See all the Healthcasts at https://www.biobalancehealth.com/healthcast-blog

The second set of myths about weight loss involve what we have been told by our federal government through the FDA and surgeon general, that is believed by most of us, but the motivation of the government is not generally for your well-being.

Myth #7 Salt is bad for you, and you should limit your intake of salt to minimal amounts.

A large study found that eating less than 3 grams of salt a day increases one’s mortality by 25% when compared with moderate intake.  It is a fact that salt is vital to life, this contradicts the AHA who preaches that a low salt diet is what is required for health.

Myth #8. Replacing hormones at menopause, estradiol and testosterone, will cause women to gain weight.

The advent of menopause changes a woman’s metabolism and makes every woman in industrialized nations insulin resistant which slows their metabolism and causes women to gain fat and lose muscle which lowers the metabolic rate even lower because muscle mass burns 90% of our calories, and as it shrinks the Basic metabolic rate drops.

The only way to counteract this cataclysmic change is to replace estradiol and testosterone in a bio-identical and non-oral delivery system (pellets, patches, topical applications and vaginal tabs.  Even with sex hormone replacement, insulin resistance is

Still a factor in weight gain, so a low carb, high protein diet and medical treatment with Metformin, or Wegovy or Mounjaro may be necessary to regain ideal weight after menopause.

Myth #9 Milk products are bad for you, and you should take them out of your diet.

Milk is not metabolized in the same way and does not have the same metabolic effects as milk products like yogurt, cottage cheese, ricotta cheese, and all cheeses. The majority of Americans can tolerate, and even need milk products as a valuable source of protein.  There is a small minority of people who cannot tolerate milk products, and even fewer who respond to milk products with inflammation. If you do not have GI symptoms, or joint aches when you eat milk products then you are not necessarily healthier to cut them out of your diet.

Not only is milk good for most Americans, but it has been proven to decrease oxidative stress and inflammation….the very things it is accused of increasing!

Myth #10 Skim milk is better for everyone than whole milk, and those people on a diet should opt for skim milk.

This myth is born from the myth that we should eat low fat diets to lose weight. It is a fact that Whole milk has more fat than skim milk, but skim milk is higher in carbohydrate, is generally consumed in larger amounts and is not as satisfying as whole milk.

Skim milk is 55% carbohydrate/43%protein/5% fat while whole milk is 50% fat/20% protein and 30% carbohydrate. Unfortunately, the processes we use to make milk safe to drink (Pasturization and Homogenation) remove the necessary enzymes (Lipases, and Lactase) that help humans tolerate lactose sugar in milk.  The process of skimming milk removes the Vitamin D and A that are in unprocessed milk.

If you can drink milk, choose smaller volumes of whole milk, not skimmed, if you like milk products like listed above, then add them to your high protein diet.  A 64 million person- year study recently revealed that whole milk drinkers, milk product eater had a significant decrease in all-cause mortality. Skim milk drinkers did not have a decrease in all cause mortality.

Myth #11 Cutting animal products in your diet will decrease your cholesterol and therefore prevent heart attacks.

So why do we follow fads? I believe it is because we are human and we look for the easiest path to a goal, and easy diets appeal to most of us who want to lose weight, however losing weight is complex and involves a good medical based plan and a change in your lifestyle. Your plan should start with seeking the right kind of medical advice that fits the diet to your blood work, medical history and in some cases your genetics.

See all the Healthcasts at https://www.biobalancehealth.com/healthcast-blog

My medical practice, BioBalance® Health, allows me to hear all of the myths about how to lose weight, when I am in consultation with a new patient. All of my female patients and some of the men have at one time, or multiple times been fooled by the false promises of friends, doctors, and advertisers, about quick and easy ways to lose weight.  If you have bounced around trying every diet out there on the internet and failed to lose weight, then I can help you stop the pointless trial and error process, and help you embrace the difficult and time-consuming process of truly losing body fat and keeping it off!

If you thought that all we do at BioBalance Health is replace women and men’s testosterone with long-acting bioidentical pellets, you are partly right!  In addition to treating our patients’ hormone deficiencies we also have the goal of attempting to guide them toward a healthy long life!  This involves treating “pre-diseases” like prediabetes that other doctors don’t treat until damage has been done and guiding our patients as to the right way to achieve their ideal weight.  One of the important roles we have in assisting our patients with “fat-loss” is to disprove all the lies our patients have been told over the years by nearly everyone about how to lose weight.  Some of these myths are actually believable (unless you are a doctor and understand the physiology of weight loss), but still never work. Other diet plans work for some people with specific genetic qualifications, but not for the majority of the population.   Then, there are diet plans that are so bizarre and illogical, that they literally make me giggle when my patients describe the protocol (or advice) they have been following without results.

Why are these myths so prevalent?  It is because we have been programed since childhood to eat in a way and in amounts that are inevitably going to cause us to be obese. It takes a lot of work to turn those lifestyles, habits and food choices around to lead my patients to lasting fat loss and long-lasting health. Hard work never “sells” and a time-consuming diet doesn’t either so businesses make a lot of money keeping you fat!

You may or may not have heard these! I will tell you why they

 

#1 Myth- If you eat fewer calories, you will lose weight, and all calories are the same.

This is one of the myths that is spoken by doctors every day because they learned it 30 years ago in medical school, and it just isn’t true!  To begin with calories in food are metabolized differently depending on whether they are Protein, Fat or Carbohydrate. It takes more calories to metabolize Protein, and more than fat and the food that burns the least calories to be metabolized are carbohydrates.  So, food calories are different depending on which food group they are from. Eg. There is a vast difference between the weight you might lose, or gain based on the food group your calories came from. For example:  If you eat a steak with 500 calories verses a slice of birthday cake/icing that contains 500 calories, it takes more calories to breakdown protein so you USE calories to make it into blood sugar, while the birthday cake takes almost no energy to make BS and readily makes fat if it is not used in exercise.

Another factor that causes counting calories to be a losing proposition, is that every food stimulates insulin differently, and insulin that is over stimulated over time gives a person insulin resistance which causes them to be so efficient that they can go a day and not eat anything, and still fail to lose weight.  If you have tried a low-calorie diet and that happened, then you are not alone.   Going back to the steak and birthday cake example, steak does not stimulate insulin very much and birthday cake is likely to over stimulate your insulin making insulin resistance worse and doesn’t make energy but is stored as fat!

The third reason limiting calories cannot be the basis of a weight loss diet is that an individual human body has a vast number of factors that influence how you as a unique individual burns calories, therefore any one calorie limiting diet will not work for the majority of humans. We are all different with individual requirements for the types and amounts of food we need which is based on our genetics, our history of healthy or unhealthy diets, our daily exercise, and how obese we are when we start to lose weight.

What that means simply is that there is no easy way to attain your ideal weight and stay there but limiting your calories.  Weight watchers tried this method for years and I never found a person who lost weight by eating a certain number of any type of calories (candy, dessert, or fruit and vegetables with the equivalent number of calories) in one day, who lost weight and kept it off.  If you eat 1200 calories of fruit, veggies, eggs, fish and or meat throughout the day and have an active lifestyle, you will lose fat that day. If you eat 1200 calories you save up all day to eat one dessert you will probably gain weight because it will overstimulate your insulin and make your calories into fat and not energy.  Weight Watchers changed their program several years ago when their clients realized their system didn’t work. Counting calories to lose weight is a myth you should avoid.

 

Myth #2: The promise:  “If you just  eat _________ (one food like grapefruit/cabbage soup/ salad/juice take your pick)  for ____ weeks you will lose 20 lbs.

