Adult Autoimmune Diseases can often be prevented, delayed and/ or improved by testosterone replacement with bio-identical testosterone. This is a fact supported by hundreds of medical studies, but a treatment that has unfortunately been ignored by mainstream medicine.

Some of the most common autoimmune diseases include Rheumatoid Arthritis, SLE (Lupus), Multiple Sclerosis, ALS, and Scleroderma.  These diseases have several risk factors in common, many of which cannot be changed.

• Sex: Women are affected more than men
• Age: Women over 35 and men over 50
• Genetic Risk: Positive family history
• Environmental toxin exposure
• Inflammation from obesity and diabetes
• Gut Microbiome that is unhealthy (poor diet and inadequate bacterial profile)
• Deficient Free Testosterone
• High estrone and estradiol environment

To understand the role of the sex hormones, estradiol and testosterone, it is important to understand how an adult autoimmune disease develops. I admit this is a simplistic explanation; however, it is how I explain these diseases to my patients.

Autoimmune disease is a disease of the Immune System.  Your immune system is a complex system composed of white blood cells (T cells provide cellular immunity and B cells that provide antibodies that target foreign proteins (bacteria, viruses, cancer cells, parasites, and tissue proteins from other humans and animals), lymph nodes, bone marrow, your intestinal microbiome and your thymus gland. The purpose of the immune system is to protect you from harm or death from interaction with any of these foreign proteins that might cause our human body to be infected or die of cancer.  Every day, 24 -7 your body is searching your system for foreign proteins to take down and dispose of.  Your cells are always dividing and making new cells and mistakes occur that could become cancer if left without your white cells to kill and remove them.

When our immune system becomes ineffective or it becomes misdirected toward our healthy tissue there are one of three outcomes. If it is suppressed by cortisol (stress) or there are not enough white blood cells (AIDS or toxins) your immune system might let cancer cells slip through their protection and you might have one or more cancers.  Other outcomes of an ineffective immune system might be chronic viruses, or chronic parasites, viral illnesses that don’t clear or leaky gut.

When the immune system becomes misdirected to attack our own cells because they “resemble” the target they are supposed to protect us from, it often results in an autoimmune disease.  There are triggers that commonly misdirect our immune systems: viruses, bacterial infections, tick bites, some immunizations, exposure to other human’s tissue (human implants) and severe stress that cripples the protective immune system.  Our immune system attacks our tissues as if they were a virus, bacteria or cancer cell, and our target tissues are slowly destroyed. 

So what does Testosterone have to do with our Immunity and Autoimmunity?

In women Testosterone is secreted from the ovaries and in men it is made in the testes. Men make ten times the amount of testosterone as women when they are younger than 40, and their testes make Testosterone optimally for ten years longer than women.  That physiologic fact leads to the greater incidence and earlier timing of the occurrence of autoimmune diseases in women.

Women get autoimmune diseases at a younger age than men, earlier than 40, if they have had their ovaries removed or have premature menopause.  Men who have testosterone deficiency are more likely to get an autoimmune disease, and this usually occurs after age 50.

The role of Testosterone in the immune system is multi-faceted. Testosterone is anabolic which means it stimulates tissues to grow. The thymus gland is the center of cellular immunity and is also a source of immunoglobulins.  In childhood the thymus gland is stimulated by growth hormone, and after puberty it is stimulated by testosterone. The thymus gland requires testosterone to remain healthy in adult hood, normal sized and active.  As we age, the thymus shrinks and becomes inactive, due to decreasing testosterone.  As the thymus gland shrinks it no longer protects a person from infection or autoimmunity. The shrinkage of the thymus gland is the basic anatomical and physiologic reason people who are over 60 get cancer, deadly viral illnesses and die of infections that would not kill someone younger. Men and women who replace testosterone in a non-oral bioidentical way maintain their healthy immune system as long as they take testosterone.

Testosterone is also an immune modulator. If a person has adequate testosterone and the immune system is over-reacting, testosterone decreases the reaction and therefore decreases the autoimmune response.  This is protective for those people who genetically or environmentally are at risk for autoimmune diseases. SEE THE EXCERPTS FROM RESEARCH STUDIES BELOW.

“Specifically Testosterone’s  impact on the immune system is, on aggregate, anti-inflammatory. Specific mechanisms include: (1) lower secretion of IL-1β, IL-6, TNF, and other pro-inflammatory mediators by monocytes and macrophages; (2) increased production of anti-inflammatory IL-10 by T cells and (3) inhibition of the NFκB-mediated activation of the IL-6 gene promoter in human fibroblasts, and of T cell proliferation in animal models.”

Hundreds of studies have confirmed the importance of keeping the level of testosterone at a healthy youthful normal to avoid and treat autoimmune diseases, even though every study I read says, “there is insufficient research to confirm the replacement of inadequate testosterone to avoid and treat autoimmune disease.” I find that ludicrous!  I did a Google Scholar search and found hundreds of recent (last 10-15 years) research that confirms the importance of testosterone replacement to the treatment of autoimmune diseases, and it only took me 15 minutes to find these articles! What are they researching to say there is not enough research?

I am attaching some of the excerpts from these research articles.  In my next Blog and Health cast I will discuss my personal experience with treating autoimmune diseases with testosterone pellets in women and men with autoimmune diseases. The fact is that I have personally witnessed autoimmune disease regress under the influence of testosterone, so my patients can return to their productive lives.

It is a mystery to me that when there is one effective, affordable treatment for all autoimmune diseases, that the FDA prefers to advocate many very expensive immune suppressants that have severe risks, rather than approve one bio-identical hormone to treat them all.  I look for other motivations. It’s usually “money honey” that is the cause of illogical actions by the powers that be. Would it be big profit of big pharma, or the fact the FDA hires folks who previously worked for big pharma and still hold their stock? Sadly, the FDA decisions affect more than just the US, their decisions ring throughout the whole world. Our FDA’s mistakes are multiplied worldwide and should be rectified!   The simplest answer is usually the right one. Everyone over 40 with an autoimmune disease should be treated with non-oral, non-transdermal testosterone like pellets, or IM shots (men only). The answer is one natural hormone that can reverse autoimmune diseases and reverse aging! The answer maybe too simple and affordable for them!

This Health cast was written and presented by Dr. Kathy Maupin, M.D., Bio-identical Hormone Replacement Expert and Author. www.BioBalanceHealth.com • (314) 993-0963. Please subscribe to our YouTube channel and please check “ Like “. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram at BioBalanceHealth.

