Hormone balancing plays an important role in anti-aging regimen

Dr. Marina Pearsall

Special to Houston Business Journal

Good management is the key to longevity in business and in life.

Demands of handling a successful career or business and home life for a woman are well
known. Women are pulled in all directions and must maintain vibrant energy and be able to
handle "double-stress." Thanks to remarkable advances in age management, however, the
fountain of youth, that magical elusive spring that Ponce de Leon searched for as an elixir for
the aging process, may not be that far away.

Clinical age management is a rapidly developing field of medicine. Therapies that were once
unknown and even illegal in the United States are now widely recognized and used. People
no longer have to travel out of the country and pay thousands of dollars to obtain some of
these treatments.

• Energy. Working women may find that increasing testosterone levels allow them to
  carry out multiple tasks without becoming stressed out and feeling overwhelmed.
  They may feel less depressed, more assertive and mentally tenacious.
  
  When testosterone decreases, so does energy, sex drive and the ability to cope with difficult
  situations.
  
  Women who have waited longer to start families face a need for extra energy to deal with
  children in the evening after a long day at the office.
  
  
• Memory and mood. In addition to increasing energy levels, hormone replacement
  may also help women improve memory, maintain a positive attitude, eliminate mood
  swings and counteract effects of aging, such as wrinkles and gray hair.
• Weight control. Hormone replacement may also make it easier for women receiving
  it to maintain a healthy weight, since the decline in hormones is directly responsible
  for spreading waistlines.

Anti-aging therapy
Changes in government regulations have opened the door to hormone therapy.
For example, not long ago, it was illegal for physicians other than pediatric endocrinologists
to prescribe human growth hormone in the United States, despite scientific articles
substantiating the efficacy and safety of this hormone. Now, just as testosterone, estrogen,
thyroid and other hormones are replaced, HGH became a part of anti-aging therapeutic
programs.

True anti-aging therapy uses natural bio-identical hormone replacement -- the hormones are
100 percent recognized by the body. Natural estrogen and progesterone have an amazing
number of health benefits without the risks of synthetic hormones. The estrogen/progestin
Prempro study in 2002 that made so many women stop their hormone therapy programs was
conducted with synthetic hormones which contain many compounds not recognized by the
body.

Hormone delivery
The ideal method of hormone delivery should duplicate the body's delivery system through
which gonadal organs deliver their hormones directly to the peripheral venous system in
small amounts on a daily basis.

Utilizing pellets as the delivery mechanism for hormone replacement is the most effective
way of delivering hormones to the body, especially for testosterone and estrogen
replacement. The hormone pellet closely duplicates this delivery system.

The hormone pellet, which can last from three to six months before replacement is required,
delivers its contents at the appropriate continuous daily dose. The body takes what it needs,
and much lower doses are required because it is not blocked by the skin nor is it metabolized
by the liver. Pellet therapy relies less on patient compliance and is more cost-effective than
prescriptions of pills, creams and shots.

With hormone pills, very little hormone actually survives the stomach's digestive acids and
makes it past the liver's filtering mechanism to its intended target; most is metabolized and
otherwise wasted.

While hormone creams bypass the liver's filtering mechanism, they must cross an even more
unforgiving barrier -- the skin. This method of delivery is the most wasteful and least similar
to the human body. When testosterone is given in the form of creams, it reacts with the skin's
hair receptors and stimulates hair to grow (Hirsutism). This does not occur with pellet
therapy.

Clinical age management can slow down women's aging clocks while dramatically enhancing
their quality of life. Hormone balancing is not medicine's magic bullet, but it is a key to
preserving health and youth which can allow for a longer and more satisfying career.

Dr. Marina M. Pearsall, Ph.D. is the founder and medical director of the Longevity Centre of
Houston (www.LongevityHouston.com).