A recent study published in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) casts a shadow on the common use of testosterone therapy in older men for boosting their energy and vitality. An FDA-approved testosterone gel was shown to significantly increase risk for adverse cardiovascular, respiratory, and dermatological events in men 65 or older who had impaired mobility and increased health risks.
These unexpected negative results fly in the face of decades of good research on testosterone therapy in older men showing it to be beneficial to the cardiovascular system, and improve sexual function, mood, energy level, and muscle and bone mass and strength.
Progesterone is produced in the ovaries, the Leydig cells of the testicles, and in the adrenal glands. Many people don’t realize that progesterone is also made in the glial cells of the nervous system, both in the brain and in the Schwann cells of the peripheral nervous system.
As a physician, one of my primary charges is to try to minimize people’s pain and suffering. Being both a pragmatist and a generalist, my tools are quite wide-ranging so it was with some interest that I learned about the connection between language and suffering. There are many levels of this. Here is one part.
Once upon a time in a far-off realm, seven students of the art of healing were gathered for their final examination. Their mentor, who was old, wise and greatly loved by his pupils, led them to the bedside of a patient they had known well in life. Alas, he had just given up the ghost, and as the students contemplated with sadness and wonder his lifeless form, the master posed the question.
Bisphosphonates are now the most widely marketed and prescribed patented, FDA-approved anti-osteoporosis drugs. Bisphosphonates mimic, to some extent, the effects of estrogen on bone in that they work by inhibiting bone resorption [the process by which old bone is removed to make room for new bone]. However, like estrogen, these drugs have no ability to build new bone.
In MS [multiple sclerosis], it is clear that the inflammatory process itself is destructive, and that estrogen is a major predisposing factor. Unsaturated fatty acids, and dietary imbalance of amino acids interact closely with hyperestrogenism and hypothyroidism to produce the autoimmune degenerative diseases.
I am not advocating you get rid of doctors; I’m saying it’s time to change our own personal health paradigm. To accomplish the change we need to stop being afraid that missing the diagnosis of a disease will send us directly to the morgue. As we change from focusing on getting a diagnosis to staying healthy, our health will improve.
The cornerstone of treatment for the great majority of cancers is the surgical removal of the primary tumor. The rationale for this approach is straightforward: if you can get rid of the cancer by simply removing it from the body, then a cure can likely be achieved. Unfortunately, this approach does not take into account that after surgery the cancer will frequently metastasize (spread to different organs). Quite often the metastatic recurrence is far more serious than the original tumor. In fact, for many cancers it is the metastatic recurrence—and not the primary tumor—that ultimately proves to be fatal.
News reports on the mammography controversy reached a pitch of high hysteria last week, the baseline syncopated with the language of hate and fear. No question, “breast cancer” is a charged phrase. In an instant, the two words conflate the beginning of life, when a baby feeds at its mother’s breast, and the end that so many Americans fear, “the Big C.” Sex and death packed into one phrase—little wonder that the words can unleash such strong emotions.
When we look past the hysteria and controversy created by the new government task force guidelines for mammography screening, what we find is that it’s all about the money, and not about women’s health.