RESEARCH:

Autoimmune diseases and reproductive aging

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.clim.2013.02.010Get rights and content

Abstract

As the population ages, more individuals with autoimmune diseases are experiencing reproductive senescence. Understanding the impact of menopause and age-related androgen decline on disease onset and course, as well as the potential for hormonal interventions, is critically important. In men, lupus erythematosis (SLE), rheumatoid arthritis (RA), and multiple sclerosis (MS) are associated with lower androgen levels. However, the impact of age-related declines in testosterone, as well as of testosterone replacement, on disease course remains underexplored. In women, the course of all three diseases with onset after the age of menopause differs from that with onset before menopause. Early age at menopause is associated with increased disease risk, and after menopause, disease course changes in SLE and RA. Less is known about MS. This article summarizes what is known about the relationship between reproductive aging and autoimmune diseases in men and women, and highlights areas for further investigation.

Highlights

► Men with SLE, RA and MS may have lower testosterone levels than healthy controls. ► Early age at menopause increases risk for SLE and RA. ► After menopause, SLE and RA disease severity and progression changes; no investigations in MS. ► Onset of SLE, RA and MS after menopause confers a different course than onset before menopause. ► Hormone replacement therapies may not play a big role in altering disease course.

CLINICAL REUMATOLOGY: HYPOGONADISM AND THE RISK OF RHEUMATOID AUTOIMMUNE DISEASE. JUNE 2016

NOTE: TRANSMEN ARE GENETICALLY XX FEMALE

TRANS WOMEN ARE GENETICALLY XY MALE

Abstract

Testosterone deficiency has been linked with autoimmune disease and an increase in inflammatory markers, such as C-reactive protein (CRP), tumor necrosis factor, and interleukin-6 (IL-6). However, no large-scale longitudinal studies have examined this association. We examined whether untreated hypogonadism was associated with an increased risk of rheumatic autoimmune disease in a large nationally representative cohort. Using one of the nation’s largest commercial insurance databases, we conducted a retrospective cohort study in which we identified 123,460 men diagnosed with hypogonadism between January 1, 2002 and December 31, 2014 and with no prior history of rheumatic autoimmune disease. We matched this cohort to 370,380 men without hypogonadism, at a 1 to 3 ratio, on age and index/diagnosis date. All patients were followed until December 31, 2014 or until they lost insurance coverage or were diagnosed with a rheumatic autoimmune disease. Cox proportional hazards regression was used to calculate adjusted hazard ratios (aHRs). Untreated hypogonadism was associated with an increased risk of developing any rheumatic autoimmune disease (HR = 1.33, 95 % CI = 1.28, 1.38), rheumatoid arthritis (HR = 1.31, 95 % CI = 1.22, 1.44), and lupus (HR = 1.58, 95 % CI = 1.28, 1.94). These findings persisted using latency periods of 1 and 2 years. Hypogonadism was not associated with the control outcome, epilepsy (HR = 1.04, 95 % CI = 0.96, 1.15). Patients diagnosed with hypogonadism who were not treated with testosterone had an increased risk of developing any rheumatic autoimmune disease, rheumatoid arthritis, and lupus. Future research should further examine this association, with particular attention to underlying mechanisms.

——————

JCI Insight

. 2025 Apr 22;10(8):e184544. doi: 10.1172/jci.insight.184544

Testosterone affects female CD4⁺ T cells in healthy individuals and autoimmune liver diseases

Lara Henze ¹, Nico Will ¹, Dakyung Lee ¹, Victor Haas ¹, Christian Casar ^1,2, Jasper Meyer ¹, Stephanie Stein ¹, Franziska Mangler ¹, Silja Steinmann ¹, Tobias Poch ¹, Jenny Krause ¹, Johannes Fuss ³, Johanna Schröder ⁴, Alexandra E Kulle ⁵, Paul-Martin Holterhus ⁵, Stefan Bonn ^6,7, Marcus Altfeld ⁸, Samuel Huber ^1,9, Ansgar W Lohse ^1,9, Dorothee Schwinge ¹, Christoph Schramm ^1,9,10,

PMCID: PMC12016935  PMID: 40260919

Abstract

Autoimmune hepatitis (AIH) and primary biliary cholangitis (PBC) are autoimmune liver diseases with strong female predominance. They are caused by T cell–mediated injury of hepatic parenchymal cells, but the mechanisms underlying this sex bias are unknown. Here, we investigated whether testosterone contributes to T cell activation in women with PBC. Compared with sex- and age-matched healthy controls (n = 23), cisgender (cis) women with PBC (n = 24) demonstrated decreased testosterone serum levels and proinflammatory CD4⁺ T cell profile in peripheral blood. Testosterone suppressed the expression of TNF and IFN-γ by human CD4⁺ T cells in vitro. In trans men receiving gender-affirming hormone therapy (GAHT) (n = 25), testosterone affected CD4⁺ T cell function by inhibiting Th1 and Th17 differentiation and by supporting the differentiation into regulatory Treg. Mechanistically, we provide evidence for a direct effect of testosterone on T cells using mice with T cell–specific deletion of the cytosolic androgen receptor. Supporting a role for testosterone in autoimmune liver disease, we observed an improved disease course and profound changes in T cell states in a trans man with AIH/primary sclerosing cholangitis (PSC) variant syndrome receiving GAHT. We here report a direct effect of testosterone on CD4⁺ T cells that may contribute to future personalized treatment strategies.

Keywords: Autoimmunity, Hepatology, Immunology

Keywords: Autoimmune diseases, Sex hormones, T cells

We here report a direct effect of testosterone on CD4⁺ T cells that may contribute to future personalized treatment strategies.

