The symptoms of Hormone Imbalance, Perimenopause and Menopause

 In this video I talk about the symptoms of hormone imbalance and two unfortunate young ladies who are suffering from it. As with most women they had no idea what was going to hit them when their ovaries started to pack up. The purpose of this video is to begin to discuss the taboo and fear of hormone replacement therapy. The discussion of natural hormone replacement is covered in another video. For now let's talk about the 'why' you need them as opposed to the why not and the 'how'. Don't talk yourself out of something you know nothing about, open your mind and educate yourself starting with this video and my books (also available in Spanish)

https://youtu.be/FhmLqInnt7o

Roses don't put weight on you :)

Happy Valentines! Its so hard that Valentine's day comes right after all those New Year's resolutions to lose weight :(
The good news is that receiving roses doesn't put weight on you so the whole day doesn't have to be a bust.
Still, its nice to be able to navigate the other traditions of the day without gaining 5 pounds.

When did 'love' get so caught up in 'sweets'? So long as it is heart shaped you can feel loved and cared for by consuming it. ....But then there's tomorrow.

A lot of people ask me how I maintain my weight and I tell them honestly, my first rule of thumb is not to gain weight in the first place. That sounds a little trite but it is so much harder to lose weight than to gain it. Therefore, we have to take that into consideration in the first place.

I may not do all the things I preach but once I see the scale go up by 5 pounds I don't make any excuses, I adjust my activities to make sure it comes off and I can return to baseline.

I think it is easy to allow your weight to keep creeping up with a variety of excuses "it's the holidays", "It's cold outside", "when I retire/start my new job/join the gym, I will start working on my weight " and then you look around and your weight has crept up 15 pounds.

Sometimes when your weight reaches a certain level you get discouraged and think "what's the point I'm always going to be overweight!" Now, you have an excuse for not even trying. But remember rule number one is NOT to put the weight on in the first place.

 A patient of mine the other day who was 199 pounds said she just didn't know what to do, so she would just do nothing. I told her that if she continued to gain when she hit 220, all of a sudden 199 would look mighty good to her!

Whatever your weight is, it is worth starting where you are.  Even if you don't lose weight but have not gained you are still ahead of where you would have been if you didn't try. So its always worth it to make the effort even when it doesn't seem like it.
Keep rule number one rolling around in your head as you take a pinch of those Valentine candies or better yet just smell the roses!
have a happy and healthy Valentines Day!

SHOULD EVERY WOMAN TAKE HORMONES?

OK enough is enough, almost every woman over the age of 45 should be offered hormones and many who are younger. There I said it! 

Why is that so hard to hear? Let alone believe?

I am tired of avoiding telling women the truth because people are so afraid of the word ‘hormone’. Hormones are critical for every function in the body but somehow or the other we have been brainwashed into thinking there are good and bad hormones, with the sex hormones like estrogen, progesterone and testosterone being the 'bad' ones.

Women represent the greatest proportion of people aged 65 and over, a total of almost 58%.  And guess what ?  EVERY woman is going to be menopausal at some point. So this is really a topic of epic proportions that is why I cannot understand why it is so ignored.

Millions of women and their partners put up with emotional swings, with paralyzing anxiety and depression. They are a shadow of their former selves because no one will tell them that taking hormones will fix it.

Millions have given up having a satisfying sex life because they have been told that it is part of the normal aging process not to want sex and for intercourse to be uncomfortable.

Millions of women are forgetful and can’t sleep because their hormones are out of whack . They get prescriptions for sleep aids and anti-depressants because no one explains to them that there is another way. One that is safer and way more natural with no side effects.

When women sleep at night they function better in their profession, get along better with their family and colleagues and they can find the motivation to exercise. Exercise leads to a better mood, less weight and less diabetes. Their blood pressure is better, so they have less risk of stroke and disability.

Women who are on hormones feel less pain whether it is from arthritis or a whole host of other issues.

They look better because there is less fat deposition around their mid section, the skin, eyes and everything else is less dry and they seem happier and more calm.

So what’s the down side? None, seriously. If you use bio-identical hormones, there really isn’t one. Yet fear mongering keeps women in a vice so tight they are afraid to allow themselves the benefits of  hormone replacement.

I have written books and given talks to try to get the word out there. Yet still, very few women are aware of the potential life changing benefits of hormone replacement. If men stood to gain as much as women from this therapy I am sure it would be front page news.

Yesterday Harvard ( JoAnn Manson et al JAMA 2017:318(10) 927-938)  after studying the outcomes of 27,000+ women, published a new article saying that hormone therapy is safe and does not shorten a woman’s life. Let's keep our fingers crossed, maybe the news feeds will pick it up and maybe this time women will have the opportunity to hear more about it.

If you find this post informative please do other women and their loved ones a favor and share it.

Yours in health

Dr. Tuakli