HEALTHY AGING
IMAGINE TWIN CHIMPANZEES – A PARABLE
ONCE UPON A TIME, THERE WERE TWO CHIMPANZEES.
They were twins: one was smart and the other, not so very.
On their third birthday each was given a toolbox, with a big-handled screwdriver, pliers, a hammer, a saw, a crowbar and a large knife.
The smart Chimp opened his toolbox and found that he could use the tools, lifting stones to find delicious worms, getting termites from their nests, opening walnuts, cutting coconuts, peeling oranges, squeezing things and generally making life easier for himself. He kept the toolbox in a dry spot inside a cave, took it with him everywhere and used the tools often, always cleaning and returning them to the box after use.
The un-smart brother loved his toolbox because it was the first birthday present that he could remember, but he never opened it and often left it out in the rain.
When they were about 10 years old, somehow they each, on the same day, got caught in a cage set by a trapper: he made his traps with auto-locking doors which only opened with a special key, but he put the hinges on the inside of the doors, due to his carpenteric dyslexia.
The smart Chimp noticed, with amusement, that his screwdriver would fit the screws which held the hinges. He sat for a while, giggling: then he opened his box and got his screwdriver out.
Still giggling, he disconnected the door with his screwdriver, put the ‘driver back into the box and walked out, taking the toolbox with him, as usual.
He tried to set his brother free, but the cage was made of steel and he couldn’t bend the bars, or break the lock, with the crowbar. He would have passed the screwdriver to his brother, but the spaces between the bars were too narrow to let its big handle through. Eventually he gave up trying.
The smart Chimp took his toolbox back to his cave and lived happily ever after, using his tools often and keeping them oiled and in good condition.
The unsmart Chimp was sold to a zoo, where he died at 33 from Alzheimer’s disease.
Q: WHAT’S THE POINT OF THIS STORY ?
A: Due to hormone loss, we humans don’t permanently maintain perfect control over our functions: loss of our hormonal “tools”may be natural, but keeping them has benefits.
Kept healthy by our hormonal tools, we are fine up to age 25, but then our hormone production falls, at a rate of about 1% per year: by age 80 most of our hormone production is gone.
Thus the efficiency of our metabolic management systems declines, slowly, but continuously and relentlessly. All our operating systems eventually become “skewed” to a greater or lesser degree, depending on how our individual internal organs respond to reduced hormone levels.
Each individual, male or female, responds to hormonal loss with his or her own pattern of symptoms, depending on the individual organ’s sensitivity to lowered hormone availability.
There may be hair loss, weight gain, recurrent acne, dry skin, brittle finger nails, allergies, high blood pressure, diabetes, autoimmune diseases, psycho-cognitive change, cancer, neurological disease like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s, MS or other problems. Even our immune systems lose potency, so that we become more liable to infections.
Stress
In addition stress, endemic to our modern lifestyle, can trigger suppression of thyroid function as an energy-saving manoeuvre. When this happens all systems lose efficiency, because all our systems need Thyroid 3 to function normally: the muscles (including heart muscles) weaken and ache, the metabolic rate falls and we gain weight, cognitive loss leads to loss of self-confidence and anxiety. Fuzzy thinking, brain fog and depression ensue.
While most people begin their disabilities at 26 (or earlier), many appear to be unaffected until much later. There is such a wide spectrum of “aging” effects that the majority are able to “carry on as usual” and the ones who fall by the wayside early in life are regarded as poor eaters, unhealthy due to bad habits or simply “unlucky”. Nevertheless one thing is clear: no-one escapes the trap into which we are born and our slide, down the razorblade which is life, whether fast or slow, is inevitable.
As we age, most of the parameters by which our health professionals measure us remain stable and reasonably constant until some major system fails: tests for the function of the heart, blood vessels, kidneys, liver, lungs, intestines, endocrine glands, brain, bones etc remain sufficiently stable that hardly anyone shows obvious deterioration.
In the opinion of Functional / Metabolic Medicine professionals, our progressive loss of hormone production with aging, though naturally occurring and 100% pervasive, is a disease. Deviations from perfect health are ill-effects of aberrant hormonal balance, which can be monitored and corrected easily and safely. Therefore, to anyone who has the pertinent information, natural aging due to hormone loss is modifiable, if not truly curable.
Unfortunately however, errors are built into our current healthcare system: hormonal balance, a measurable parameter affecting the function of all organs, is ignored: deteriorating test results are labeled “age-related”, considered “natural and normal for age” and relegated to the “interesting, but unimportant” file. Stress, that potently evil bugbear which causes most of our disabilities, is not treated, as it should be, as a hazard requiring hormonal and metabolic investigation.
Let’s think about the hormones we lose with aging:
– DHEA, the precursor for Testosterone, Progesterone, Oestradiol, Cortisol and a host of microhormones which keep our parts working – all our cells, including heart, brain and thyroid cells, need it to maintain perfect function, but in Canada DHEA is on the “dangerous drugs” list and doctors do not test for it. It is available, by prescription, from compounding pharmacies; but rare is the doctor who will prescribe it.
