The True Cost of a Flawed Health Care Paradigm

October 05, 2013

Story at-a-glance

• Americans spend twice as much on health care per capita than any other country in the world; more than 17 percent of US gross domestic product, or $2.7 trillion dollars every year, is spent on health care
• Despite all of this spending and pill-popping, the US ranks dead last in terms of quality of care among industrialized countries, and Americans are far sicker and live shorter lives than people in other nations
• A review of US healthcare expenses revealed that 30 cents of every dollar spent on medical care is wasted, adding up to $750 billion annually. Major areas of waste include excess administrative costs, inflated prices, and fraud
• Generic medications can cost 100 times less than their brand-name equivalent, and usually cost less than most insurance co-pays. This means you might actually pay LESS by purchasing a generic medication out of pocket
• Most diagnostic tests and procedures are inexpensive to perform. However, the charges for these tests and procedures typically have no relation to the actual cost. Hospitals routinely bill 10 or more times what they expect to be paid

By Dr. Mercola

Americans spend twice as much on health care per capita than any other country in the world; in fact, according to a series of studies by the consulting firm McKinsey & Co, the US spends more on health care than the next 10 biggest spenders combined: Japan, Germany, France, China, the U.K., Italy, Canada, Brazil, Spain, and Australia.  

Other astounding statistics include:

• The US spends more than 17 percent of our gross domestic product (GDP) on healthcare¹
• If the US health care system was a country, it would be the 6th largest economy on the entire planet²
• While the US makes up only five percent of the world’s population, Americans consume over 50 percent of all the world’s pharmaceutical drugs
• Overall, Americans also pay 50 percent more than other countries for identical drugs, as a result of laws and regulations preventing the US government from reining in drug prices like other nations do 

Despite all of this spending and pill-popping, the US ranks dead last in terms of quality of care among industrialized countries, and Americans are far sicker and live shorter lives than people in other nations. Clearly, we have taken a wrong turn down the wrong road somewhere...

The US Health Care System Is Fundamentally Flawed 

A review of US healthcare expenses by the Institutes of Medicine³ (IOM) revealed that 30 cents of every dollar spent on medical care is wasted, adding up to $750 billion annually. For perspective, the defense budget proposed by the Pentagon for 2014 was just under $527 billion.⁴  

The IOM report identifies six major areas of medical waste: Unnecessary services; inefficient delivery of care; excess administrative costs; inflated prices; prevention failures; and fraud. Also, as stated in the featured Time Magazine article⁵:

“A central reason U.S. health care spending is so high is that hospitals and doctors charge more for their services and there’s little transparency about why.

There is no uniformity to the system, in which public and private insurers have separate, unrelated contracts with hospitals and doctors. The result is a tangled, confusing and largely secretive collection of forces driving health care prices higher and higher.

This isn’t possible in many other countries either because governments set prices for health care services or broker negotiations between coalitions of insurers and providers.“ 

The True Cost of Health Care 

The documentary film The True Cost of Health Care⁶ by Dr. David Belk, MD (featured above) also reveals a number of shocking details that help explain the exorbitant cost of American health care. For example:

• Generic medications can cost 100 times less than their brand-name equivalent, and usually cost less than most insurance co-pays. This means you might actually pay LESS by purchasing a generic medication out of pocket, compared to using your insurance if you have a co-pay. In essence, going through your insurance amounts to paying extra for the privilege of being overcharged...
• Hospitals routinely bill 10 or more times what they expect to be paid for any given service. As I discussed in a previous article, most hospitals end up receiving just 35 percent of what they bill, yet they still manage to make tens of millions of dollars in operating profits each year. Some hospitals, including Sloan-Kettering and MD Anderson, who are tougher in their negotiations with insurance companies, end up getting around 50 percent of their total billings.
• Most diagnostic tests and procedures are inexpensive to perform. However, the charges for these tests and procedures typically have no relation to the actual cost. Each hospital has an internal price list called a chargemaster, which contains every single item you may be given or come in contact with during your hospital stay. The problem is, no one quite knows how the prices in the chargemaster are created. What is clear is that there’s absolutely no market feedback to regulate and control the prices that are charged.
• Health insurance companies deliberately manipulate these costs to maintain their profits. As explained by TheTrueCostofHealthCare.org:⁷ “Health insurance companies can manipulate a patient’s out of pocket payments to make it appear as though health care is more expensive than it really is. Insurance companies sell security against financial risk. If no one really understands what that risk is (because all prices are hidden or deceptive) then the price of the security (insurance) can be grossly inflated.”

