships with others, the foods that you choose to consume, and much more, are the real causes of hormone imbalances. Unless you get down to the bottom of the cause and correcting it at the source, you’re not treating anything.

Once you treat the triggers and safety them, then you know that the person will be able to be in control of their body and health in the long run.  If someone does end up going on hormone replacement therapy and starts feeling better, while completely ignoring what got them there in the first place, that person is likely to suffer again. It may take a year or even more for the body to get out of whack again, but it will, because no true causes of these issues were addressed during the 'treatment'.

Conclusion
Not too long ago, at the age of 25, I myself was suffering from some serious hormonal imbalances. My family doctor took one look at my blood work and was ready to give me a shot of testosterone.  My cortisol was through the roof. I was told that one day I will have hypothyroidism, and that all my androgens (male hormones) were very low, and that I needed some ‘assistance’.  I was blown away that my doc was ready to treat me with hormones without evaluating me as a whole person. 

I then asked myself how I ended up with the problems I had, and what would really fix them? 

I needed to start sleeping, I needed to stop over exercising, I needed to stop dieting, and I needed to take care of some of my personal issues (finances, relationships, etc.). Unless all this was managed, I believed my own hormonal status would not improve no matter what my doc had me on.

Yes, I would start to feel better with HRT, but hey let’s get real, for how long would I feel good if I was only masking the true cause of my dysfunctions!

It's great that Oprah is bringing important health issues to the masses, but with such a powerful forum, I think it's important that she puts forward complete information that her audience can use to springboard their own quests for truly better health.