The cabbage soup diet is an example of this failed “theory” which invaded the US female population in the early 2000s and my patients embraced it completely believing that they would lose 20 pounds in 4 weeks.  I objected and told them that eating only one food for 4 weeks was unhealthy, a baseless fad which was unlikely to work, but very few of them listened.   It turns out that Cabbage is a food that slows the metabolism of people with   A blood type, and the majority of citizens in my city, St. Louis, have A blood type!  At their next GYN visit my patients were all moaning over the fact that they had GAINED 20 pounds on the cabbage soup diet! Not eating a variety of foods is unhealthy and this proves that even an unhealthy diet doesn’t promise weight loss for everyone.

So please don’t follow fads. they are baseless, and you might gain weight and not lose it!

 

Myth #3 You can exercise your way to fat loss,  eat whatever you like and still lose weight.

I believe exercise should be part of every human’s healthy lifestyle, and exercise is necessary to speed up the metabolism while you eat a low carb, high protein diet and refrain from bad habits like alcohol consumption. However, eating like you normally do and exercising hours daily will not bring about weight loss for 90% of the population of the US. Lasting weight loss doesn’t occur unless you add eating a healthy diet, stopping bad habits and taking the required supplements necessary to decrease your fat mass, and exercise.  Yes, you have to do it all!    Increasing muscle increases our metabolic rate and exercising muscles increases the loss of fat, but both muscle building and muscle strength require high protein diets, with a moderate amount of fat, and without a lot of carbohydrate.  Eating carbohydrates unchecked can cause the weight loss promised by exercise-based weight loss programs to fail, over and over again. After the age of 45 your muscle will not be preserved while you lose weight if you do not replace your low testosterone and exercise too.  So it is not ONE factor that facilitates weight loss, it is complicated and there is a perfect fat-loss plan for everyone…you just have to find it!

 

Myth #4 Low fat diets are a good way to lose body fat and prevent heart disease!

Every study has failed to support this idea!  Low fat diets don’t lower cholesterol, but low carb diets do!  We were told by cardiologist for the past 30 years that low fat diets would lower the cholesterol and the atherosclerosis in your arteries…but they lied!  It is now accepted by most doctors that low fat diets leave people hungry which causes them to  eat too many carbs resulting in an increase in cholesterol and weight gain. Re-introducing fats into your diet should include healthy fats (fat from seafood, vegetables like olive oil, milk fat and other omega 3,6, and 9 ) are necessary for brain health and good body composition.

The advice by the US FDA and Medical specialists to eat a low-fat diet has contributed to over 50% obesity, dementia, and diabetes in America. If your cardiologist tells you that a low fat diet is going to prevent heart disease, then look for a more up to date cardiologist.

 

Myth #5 High protein diets are not effective for weight loss.

High Protein-Low Carb diets are the best diet for the majority of people in the US.  This diet is the most effective type of eating plan for your weight loss.  If you want to know what % of protein, fat and carbohydrates you should eat, then go to our website, BioBalancehealth.com and become a weight loss patient with genetic guidance and you will learn how to distribute your foods based on your unique genetic map.  High protein diets keep you “full” longer after a meal or snack, so your calorie intake is naturally lower.

Reserve your intake of carbs to supply you with physical energy before and after exercise. Otherwise, your diet should consist of high protein and fat, and limited carbs, with plenty of fresh vegetables and fruit (these food are not considered carbohydrate).

 

Myth #6 Diet soda is a “free food” because there are no calories, so I can drink as much as I want to and lose weight!

 Diet soda contains many chemicals, salt and includes a chemical sweetener called aspartame.  Salt causes swelling, and all chemical sweeteners stimulate insulin and act to make you hungrier than if you drank unsweetened iced tea, water or anything sweetened with stevia.  Stevia is a plant that does not contribute to insulin resistance and diabetes.  The majority of diet sodas stimulate insulin just like carbohydrates do and contribute to weight loss failure.  Every time you drink one you should consider it just like eating a carbohydrate!

  

Summary:

Following the advice above will prevent so much frustration with future weight loss attempts, and will help you achieve your ideal weight through avoiding these myths about weight loss.

Remember that weight loss fads have been around for a long time without a public refute of the obvious myths above.   Fads should be ignored if you want effective weight loss. Remember that Instagram and Facebook posts are only motivated by profit, even though they spread crazy diets as based on fact. There is no one monitoring the “fads” validity.

Please don’t listen to fads of people who are not doctors or nurses trained in weight loss! More Myths about weight loss next week!

See all the Healthcasts at https://www.biobalancehealth.com/healthcast-blog

Dave Glover, the most listened to talk radio voice in the Midwest, invited me on his show last week to talk about BioBalance Health Testosterone Pellets for men and women and BioBalance Skin my medical esthetic spa.  His show is on KMOX, the voice of the St. Louis Cardinals.  Dave Glover and I have worked together for 10 years, and he is unabashedly my patient who has experienced the superiority of our medical care that is unique, and preventive, in addition to being the best testosterone pellet therapy in the Midwest. We go far beyond to direct our patients to a healthier life.

Dr. Maupin Radio Interview with Dave GloverWhen patients have their first appointment our doctors have already reviewed their lab amd medical history, and the first appointment is chocked full of information about the meaning of their laboratories, diagnosing medical problems such as insulin resistance and prediabetes to finding diseases they were unaware of.  At the same one-hour long appointment we work with our patients to develop an individualized diet and exercise program for their unique situations.

The secret to our success in bringing 95% of our patients back to health is the foundation of replacing testosterone in the most effective and safest method with replacement non-micronized testosterone estradiol pellets.  We do much more in a short time to direct our patients to reversing the symptoms of aging (the symptoms of testosterone and estradiol loss) while we prevent future illnesses like diabetes and help our patients move to healthier lifestyles.

Dave asked me what is new about BioBalance Heath.  We are always improving our knowledge, based on new medical research, and our newest offering is a simple genetic Diet and Metabolism Test called Nutrigen.  This test is done by simply doing a self-cheek swab and never has to be repeated!  Right now we are offering this test for $300 (a discount of $150).  If you have tried many diets and still don’t know what type of food you should eat, our test is meant to be a ONE-TIME test to tell you everything you genetically need to lose weight.  Or if health is your goal and not weight loss and you want to know how to eat for the rest of your life, this diet is a necessity!  It comes with a 60-page report.

• What % of your diet should be fat, carbohydrates or protein?
• What times of day should you eat?
• Should you eat snacks?
• Does exercise help you lose weight or not?
• Is a low carb diet the best one for you? a low-fat diet? A low-calorie diet?
• Is a high fat diet the best for you to be healthy?
• What supplements do you genetically need?
• Everything you have ever asked about your individual path to ideal weight!

Everyone who elects to take this test will get a 60-page report about every genetic factor that affects their diet, metabolism, exercise and weight loss.  It even includes what genetic factors are working against them and their ability to lose weight. When their test comes back, our Nurse Weight Loss Specialist, Sarah Hooper RN will be ready for them to make an appointment to go over the report and explain a healthy eating plan. We always have used the INBODY machine for following body composition and not just weight for ALL our patients, pellet, weight loss, and non-pellet patients.

Dave then asked about what was new in our BioBalance® Skin Office? We are always looking for ways for our patients to look younger, and healthier as they age. Dr. Maupin and Sullivan’s criteria to adding services is that they are TRULY EFFECTIVE, as well as painless, and the service is affordable compared to other pathways to the same outcome.

This year we have added a painless hair growing ultrasound treatment called TED.  It can treat any form of hair loss, as long as there are some follicles left to stimulate. Women and men come in for 4 to 6 45-minute treatments, that feel like a scalp massage.  There are no necessary serums or vitamins to buy. You just have to keep the areas treated out of the sunlight for the month following the treatment.  This is a real breakthrough and compared to very costly hair transplants and painful PRP treatments this is a game anger!

For women who have lost weight and ask us every time they come in for weight loss or pellets what they can do about sagging and crepey skin, now we have a variety of treatment s  to offer them: Opus treatments for the chin and jowls, Juvashape to tighten areas all over the body. EM Sculpt to build muscle, lose subcutaneous fat and tight skin, and EM Face to take the place of a Facelift!  Our patients are encouraged to come in for a free consultation to help them decide what they can do to “SHAPE UP” after successful weight loss!

