Optimizing Hormones for Modern Day Living

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Optimizing Hormones for Modern Day Living

Episode 12

AB: Hello and welcome to SimplifiHealth. My name is Aurelia Byrne. I’m a registered Dental Hygienist at Stonebriar Smile Design, also the owner of the AflexX Assist Arm. I’m here with Dr. Jill Wade and Dr. Chowdhury. Today, we’re going to talk about optimizing hormones for modern day living. Hello ladies. SC: Hello. JW: Hello. I am so sick and tired of being sick and tired, Dr. Chowdhury. Help me. AB: It must be your hormones. JW: Without a doubt. SC: I know I can do something about it. AB: Yay! I just want to go right into it and talk about hormones in a way that I was helped by Dr. Chowdhury. In my personal experience, I work out a lot and do a lot of yoga, I’m very high energy, I’m 44 but I was feeling… SC: Really? AB: Yeah. SC: Oh, wow. You look amazing. AB: Oh, thank you. I was feeling really tired and even though I still kept going and going and going, I just couldn’t think right. I was foggy. I was with my patients and sometimes I would just kind of go out of sequence and forget things. This didn’t feel right. Dr. Wade was saying, “You know, Aurelia, we talk about hormones all the time and you know the signs and symptoms of hormone disorder so you need to go get yourself checked.” So I went over to Dr. Chowdhury and did some bloodwork. I feel very confident in letting you discuss what our treatment was with me, I’m not ashamed of it. Feel free. SC: I have your HIPAA authorization. AB: You do have my HIPAA authorization. SC: I’m not going to go into so much detail but thank you so much for having me talk about something that is becoming increasingly very important to a lot of people. Whether you’re a man or a woman, even at whatever age, I mean, 44, you are baby, you are young and yeah, I have yet to find someone that’s healthier than you. Oh, sorry. My trainer’s probably listening. But here’s a deal, this is like the way I think about it. If you think about several hundreds of years ago, we women at the age of 40, 50, it’s like you just had your family, your grandparents now, you’ve met your use in this world, go in that corner and die. I mean, it’s like you’re done. But I have patient… JW: At 44. SC: At 44, yeah. I have patients that are in their 80s and they can run circles around me. Our modern day living, so long as we can keep up, we have a use until the day we die. We are seeing more vivacious, lively people in their 60s, 70s, 80s. Your dad is amazing, may I say? JW: Yeah, he is. SC: Yes. I mean, that’s a perfect example of how lively you can be. But we will have so much to contribute in this world, I mean, let’s face it, the older we get, the more knowledge we have, the more wisdom—black wine and wisdom… JW: There you go. SC: Stay tuned. JW: That’s going to be one of our next podcast. SC: Yes. AB: #WineAndWisdom. SC: Yeah, where we drink the wine and you listen to the wisdom. But listen, basically we are realizing our bodies can’t keep up with modern day living. And so one of the things that we hear all the time, “I am dragging, I’m tired,” but guess what? In the big scheme of life, there are so many reasons why you could be tired. You could have basic sleep problems—which we’ve talked about the sleep apnea and things like that—you could have depression, anxiety, situational, long term, anything. But when someone like Aurelia comes into my life and says, “I am tired but I don’t know why.” It must be one thing, “Okay, let’s check your thyroid.” Most people only check the Thyroid Stimulating Hormone (TSH). AB: That is correct. That is what happened to me. SC: And you are normal. AB: Correct and I have a small goiter that they’re like, “Everything’s normal.” “Okay, bye.” SC: But what we do is we have to look at it at a bit more of a closer level. If we’re going to talk about thyroid just real briefly, what I tell my patients is the brain sends down a message to the thyroid—which by the way is right close to the base of your neck, your throat—and it tells that thyroid, “Hey, stimulate yourself and go make some thyroid medicine.” That’s the TSH. We have a standard of care which means many people are in this big pot and it’s a very wide range, it’s very wide. But then there’s an optimal level of care and it’s a lot narrow. That means it needs to be in that optimal level for you to work at your best. Many of us ar below, a little bit above, but we’re told that we’re normal, but we’re not. Then we stimulate that thyroid and the thyroid produces this T4. T4 is like you’re going the highway and you see these little lunch trucks that drive around that drive around from job site to job site. Yeah, that’s T4. It’s going around and saying, “Hey, anybody need anything? I got it.” You get down to the heart something and it says, “Yeah, I’m low on my thyroid so get a thyroid hormone that will help me metabolize all that.” He says, “Okay, here. Let me just chop off a leg and give you T3.” T3 becomes the active player, it’s the hormone that does all that stuff. Each one of those have an optimal level. That’s what we look for. But going back to that whole fatigue-foggy thinking, sluggish metabolism, every cell in our body has estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone receptors. As we approach that magic number where things start slowing down, you start not producing all the hormones, all those cells start feeling it. No wonder we’re having a hard time. We’re looking for those optimal levels of those hormones. We have found a way where we can take what we could bio-identical hormones that are specially made for each of our clients at a level that is appropriate for each of our clients. JW: And that is the key right there, appropriate for that patient. SC: Personalized. JW: Personalized-hormone therapy. Because needless to say, having practice for many years, I’ve seen clients come in who have gotten some pellets and somebody didn’t really fully understand what they were doing and they just filled them full of testosterone. I’m going to say, a couple women are coming to my mind right this minute and oh, my gosh, talk about a problem on their hands until it got down to a wider level, more appropriate level, but they were miserable for months and months. So really stepping back and being sure that the person that is properly trained, properly understanding what’s going on is important. SC: It’s very important because as some of our podcast listeners have followed us through some of the sessions [inaudible 00:08:09], what the key thing is, and that’s inflammation. What we find is that not everyone should be on this but a lot of people can be on this but you have to put it in the big picture. If you’re somebody that is reasonably healthy but has some risk factors and so on, you’ve got to be able to have that discussion and say, “Hey, maybe we need Examel but maybe we should go a little lighter because we don’t want to trigger something.” Then you follow them. You make sure their blood count is normal, that they don’t become procoagualable like want to produce clots and things like that. It does a lot of things. You don’t want to just go to the local store and go get yourself a shot or something, you need to know that doctor or that person is able to manage you and look at the big picture. That’s why you need to be with a personalized doctor, someone who is like myself, a concierge physician. We’re from Diamond Physicians, several of us around, I’m the one in Frisco where we actually take the time to understand the full history—we don’t take corners—we understand your family history, then we do some lab work, and check out what is going on. Plus, don’t forget, are you like you and me? We’re all working women, we have families, we have other lives, we’re entrepreneurs, we’re running businesses, dealing with problems, all of that. JW: Doing podcast. SC: Doing podcast, inventing things. It does cause a lot of stress on us. I’m sure many of you have heard of adrenal fatigue. That affects us too. There’s also treatment for that. It’s not just medicine, it’s not just pellets, it’s also holistic way of looking at it. If you’re not sleeping but you’re drinking five gallons of coffee, guess what? Simple stuff like that. JW: I think a lot of people don’t realize that sleep is guided through a turn on and turn off, basically, effect of hormones. That’s why a lot of times with my patients, one of the first things if I’m looking in their mouth—which we’ve talked to you about—that we can actually see hormone imbalance in the mouth and around the gums. Depending on where it is and what it looks like, we can kind of almost “guess,” if you want to say,—because again a guess would be an educated guess of just looking at it in the mouth. The real paperwork of the testing itself, the blood work or the saliva testing would be the real answer—but we can get a really good indicator just looking in the mouth that there’s an imbalance going on. Adrenal fatigue and thyroid issues can be obvious simply by taking great pictures of showing the tissue and looking at the color and texture of that tissue and where it is located. AB: When you say guessing, you’re not really guessing… JW: That’s educated. AB: Yeah, what we’re doing is, it’s more of an education because you’re looking at the family history, the medical history, and you’re asking all the questions, you’re looking at what the patient checks in their boxes and you basically go—and how they’re feeling—and you kind of analyze that and lead them to the right direction of what they possibly might need to go look into. JW: If we’re seeing those changes clinically in the mouth, then it is, in my opinion, they come to me for my expertise and then it’s important for me to then say, “This is what I’m seeing. I think your next step should be to go to the physician and get some further testing.” I always say kind of like what you’re talking about earlier comprehensive testing of the thyroid which would also include all hormones. AB: Yes. We’re talking about cortisol, DHEA, we’re talking about the estrogen progesterone, testosterone, all of that. JW: Because to me, until you get that picture of all of those tests in its entirety in front of you, then you could be missing it. Yes, they might have only tested TSH just like you were saying or the thyroid. You’re just screening that one thing. Unless you’re looking at ev located the exact problem. So that comprehensive testing is what I find like