 

The Chargemaster: What You Need to Know if You Want to Avoid Medical Bankruptcy

Each hospital has an internal price list called a chargemaster, which contains every single item you may be given or come in contact with during your hospital stay. That includes the little white paper cup you get your medicine in, every box of tissue and band-aid, even a toy to a child (which many mistake as a “gift”) can be billed at upwards of $200. The problem is, no one quite knows how the prices in the chargemaster are created.  

What’s worse, there seems to be no real rationale or process behind this important document. As journalist and author Steven Brill has stated:⁸

“That so few consumers seem to be aware of the chargemaster demonstrates how well the health care industry has steered the debate from why bills are so high to who should pay them... [T]he drag on our overall economy that comes with taxpayers, employers and consumers spending so much more than is spent in any other country for the same product is unsustainable. Health care is eating away at our economy and our treasury.”

There is no real marketplace as such, as you the buyer is completely separated from the seller. There’s absolutely no market feedback to regulate and control the prices that are charged. For the most part, the hospitals charge as much as they want, which plays a large role on why these charges have gotten so outrageously out of control. This simply doesn’t happen in countries outside of the US. 

In response, a small grassroots-type industry has emerged as a result of shell-shocked patients reaching out for help to understand their medical bills. Referring to themselves as medical-billing advocates, they help you not only read and understand the content of your bills, but also negotiate with the hospital to reduce the charges. The problem with that, of course, is: what about the people who don’t realize they CAN bargain with a major hospital? And should we really accept “bills of fiction” to begin with?  

Even with the help of a medical-billing advocate (who of course charges a fee for the service), many uninsured patients still overpay. After all, getting a 50 percent discount on a test billed at $200, which should cost $15 is not necessarily a great bargain, although it’s certainly an improvement if we only take fictional numbers into account. The sad thing is, as mentioned earlier, the overcharges are SO grossly inflated that even if you get the bill cut in half, the hospital still makes out like a bandit!

 

Conventional Medicine Is Actually One of Your Greatest Health Risks... 

There's no shortage of evidence that the US health care system is in need of urgent transformation. Over a decade ago, Professor Bruce Pomerance of the University of Toronto concluded that properly prescribed and correctly taken pharmaceutical drugs were the fourth leading cause of death in the US!  

In 2000, the Institutes of Medicine reported that medical errors were the eighth leading cause of death in the US, killing between 44,000 and 98,000 people each year. This was followed by a 2003 article aptly titled "Death by Medicine", authored in two parts by Carolyn Dean, MD, ND, which described in excruciating detail how the modern conventional American medical system has bumbled its way into becoming the leading cause of death and injury in the United States, claiming the lives of nearly 784,000 people annually!  

These iatrogenic deaths (meaning deaths resulting from the activity of physicians) include everything from adverse drug reactions to medical errors, to hospital-acquired infections and surgeries gone bad—including 37,000 deaths from unnecessary medical procedures. The authors took statistics straight from the most respected medical and scientific journals and investigative reports by the Institutes of Medicine (IOM), showing that on the whole, American medicine is causing more harm than good. In 2010, two additional reports published in New England Journal of Medicine⁹ and the Journal of General Internal Medicine¹⁰ respectively, showed just how little things have changed since 2003. For example:

• Out of 62 million death certificates dated between 1976-2006, almost a quarter-million deaths were coded as having occurred in a hospital setting due to medication errors.¹¹
• An estimated 450,000 preventable medication-related adverse events occur in the US every year.
• The costs of adverse drug reactions¹² to society are more than $136 billion annually -- greater than the total cost of cardiovascular or diabetic care.