We offer episome treatments with our Aqua Gold treatments to rejuvenate tighten, smooth out and lift facial skin….It is a step up from  microneedling for more mature skin.

We literally offer the MOST EFFECTIVE, MOST ECONOMICAL TREATMENTS with the least pain and best results anywhere!  BioBalance Skin Staff will guide you to the appropriate choice of treatments so you can be assured you have the best esthetic treatment for your individual problem.

Our Goal is to help our patients look as good as they feel with their BioBalance Pellet treatments!

See all the Healthcasts at https://www.biobalancehealth.com/healthcast-blog

2024 has been the hottest summer of the decade and it is causing many of you to go to the ER with heat related sickness. There are several risk factors that may put you at high risk for illness relating to the heat. I have been present several times when someone collapses from heat stroke which is the most severe heat related illness. The heat can kill you if it progresses this far.  It is interesting, athletes who won’t back off from their outdoor activities, and will work out in the highest heat of the day.

Heat stroke can cause a person to collapse, drop their blood pressure, act out, or pass out, or even seize, all of which are signs to call 911, and start emergency procedures: elevate their legs, if possible, place ice packs under the arm pits, around the sides of the neck, and on their groin.

The highest risk patients:

• Babies and toddlers
• are over 65
• On multiple medications
• Taking a diuretic
• Obese patients
• People with anemia and other blood conditions
• Patients with coronary heart disease
• Patients with atrial fib
• Those people who don’t drink water, just caffeinated drinks-dehydrated people
• Who have just been flying (dehydrated)
• Who are hung over (dehydrated)
• Who have been nauseated and vomiting in the days before going out and working or playing in the heat.

Ask the heat stroke victim to drink fluids if possible. Of course, make sure they stop the activity they are engaged in outside in the heat. Move them to a cool place while you are waiting for emergency help to arrive. Heat stroke can cause a vascular stroke or death, so emergency treatment is necessary. If possible, offer the victim water with electrolytes in them (NUUN-Sport) and some sugar in case they are also hypoglycemic as well. If they can’t drink, which is a side effect of heat stroke, put a wet washcloth in your mouth to suck water from it slowly.

My husband and I went on a trip to Cinque Terra, Italy with another couple last fall to hike the trails between the 5 towns that line the cliffs over the shores of Liguria.  The hike was supposed to start at 8 am so we could avoid the heat of the day….and it was in the 90s and humid…but as luck would have it the transportation we had arranged for wasn’t able to take us to the starting point and we didn’t get there until  10:30.  We packed several water bottles and a few snacks but we were not prepared for the  4  ½ hour trek high above the mediterranean on a trail that was 3 feet wide and involved thousands of steps up and down…we had drunk most of  our water in the first 2.5 hours and were very hot and sweaty the whole time….about 40 minutes from the town of Vernazza, my husband started stumbing, and talking nonsense…he had stopped sweating and couldn’t walk….There was no place to lay him down without blocking the path and we found a shady spot for him to recline and put his feet up.  I had some Nuun-sport electrolytes which I had put in my water and had been drinking, so I put 2 electolye tablets in ½ bottle of water and tried to get him to drink it…..he was delirious and refused, and I had to force him to drink…he fell asleep and we received water and cold water bottles to put around his neck from passersby.

 Ideally, we would have gotten ER help which he really needed, but there was no way to get emergency care to him and at 6-4 and 230 he was too heavy to carry/drag…and remember we were on the edge of a 200 ft cliff. When he had slept 20 minutes I kept my finger on his pulse and he was thready and fast…..Thankfully he rallied and we got to Vernazza and he walked into the ocean after drinking several glasses of water to cool off and fell asleep on the beach for an hour until he was ready to get on the train back to our hotel….This was one of the scariest times of my life because I knew what to do but didn’t have the IVs, or water or ice or anything to help him.  Remember this and make sure you are always prepared for the worst scenario when you are active in the heat!

 

So how do you know when you are getting close to heat stroke?

 You feel weak and out of breath. Your pulse rises, you stop urinating, and you STOP sweating.  You are getting close to heatstroke when you start to feel cold even though the ambient temperature is high.  When you feel dizzy and unstable on your feet…the next thing to happen is vascular collapse

See the stages of Heat Related Illnesses below, which we are all at risk for! This is from the NEJM.

 

Heat-Related Illness Description Treatment Severe illness     Heat stroke A multisystem, life-threatening illness characterized by elevation of the core body temperature (to >40°C) and CNS dysfunction

 

Classic heat stroke: most often occurs among older persons with compromised behavioral and physiological compensatory responses to heat exposure

Exertional heat stroke: most often occurs among healthy persons during extreme physical exertion, which results in excessive metabolic heat generation, often but not always with concomitant ambient heat exposure

Move patient to cool environment; manage airway, breathing, and circulation; administer rapid cooling with cold-water or ice-water immersion or other means; administer intravenous rehydration; and evacuate to emergency department after on-site cooling is performed. ICU admission is warranted for management of end-organ sequelae. Moderate illness     Heat exhaustion Profound fatigue, weakness, nausea, headache, or dizziness (or a combination of these symptoms) resulting from a decrease in body water content or blood volume due to water or salt depletion from heat exposure; mild elevation (

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In general, I spend my time defending women and the fact that our problems and sexual physiology is ignored, by the governmental powers and physician organizations in the US, so I try to do my part to bring information to women about their hormones and the aging process. Today I am changing my focus to men and the way men’s normal sexual function is considered a “normal” and rarely discussed outside the men’s locker room and or porn sites. So here goes…The fact is that men’s sexuality isn’t just the act of sex, but men spend a lot of their sexual energy on fantasies and just thinking about having sex.  Men’s ability to have an orgasm is not just a wham- bam—thank you…well you know the phrase…and there are many physiologic factors that must work, in the background to bring a man from thinking about sex or desire, to an orgasm.

Sadly, in the current environment couples don’t talk about sex….they don’t tell their partner what makes them excited or even what they want…. because none of us can read minds, too many of us don’t get what we want when it comes to sex.

With lack of communication between partners, leads couples to trial and error without a map.  Neither sex knows how the other sex “works”.  I decided to describe the normal series of what men go through on their way to orgasm to educate them and their partners.  In addition, the process is not always the same in each person and as men age the time between the first sexual thought to completion gets longer and longer…sometimes these detours include episodes of losing an erection, sometimes getting it back and sometimes not which leads to frustration of both partners.

In youth when a man’s free testosterone is high and his arteries are free of plaque, between puberty and age 35, erections may occur often, and they last a long time if the man is stimulated for a long period of time. At this point sex is automatic and easy to complete to orgasm and ejaculation.

As time goes on, free Testosterone starts to decrease with age, as does the diameter of a man’s arteries…blood flow doesn’t rush to the pelvis to create an erection like it did in youth. The things that lower free testosterone.  What happens with age that cause erections and ejaculation to be less and less automatic and easy?

• T and free T drops after age 35 in most men and becomes critical by age 55, even in healthy men.
• Ejaculate decreases due to lowering of free T
• Vasectomies decrease the volume of ejaculate by 1/3
• Stress causes free T to decrease.
• Hypertension causes arteries to contract and deliver less blood to the pelvis for an erection.
• High blood sugar and diabetes destroys the arteries in the pelvis making blood have a more difficult time getting to the penis.
• Stress causes Cortisol to rise and free T decreases,
• Obesity increases the estrogens in men and that decreases free T by binding it with sex hormone protein and inactivating it.
• Any medication the constricts blood vessels (ADD medicine, Phentermine, speed, etc) decreases blood flow to the pelvis.
• Some medications that lower blood pressure lower It in the pelvis too low so that men are impotent (e.g. Lisinopril).

