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Natural hormone replacement therapy can be an important part of the anti-aging regimen for many people as they enter the "mature" years. It is not needed by everyone, however, as evidenced by example of the man in the following story:
An older man went to his doctor for a checkup. After completing his examination, the doctor remarked,
"You are in very good shape for a man your age. What are you, about 65 years old?"
"Did I say I was 65 years old?" said the man. "I am 75 years old."
"I’m impressed," said the doctor. "You obviously have good genes. So tell me, how old was your father when he died?"
"Did I say my father was dead?" said the man. "My father is 96 years old and is in perfect health."
"All right then," asked the doctor, "how old was your grandfather when he died?"
"Did I say my grandfather was dead?" said the man. "My grandfather is 117 years old and he just got married!"
"That’s amazing," said the doctor, "that your grandfather would live to 117 and want to get married."
"Did I say my grandfather wanted to get married?"
Well, perhaps this gentleman was in no need of additional hormones, but for the rest of us the idea of replacing declining hormones may have considerable appeal. The anti-aging hormones we will discuss are: pregnenolone, DHEA, progesterone, testosterone, estrogen, melatonin and human growth hormone. We will discuss each in the context of how we currently use them in our anti-aging programs.
Estrogen and testosterone require prescriptions. If you and your doctor agree that the time has come for you to begin HRT with either of these two hormones, you will need to get a prescription. Pregnenolone, DHEA, progesterone and melatonin, on the other hand, are all available without a prescription in the US. Growth hormone per se is a prescription item, however, as we shall see, there are more growth hormone products, viz., homeopathic preparations and the secreteagogues which do not.
Restoring diminished hormone levels to values closer to what we had in late adulthood (i.e., mid to late 30’s) is the hallmark of our program of partial HRT. We feel that doing so allows our patients to appreciate the many benefits of more youthful hormone levels, while avoiding the risks of full supplementation. If you will think back to how you felt during your teenage years for just a moment, you will realize just how powerful these hormone chemical messengers can be.
While some anti-aging programs advocate full hormone replacement with the goal of restoring levels to what they were in our mid to late 20’s, we prefer to aim for levels more consistent with values in our late 30’s. By augmenting our hormones to these more "tolerable" levels, we feel that we can achieve sustained benefit for long periods of time without the risk of over-stimulation, which is possible with more aggressive treatment. In our experience, we feel that partial natural hormone replacement combines the best of both worlds: more youthful hormone levels and decreased risks and side effects.
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