Introduction

There is increasing interest in sex- and gender-related differences in immune responses. Whereas females show better control of viral infections, they are generally more prone to develop autoimmune diseases (1–4). This partly relates to sex, as determined by the sex chromosomes, for example via selective X-chromosomal inactivation (5, 6). However, sex hormones also directly or indirectly contribute to the regulation of the immune system (7). A substantial role in modulating the immune system has been described for 17-β estradiol (E2). The effects of E2 on immune cells varies depending on factors such as the concentration, the specific immune cell type, and the context of the immune response. Low concentrations of E2 have been associated with proinflammatory immune responses, whereas high concentrations of estrogens have been reported to be antiinflammatory and to augment Th2 responses and humoral immunity (8). Immunomodulatory effects have also been demonstrated for androgens, and testosterone has been shown to suppress the activity of immune cells, leading to immunosuppression. Thus, testosterone has been demonstrated to reduce proinflammatory responses of macrophages and to suppress extracellular signal–regulated kinases and leukotriene formation in neutrophils (9, 10). It has also been shown that healthy female mice have higher numbers of ILC2 cells in multiple tissues and that they can be modulated by testosterone (11). In murine-derived splenocytes, testosterone reduced the production of proinflammatory cytokines such as IL-1, IL-6, and TNF, while potentially increasing the production of antiinflammatory cytokines such as IL-10 in antigen-specific stimulated CD4⁺ T cells (12). Little is known about the effects of androgens on T cells in humans, but lower CD8⁺ T cell and higher CD4⁺ T cell frequencies, and specifically a higher frequency of circulating Treg, have been described in cisgender (cis) women compared with cis men (13, 14). Moreover, in serum from men with androgen deficiency, higher concentrations of proinflammatory cytokines and higher CD4⁺/CD8⁺ T cell ratios were reported (15–17). Notably, lower serum levels of testosterone were reported for autoimmune diseases, including systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), multiple sclerosis (MS), and rheumatoid arthritis (RA) (18, 19). So far, it is unclear whether those effects might contribute to T cell regulation in autoimmune diseases.

___________________-

Clinical Immunology (2013) 149, 251–264

a v a i l a b l e a t w w w . s c i e n c e d i r e c t . c o m

C l i n i c a l I m m u n o l o g y

w w w . e l s e v i e r . c o m / l o c a t e / y c l i m

REVIEW

Autoimmune diseases and reproductive aging

Partners Multiple Sclerosis Center, Department of Neurology, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School,

Boston, MA, USA

Received 8 January 2013; accepted with revision 11 February 2013

Available online 28 February 2013

KEYWORDS

Multiple sclerosis;

Systemic lupus

erythematosus;

Rheumatoid arthritis;

Menopause;

Andropause;

Hormone replacement

therapy

Abstract

As the population ages, more individuals with autoimmune diseases are experiencing reproductive senescence. Understanding the impact of menopause and age-related androgen

decline on disease onset and course, as well as the potential for hormonal interventions, is critically important. In men, lupus erythematosis (SLE), rheumatoid arthritis (RA), and multiple

sclerosis (MS) are associated with lower androgen levels. However, the impact of age-related declines in testosterone, as well as of testosterone replacement, on disease course remains

underexplored. In women, the course of all three diseases with onset after the age of menopause differs from that with onset before menopause. Early age at menopause is associated with

increased disease risk, and after menopause, disease course changes in SLE and RA. Less is known about MS. This article summarizes what is known about the relationship between reproductive aging and autoimmune diseases in men and women, and highlights areas for further investigation.

© 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved._______

1/26, 7:12 AM Sex hormones and autoimmunity – ScienceDirect

Immunology Letters

Date: 6 September 2010

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Review article Full text access Get rights and content

Review

Sex hormones and autoimmunity

Delia Almeida González a b a a

, Buenaventura Brito Díaz , María del Cristo Rodríguez Pérez ,

Ana González Hernández a c c d a c e

, B. Nicolás Díaz Chico , Antonio Cabrera de León

Show more

View PDF More actions

Abstract

Autoimmune diseases occur more in women than in men, and this may be attriutable to the role of estrogens. Androgens promote autoimmune diseases with a profile of type 1 cytokines, h as rheumatoid arthritis, whereas estrogens promote autoimmune diseases with a type 2 cytokine profile, like systemic lupus erythematosus. Both androgens and estrogens regulate the Th1/Th2 balance. Type 1 autoimmune diseases are improved when decrease type 1 cytokines (i.e. during fasting), or when there is a rise in type 2 cytokines (increased estrogens, as in pregnancy). Type 2 autoimmune diseases improve when type 2 cytokines are diminished (decreased estrogen, as in post-partum period) or when type 1 response is stimulated.

Keywords

Autoimmune diseases; Sex hormones; Th1/Th2 balance; Cytokines; Systemic lupus

Erythematosus

The post Autoimmune Diseases and Testosterone appeared first on BioBalance Health.

I’m 71 years old, healthy and active, and my patients often ask me what I do, and have done, to stay healthy. Just for the record, I don’t advise my patients to do anything more than I do to continue my own healthy aging.  The recommendations I include in my consultations with my patients I include advice on a healthy diet, exercise, nutrition, supplements, achieving ideal weight and avoidance of toxins.  It is my belief that no patient should take advice from a doctor who doesn’t follow the same advice as they give their patients.

An important experience solidified my current belief back in 1983. I vividly remember the moment that changed how I felt about the role of physicians own behaviors in their ability to heal their patients.   In the 1980s there was a push for physicians to recommend smoking cessation to all of their patients.  I was a resident in OBGYN and I remember the day I got on an elevator with a group of male cardiologists.  The doors closed and they all lit up cigarettes!  All I could think of was how hypocritical they were, and how hard it must be for their patients to take their advice!

So ever since, I have followed my own advice and share the methods that work for me, always adjusting them to the needs of specific patients.  Leading by example is an old-fashioned concept but it works! I try to follow specific preventive lifestyle choices: I replace deficient hormones, maximize the nutrients in my foods and supplements, exercise with weights regularly, keep my mind active with word puzzles and my practice, just to name some of my strategies. So, I thought I’d dedicate one healthcast to the things I believe to be important life choices that can help we humans avoid disease as we grow older.   This is my personal recipe for disease avoidance and productivity at any age. Every Item I list is important and they all work together to keep me healthy.  They will work for you as well.

1. Estradiol and Testosterone Replacement with Pellets When Our Hormones Fail

First and foremost is the replacement of the youthful sex hormones (Estradiol and Testosterone) with BioBalance Pellets, when our ovaries fail us.  Sex hormone replacement is the most important factor to prevent the diseases and symptoms of aging.  Retaining healthy youthful levels of sex hormones is the foundation of all preventive medicine and antiaging treatment. I started taking Estradiol and Testosterone pellets when I was 47 when my ovaries were removed and I abruptly began to age rapidly in every way.  Replacing both hormones literally saved my life and inspired me to take care of other women who lost their hormones from surgery or with menopause and to create BBH.  Now at their request I take care of my patients’ husbands.  I am 71 and will take my estradiol and testosterone pellets until I leave this life!

2. Weight Training and Stretching

I started lifting weights when I was a resident in OBGYN to make me strong enough to deliver babies, move patients on to the operating table and to stand in the operating room for hours.  At age 27 I started regularly lifting weights and by doing a circuit of Nautilus machines every other day.  I began   working out with a trainer 2-3 times a week at Fitness Edge when I was 32. It was where I could receive specific attention to the areas I needed strengthened to do my job. Thirty-nine years later I am still working out with my trainer, Cassie, at the same facility. My husband joined me in my workouts 10 years ago and he has added Pilates to his repertoire.  He is 75 and has 19% body fat.  Weight training is vital to maintaining muscle mass, bone mass and mobility as we age.