For men who don’t know all these medical, aging changes that happen to most men, these changes cause fear and anxiety which of course makes it worse.  Men who have this issue (most men) are even reticent to talk to me about it and they haven’t talked to their spouse either.

So here is what I tell them:  You are aging like everyone else, and that fact can’t be changed, however, your lifestyle and your medical health, or poor health is affecting your orgasms and your ability to have sex.  These factors CAN be changed.  You can change your BP medicine to

one that doesn’t impair erections.  You can get your diabetes or obesity under control, and you can improve your erections.  However, to get it all back you will need testosterone replacement if your free T is under 129 ng/dl. The safest way to accomplish this is with my practice BioBalance® Health…we do it better and know all the tricks to making you healthy productive and potent!

What is in the ejaculate? mature sperm are mixed with whitish, protein-rich fluids with prostaglandins are produced by the prostate. These fluids nourish and support the sperm so they can live after ejaculation for a limited time to fertilize an egg.  This mixture of fluid and sperm, known as semen, and is what is moves through the urethra in the form of ejaculate.

Sensory stimulation travels from the skin to the brain and stimulates dopamine and endorphins which are neurotransmitters that make a man fee happily ecstatic during and after an ejaculation.  These neurotransmitters also stimulate the Hypothalamus to make oxytocin, a bonding hormone that binds couples together. Many nerves, vessels and the brain are involved in a successful sexual encounter.

The culmination of a sexual encounter is complex and involves the whole body. I find it interesting that the “medical view” of orgasm is still divided into 4 different steps when, if you are a male (or even a female who has had sex with a male) the divisions seem very arbitrary and is ALWAYS connected to ejaculation.

It is a fact that men and women can have sexual intercourse and orgasm without ejaculation.

The following is how the practice of medicine describes the male sexual act.   In contrast I have educated my patients by comparing sex to a on the fact that men can have orgasms which occur in the brain when endorphins flood the neurons, even without ejaculation.  So I will discuss, the male sexual experience to them, not with the “4 easy steps of male sexual response”, but as a “process” of achieving orgasm in men.  It is more like a recipe, that requires each ingredient to be added in order, but sometimes you can stop in the middle and start again.  It is not always a straight line from sexual desire to orgasm.

In general, all men need testosterone to have sexual desire, and sexual desire to have sex, however both men and women can be physically or visually stimulated to be aroused without true sexual desire. If the man has a long history of having sex often, then the habit of having a sexual response can be achieved without enough testosterone, however the erection will not necessarily last long enough.   Continued physical stimulation can bypass desire, and therefore testosterone, and a man can be stimulated into having an erection of sorts and into having an orgasm with or without ejaculate

An erection requires testosterone to become fully erect, however there is a “work around” now and men without testosterone can have an erection with Viagra, Cialis pills, or prostaglandin injections into the penis itself. Men can also have a penile implant placed so they can have sex without testosterone or Viagra/Cialis. However, let’s talk about sex with testosterone in men who have good pelvic blood flow who don’t require medication to become erect.

The second necessary ingredient after testosterone is stimulation, which can be with touch, visual stimulation, auditory stimulation or even imagination that causes a man to be stimulated. The sexual response to any of these stimulations send messages through the nerves from the brain to the pelvis that dilates his veins and arteries. This sends blood to the penis from the arteries and blocks the veins from draining the blood out.  This creates an erection. Testosterone’s role is to cause the arteries to dilate by stimulating the production of nitric oxide from the arterial walls. Remember the stimulation? The ongoing stimulation (mental, visual, auditory or imaginary) keeps the erection hard with vascular dilation.

At this point stimulation can be changed or paused and other stimulation can prolong this part of the process.  Holding the base of the penis can keep it hard, or any tight encircling toy can keep the erection from proceeding to orgasm for some time or the erection can go away without continued stimulation.

The third step is the preparation for orgasm which can last from as long as 30 minutes and as short as 2 minutes. A clear “pre-ejaculate” is produced that lubricates the penis for intercourse, and if ejaculation is to take place there is a “loading of semen” that takes place from the seminal vesicles readying the man for ejaculation.  At this point the penis contracts the muscles quickly in rapid repeating emissions that shoot the semen out of the urethra. This is the orgasm and ejaculation that occur together, which is typical of normal youthful ejaculation.  As men get older the force at which they ejaculate decreases.

After ejaculation/orgasm the brain is flooded in endorphins, the feel-good neurotransmitters, that make a human feel happy and satisfied.  This is solely the result of the orgasm after a sexual encounter. The feeling of ejaculation does relieve pelvic pressure but is not needed to experience orgasm in most men.

Medical science has been able supply an assist for desire (testosterone) and erectile function (vasodilation and release of nitric oxide but they have not discovered the “pill” to make ejaculations occur or to improve their volume.  It is important for an aging man to accept that orgasm doesn’t require ejaculation since we don’t have an answer to recreating the youthful ejaculation.  Besides age, vasectomy can also limit ejaculation.  dehydration, vasoconstrictors, anti-hypertensive drugs and diuretics can limit the volume of the ejaculate as well.

After the “process of sexual orgasm” the penis loses tumescence, blood leaves the pelvis and overall relaxation occurs throughout the body. Then a period of time must pass before another erection can occur.  Over time some “twice a day men” can turn into once every week…..this can be changed by practicing…..having sex more often.

The sexual response in both men and women is more like a symphony with several movements, than a recipe, but it is definitely not a series of steps that is followed in every human in every circumstance. It is the job of the physician to help patients both understand and live with any variations in the sexual process.  Much of what I do is act as a teacher to my patients who need to understand their own bodies and any dysfunctions thereof.  Understanding becomes treatment over time.

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The medically accepted belief that testosterone is bad for men has finally now been superseded by a huge study from Australia that proves that men with healthy levels of Testosterone live longer and healthier than men with low Testosterone! All you men who have been told that testosterone is bad for you or will cause prostate cancer by your doctor, you can tell you provider that he or she is out of date! 

At BioBalance Health® we have been treating men with testosterone pellets for years and our patients are our evidence that testosterone not only keeps men’s sexuality healthy, but youthful testosterone blood levels keep men healthy in many ways, eg. strong muscles and bones, excellent immune systems, healthy heart and blood vessels, lean muscle mass and it prevents the diseases of aging too!   I have been treating men and women with Testosterone for over 20 years and I concur with how this study plays out in real life, in my own practice. When my patients replace men’s low testosterone levels with testosterone pellets and they follow my recommendations for a low carbohydrate diet and weight training exercise, supplements and treatment of pre-diabetes and pre-cardiac disease, they live more productive, longer and more enjoyable lives.

My goal for my medical practice is to keep both men and women healthy as they age, and testosterone replacement is the most important necessary element to that end.  My intent is to defeat the aging process with interventions that have the potential to delay the onset of age-related diseases and preserve your ability to live life to its fullest, no matter what age you are!  We have based our treatment on hundreds of other studies that literally studied one symptom of testosterone deficiency or disease of aging at a time in relation to testosterone levels and found bioidentical testosterone to be beneficial to the health and longevity of men. However, we treat all the symptoms of aging and low T with testosterone pellets.

Australia’s Men’s Study found that men who continued to produce normal youthful levels of Testosterone or replace their Testosterone to achieve normal youthful levels lived longer, more active lives than men who let aging take its course and drain them of testosterone! We have known this for two decades and we have treated men and women with testosterone pellets, the most effective and safest way to prescribe T.  Many smaller studies have been done that prove the same thing, but none so dramatic as the latest study we are referencing.