 

Taking Control of Your Health Is Part of the Solution 

Hundreds of thousands are killed by medical care itself, while others are walking around with far less than stellar health due to conventional treatments. Rates of chronic diseases are through the roof, and we're facing epidemics of obesity, heart disease, diabetes, depression and too many others to list. As a whole, Americans are not healthy – they're tired, depressed, stressed out and often in pain. 

Out of sheer desperation, many people have taken their health into their own hands by abandoning this fatally flawed medical model and embracing holistic modalities that can help heal on a body-wide level. It is through their many success stories that we can discern a clear way out of this flawed and outright deadly paradigm. 

The more you take responsibility for your own health – in the form of nurturing your body to prevent disease – the less you need to rely on the "disease care" that passes for health care in the United States. In the majority of cases, you’ll likely find that you can prevent or resolve common health conditions by following these basic tenets of optimal health:

1. Eat a healthy diet focused on fresh, whole foods (ideally organic and/or locally grown). Try to eat a large portion of your food raw. You want to pay careful attention to keeping your insulin levels down, which means avoiding sugars and grains of all kinds, and replacing the lost carbs with healthful fats. Also be mindful of your protein sources, making sure they’re of high quality (ideally organically-raised and pasture-fed). A high fat, moderate protein, low carb diet is likely to improve the health of most people. My optimized Nutritional Plan can guide you, whether you’re at a beginner’s or advanced level.
2. Consume healthy fat. The science is loud and clear on this point: omega-3 fats are essential for optimal health. Unfortunately, most fish commercially available today are polluted with mercury, PCBs and other toxic substances, which is why I recommend you take a supplement like krill oil instead of getting it from your food. Other healthy fats include coconut oil, avocados, olives, olive oil, butter and macadamia nuts. All these fats are low in protein and carbs and will not impair insulin, leptin or mTOR.
3. Make clean, pure water your primary beverage, and steer clear of all sweetened and/or flavored beverages, including those that contain artificial sweeteners.
4. Manage your stress.
5. Exercise regularly. Ideally, you want a comprehensive fitness regimen that includes stretching, high intensity interval training, core strengthening exercises and strength training.
6. Get plenty of appropriate sun exposure to optimize your vitamin D levels naturally. UV exposure also has additional health benefits beyond vitamin D production. A robust and growing body of research clearly shows that vitamin D is absolutely critical for your health. The D*Action project has been initiated by GrassrootsHealth along with 42 leading vitamin D researchers to demonstrate how health can be achieved right now with what’s known about vitamin D with a combination of vitamin D measurement and health outcome tracking. To learn more, please see this recent article.  

I encourage you to participate in the D*Action Project, which has multiple concurrent vitamin D programs going on. Not only will you be able to take control of your own health by participating, you’ll also become part of one of the most profound public health projects of the 21st Century. To participate, simply purchase the D*Action Measurement Kit and follow the registration instructions included.

As a participant, you agree to test your vitamin D levels twice a year during a five year program, and share your health status to demonstrate the public health impact of this nutrient. There is a $65 fee each 6 months for your sponsorship of the project, which includes a test kit to be used at home, and electronic reports on your ongoing progress. You will get a follow up email every six months reminding you "it's time for your next test and health survey."