Stretching before and after exercise is very important, and even more important as we age. Ligaments and joints get tighter as we age and that puts stress on these vital parts of our body. Doing a stretch almost every day in the morning is a habit I try to follow, and you should too!

3. Achieve MY Ideal weight.

We now have 2 miraculous drugs for treating weight gain that our misdirected American diets have caused.  The medications Ozempic, Wegovy, Mounjaro and Zepbound have brought both my husband and me to our ideal weights and kept us there. Every disease of aging is brought about by obesity: Diabetes, Heart disease, autoimmune diseases, and inflammatory diseases of all kinds that can occur with age.  We no longer crave sweets, carbohydrates, or drink more than one glass of wine.  By achieving my ideal weight (115 lbs/ 22% body fat) is key to my health.

4. Supplements are essential to augment the American diet. We sadly have less nutrition in our food than our parents did. We need to add appropriate supplements, vitamins, minerals, electrolytes, and Probiotics to stay healthy in our environment. My mother believed in vitamins, and I have taken vitamins since I was 5 years old, handfuls of them! I didn’t appreciate them, but now I do. I believe in focused supplements—individualized to each person.  Only a few supplements apply to almost all of us: Pro-Sporbiotic (Mega) to normalize the gut bacteria, neurotransmitters, our immune system and our emotional neurotransmitters serotonin and dopamine are all made in the small intestine by our symbiotic bacteria.  The second universally needed supplement is a combo: Vitamin D3+Vitamin K2 for every system in the body and the protection from cancer, heart disease, dementia and autoimmune diseases.  Other supplements should be chosen for your specific needs.
5. My Diet is fresh, high protein, low carb, low preservatives. I eat Raw vegetables or a salad every day, and a balanced high protein diet. Human muscles require animal protein..humans are omnivores and I rarely can take care of a vegetarian who is well nourished.
6. Deep Tissue Massage weekly

John and I have had a weekly deep tissue massage for the past 20 years.  This cures our aches and pains, relieves muscles spasms so they don’t become something serious. Relaxing tight muscles prevents joints from being pulled out of line and prevents chronic pain.  It is a fact that as we age our connective tissue, ligaments and tendons get tighter and are more likely to snap, tear, and shred. Massage helps stretch those tissues out and maintains proper anatomy.

7. Prayer/Meditation

I have a running discussion with my God throughout my day. I realize that I can do nothing without Him and his power through me. Being humbled by His power keeps me centered and an open conduit to His healing power.

8. Loving the Job You Do No Matter What It Is!

You may think of me as an OBGYN doctor, a Hormone Doctor, or an antiaging doctor, but you don’t know what I have done in terms of the various jobs I did before becoming a doctor.  I loved babysitting as a teen, but I needed to make money for high school and college, so I got other jobs…..and I loved every job I did and gained something from everyone.

I was a waitress, which made me very good at fast thinking and taking orders in medical school. It was fun to work for tips and to make people happy.  I was a Kelly Girl—a secretary, receptionist—which was a difficult job for me, but it helped me learn to do three or 4 things at once, and I loved it!  My next job was a photo model for petite clothes and a voice model on the radio…I could mimic cockney “British” accent and Pepi La Peu “French” and I did the voices on the radio.  That was my most lucrative per hour job and it was fun!  I learned about radio, TV and advertising and expanded my view past science and medicine.

In 1973 I worked for the KC Royals in PR for the summer giving tours and escorting VIPS around the stadium.  It was mostly boring, but I learned how Major League Baseball Teams work and I forged friendships with TV and Radio personalities, players from all the teams, and the owners, the Kauffman’s (team owners).  I gave out awards on behalf of the team during the All-Star Game that year (1973) and became friends with Johnny Bench.

Guest relations was my second job that same summer at the new Worlds of Fun. I learned a lot about diffusing the unhappiness of unsatisfied guests, which set me up for tolerating unhappy patients and other doctors as a physician.

My first job in medicine was when I got a job at KC St. Luke’s Hospital as a respiratory therapist.  I gave breathing treatments to patients with lung disease, and I learned I wanted to work at the other end of the body….I had seen enough phlegm!  My life lesson there was to learn how the hospital worked and what the various jobs were of those folks who weren’t doctors or nurses.

Then I went to med school and learned so much more!  Being happy with every job you do no matter how minor and learning something from every experience is vital to mental and physical health.

9. Skin and Body care at BioBalance Skin

Your largest organ is your SKIN and you only get one chance to make the right decisions when caring for it!  There is no going back.  I made many mistakes born out of hubris…I thought since I had tan, Italian skin, I would not wrinkle or get skin cancer….. I didn’t know about the damage the sun does, and no one used sunscreen when I was young.  Because of that I have been fighting my way back trying to fix the damage to achieve healthy skin.

What I have learned is that you have to care for your skin from the inside out, and the outside in.  Taking collagen, and proteins for your skin building blocks is key to supplying skin cells that are always being made in the dermis.  The tightness of skin requires Vitamin D, Vitamin K, Vitamin C and A both inside and applied to the surface.

Exfoliation regularly removes the dead skin for you can bring forth the new cells and care for them.

Removal of the sun and environmental damage done before you were 18 requires lasers and Moxey light therapy, microneedling, or other resurfacing techniques. This is not a one and done, but ongoing treatment like brushing your teeth.

The last enemy is gravity and the laxity of skin as we age.  These forces can only be remedies by using fillers, Botox and something called EM Sculpt that stimulates the growth of facial muscles and connective tissue to tighten the skin and hold up your face against gravity.

Yep, I do all that, and more to the aging skin of my body!

10. Routine Testing to Prevent and Diagnose Diseases of Aging

I get my routine blood tests, mammogram, and now bone density tests.  I check by body composition on our InBody machine to make sure my muscle mass is adequate and not shrinking.  The Gallery Cancer Screening is something I do yearly to let me know if I will have cancer in the next year.  The genetic test for the best foods to eat help me make choices in my diet and supplements.

11. Avoid microplastics and insecticides by making informed choices in every area.

Stop cooking on Teflon (I got a titanium skillet), don’t cook in plastic, or store food in plastic that can leech microplastics into your body. Use glass if possible. Avoid chemicals in cleaning solutions and change to washing detergent without scent or chemicals that are contaminants and will be stored in your body’s fat.