At this point I have two questions to answer for most of your inquiring minds: Why did all the experts tell you that testosterone replacement is dangerous? and, why are the experts in the field of men’s medicine, Urologists, still advising men not to replace their low testosterone as they age? Let me explain that why everyone is so negative about testosterone and why most medical doctors still believe that prescribing testosterone to men is evil.  This all started in the 1950s based on the study of only 3 men, who had had prostate cancer. They said they were testing them to find out if testosterone caused prostate cancer recurrence in men after prostate cancer.  During the study one of the men had a recurrence of prostate cancer when he was given testosterone injections.  In the “olden days” that provided the basis for the belief that Testosterone CAUSED prostate cancer!  The doctor even got a Nobel prize.  Based on this minimal and falsely extrapolated information, 50 years of doctors have been taught that prostate cancer is caused by testosterone, when in reality testosterone is only dangerous if a man already has an aggressive cancer already, will testosterone replacement stimulate the growth of prostate cancer.

This misinterpretation of a faulty medical study has prevented generations of men from being treated with testosterone to prevent diabetes, heart disease, loss of muscle mass and the ability to walk and lift, as well as the inability to have sex throughout their lives.  This has been a grave dis-service to American men, because the world follows us with all of our medical protocols, this misinterpretation and lack of preventive care with T has spread around the world.

The second question you should ask is: Why are the experts in the field of men’s medicine, Urologists, still advising men not to replace their low testosterone as they age? Well, this is not just your doctor’s fault.  Other than being trained by generations of doctors who believed the inaccurate information about the danger of testosterone causing prostate cancer and passing it on, there is a problem with how we train the doctors who take care of men. Urologists are surgeons first and not particularly interested in anything that has to do with preventive medical care.  Their training is based on surgery: they go through a general surgery residency after medical school for 5 years and then do a specialty in urologic surgery which doesn’t include treatment of anything medical or preventive.    More than that, their College of Urologic Surgery and their journal has been blinded by supporting the surgical treatment of prostate cancer, so their motivation to prevent prostate cancer is generally opposite their type of practice of medicine. They can only operate on prostate cancer when a man has it.

Now if you have a penchant for conspiracy theories you may then jump to the conclusion that both the practice of medicine, the business of pharmaceuticals and the government have monetary benefit from keeping all of us sick, and limiting our longevity, since we are a drain on the system after we stop working and live off Social Security and Medicare.  In other words, old Americans don’t provide value to the whole of society.  I contend it is only because we don’t help aging Americans stay productive and healthy that they are a drain on the rest of the population…However, that conspiracy theory is just a theory I have heard from my patients.

This study is big news because it is the most important study that has been allowed through the blockade of powers, to the public!  We at BioBalance Health® can now give you men what you need, and when other doctors criticize our treatment, we can defend our treatment plan with this Australian study and the other hundred studies that came before.  You have your ability to ask for what you need from your doctor, based on sound evidence! The second study is below and was in the Journal of Internal Medicine about the same time as the Australian men’s study.

Study links low testosterone to increased mortality

A study published in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine found that men with low testosterone levels had a higher risk of all-cause mortality, and those with very low levels also faced an increased risk of cardiovascular mortality. The findings suggest potential links between testosterone concentrations and health outcomes, emphasizing the need for further investigation into underlying mechanisms and potential therapeutic implications.

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On the last Heath cast #662 we talked about the choice of doing nothing when faced with symptoms of hormone deficiency and symptoms of aging, versus the choice to actively live a healthy life. I believe that concentrating on yourself as you age can save your lifestyle and or your life!  Preventing illness as you age is as important as paying your taxes!

An unhealthy living plan without replacing deficient hormones can lead you on  a road to illness and early death.  If that doesn’t motivate you, then consider yourself warned. Recently I saw a man in his late 70s who I had seen about 7 years before this.  He and his wife entered my office, and I could see that some of my medical predictions had come true.  This man had developed every disease I told him his blood work and physical self-predicted. Despite the treatment plan I gave him, he ignored me on diet, exercise, supplements, stopping smoking and drinking I gave him 7 years earlier.  He admitted that everything I told him would happen, did happen and now he is in constant pain, he is morbidly obese, and has trouble even walking.  He now has diabetes and has had a heart attack and 7 ER admissions for his heart since.  He did not do one thing I told him, except just recently he stopped drinking alcohol. He now is ready to live a healthy lifestyle however since he has so many diseases, he spends an enormous amount of money on medications and medical care.  The cost of care was his reason to ignore hormones, but he ignored my lifestyle advice as well.  Even though now a lifestyle change and testosterone pellets will improve his life, he still has done damage to his blood vessels and heart not to mention his joints and back.  These aging changes I cannot prevent, just stop the rapid progression.

When you become our patient, we ask you a variety of questions that help us design a treatment plan, more accurately named a “longevity plan”. Symptoms of Testosterone, Estradiol and Thyroid deficiency:

A combined list of symptoms of aging for men and women include:

Loss of Testosterone Symptoms:

·      Loss of sex drive

·      Loss of erections, and morning erections

·      Loss of orgasms for women

·      Fatigue

·      Insomnia

·      Depression/anxiety attacks

·      Loss of strength and muscle mass

·      Frailty

·      Can’t think clearly or remember names of things

·      Loss of motivation

·      Loss of efficiency at work

·      Weight gain

·      Belly fat increase

·      Sagging skin

·      Arthritis

·      Osteoporosis

Loss of estradiol (women):

·      Hot flashes

·      Night sweats

·      Anxiety attacks

·      Irritability

·      Dry vagina

·      Painful intercourse

·      Sagging skin

·      Frontal balding

·      Urine loss

·      Dry skin

·      Shrinking vagina

·      Osteoporosis

·      Arthritis

 

 Thyroid deficiency:

·      Hair loss

·      Fat gain

·      Fatigue

·      Depression

·      Feels cold all the time

·      Very dry skin

·      All body swelling

·      Constipation

·      High cholesterol

·      Low blood pressure and pulse

These symptoms above can be treated and in treating them you will experience not only a lack of symptoms, but a longer healthier life. However, if you also change your lifestyle you can avoid the diseases of aging too!

Through replacing your deficient hormones, add only individually chosen supplements and develop a healthy whole food eating plan, with 3-7 days a week of exercise (1 hour/ session). 

 

What do I mean? What is a healthy Lifestyle?

·      If you smoke STOP!

·      If you Drink more than 15 alcoholic drinks a week, then stop, If you aren’t addicted to alcohol, you should decrease your drinking to < or = 7 drinks a week.

·      Exercise 30-60 minutes a day (consecutively)

·      Throw out all the simple carbs in your kitchen: all cereals and granola, use olive oil to cook and no vegetable oils, Processed dry food in boxes or cans should be donated to charity.

·      Buy fresh fruit, fresh vegetables, cheese yogurt, fresh or frozen meat, fish chicken, turkey for meals at home.

·      Sourdough bread is the best choice in breads—it has no gluten but still has carbohydrates, so small amounts are advised.

·      Do something you love every day

·      Look for opportunities to have fun

You CAN turn your bad genes off through a healthy lifestyle!  Now we know even your genes can be combatted through healthy living. The diseases of aging can be adjusted or avoided.  When thinking about what your risks might be, remember that Family history is a broad and faulty way to determine your risk, but genetic testing is a better way to determine your risk of disease that is found in in your chromosomes and genes. The combination of your genes are uniquely yours. Knowing what your genes are can guide you to an individual healthy lifestyle for avoiding disease and living a long life.   We offer this service for our patients who want to know what the perfect diet and lifestyle plan is.  It is called the

 

Nutrigen test is optional but a great idea if you are trying to renovate your life! This saliva test (no needles) can determine the genetics you inherited from your ancestors.  We then share the information with you and develop a lifestyle plan that includes lifetime changes in eating to decrease carbohydrates from grains and sugar, increase protein, and remove as many processed foods as possible. The Nutrigen test tells you what genes you inherited that impacts your health, but it doesn’t tell me whether you have turn any of your bad genes off or your bad genes on!