– Testosterone: quite aside from the well-known “low T” difficulties in the male, “low T” (women’s normal = 20-30 picomoles/Litre) is a huge problem for women. “Low T” is often found in young females (I had a patient aged 23 with zero testosterone). ZERO “T” is easily and safely treated with DHEA, or Testosterone cream, but hardly any doctors test for it.
– Progesterone: it rules the menstrual cycle, prevents PMDD, promotes sleep, counteracts fat-making Oestrogens, prevents heart dysrhythmia and converts to Allopregnanolone. Progesterone Deficiency is the usual cause of dysmenorrhoea and premenstrual dysphoria, but most practitioners don’t even think of it.
– Allopregnanolone: the darling of neuropsychiatry, it prevents and treats depression and is essential for memory, sleep, and brain maintenance/brain repair. Allopregnanolone deficiency is the main reason for depression, especially postpartum, but there’s no available test to check its level.
– Oestradiol: as the main female hormone, it maintains women’s “parts”, keeps the skin young and makes bones stronger, is essential for the libido in both genders and like testosterone, boosts self-confidence and the sense of well-being; but mainstream medicine strongly recommends against prescribing it.
– Thyroid hormone: The thyroid hormonal system isn’t tested accurately because TSH, the pituitary gland’s trigger for T4 production, is the only thyroid test we use, although it speaks only of the pituitary’s need for T4 and has nothing to do with the body as a whole.
1) The so-called “normal range” of T3, the efficiency accelerator, is ridiculously wide: a low level indicates restricted production and reduced cellular efficiency, but doctors are specifically instructed by their “bosses” not to do the test (the ministry of health went to extraordinary lengths, to devise and advertise a list of tests which must not be done because doing them increases the cost of healthcare: do click on the list, to see the instruction for thyroid hormones) and it is hardly ever measured! (please click on this link and go to number 7, which reads, “Don’t screen for thyroid dysfunction in asymptomatic non-pregnant adults”).
2) Reverse T3, the sensitive marker for reduced whole-body efficiency, is never measured, again because the central controlling body of the medical profession in Canada specifically instructs doctors not to test for it.
Item #7, quoted above, goes on to say “Treating subclinical hypothyroidism (TSH ~4-10 IU/L and normal T3/T4) showed no benefits in any patient-oriented outcome such as mortality or cardiovascular disease, fatigue, weight, depression, cognitive function or quality of life” – that obviously specious statement, “fake news” generated solely to reduce costs (to heck with clinical judgement!), was copied and pasted from the website of “Choosing Wisely Canada”.
3) Anticancer drugs which work by blocking T3 are often prescribed without monitoring the effect on thyroid function, even though they are known to suppress it.
“Normal Aging”
None of this is news.
The progressive loss of all these hormones is accepted as “normal for age”. The ill-effects of hormone deficiency are viewed as inevitable, due to “normal aging” and we are told to “live with it”: no one seems to consider the obvious possibility that we’ll die from it!
Heavy Metal poisoning
Mainstream doctors don’t test for vitamins and minerals, excepting Electrolytes, Vit B12, Iron, Calcium, Magnesium and Phosphorus.
Although we know that an overload of Lead, Mercury and many other metals can be deleterious, tests for metal poisoning are almost never done and chelation treatment for metal overload is regarded as “quackery”.
A PLAN FOR HEALTHY AGING
For detail, see “preventive care, as it could be”, on SUBSTACK.
Age 5-15: teach hormone information and awareness courses in high school, to improve basic knowledge of the subject among the general population.
Age 15-25: the family physician asks each patient, at age 15, to fill out a “wellness assessment questionnaire” and orders a short list of tests, most of which are inexpensive and easily available.
The questionnaire and tests are repeated at age 20 and 25: if and when symptoms of aging and hormone loss begin, the tests are repeated and the results are discussed with the patient.
Age 25-35: The wellness questionnaire and tests are repeated every 3 years: the onset of symptoms, an abnormal test result, or the individual’s concern triggers a brief explanation by the family doctor and referral to a Health Education Professional (a well-paid paramedic, or nurse), who reviews all aspects of hormonal balance, to ensure the patient’s understanding of the diagnosis and possible therapy, then the person returns to the MD to discuss a plan for management and possible prescription.
If the person needs, and is ready to start (necessarily lifelong) hormone restoration, they request a trial of therapy. This request is a mandatory prerequisite to prescription: refusal of advice, or postponement of surveillance and/or therapy, is the individual’s prerogative: healthcare professionals document the refusal, under signature; but accept refusals without question or consequence.
FAQ
Q: WHAT’S THE POINT OF ALL THIS?
A: To reduce and delay essential-system deterioration due to hormone deficiency. [1]
Q: WON’T IT BE EXPENSIVE?
