What if I told you that the symptoms of menopause didn't have to happen?

And what if I also told you that by treating the symptoms of menopause with

bioidentical hormones you could not only feel better, but you could live

longer?

Well, it's true.

Symptoms like hot flashes, insomnia, moodiness, and weight gain..... GONE.

In this post, we're going to discuss one of the most controversial topics

in women's health, estrogen therapy for postmenopausal women. 

And, I'm going to give you three conversations to have with your doctor

about estrogen replacement.

What if I told you there is a drug for men that reduces risk of heart

attack and stroke, makes you faster, stronger, leaner, better in bed, more

creative and clearer thinking, and reduces your risk for Alzheimer's and

dementia? 

Is that something you'd be interested in?

I'm excited to share with you a seven-part deep dive into hormone

replacement therapy, beginning with testosterone replacement in men.

The human experience is that we peak around 25 years old, then we stay relatively steady for about a decade only to slowly and steadily decline over the next 40 or 50 years.

This is the narrative that we've all come to accept as normal because it's common.

But do we have to? 

In today's episode I'm going to be giving you the two most important reasons why you need to replace your hormones, the two biggest misconceptions about hormone replacement, and a few conversations that you need to have with your doctor about hormone replacement.

YOUR CHOLESTEROL IS HIGH, BUT WHAT DOES THAT REALLY MEAN?

Here’s the deal. Stroke and heart attack numbers are at all-time highs. Yet, the sad irony is that we are also consuming less dietary fat and cholesterol at the same time.

Here are 2 major take aways that you’ll learn from this post…

Cholesterol is necessary for life, without it we would die. It makes many of your hormones and is found in every cell wall of every cell in your body. Matter of fact, every cell in the human body has the ability to make the cholesterol that it needs to replenish its own supply. What’s more interesting is that the liver has the ability to become your body’s cholesterol factory. In other words, if there’s ever any deficiency, the liver has the ability to produce all you need and more.

THERE ARE TWO THINGS ABOUT CHOLESTEROL THAT YOU HAVE TO KNOW.

Where does cholesterol come from? Most people believe that dietary cholesterol is the only place that you get cholesterol. Therefore, controlling dietary intake of cholesterol will control your blood counts. This is wrong. The problem is that, while dietary intake does play a role in our cholesterol levels, we’re completely missing the second place that cholesterol is made. It’s made in the liver. So, you can either eat cholesterol or you make cholesterol.

Does eating fat make you fat and also raise your cholesterol? While dietary intake of fat and cholesterol will have an effect on your overall cholesterol numbers, it will not make you fat (this will be discussed in a future post) and it does not have nearly the effect on your cholesterol that main stream media and pop culture are telling you. Your liver is controlling about 80-90% of your total cholesterol levels. You can either eat cholesterol or you make cholesterol. The challenge is when you get told that your cholesterol is high from your doctor, you immediately say, “Oh, well, I guess I should stop eating bacon, because bacon has cholesterol.”

WHILE DIETARY CHOLESTEROL INTAKE HAS SOME MINOR EFFECTS ON YOUR OVERALL LEVELS, YOUR LIVER OVER PRODUCING CHOLESTEROL IS THE PRIMARY PROBLEM — AND NOBODY IS ADDRESSING THIS.

You need to have conversations about this with your doctor.

As you may know, a normal total cholesterol is somewhere between 150 – 200 and it can get really, really high for some individuals. For most physicians, they’ll say if your cholesterol is above 200, you need to try diet and exercise for six months. If not, you’re going to put on a statin. Knowing your total cholesterol is literally — like they say, “knowing enough to be dangerous” — because it actually doesn’t tell you anything about what is making up that number. We have to know the details.

STEP ONE IS TO KNOW YOUR HDL LEVEL.

What is HDL? I always remember this by, “H” for high. You want your HDL as high as possible.

I had a private client just last week who had a total cholesterol of 216 and was told that she needed to be on a statin for the past couple of years. When I looked at her HDL, it was 80, which for those of you who don’t know these numbers, this is about two to three times what the average HDL level is for a woman of her age. That high HDL was the sole contributing factor to her high total. Her bad cholesterol (which I explain below) was actually in the tank. She doesn’t have any increased risk of heart disease at all. Matter of fact, an HDL this high is cardio-protective.

HDL LEVELS ABOVE 55 WILL HELP PREVENT HEART ATTACKS AND STROKE.

High levels of HDL are directly correlated with low risk of heart disease and stroke. If you’ve got a low HDL, you’re in real trouble. I don’t care how low your total cholesterol is. If your HDL is low, you’re going to be in trouble. You’ve got to know what