We offer that test to our patients who are trying to lose fat or just reframe their life so they can live more productively and as much without disease as possible,

Now if you aren’t convinced that you need to replace your hormones with testosterone plus estradiol if you are a postmenopausal woman, or if you figure you will 

 Does a future of having Alzheimer’s disease strike your panic button enough to change what you eat and how much you exercise, and to replace your Testosterone with Pellets?  Or is it losing a limb from diabetes? Being unable to talk from a Stroke?  Would losing your ability to move around as you do today from a Stroke or heart attack make you scared enough to value your health and clean up your lifestyle?  Or would the prospect of never having sex again be the trigger that causes you to be as careful with you own health, body,  and mind, preserving it for the rest of your life?

Medical care is not just about fixing the sick through medications or surgery anymore, although that is the paradigm we have all grown up in.  That dated belief may have dominated our  belief  about what medical care can do for us and how it works because until recently medical experts didn’t understand how diseases sprouted from a bad lifestyle, or because we were taught that our genes determine our health and there is nothing we can do about it…..but we now know that leading a healthy lifestyle, using food as fuel and not entertainment, and being moderate in everything from food, to alcohol to exercise is the key to a long healthy life. New information in the last 20 years has come to light  revealing that an individual can turn off bad genes through a healthy lifestyle…. Your genetics do not  dictate your fate, but it is your behavior that dictates the diseases you will suffer fromwith through the last half of your life  and eventually die from.

Let’s talk about the most dangerous lifestyle choices that you can make. You must think about your body as a luxury car that requires a lot of maintenance, the best quality gas to fuel it, and loving care every day to maintain its value and performance.  Our bodies are a thousand times more complicated than the highest- performance car, and I contend that the most beneficial maintenance you can do is to think about your health every day especially when you are presented with behavioral choices.  For instance, when you wake up you should stretch and make sure your muscles are not spasmed.  YThe you should think about the two most important choices you will make all day, “When will I work out for an hour?” and “What shall I eat today?”. .  Exercise is key to managing your insulin sensitivity and blood sugar, protecting you from diabetes and heart disease.  Why would you avoid this inexpensive protection from these deadly diseases?   Planning what you will eat that day (or for the next week) should include  healthy, non-processed foods and drinks with plenty of water and protein and limited carbohydrates from grains especially from wheat.

But you counter my suggestion ,” Wwhat should I do when everyone around me is overeating processed foods and drinking alcohol and sugared soda?”.  My answer is, “Stop and think! Do you drive over a cliff because the guy in front of you does? No!  Be brave and don’t make a scene., just choose to eat and drink in a healthy manner…if that is not available, leave and find the food and drink your body needs!”  You are no longer a teenager when all the mistakes we make are “forgiven” by our bodies.  That stops working after age 20!

 

I think you should look at taking care of yourself like being engaged in working toward a goal, whether it be in sports, climbing the corporate ladder, getting a raise or getting your degree.  Health is a goal that will repay you throughout your life.

I no longer work in OBGYN not because I didn’t enjoy it, or it wasn’t profitable enough, I stopped running around with my hair on fire, stressed out and exhausted without adequate sleep or nutrition because it was bad for me!  My medical practice literally made me sick!  I gained weight, felt terrible, looked old, was crabby and depressed, so I made a choice to make my health a priority and a priority for my patients.

In terms of how  my medical practice changed…from doing insurance paid medicine which is paid for the patient by someone else I was daily faced with patients who didn’t value my advice and didn’t follow it!  I now have a medical practice where patients pay for their care themselves.  There is something about paying for something that makes you value it more!

Instead of seeing patients yearly that I gave the same advice I give to my BioBalance patients today and repeating myself year after year without my patients making any progress, I now recommend lifestyle changes and treat my patients with replacement testosterone and estradiol pellets and they immediately feel better and follow my advice!

I am blessed to watch my patients achieve health by changing their hormones, diet, exercise, changing medications and taking supplements to round out the nutrition offered by their food choices.

The one most important health goal should be weight loss so you can achieve your ideal weight while you maintain your muscle mass. That change will take effort and sacrifice and if you are over 40 you will need testosterone to make this happen! 

 

Here are the diseases that are caused by obesity:

·      CANCER! All kinds!

·      Diabetes-Type II

·      Heart disease, Myocardial infarction and stroke

·      Alzheimer’s disease

·      Autoimmune diseases

·      Endometriosis

·      Arthritis and joint replacement

·      Hypertension and kidney disease

·      Immune deficiency

Are you afraid of getting any of these diseases?  What is your most terrifying disease that keeps you awake at night?  Any of these in the list above?

 

I have always been fearful of Alzheimer’s Disease and stroke because not being able to think and speak is my biggest fear!  I have gone so far as to have genetic tests for Alzheimer’s Dx and I have 1 of the 2 genes that cause this devastating condition. However, because I have taken estradiol and Testosterone pellets since I was 47, my chance of getting this disease has been delayed 20 years.  Other factors that increase my risk for stroke and dementia are inflammation from being overweight, eating a high carb diet, lack of exercise, hypertension, poor neurotransmitters from a poor diet and bad gut bacteria. 

One by one I have changed my lifestyle to decrease these risk factors.

If I can do this, you can!  You don’t have a harder work schedule than I have had or less time to choose foods to eat.  I choose to turn down more than one alcoholic beverage, to take my own healthy snacks when I travel and at my office. 

See all the Healthcasts at https://www.biobalancehealth.com/healthcast-blog

My goal for BioBalance Health® is to guide my patients to live a healthier life by offering them the newest preventive treatments, and safest hormone treatment available. My patients make an appointment with me and Dr. Sullivan for help with their current symptoms of aging and hormonal treatment to replace their missing hormones.  They also receive a plan for unique preventive lifestyle changes to assist them in continuing their lives in health.

But first, I believe that treating the symptoms of aging is the first thing on the agenda, and those symptoms are treated by replacing the hormones that disappear with age, testosterone, estradiol and often thyroid hormone. These symptoms are classic and appear within a short period of time, together: This is a combined list of symptoms of Testosterone and Estradiol loss for women after age 38, combined with loss of Testosterone in men after age 50.

 

Symptoms of loss of Testosterone and Estradiol

 

·      Loss of normal youthful body, muscle and shape

·      Loss of sex drive

·      Infrequent or absent orgasms ·      Fatigue ·      Depression   or Anxiety ·      Insomnia ·      Memory loss/ Difficulty thinking ·      Loss of motivation ·      New migraine headaches ·      Decreased muscle mass ·      Joint aches/ arthritis ·      Dry eyes

 

·      Loss of balance

·      ED in men (men)

·      Poor or decreased ejaculation (men)

  ·      Increased belly fat Loss of waistline ·      Weight gain

 

·      Cellulite

·      Ringing in the ears

 

·      Dry vagina (women)

·      Painful intercourse (women)

My patients frequently tell me that they feel so good after getting their first testosterone pellets that they wish they would have come to see me years before because they have been suffering and now their symptoms are improved or gone. They also comment on how great their sex life is, their improved stamina to walk, play golf or run and how much younger they look! That is the enjoyable part of my practice.

Replacing these hormones gives my patients their lives back and gives them their energy back so they can make changes in their lives to keep themselves healthy to avoid the diseases of aging.