1. Limit your exposure to toxins of all kinds. The number of toxic chemicals and their sources is so large, addressing them all could easily require an entire library, but I believe you can help you keep your toxic load as low as possible by becoming an informed and vigilant consumer. This includes tossing out your toxic household cleaners, soaps, personal hygiene products, air fresheners, bug sprays, lawn pesticides, and insecticides, just to name a few, and replacing them with non-toxic alternatives.
2. Get plenty of quality sleep. Scientists have discovered that your circadian rhythms regulate the energy levels in your cells. In addition, the proteins involved with your circadian rhythm and metabolism are intrinsically linked and dependent upon each other. Therefore, when your circadian rhythm is disrupted, it can have a profound influence on your physical health. For example, research has also linked disrupted sleep cycles to serious health problems like depression, coronary heart diseases, and even cancer. If you have any kind of sleep problem, whether you’re having trouble falling asleep or staying asleep, my article 33 Secrets to a Good Night's Sleep is packed with great tips to help you finally get some good rest.

 

8 Things Your Grandparents Did That Could Save Your Life 

For even more inspiration and guidance, check out the following eight “forgotten wisdoms” your grandparents adhered to that could quite literally save your life. To learn more, please follow the hyperlinks provided: 

Grow your own food	Get back in the kitchen and learn to cook from scratch
Make your own cleaning products	Learn some home remedies
Discover the power of broth	Ferment your own foods
Firm up your social network and close friendships	Spend time outside / Go barefoot

In the event you do need medical care, seek out a health care practitioner who will help you move toward complete wellness by helping you discover and understand the hidden causes of your health challenges, and create a customized and comprehensive – i.e. holistic – treatment plan for you. 

What's more, you can have a positive influence on your doctor's tendency to recommend natural alternatives, as when you inquire about them, some health care providers do in fact listen and do the research. Remember, when you do go to the doctor, know that it's OK to ask questions and opt for less medical intervention while choosing a more natural way of healing your body. If your physician is not open to such options, it may be time to find one who is, who can help coach you and your family to take control of your health. 

[-] Sources and References

• ¹ Time Magazine July 1, 2013
• ² Investmentwatchblog.com February 25, 2013
• ³ The Institute of Medicine, Best Care at Lower Cost: The Path to Continuously Learning Health Care, September 6, 2012
• ⁴ CNN Money April 10, 2013
• ⁵ See ref 1
• ⁶ Truecostofhealthcare.org
• ⁷ See ref 1
• ⁸ Time Magazine February 22, 2013
• ⁹ New England Journal of Medicine, November 25, 2010: 363(22); 2124-34
• ¹⁰ Journal of General Internal Medicine August 2010: 25(8); 774-779
• ¹¹ See ref 10
• ¹² Preventable Adverse Drug Reactions: A Focus on Drug Interactions, Centers for Education and Research on Therapeutics. (PDF)

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2013/10/05/us-health-care-system.aspx?

The longevity hormones

Art of Healing
        

Published: Sunday March 17, 2013 MYT 12:00:00 AM
Updated: Thursday August 22, 2013 MYT 4:59:01 PM

 

Art of Healing by Dr AMIR FARID ISHAK



Natural ways to increase cortisol include exercising in the
morning sunlight and consuming foods such as licorice.



In this third part in the series on hormones for health, we continue with other hormones that are not only ‘youth hormones’ in that they help maintain health and youthful biological age, but may also impact our lifespan.

ABOUT a year ago, I wrote about the Okinawans, who are famous for their longevity (Holistic ageing, Fit4Life, April 1, 2012). The secret of their longevity, according to Prof Emeritus Makoto Suzuki, who is the leading expert on the Okinawa longevity phenomenon, lies in their diet, culture and lifestyle.

While much has been written about their diet, culture and lifestyle, the only glaring difference in their blood tests is that they continue to have youthful levels of the hormone DHEA (dehydroepiandrosterone) as they age past 50.

DHEA

DHEA is the most abundant hormone in the body. It is produced by the adrenal glands. It is required by both sexes and levels decline with age. At age 60, the level is only about 40% of its peak.

It improves sexual function, increases muscle mass, reduces fat, stimulates bone growth, improves sleep, mobility, memory, immunity and reduces pain. It may help improve arterial disease, multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer’s, lupus, and possibly cancer.

It is also the precursor for the sex-hormones (oestrogens and androgens).