The only sure ways to remove toxins from your body include drinking green tea every day, take probiotics, drink only filtered water, take NAC to clear out the liver, sweat every day by exercising, sit in a red-light booth, if possible, to sweat out toxins and activate your mitochondria.

Everybody is a unique human, and I am sharing because I have been asked so many times what I do to keep healthy….over 70 years you learn what works and what doesn’t.  My understanding of medicine years of medical practice gives me an advantage as to what REALLY works to keep one healthy.

The post Dr. Maupin’s Health Recipe appeared first on BioBalance Health.

What we call AGING is basically the destruction of our vital tissues and the loss of immunity as we age.  Think about it: Bone loss (osteoporosis), sarcopenia (loss of muscle mass), a shrinking brain (dementia), poor or inability to fight viruses, bacteria and cancer cells with the aging immune system, accumulation of plaque on the arteries are all conditions that don’t generally occur in people under 40.  They are all signs of aging that lead to severe disease conditions that lead to disability and death.

So, what happens after 40 that breaks our body down and makes it unable to protect itself?

The TRIGGER is a total loss of TESTOSTERONE and ESTROGEN in women before and at menopause, and a constantly lowering of TESTOSTERONE production in men.   It is a simple concept to understand…we were built to self-destruct after we stopped being able to procreate!  Our sex hormones (estrogen and testosterone) are necessary for us to maintain a healthy and productive body! When they stop being produced by the ovary and testicles, we begin to self-destruct!

Why don’t you get this important information from your doctor?

We doctors were taught to handle emergencies, and acute medical diseases extremely well.  That means we can handle well established chronic disease (diabetes, heart disease and dementia) after they were well under way.  We were NOT taught to prevent the diseases before they start!  American medicine leads the world in sick care, and we are dead last in preventive care!

So, I am here to give you the truth about prevention of disease as you age.

The facts that follow are not just my opinion from 46 years of practicing medicine and 23 years of providing preventive testosterone and estradiol to aging patients, everything I will tell you today is backed by solid scientific research.

Aging is a multisystem progressive disease that can be slowed so that aging is not filled with disease and pain.  There are many systems of the human body involved in aging and responsive to estradiol and testosterone replacement with pellets. Let’s start with the most obvious sign of aging, osteoporosis and muscle loss.

The visual sign of aging is one that is obvious when observing people in a nursing home or …on a cruise. The obvious visible signs are kyphosis or a “humpback”, slow gait, muscles and skin that hang off the arms and legs, poor balance and frequent falling, or when severe, the inability to walk. However, I don’t want you to progress to these irreversible skeletal and muscle aging endpoints. So….what can you do?

If you are female and menopausal or have had your ovaries removed at any age, then you should know where you stand with your bones and muscles. If you are male and have low testosterone that is unreplaced or have been on steroids for any period of time you need to be tested to find out where you stand.

The two tests you should get are a Dexa Bone Density test, and a Body Composition test, to test your bone strength and your muscle mass.

I recently checked my Dexa bone density at an advanced center called SHERO in St. Louis County. The results of my Dexa scan are shown here. Most of my bones are those of a premenopausal woman because I have never been without estradiol and testosterone, starting replacement at 47 when my ovaries were removed. My lifestyle work and hormone pellet replacement, twice weekly work out with weights, supplements, and high protein and low carb diet have paid off.

However, you cannot prevent everything.  My genetics plus lifting heavy patients onto the operating table and in the office, caused me to have scoliosis and that slowly destroys vertebrae in my lower back.

I would recommend that every post-menopausal woman find out where she stands in terms of her bones. My consultation with at SHERO told me that the strength of my bones was due to my weight training twice a week at FITNESS EDGE with Cassie, plus 24 years of estradiol and testosterone pellets.  I knew that, but it was reaffirming to hear it from another physician.

The second test that is necessary is the Body Composition test to determine if muscle mass is healthy and sufficient to assist with putting tension on the bones to strengthen them. A Direct Body Composition is a very accurate test of how much fat, muscle, and bone there is in a person’s body.  Because we have an electronic body composition machine, I compared the two and our measurements were equal to the direct body composition, yet it was very affirming to see the results matched.

No matter who you are or what you have thought or been told about your bones and muscles, you need both radiologic evaluation and replacement estradiol and testosterone in pellet form to achieve an adequate bone density.

If you are normal, then congratulations!  Yet time will whittle away at your bones and muscles if you don’t support them with non-oral testosterone and estradiol, and lifestyle changes.

Let’s talk lifestyle… the DIY you can do on your own:

1. Weight training exercise is the most important activity you can do for your muscles and bones. Aerobic exercise is good for your heart, but it is not the answer for preventing osteoporosis, and muscle loss. Either exercising with weights, rubber bands or even your own body weight will improve muscle mass and bone mass, but you also have to feed your muscles!
2. Eat a diet high in protein, preferably animal/fish protein/ number of grams of protein equivalent or higher to at least half your weight in pounds, every day.
3. Eat calcium rich foods which usually are whey, cream, milk products, cheese, yogurt. Supplements with calcium generally do not help the bone but deposit all over the body.
4. Vitamin D, K, C and Minerals magnesium, selenium, and zinc are necessary to support bone growth.
5. Stretching before and after exercise is the only way to prevent complications of exercise induced muscle spasms.
6. Avoid smoking, alcohol, fast food, preservatives and pesticides.

I want to address the medications often given to patients for treatment of osteoporosis. Only if you can’t take hormones then these medications are the next best thing, but they have many side effects that bio-identical non-oral hormones don’t have.

Achieve ideal weight with diet exercise, or Zepbound or Wegovy if necessary. This will take the strain off your joints when you are exercising and reduce the strain on your heart.

Aging well is not easy, but the outcome is a long life lived independently and without physical disability. Protecting your healthy bones and muscles is the first step.

The post Are Your Bones Thick and Your Muscles Strong? appeared first on BioBalance Health.

What is the Lifetime progression of the immune system?

When we are babies we are born with the immunity that our mothers give us for the first 3-6 months, however our own immune system has not kicked in yet, so we tell new mothers to keep babies at home and to avoid crowds before 3 months of age so they don’t get every virus and bacteria out there. After 3-6 months the immune system of a baby cranks up, and the Thymus gland, the source of T killer cells, T helper cells, and antibodies= our immune system becomes very active.  The thymus gland sits behind the breastbone (sternum) and is very large in babies compared to the size of the chest.  The thymus’s job is to help a child live through exposure to all the viruses and bacteria in their environment. Growth hormone is the hormone that supports the health of the thymus gland in childhood.