The Diseases of Aging are these:

• Cancer
• Type II Diabetes
• Arthritis
• Heart Attack
• Stroke
• Dementia, Alzheimer’s Disease, Parkinson’s disease
• Osteoporosis
• Frailty, inability to walk or climb stairs
• Immune deficiency
• Autoimmune diseases
• Depression and anxiety

We find that we get great results with one or two hormones, but because we are preventive medicine doctors and hormone replacement doctors we are not just interested in your current condition and symptoms, but we are concerned about the diseases you are at risk to get when you get “old”.  We then go over your family history of diseases with you and use it to determine what you are at risk for. Let me say that family history is only ½ of your risk factor because each parent only carries 1/2 of the genes you own. This means that your risk is usually watered down by the relative who has the disease, and your risk usually goes up if two relatives on opposite sides of the family have the same disease. Even though we use family history as an estimate of your risk for diseases in the future it is not very specific or accurate.  The information your family tells you about their history may not be accurate for the real diseases your parents and grandparents had.  My family history is a good example of bad information in an individual’s medical history:

I thought I was at risk for Adult-Onset Diabetes because my grandfather on my father’s side and my grandmother on my mother’s side had Type II Diabetes. I was worried since medical school that I would eventually get AODM too. When I had my genetics done, I found that I had 4/5 genes that foretell obesity, but NO DIABETES genes! This changed my approach to my own health from avoiding carbs totally, to losing weight until I was at ideal weight.

  In case you don’t know it, almost all obese people develop Type II Diabetes eventually. If they don’t change their lifestyle soon enough and lose weight as well as get the proper nutrition it is in their future. Diabetes is a disease that will follow them through their lives, putting them at risk for other diseases like cancer, heart disease, Alzheimer’s disease, dementia of all kinds, arthritis, and joint deterioration needing joint replacements. This list includes the most common causes of death. So the moral of the story is, my family history didn’t tell me what I was going to be at risk for!

 You can plan your healthy living plan based on your family history, or you can get your own genetics done to tell you what you are at risk for based on your genes, OR you can just clean up your lifestyle, receive your hormone replacement using the safest delivery system

(pellets) and begin a healthy lifestyle as soon as possible. Get real information based on your individual situation now with blood work and add your genetics or family history to help motivate you to get healthier. Changing your lifestyle is the hardest thing you can do so getting expert advice from a physician, and then follow it.  Look for a doctor who will help keep you motivated to follow your healthy living plan and do your half of the path to health and healthy aging without disease.

 

Please join me, Dr. Kathy Maupin, BioBalance Health® next time when we outline a plan for health and longevity to avoid the pain and disability of aging.

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I bet you have heard the idiom, “There is no free lunch”, or  “There is no medication without a side effect”, but did you know that medications that are prescribed by your doctor can have negative effects on your health that are never even discussed with you….so you should protect yourself by replacing the nutrients that your medications  remove from your body, and that must be replaced for you to be healthy.

Statins -→ COQ 10 DEFICIENCY= fatigue and depression

Beta Blockers -→ COQ-10 DEFICIENCY= fatigue and depression

Oral contraceptives and oral estrogen/progestins-→ COQ-10 DEFICIENCY= fatigue and depression

Antidepressants called SSRIs-→ COQ-10 DEFICIENCY= fatigue and depression

Dosage: If you take any of these medications you need to take COQ10 200-400 mg/day every day!

Thiazide Diuretics=HCTZ -→ Magnesium and Zinc Deficiency muscle spasms, prostate issues, constipation

• Take 50 mg of Zinc and 400-600 mg of Magnesium Glycinate a day to replace what is lost.

NSAIDS (Motrin, Advil, Aleve, Ibuprofen, Meloxicam, Naproxen, Indomethecin, Daypro, Mefenamic acid, Voltaren)-→ malabsorption, depression, anxiety, and the vitamin and mineral deficiencies listed:

• Folic Acid Deficiency- Take Methyl- Folate 500 mg
• Iron Deficiency—Take Iron Bisglycinate (Ferrabsorb)
• Vitamin C deficiency—Take Vitamin C 500-1000 mg/day
• Amino acid deficiency—take Arginine +/- Ornithine.

OR change your medication to Celebrex 200-400 BID

 PPIs=Proton Pump Inhibitors (Omeprazole, Prilosec, Pantoprazole, Lansoprazole, Protonix) are taken for stomach ulcers, H. Pylori infection and gastric reflux

PPIs Increase Homocysteine which increases your risk of stroke, MI, and Pulmonary embolism.

 PPIs decrease the absorption of many nutrients.  They actually cause malabsorption of essential nutrients.  

Replace these nutrients with supplements, but much of what you take won’t be absorbed unless you take daily Probiotics: 

• B12 – take methyl B12 1000 mcg/day
• Folate – take as methyl folate 5,000mcg/day
• Vitamin D – take 5,000 IU/day

Note: PPIs can even cause the growth of dangerous gut bacteria causing chronic Hemophilus. If you have chronic vaginitis that smells fishy, it could be your PPIs!

If you have this stop the PPI, take Pepcid instead (histamine receptor blocker) or nothing and take probiotics to repair the damage the PPIs have caused. These nutrients need to be replaced to keep you healthy, however it is better for most patients to only take PPIs for 2 weeks at a time or substitute a histamine receptor blocker like: Pepcid, Zofran.

Surgery

It is not just the medications doctors prescribe for their patients; sometimes surgical procedures can cause chronic diseases through preventing nutritional nutrients to enter your body.

 

Removal of the gall bladder must be done, yet patients are not told what they can do to be healthy after the surgery.

The gall bladder provides enzymes that help you breakdown foods, primarily fats and absorb fatty vitamins from your food and supplements.  If you have had your gallbladder removed you can become nutritionally deficient in A, D, E fat soluble vitamins, and you will promote the growth of abnormal gut bacteria and are at risk for leaky gut, Celiac disease, autoimmune diseases and malnutrition. Everyone who has their gallbladder removed should take digestive enzymes with every meal and take Probiotics daily.

Bariatric Surgery for Obesity

The last iatrogenic nutritional deficiency that I will discuss is Bariatric surgeries, all kinds that remove part of the stomach, or band the stomach or in any way physically makes the stomach smaller is related to nutritional deficiencies caused by malabsorption of vitamins and minerals.  The way to combat these deficiencies include taking:

• a probiotic daily
• digestive enzymes with every meal
• and all vitamins should be chewable or sublingual to be absorbed from the mucosa of the mouth

 In Conclusion:

Remember I am a physician, and my job is to promote wellness in my patients.  It is sometimes more important and lifesaving to take the above medications or have these surgeries, than to prevent a nutritional deficiency in the future.  We must follow those medical decisions with trouble shooting addition of nutritional supplementation to replace what these necessary medications and surgeries remove.  That is preventive medicine and why supplementation is often needed for our health.

 

See all the Healthcasts at https://www.biobalancehealth.com/healthcast-blog

You are what you eat, and you use what food and drink you eat based on your genetics.

Weight loss requires professional advice, direction and oversight.  Combining receiving the best advice on what you should eat and drink as well as tailoring it to your metabolism and medical condition is what you should receive from your weight loss program.

 Before you embark on a weight loss program you need to know the following lessons.

Lesson #1: All Calories Do Not Create the Same Energy/Heat/Weight Loss in All People.

You can put a gallon of gas into a Maserati and Ford Fusion and they do not provide the same performance (different acceleration or speed, pick up and ride) different MPG or speed because these two engines are not the same.  The Maserati burns fuel (calories) faster than the Fusion; it operates at a higher level of speed and performance, and it uses more gallons of gas per distance.  Just like the difference in cars, the difference in our bodies is VAST!

I explain this truism every day in my office.  One of my female testosterone replacement patients returned for her first follow up consultation. The blood levels were ideal and all the symptoms relating to testosterone deficiency were gone!  However, the only thing she could think about was the fact that she did not lose weight (although she did gain muscle and lost fat) and her friend lost 15 lbs in the first 4 months! 

Even though she and her friend were the same age their metabolisms were very different AND the fact that her friend did everything I told her to in regard to diet, limiting alcohol, taking supplements  and exercise, but she did not,  tipped the scales to cause her not to get the same result as her friend…in other words, her friend had a genetically faster metabolism, AND she put Premium “gas” into her metabolic car, changed the oil and took care of her car so it ran faster and better than the patient sitting in front of me who used regular gas, didn’t care for her car

and drove too fast and hard.  Two people the same age with different metabolisms, diet, exercise, supplementation, and stress level have widely different responses to weight loss.