While the direct effect of DHEA is relatively weak compared to the sex hormones, a healthy level of DHEA is crucial because it is needed to manufacture the sex hormones.

Strenuous physical exercise and stress increase DHEA secretion, as do high protein and high fat diets. Conversely, a sedentary lifestyle and diets high in carbohydrates, cereals and sugar reduce secretion.

In anti-ageing hormone management, DHEA is among the most important hormones monitored and corrected/optimised (if necessary).

Pregnenolone

While DHEA is the mother of the sex hormones, pregnenolone is the grandmother of all the steroid hormones, which include DHEA, the sex hormones, glucocorticoid adrenal hormones (eg cortisol and other steroids responsible for stress and glucose management), and mineralocorticoid adrenal hormones (eg aldosterone, responsible for salt and water regulation).

Pregnenolone is manufactured from cholesterol. This is one example of the vital role that cholesterol plays in the body. So cholesterol itself is not bad. It is the excess and the “bad” cholesterol that is harmful.

Even that concept (that high cholesterol is bad) is controversial and I hope to write about this in the future.

Pregnenolone level declines with age, and is indirectly responsible for the decline of the steroidal hormones. A serious deficiency in pregnenolone affects many organ systems because it is the precursor of so many hormones which influence so many organs.

While the main function of pregnenolone is as a precursor or pro-hormone, it is also a neurotransmitter. It has been used with some success to improve memory and to reduce stress/depression.

Since memory decline is a constant and worrying feature of ageing, anti-ageing doctors often use pregnenolone to alleviate the problem, and about half of the patients report some improvement.

Pregnenolone testing and supplementation are not readily available here. Therefore most of the anti-ageing doctors test for, and correct/optimise the other hormones instead as an indirect way of addressing suspected pregnenolone deficiency.

Melatonin

Most of you may be aware that melatonin is used to counter the effects of “jet-lag” after long-distance travel, but you may not be aware that it is also a youth/longevity hormone.

Its level also declines with age like the other hormones previously mentioned, and its impact on health goes beyond normalising the sleep rhythm.

Melatonin is a neuro-hormone produced in the pineal gland, which is a small gland almost diagonally opposite the pituitary, in the mid-brain. In the esoteric world of mysticism, metaphysics and occultism, the pineal gland is variously believed to be the “seat of the soul”; the centre of the “sixth sense”; or even the “third eye” (connected to the Ajna chakra, which is important in spiritual awakening, clairvoyance and higher states of consciousness).

Circulating levels of melatonin vary in a daily cycle, and influences the circadian rhythm of several biological systems. In animals, it even influences sexual development, hibernation and seasonal breeding.

Melatonin production decreases with age. The reduced and delayed melatonin production/release (at night) as we grow older partly explains the later sleeping and waking times.

While the sleep-inducing effects of melatonin is well known (it also improves quality of sleep by relaxing the muscles and calming the nerves), our interest here is its health and anti-ageing effects.
Melatonin improves HGH (the youth hormone) secretion and also improves thyroid function. It calms down excessive stress, and lowers the stress hormone cortisol.

Melatonin is a powerful broad-spectrum antioxidant that does not itself become a free radical once it has been oxidised, unlike other antioxidants. Each melatonin molecule, through its metabolites, can neutralise up to 10 free radicals (reactive oxygen/nitrogen species).

The other powerful antioxidant that mops up many free radicals without itself becoming a free radical is silica hydride.

Melatonin is especially useful in protecting DNA from free-radical damage. It has been shown in animal experiments to protect against brain injury and Parkinson’s disease. As a longevity hormone, it has been shown to increase lifespan by 20% in mice. Let us hope human studies will be done too.

Melatonin is readily available over-the-counter in many countries and even in some aeroplanes for the convenience of travellers. Unfortunately, it is not available here, so we have to get it from overseas to prescribe to our patients who need them.