After childhood the thymus gland shrinks slowly, but progressively until age 40 when it loses its powerful ability to recognize and kill invaders.  The hormone that supports the Thymus in adulthood, is primarily testosterone as well as Growth Hormone to a lesser degree.  Both start a downward path, and the thymus shrinks and becomes less protective. If we don’t replace testosterone, our immune system tanks following the drop of testosterone.  The incidence of all diseases that depend on the protection of the immune system, start to increase as testosterone drops with age.

If the immune system is stimulated by Testosterone to be more active, then why does do we need Testosterone to treat autoimmune disease age 40?

The immune system is held in balance by GH/and activity of the thymus gland in childhood and by testosterone in adulthood.  Testosterone is both an immune stimulator and an immune modulator….Testosterone stimulates the production of immune cells and antibodies if they are low, but it also keeps and overactive misguided immune system from attacking the body itself.  Loss of T destabilizes the immune system and genetic mutations in cells can’t be stopped, or re-targeted by  the immune cells, without testosterone.

One of my most interesting reads is a book called Lies Your Doctor Told You. I don’t agree with all of what the author writes, however his read on cancer and autoimmune disease is correct: An unhealthy immune system is the real cause of cancer and autoimmune disease.   His other statement that I agree with is that Testosterone is necessary as we age to protect our immune system from failing and that I agree with. Over the next decades mainstream medicine will slowly be more aware of these facts and doctors will be trained to treat testosterone deficiency to prevent future disease.

This Health cast was written and presented by Dr. Kathy Maupin, M.D., Bio-identical Hormone Replacement Expert and Author. www.BioBalanceHealth.com • (314) 993-0963. Please subscribe to our YouTube channel and please check “ Like “. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram at BioBalanceHealth.

The post Is disease and disability in your future? appeared first on BioBalance Health.

If you keep getting sick, you have an autoimmune disease, precancer or cancer, listen up!  Your immune system is to blame!  You most likely have an unhealthy or aging immune system. Our immune systems age and become suboptimal over age 40, and become literally incompetent after age 60.  Women’s immune system starts to fail they reach 40.  Men have an extension but their immune system tanks after age 50.

The most important factor influencing the health of your immune system after age 50 or 60 is your free- testosterone (the active form of testosterone).  The falling level of free testosterone occurs at the same time as the increase in number of autoimmune diseases, cancer, viruses and bacterial infections. In other words, a person’s falling free Testosterone triggers the aging of the immune system, and the immune system decreases every year after 40.

Now don’t freak out because if low free T causes a lack of normal immune function, then replacing testosterone in the bio-identical form is the only way to regain a healthy immune system.   So, we can’t turn back the clock, but we can care for our immune system in several ways that help us avoid the diseases that follow poor immune function: autoimmune diseases, viruses, pneumonia, and cancer.

Some of my friends (who are over 60 and some over 70) always seem to have a cough, a sinus infection, and viral illnesses.  They blame it on their grandchildren bringing them viruses from daycare…..but in reality, they have been exposed to viruses throughout their day forever, but they didn’t get sick when they were younger (when their own kids brought home the same viruses) until their defense system started to fail with aging.

Luckily this has not continued because most of my friends are aging in a healthy fashion because they receive T pellets with me and BioBalance Health.  They got an extension of their immune protection with the first testosterone pellet treatment.

Let me answer a question before it is asked. How can testosterone replacement increase the immune systems activity to fend off communicable disease and cancer, when it also decreases and regulates the overactive immune system of patients with autoimmune disease.  TESTOSTERONE IS AN IMMUNE MODULATORY in the youthful body and it can only be replaced with bio-identical non-micronized T pellets to recreate the same immune modulation.

AI is confused about the immune benefit of replacement of T because the majority of the studies about T replacement was done with testosterone cypionate injections which are not the same as our own T or T pellets and do not provide immune protection!

With the immune system, as with all things, nothing lasts forever.  The protective effect doesn’t always extend the protection from testosterone stimulated immunity for our whole life, even though it is the most effective factor, it is not the only factor that affects the immune system.

The things you cannot control that interfere with immunity. They include:

• Genetic based cancers,
• Toxins in our environment,
• Chronic infections like Lyme disease and long-term Covid infection,
• Severe stress that increases our cortisol and decreases the effectiveness of our immune system
• Drugs for some diseases result in an impotent immune system (current treatment of autoimmune diseases)
• Severe depression or anxiety fights with the immune system
• Gut disease that lowers the immune support from the intestinal bacteria
• Cancer treatment that lowers the ability of the immune system to work properly except against the cancer they are fighting eg radiation therapy.

But I am here to tell you about the things You CAN control to extend the health of your immune system by changing your lifestyle:

• Certain supplements,
• Whole foods diet-no fast foods, processed foods
• Daily exercise for an hour
• Treat your obesity—it is the biggest factor that suppresses your immunity by causing chronic inflammation
• Stop drinking Alcohol
• Stop smoking both cigarettes, cigars, and marijuana
• Stop fluorinated water intake

Isn’t your healthy life in the future worth some organization and work now? I doubt you want to spend the rest of your life in doctor’s offices, but if you don’t take care of your immune system you will!

Let me digress here to tie this to something you may have noticed in your experience…

• Breast Cancer peaks starting mid 40s…Breast cancer is a failure of your immune system to kill the cancer cells that normally occur every day in every woman… The loss of testosterone increases the incidence of breast cancer.
• Prostate cancer begins to increase in men after 55, the exact age when the male immune system becomes deficient in free-testosterone.
• Autoimmune diseases occur in women starting in the 4^th decade in women, at the same time as T deficiency occurs.
• Autoimmune disease occurs in men after 55 when male testosterone drops below ideal levels.
• After age 60 both men and women not on testosterone need more help for their immune systems. Evidence that the mainstream medicine knows that is that we are given more potent immunizations than people under 60.

I can go on and on about our risk of disease raising after middle age, but if you have lived you have seen yet not understood why this happens.

This Health cast was written and presented by Dr. Kathy Maupin, M.D., Bio-identical Hormone Replacement Expert and Author. www.BioBalanceHealth.com • (314) 993-0963. Please subscribe to our YouTube channel and please check “ Like “. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram at BioBalanceHealth.

The post Are you Sick of Being Sick? appeared first on BioBalance Health.

In the last 6 months the FDA has reversed its stance on women and estrogen replacement (ERT and HRT).  I have been waiting for the FDA to SEE THE LIGHT for 23 years since the WHI study was publicized and misinterpreted. The WHI study stated that women who took estrogen had a higher rate of breast cancer and heart disease.  That lie has been brought into the light and we now know that estradiol is required for health, including a healthy heart after menopause!