 Therefore, medical weight loss advice must be individualized to fit just you!

The individual variables include:

• Genetic programing
• Current weight and diet
• Length of time you have been overweight
• Age
• Blood type (also genetic need for certain foods)
• Medical history/current diseases
• Medications you are on
• Supplements that you take or need to take
• Exercise and physical movement

 Fad Weight Loss diets are a fraud to sell books or to get attention.  If it takes a 300-page book or a Social Media fad to sell a diet that is supposed to be good for everyone…it is a lie and may backfire!

When the cabbage soup diet was a fad many of my GYN patients did it.  I had access to their blood types and knew that cabbage was bad for A blood types and slowed their metabolism. Despite my advice they still did the diet, and you know what happened?  They gained an average of 10 lbs!!!! Their blood type determined whether this particular diet would work for them. This is an example of how important your genetics are to weight loss.

 What are the genetic variables that affect your approach to weight loss?

 Inheritance how our body burns calories—are you a Fusion or a Maserati?: there are many genetic variables that make you as an individual require specific foods and exercise programs to get to your ideal weight and be healthy. It is the job of your medical advisor to determine what these are for you and tailor your diet accordingly.

• Your Blood type determines the best and worst foods for your metabolism and the number of days you should exercise.
• Do you burn calories at rest, or does it take active exercise for you to burn more than the baseline of calories? If you are warm while you sleep, then you burn calories at rest and therefore will burn more calories than someone who does not, even if you eat the same things and expend the same active calories a day.
• How much of each type of food do you eat? Protein/carbohydrates/fats.
  • Protein takes more calories to metabolize than carbohydrates, and a lot more than fat, so the most calories are consumed by eating a high protein diet.
• Mood Determines your Mindless Eating: Genetically are you more apt to eat when you are anxious or worried? This is a behavior that can be changed by counselling, behavior modification, or even just making you aware of your inherited problem.
• Genetically do you always feel hungry? Genetically are you never full? These are genetically inherited qualities that affect the amount you eat and how often you go back for seconds.  There are medications and behavior modification that can counteract this genetic reality.
• Genetically does exercise or dieting result in the most weight loss? Believe it or not some people just have to diet without a lot of exercise to lose weight, others are programmed to exercise only for weight loss and then most of us have to use both methods to lose weight.  Let me say that exercise does use up more calories, whether you are built to burn more with dieting.
• Genetically how much lean muscle mass do you have? The more the better! Weight loss is aided by weight training three times a week, and the replacement of testosterone when you become deficient. Both of these muscle building methods increase muscle and decrease fat. Did you know that your muscle mass burns 80-90% of your calories.   More muscle means more weight loss, but your muscle metabolism must be turned on with testosterone, insulin sensitivity, good blood flow and more metabolic factors.

• The more fat you have the harder it is to lose weight because body fat doesn’t burn many calories. High muscle mass burns a lot of calories even at rest! The more muscle you have compared to fat the faster your body will lose extra fat. Weight training is helpful to building muscle and losing fat.

• What percentage of food should you eat of each food type? That is genetically set.

Your ideal % of Protein, Carbohydrates and fat are genetically determined. Many of us have discovered our ideal food chart through trial and error, but a weight loss genetic test can tell you as well!

Your Age: The older you get the lower your sex hormone testosterone is. As you age testosterone, growth hormone decreases while estrone increases all of which cause and cause weight gain.

• Testosterone stops being produced from women’s ovaries between 40-50 years of age. Men never lose all of their T but the level decreases from age 35 on to hit a clinically symptomatic level between 50-55 years of age.
• Estrone increases as Testosterone decreases and causes both sexes to gain belly fat.
• Do you have your sex hormones or not (particularly Testosterone)? Without T your muscles stop growing and burn fewer calories every day you go without T. This is why people tend to get old and fat as their T stops being produced (in women) or becomes clinically too low a level of free T at a certain age in a man’s life.
• Growth Hormone decreases with age—adding nonoral T replacement increases Growth Hormone.
• Menopause immediately makes women who don’t replace their estrogen and testosterone to gain up to 20 lbs without changing diet or lifestyle.
• Osteoporosis occurs and worsens with age because estrogen and testosterone in women decrease over time. Testosterone in men decreases in men which thins bones. Loss of bone causes loss of muscle and both cause weight gain.  More importantly, osteoporosis decreases the activity level of affected patients.

Lifestyle impacts your ability to lose weight:

• How much water do you drink? You need sufficient water to lose fat. You should drink ½ your weight in pounds, in ounces of water to be able to lose weight.  That volume of water you should drink increases to ounces of water = weight in pounds if it is hot outside or you are doing work that makes you sweat.
• Do you eat cleanly- do you eat whole foods? Do you eat one salad a day? Do you turn down sugary foods and desserts. If the answer is yes, then keep it up because it is helping you lose weight!
• Do you eat fast food cereal, cookies desserts and or doughnuts? If so, stop! All of these foods are massive producers of blood sugar, metabolic syndrome and obesity!   These foods are literally bad for everyone!
• Do you eat a balanced diet? Humans are built to eat a varied diet with some fruit vegetables, meat, fish, eggs, butter, healthy fats (non-meat fats), with some grains and we were NOT built to eat sugar! 
• Do you eat a lot of carbs? A Low carb diet can allow you to improve IBS, prevent cancer, and Alzheimer’s Disease, dementia, avoid bacterial and viral infections, high cholesterol and heart disease, diabetes, obesity….all the diseases that cause us to be sick and age are related to too much carbohydrate in your diet!  In Japan, Alzheimer’s Disease is called Type 3 Diabetes!
• Do you sit all day or exercise and move your body –taking 10,000 steps actually helps you lose and maintain our weight as well as exercising your heart!
• Do you take vitamins and supplements to prevent deficiencies in your diet? If not then you need to write down everything you eat for a week and have your medical professional review it….My bet is that everyone in America needs supplements ! The minimum daily requirements on a vitamin bottle is the MINIMUM AMOUNT OF A VITAMIN THAT MERELY KEEPS YOU ALIVE!  These levels are not the amount of a nutrient you need to be healthy!
•  I bet you think alcohol is a food? It isn’t!  Alcohol is a toxin, use it with care. Just because your friends drink a bottle of wine a night doesn’t mean it is healthy…bad habits always want company!

Diseases that you currently have affects your ability to lose weight.

• Are the glands that set your calorie burning rate healthy?   If your thyroid is low, you will have to work harder at exercise, and you will have to eat less calories to lose the same amount of weight a person your size who has a normal thyroid. If you have sick glands you are bound to be “over-fat”
• Diabetes and insulin resistance (abnormal your pancreatic gland) cause weight gain and an inability to lose weight if it is not treated. Metformin recreates insulin sensitivity, as does Mounjaro and Semaglutide medications.
• Liver and kidney disease your ability to get rid of the fat you are burning and you store up toxins that also slow your weight loss. Follow the directions of your doctor and get the healthiest liver and kidneys you can!  Fatty liver is secondary to Metabolic Syndrome, so treatment with Metformin, Semaglutide and Tirzapetide can cure this disease!
• Heart disease—high carbs not high protein diet causes arterial plaque! You have been lied to because statins make money!  Stop eating carbs and eat all the animal proteins you want! One of my patients has only eaten fruit, vegetables, grains, sugar and alcohol his whole life and he has severe atherosclerosis (hardening of the arteries) before he was 60! Avoiding animal products does not prevent heart disease.
• Endocrine disorders like overactive adrenal (high Cortisol) and hypoactive thyroid, pituitary adenomas can cause an imbalance of the metabolism and they can cause weight gain and fatigue that make it hard to lose weight.

I will talk about Medications that cause weight gain—beta blockers, blood pressure medications, Statins, and others in a future blog.