Cortisol – the stress resistance hormone

Cortisol is the most important glucocorticoid hormone produced by the adrenal glands. It also has a circadian rhythm (highest in the morning) and decreases with age.

Cortisol is a catabolic hormone (breaks down tissues to provide energy) in contrast to HGH, DHEA and the sex hormones, which are anabolic (build and preserve tissues/body).

Cortisol allows us to respond adequately to stress by making energy available (increased blood glucose), maintaining or raising blood pressure, and fighting inflammation.

Cortisol and its derivatives are therefore widely used as anti-inflammatory drugs (for all forms of inflammation and pain), and are widely abused in sports to enhance performance and manage the stress of competitions.

The overuse and abuse can give rise to dangerous side-effects.

The abuse has given a bad name to cortisol and steroid hormones because the public only know the bad side of the story. In reality, those with low levels of cortisol can easily be helped with their health and behavioural problems such as poor memory, emotional lability, anxiety, depression, attention deficit, irritability, poor reaction to stressful situations, negativism, being quarrelsome, paranoia, excessive emotions, hair loss, being underweight, inflammatory skin conditions, muscle and joint pains, fatigue, dark eye circles, and a host of other problems.

There are many people who can benefit from cortisol therapy (if their problems correlate with low cortisol levels), but many are reluctant and aghast because the doctor prescribes a steroid (hormone) drug!

Correcting and optimising cortisol levels can result in mood enhancement, more energy, better work performance, better stress management, and improved immune system.

The natural ways to increase cortisol are by exercising in the morning sunlight and by consuming certain foods (eg licorice).

Since cortisol level decreases with age, and the aged are the ones most likely to have problems of inflamed and damaged joints and other tissues, their ability to cope with the damage is compromised. Thus many end up with chronic injuries and have to consume all sorts of anti-inflammatory and analgesic drugs.

This is worsened by the decline in the anabolic hormones that are needed to preserve and build
tissues.

The right balance and synergy of hormones are required to maintain optimum health. Even during the day, there is a programmed symphony among them. The “active” hormones like cortisol and testosterone peak in the morning, while the hormones like melatonin and HGH work quietly at night while we sleep.

In the next article, I will discuss hormone therapy in more detail.

http://www.thestar.com.my/Lifestyle/Viewpoints/Art-of-Healing/Profile/Articles/2013/03/17/The-longevity-hormones.aspx

Balancing your hormones

Women's World

Published: Sunday May 12, 2013 MYT 12:00:00 AM
Updated: Wednesday August 14, 2013 MYT 7:51:47 PM

by datuk dr nor ashikin mokhtar

Diagnosing hormonal imbalance conditions and treatments to correct the imbalance.

IN my previous piece for this column, I looked at the hormonal imbalance situation that appears to be on the rise in our population, especially among women.

The last three-and-a-half decades have seen hormone-linked health disorders such as polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS), diabetes, thyroid conditions, adrenal fatigue, hormone-linked breast cancer, weight gain and worsening symptoms of PMS and perimenopause become increasingly common.

In the previous article, I discussed some of these hormonal imbalance conditions, the causes and the symptoms.

Now, let us look at how we can diagnose these conditions and the best therapies to correct the imbalance.

Do you need a hormone test?

Not every woman needs or should have a hormone test (sometimes called a hormone panel because several hormones are tested). They can certainly be useful in many cases, but for most women who only have ordinary symptoms of hormonal imbalance, a hormone test will not tell them anything they don’t already know.

For women in this group, which represents the majority of women, their individual symptoms can vary. They may be experiencing heightened symptoms of PMS, menopause or adrenal fatigue.
The general advice for these women is to restore their nutritional well-being, take the right basic supplements and make meaningful lifestyle changes.

However, there are women who may be suffering more severe forms of hormonal imbalance that cause very specific conditions, and they will find that hormone panels are very useful in identifying the cause of their problem and providing a solution.

At this point, I would like to highlight that women with fertility issues are a particularly important group when considering hormone tests.