The WHI caused more than 20 years of menopausal women were told to avoid estrogen replacement for many reasons, but in fact were lied to and they increased their risk of heart disease and breast cancer by NOT TAKING estrogen!

Today we are going to talk about Estradiol and preventing heart disease.  For the record I want to state the truth about ERT protecting women from heart disease.   The studies I base my discussion on were conducted before, during, and after the 2002 (WHI) study. However, the FDA published that one study that damned estradiol and cost millions of American women’s lives by banning women from receiving the comfort that ERT provides from treating hot flashes, night sweats, and painful intercourse. Last of ERT set women up for collecting plaque on their arteries that causes heart disease.  Now the FDA admits its mistake but only after millions of women have been damaged by getting heart disease that was preventable with ERT.

I have been replacing estradiol in multiple delivery systems for 40 years, since 1985, and my patients rate of heart disease is very low! I have delivered Estradiol in pellet form and watched cholesterol and inflammation (the 2 key risk factors for heart disease) fall after starting treatment for 3 months.

But estradiol is not the only path to a healthy heart. Lifestyle changes are the most effective method with the poorest compliance of all heart disease preventive measures! So what is the secret?  Exercise 3x a week for an hour each time, to daily is recommended. Eating a low carb (NOT LOW FAT) diet with plenty of fresh fruit and veggies, lean meat, fatty fish and no processed food.  Watch your alcohol intake!  4 oz of wine daily is the max for alcohol consumption that will not cause your heart risk to increase. Supplement your diet with medical grade supplements specifically for lapses in your dietary intake.  Achieve ideal weight for your height!

For premenopausal and menopausal women Testosterone is necessary to keep your heart healthy.  Your heart is a muscle somewhat like your other muscles and it needs testosterone to pump effectively.  After menopause, we have NO TESTOSTERONE and we need it replaced when we replace our estradiol!

Achieve your ideal weight by cutting out all sweets!  Heart disease and cancer LOVE SUGAR!

Now what not to do!  Statins like Rosuvastatin, and anything ending in -statin, HAVE NEVER BEEN TESTED ON WOMEN BY THE FDA!  Before 2014 any drug that passed the FDA and is currently available  was only tested on men! Statins have many side effects in men, but they cause severe body aches, joint aches, muscle wasting as the primary side effects in most women.  It is over prescribed!  Women should ask for something else if they have familial high LDL cholesterol (not just Total Cholesterol), had a heart attack, or have a high plaque load on Cardiac Calcium Scan.  If an LDL in women is less than 130, it is normal and safe.  Women usually have high HDL cholesterol which is protective, so the same rules don’t apply to women as men with high LDL cholesterol.

Let me tell you what the indications for taking a statin include: 1. Familial high cholesterol with multiple family members dying of heart attacks, 2. Previous heart attack or cholesterol blockage 3. Severe diabetes which increases plaque that causes blockage of the arteries.

Statins are not for asymptomatic people who don’t have plaque on their Cardiac. Calcium Scan!

Statins should not be used to prevent heart disease that has not already started accumulating plaque.  The risks outweigh the benefits in that situation. If you have a Cardiac Calcium Scan and have a score of zero then you should not be taking a statin!

Do you know how statins work?  They go directly to your MITOCHONDRIA inside your cells and impair the activity of the intracellular powerhouse you have in each cell!  We spend a lot of money on stimulating our mitochondria because it reverses aging and improves our health.  Why would we use a drug that blocks the function of the mitochondria?????  Because the FDA tells us to?  They have consistently lied to us in the past.  Why would we listen to them about this very important disease and the risky drug they put us on?

So what is your take-away message?

1. If you are menopausal, it is not too late to start estradiol…the age limit on starting estradiol is fiction! Don’t let it stop you!
2. Get a $99 Cardiac Calcium scan to see if you have plaque!
3. Change your lifestyle as I have suggested above.
4. Achieve your ideal weight…we have meds that can now help you do that successfully. They may change your life!
5. Supplement the voids in your diet with supplements that are specific to you.
6. Have your blood tested for everything once a year including you estradiol, free testosterone level, Estrone, Lipid panel, Metabolic panel, HS-CRP, Homocysteine, ferritin by an integrative medicine or preventive medicine doctor who will help you prevent disease before you must treat it!

This Health cast was written and presented by Dr. Kathy Maupin, M.D., Bio-identical Hormone Replacement Expert and Author. www.BioBalanceHealth.com • (314) 993-0963. Please subscribe to our YouTube channel and please check “ Like “. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram at BioBalanceHealth.

The post Statins, Hormones, and Heart Disease appeared first on BioBalance Health.

I have been talking about the nutrition one needs to stay healthy and age without inflammation and disease for the last 3 Health casts.  It is true that whatever you put in your body is either fuel (Carbohydrates) or building blocks (Protein/Fat) for all the tissues in the human body, or toxins such as alcohol, nicotine, other toxins and heavy metals or microplastics.

Of course, you already know that we need Energy(fuel) and the Building Blocks for body tissues, in our diets, but you also need Vitamins, Minerals, and Trace Elements which are called Micronutrients. These nutrients are Integral to Your Health. Your body CAN’T make micronutrients.  They must come from your diet or be taken as supplements if you want to achieve health, and fight disease.

If you are diagnosed with a disease like cancer, diabetes, heart disease, or autoimmune disease, then you should use supplementation and food with a purpose. You need specific micronutrients to just stay alive, but more of certain supplements can fight or prevent certain diseases.

Take supplements daily, and routinely and only take supplements containing micronutrients that you know can help your health and help you live longer.

Don’t do this:

I have patients who think they are healthy, but who put their supplements in a cabinet and daily pick randomly which supplements to take. They buy MANY (> 12) supplements and sometimes take multiple supplements that do the same thing. This can lead to excessive levels of a micronutrient. Worse yet they don’t know why they are taking the supplements that are either recommended or self-purchased on the internet.  In our practice at BioBalance Health® we give every one of our patients a list of their supplements that tells them why they are taking them. For those patients who ignore our advice on the supplements they need, I say you should not expect the best results when it comes to aging and being healthy if you don’t follow our recommendations. Many supplements we use instead of a prescription.  Forgetting is not an excuse.  Put them in a pill organizer and that way you can’t forget!

Be smart and take supplements that are recommended to you EVERY DAY to treat or prevent the disease or condition that you have! If we recommend a specific brand of supplement, do not substitute!!!!  Many cheap versions of supplements on the internet have nothing in them or worse yet contain harmful chemicals.