you got to be your own health care advocate, you’ve got to go to the doctor’s office, and you have to really talk in an educated way, and ask for those tests to be run. SC: But, Jill, how do some people know what to ask? That’s the other thing. JW: You’ve got to demand it, you’ve got to get educated. I feel like go to the doctors and make them stop long enough to listen or find yourself a concierge doctor. SC: But I feel, and I’ve always said this, that all patients have the answer but am I intelligent enough to find it by listening to them? Because they have the answer right there. Can I listen to the clues that they have and then make the assessment and do the rest? Because that I’m telling you is it. If you know how to listen, you’ll find the answers. JW: It’s so funny you’re saying that because I don’t know if the listeners—we haven’t really discussed this yet in any of our episodes—but the reason why we’ve called the podcast SimplifiHealth and the way that we spell it is different is because we talk about symptoms. When people talk about their symptoms and you’re honest about it—because I believe that people really have no reason to want to lie about their symptoms—but if you’re honest with your health care providers, be it your trainer, nutritionist, physician, dentist, hygienist, everybody, and you talk about symptoms, the answers, 90%, rely in your symptoms which then pinpoints you into that next step of what needs to happen next. SimplifiHealth is about starting with symptoms and then using those symptoms to help simplify your game plan. We talk about building a blueprint for your health, you start with those symptoms, you break it down, and try to start activating it step-by-step. SC: The other thing that I’ve learned from some of our physicians that I’ve worked with is unless you look, you’re not going to find. If I’m only looking at certain things, I’m not going to know the full history. That may be why some people feel a little overwhelmed when they go to certain doctors and they want to test all kinds of things. Understand this, if you only look at half a picture, how are you going to get the full picture? You’ve got to look at the full picture. Then the other thing is you got to follow trends because guess what? You can make it worse, you can make it better. It all depends on everything else like medicine, sleep, dental care, supplement, stress, exercise. These six major things that if you do consistently, well you will be healthy. Those are sleep, diet, exercise, oral health, stress management, medicines and supplement, should you need it. JW: That’s full time job right there. AB: You just said earlier how does a patient know what to ask their physician? That is a good thing to bring up. SC: Because I don’t think… AB: I wouldn’t have known but, I do now, because I’m in healthcare and then I met you and I work for Dr. Wade and everything has just opened up with what to ask. But someone out there wouldn’t know what kind of blood test should they get. Maybe that’s a whole other podcast so I think we should have… SC: I think that’s a whole other podcast. But first of all, I think all of our patients are intelligent people, they know their own bodies. They know when something’s not right. Then they also know when there is someone that’s listening to them with empathy and open ears and says, “Okay, we need to work out on certain things.” They’re listening to your symptoms like you said and they’re beginning a plan because until you look, you won’t know which direction you’re going. I tell many patients that, “Look, this is what I think is going on. This is a work in progress so we’re going to start at point A. If point A doesn’t work then we go to point B. So you have to be collaborating with your physician.” That’s the key that I look in my patients when they come to me at my concierge clinic, is to work with me. I’m not here to tell you what to do, I am here to guide you but I have to be guided by you too. You’re the patient and so let’s work together. I set that tone right from the beginning when they come and sit and do their complete health review, I say, “Look, this is what I think it is, I have a list of all the possibilities—” or as we like to call it a differential diagnosis, “—and we’re going to work down it.” If you think about things in a common sense way—common things happen to commonly—think about the patient that we had the other day that we both were patting ourselves on the back, he had dental erosion. Remember? And you kept saying, “What’s causing it?” The assessment, the dental hygienist also you said, “Do you have reflux? Do you have a heartburn?” When you pointed it out, he would say, “I think I do.” Remember, heartburn is not just a burning, it could be a cough, it could be a bitter taste in your mouth in the morning, it could be that funny feeling you have in your stomach… JW: Clearing your throat in the morning. SC: Right, right, right. All of that. We went through a lot of different things with him because he wasn’t that simple, he had some other stuff that we had to be careful. But guess what? It’s been how many months now? AB: Almost a year? SC: A year. AB: Probably a year. SC: He has no erosions and his teeth are looking better than ever. Also we did