Many fertility problems can be traced to hormonal irregularities, and pinpointing the specific hormone at fault will help lead the way to a more effective intervention.

Other conditions stemming from hormone imbalance may produce debilitating symptoms, such as PCOS, fibroids and diagnosed alopecia, and should be properly diagnosed with a hormone panel.

A panel of tests

Hormone tests are not as straightforward as many other medical tests, such as a glucose or cholesterol test. In the latter, you measure the level of glucose or cholesterol in the blood, and this single test can tell you whether you have high glucose or high cholesterol.

With hormone tests, you need a skilled medical practitioner who knows your history and will take the time to “connect the dots”. (Refer to the table which lists out some of the hormones tested in a basic hormone panel.)

Other hormones that may be included in a panel include cortisol, free T3 (thyroid), thyroid-stimulating hormone, pregnenolone and insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1).

Natural approach to balancing hormones

Hormonal imbalance is a complex condition and is still not very well understood by many physicians. Most women themselves are uncertain of how to go about describing their symptoms and may shrug it off as something that they have to live with.

Very often, women’s hormonal imbalance problems are treated symptomatically, such as by prescribing antidepressants or HRT. This approach usually assumes that oestrogen is the only cause, and does not take into account the different hormones at play.

Treating hormonal imbalance is not as simple as taking a medication or undergoing a procedure. It has to be holistic, looking at all the hormones that are interrelated, as imbalance in one hormone often affects all the other hormones it is linked to.

Therefore, there is no one-size-fits-all therapy for hormonal imbalance. Most of the time, there isn’t even a single approach that can solve the problem – it will likely involve several approaches and interventions in combination.

The biggest mistake in treating hormonal imbalance would be to add more hormones into the body, based on the perception that if the body is lacking a hormone, simply increasing the level of that hormone will solve the problem.

However, more isn’t always better, especially when it comes to hormones like oestrogen, progesterone and testosterone.

When you artifically increase the levels of hormones in the body, you will create a spillover effect on other hormones, and this will lead to other problems.

Instead, the underlying principle in treating hormonal imbalance is to provide support for the body to restore its hormone balance naturally. When the body is healthy and strong, then the communication between hormones, organs and tissues will go back to normal.

The four main pillars of hormonal balance are good nutrition, stress management, reduction of toxins and lifestyle changes.

The principles of good nutrition are the same basic ones that you have heard many times before: a balanced diet, with a variety of fresh fruits and vegetables, high-quality protein, whole grains and healthy fats. Cut down on sugar and refined carbohydrates.

Reducing stress levels contributes a great deal to hormonal balance. It takes a conscious effort to manage your life so that you are less stressed out. It may require you to change your outlook on life, change certain aspects or routines of your personal and work life, as well as take things slow and easy.

As much as possible, you have to limit your exposure to toxins in your environment, as there are many chemicals that have oestrogenic effects in the body (xenoestrogens). These toxins can be found in pesticides, detergents, petroleum products, plastic products and cosmetics – all of which we use in our daily lives.

It is not easy to eliminate these products from your life, but you can start by storing food in glass containers instead of plastic, avoiding non-stick cookware, limiting pre-packaged foods, and buying natural products as much as possible.

Finally, look at your overall lifestyle to see how you can treat your body better. Lack of sleep and exercise are usually our biggest weaknesses that affect our hormones.

Lack of sleep affects the hormone melatonin, as well as the stress hormones adrenaline and cortisol. Lack of exercise affects our insulin and cortisol levels. By ensuring that we get sufficient amounts of sleep and exercise, we could be making a huge difference to our hormonal health.

Find a doctor who specialises in hormonal health and anti-ageing therapies, so that he or she will be able to assess your condition properly.

Datuk Dr Nor Ashikin Mokhtar is a consultant obstetrician & gynaecologist (FRCOG, UK).


http://www.thestar.com.my/Lifestyle/Viewpoints/Womens-World/Profile/Articles/2013/05/12/Balancing-your-hormones.aspx