A: it is a lot cheaper to prevent disability, than to cure it. [2]
Q: HOW CAN WE AVOID OVERTREATMENT?
A: Repeated tests show the effect of therapy and hormone doses are adjusted ad hoc.
Q: WHAT ABOUT HORMONE – DEPENDENT CANCER, LIKE HER-2 BREAST CANCER?
A1: These cancers need the hormones to grow, but are not caused by human hormones (horse hormones do encourage breast-cancer in humans).
A2: Maintainance of DHEA, Melatonin, Progesterone, CoQ10, NAC, MTHF, Magnesium etc. deters cancer formation [4]
Q: PEOPLE WITH PCOS HAVE HIGH DHEA – WILL YOU CAUSE PCOS, BY INCREASING DHEA?
A: PCOS is associated with high DHEA, Testosterone, LEAP2, LH, and Cortisol, while estrogen is reduced: these changes are produced by PCOS, not vice versa. [5]
Q: SUPPOSE TESTOSTERONE PRODUCES A PROSTATE CANCER?
A1: That idea is wrong. Testosterone opposes Prostate Ca formation & low Testosterone promotes it.
A2: The Mayo Clinic still says that P Ca should be treated by blocking T, [9], but DHEA, or Testosterone, prevents Prostate cancer and can be used as a treatment, in some cases. [6,7,8].
Q: DON’T HORMONES PREVENT PREGNANCY?
A: Artificial hormones in birth control pills do, normally cycling Human hormones don’t. [10]
Q: AMD IS ASSOCIATED WITH HYPERTHYROIDISM – CAN Thyroid Hormone MAKE YOU BLIND?
A: There is a link between hyperthyroidism and AMD, not with prescription of T4. Some unknown factor must cause both conditions: how, and why, would an essential hormone ruin vision? [11]
Q: WHAT ABOUT THYROID CANCER?
A: The story is the same as for other hormone-sensitive tumours: the cancer cells need thyroid hormone to grow, but Thyroid Hormone does not cause the cancer.
REFERENCES
For brevity, only a few are listed. Many more are available through NCBI.
(1) The “multiple hormone deficiency” theory of aging: is human senescence caused mainly by multiple hormone deficiencies? T Hertoghe 1 Ann N Y Acad Sci 2005 Dec;1057:448-65. doi: 10.1196/annals.1322.035. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16399912/
(2) The Healthcare Imperative: Lowering Costs and Improving Outcomes: Workshop Series Summary (Book)
(4) Hormone-sensitive cancer: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hormone-sensitive_cancer
(5) Adrenal Androgen Excess and Body Mass Index in Polycystic Ovary Syndrome, Carlos Moran, Monica Arriaga, Fabian Arechavaleta-Velasco, Segundo Moran The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, Volume 100, Issue 3, 1 March 2015, Pages 942–950, https://doi.org/10.1210/jc.2014-2569 https://academic.oup.com/jcem/article/100/3/942/2839480
(6) Does Testosterone Cause Prostate Cancer? Stephanie Watson — Healthline, September 18, 2018
(7) Testosterone as a Drug, Johns Hopkins 05/01/2018 Dr Denmeade https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/news/articles/testosterone-as-a-drug
(8) Bipolar androgen therapy in men with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer after progression on enzalutamide: an open-label, phase 2, multicohort study Benjamin A Teply 1 , Hao Wang 2 , Brandon Luber 2 , Rana Sullivan 2 , Irina Rifkind 2 , Ashley Bruns 2 , Avery Spitz 2 , Morgan DeCarli 2 , Victoria Sinibaldi 2 , Caroline F Pratz 2 , Changxue Lu 3 , John L Silberstein 3 , Jun Luo 3 , Michael T Schweizer 4 , Charles G Drake 5 , Michael A Carducci 2 , Channing J Paller 2 , Emmanuel S Antonarakis 2 , Mario A Eisenberger 2 , Samuel R Denmeade 6 Clinical Trial, Lancet Oncol. 2018 Jan;19(1):76-86, doi: 10.1016/S1470-2045(17)30906-3. Epub 2017 Dec 14. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29248236/
(9) Hormone therapy for prostate cancer is a treatment that stops the male hormone testosterone from being produced or reaching prostate cancer cells MAYO CLINIC, April 9, 2021 https://www.mayoclinic.org/tests-procedures/hormone-therapy-for-prostate-cancer/about/pac-20384737
(10) Birth Control Pills https://www.webmd.com/sex/birth-control/birth-control-pills
(11) Exploring the link between thyroid hormones and vision loss https://blogs.biomedcentral.com/on-medicine/2015/04/30/exploring-link-thyroid-hormones-vision-loss/
(12) Allopregnanolone, the Neuromodulator Turned Therapeutic Agent: Thank You, Next? Graziano Pinna*Department of Psychiatry, The Psychiatric Institute, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL, United States. Front. Endocrinol., 14 May 2020 | https://doi.org/10.3389/fendo.2020.00236
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fendo.2020.00236/full