some other tests, the cardiovascular disease test, and everything, and those are looking better. We’ve still got a lot of things to work with him but it’s like one small battle at a time. JW: Absolutely. We talk all the time about always stepping back long enough to think about where is the root cause of this problem. AB: Absolutely. SC: Humming why? Why? Why? Why? JW Because you can ever find that, pinpoint that, and then fix that, that’s it. That’s a solve right there. But if you get a little too complicated and you start trying to bandaid everything with this medicine and now this medicine gets added to it, it starts getting more and more confused. SC: And expensive. JW: And expensive. Exactly, exactly. I want to step back just one minute more, you said this earlier and I totally believe this, stress. Stress is so underrated. I just don’t think people realize that chronic stress is inflammatory in nature, it starts to disrupt so many different vital functions in the body. But it really is based in that hormone system, the endocrine system, which I’m finding now as I’ve been trained that the endocrine system is probably the most complex, complicated, and misunderstood system in all of medicine. SC: Definitely, and how a little change can have such a large impact on the way we live our lives. That brings us full circle. AB: That’s my case. In so many ways I try to balance my whole life, balance work, business, and personal life. It’s just stress, stress, stress, and it just depletes everything. Then when you’re working so hard… SC: It’s like burning a candle at both ends, eventually you’re going to go [“pthh”. 00:21:04] AB: And that’s everybody pretty much in studies, especially women. SC: I think modern-day life especially because we’re in the “me too” movement and we want to be able to have a family, a relationship, and an empire. What did I say at the last meeting? I said, “We can have it all. Just not at the same time.” I’ll say that one more time, we women can have it all but not at the same time. JW: We have to make choices. SC: We can still achieve all the things we’ve ever wanted but just put everything on a list and just prioritize it and see what’s important and deal with that first. I think small steps, mini steps. Then before you know it,you’ve climbed the mountain. JW: Absolutely. What I’m going to do is I’m going to work with you and we’re going to put together a page, what we call a “white page” for those of you out there and we are going to post it on youniversityhealth.com. That way we can actually put something out there for you. How about we try to list the most common hormone test in its comprehensive manner? It’s for those of you out there who would like to maybe take a look at that and utilize that for your own knowledge so that you can perhaps get some of that testing performed. SC: And also not just get the test but also go to someone that knows how to interpret it. Because there may be people that really don’t know what to do with that or they will say, “Oh, that looks okay.” JW: My two cents on that would be is if they are asking why you would want all those tests or that they can’t get them for you, that’s probably a very good sign and indicator that you might need a second opinion. SC: Absolutely. AB:I think we’ve hit the topic of hormones pretty well today, ladies. SC: I mean there’s a lot out there that people need to at least know where they stand. JW: Exactly. AB: Agreed. If you would like some more information you can visit youniversityhealth.com. For the dental professionals, you could find more information on relevancehealth.com. For information with Dr. Chowdhury, you can visit her website at diamondphysicians.com. Her number is area code (214) 945-3621. Thank you so much, Dr. Chowdhury for being with us once again and Dr. Wade. JW: Thank you, Aurelia. It’s been good to talk to you guys about something that we’re all so passionate about. 

Episode Description

 

Are you sick and tired of being sick and tired? Are you ready to feel like you again? Monitoring your hormones should be an essential part of your health and well being focus. The endocrine system is complicated and constantly changing in order to support your busy life. Sleep, stress, and age highly influence this aspect of our body that determines our energy level, moods, focus and zest for life. The modern day living expectations are high and in order to not only survive but thrive you must take an active approach in optimizing hormones. SymplifiHealth episode 12 will discuss a general overview of hormones with co-hosts Dr. Jill Wade and Aurelia Bryne and guest Dr. Shahan Chowdhury, owner of Integrative Health and Heart in Frisco Texas.

Know that you are not alone if you feel foggy headed and not your best self.Comprehensive testing of all the hormones will create the accurate guide to restoring balance
Find a qualified practitioner to focus on hormone replacement therapy Understand the role that stress plays in disrupting balance and be ready to make some lifestyle choices

If you have a question or would like to connect with Dr. Jill Wade then email her at jill@jillwadedds.com.

Dr. Shahan Chowdhury can be reached at 214-945-3621

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