At Biobalance Health® we recommend the most effective Medical Grade supplements, so you actually get what you buy!

Now you know that you need Micronutrients, what do they provide for you?

1. Micronutrients support energy production: Without them you can’t efficiently produce energy in your cells.
2. Build and maintain Healthy Bones: Vitamin D, Vitamin K, Vitamin C, Magnesium, Calcium, and Phosphorous are essential for maintaining bone strength and density. Of course, the hormones are necessary
3. They Strengthen the Immune system to prevent and assist in treatment of Cancer and Immune disorders. Vitamin A, C, D and minerals like zinc and selenium have a role in treating and preventing cancer, and treating immune deficiency, autoimmune diseases. They work in concert with the hormone Testosterone to improve the immune system.
4. Micronutrients support the growth and development of enzymes, and hormones needed for normal growth and renewal of every tissue in the body.
5. Maintain Fluid and Electrolytes: Micronutrients such as sodium, chloride, potassium, regulate fluid balance, and Magnesium and Calcium make nerve impulses, and muscle contractions.
6. Blood Formation and Clotting: Iron is necessary for making red blood cells. Vitamin K is required for blood clotting.
7. Protect the cells from damage and help repair damaged cells:
   Antioxidants Vitamin C, A, E and D help protect the cells from aging and DNA damage.

 What are the symptoms people get when they don’t get enough micronutrients in the diet or supplements?

• Cognitive Dysfunction—loss of memory, Dementia, Alzheimer’s Disease
• Fatigue
• Osteoporosis (see above)
• Sarcopenia (muscle wasting)
• Cancer
• Neurologic disease- Lack of B12, D, Selenium, Zinc
• Autoimmune and Immune diseases
• Heart Disease
• Gut dysfunction

Here are some vitamins and micronutrients necessary for everyone to stay healthy:

• Vitamin D (5,000 miu per day)– cancer, heart disease, cognitive dysfunction (Dementia)
• Vitamin K supports bone growth, blood clotting, skin collagen thickness
• Vitamin E supports the breast, skin, prevents cancer and supports brain health.
• Vitamin C is necessary for immune function, strong bones, supports skin and hair collagen
• Vitamin B12 (methyl B12) – cognitive dysfunction, multiple sclerosis, and chromosome breaks (Cancer), neurologic diseases, peripheral neuropathy from alcoholism.
• Folate (menthol folate) – repair chromosome breaks and treats and prevents several cancers, dementia, prevents peripheral neuropathy of all kinds.
• Thiamine – brain dysfunction and diabetes
• Ames B. N. (2006). Low micronutrient intake may accelerate the degenerative diseases of aging.
• Biotin- Promotes hair growth and skin tone
• Iodine-Protects the thyroid gland, stimulates the production of thyroid hormone, protects the breast from breast cancer.
• Magnesium Glycinate and Threonate – prevents cancer, hypertension, osteoporosis, sarcopenia (muscle loss) diabetes, Prediabetes and the metabolic syndrome. Treats hypertension and gut disease such as constipation.
• Calcium in your food, not a pill – prevents chromosome breaks which cause cancer and diabetes. It also treats osteoporosis and supplies the muscles for strength.
• Selenium – prevents cancer
• Zinc – 50 mg/day for prostate cancer
• Iron – anemia, immune dysfunction, poor cognitive development, dementia
• Omega-3 fatty acids – prevents heart disease, melanoma, other cancers, cognitive dysfunction
• Probiotics/Sporebiotics are not actually a micronutrient, yet they supply the gut with the bacteria that support our immune system and produce the neurotransmitters that are needed to prevent depression, ADD, and other neurologic and psychiatric diseases.

If you want to know more about micronutrients you can become a BioBalance Health® patient or subscribe to Life Extension Magazine or go to Life extension.com.

This Health cast was written and presented by Dr. Kathy Maupin, M.D., Bio-identical Hormone Replacement Expert and Author. www.BioBalanceHealth.com • (314) 993-0963. Please subscribe to our YouTube channel and please check “ Like “. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram at BioBalanceHealth.

The post Cancer, Disease, and Your Diet appeared first on BioBalance Health.

Your diet affects your inflammation and in turn determines how fast you age. It’s a simple concept that the fuel that goes into your body determines how well your body runs and in turn how healthy you are.

But what’s a healthy diet?

Now let’s talk about diet.  There are many opinions about what a “healthy” diet consists of, and there are genetic factors that make a particular diet better for one person, and not as healthy for another, so I will try to present the basic diet that is good for most people in the US and Europe.  Why do I say that? Because that is where I practice medicine and the genetic melting pot in the US is primarily European.

Let me give you an example of a difference between genetically European vs Asian people when it comes to diet.  The one food that is key to the Asian diet is SOY.  Soy has slowly infiltrated the American diet as a thickener or filler in almost every food. Asians genetically thrive on soy, but most European genetic people have a disconnect with soy that causes inflammation and gut disease.

If you have your genetic diet done at my office with a test called Nutrigen, most Europeans will have soy on their “do not eat list”. This one food that is so good for one human is not necessarily good for another. A second example would be the differences in ideal diet for A and AB blood types versus O and B blood types.  A and ABs are the only people who can successfully tolerate a “plant based diet”. The other two blood types (O and B) that make up over half the world cannot be healthy on a plant based diet and they must eat animal products including meat, eggs and milk products to be healthy.

You see this is a complicated subject, and one that doesn’t lend itself to following trendy diets and recommendations by Instagram and Facebook. I will direct this Blog to known facts about inflammatory foods that affect most people.  If you want to know exactly what to eat for you specifically, then getting a genetic test like Nutrigen to sort out the foods that are not recommended for you! Many of my very smart patients proudly describe their diets as healthy but are unaware of the effects of the additives and preservatives that are contained in them that make them both inflamed and sick. For instance, a 52 year old woman came to her first appointment, and her blood work revealed a high inflammation marker (HS-CRP over 3.0) and she was 50 lbs. overweight and had Prediabetes.  I went over her daily diet found it filled with simple carbs that she thought were healthy…well maybe for a skinny 20 year old who runs every day, but not for a sedentary menopausal woman with a blood sugar and obesity problem.  Here is what she told me.

She started her day with instant oatmeal which is VERY high in added sugar and simple carbs and doesn’t contain protein.  She added some nuts, but that is not enough protein to make an impact to balance her sugar load.  This is not the way Americans who are overweight and prediabetic or diabetic should start their day.   Sugar in any food increases insulin resistance, suppresses the immune system and increases the risk of autoimmune diseases, immune suppression and most of the diseases of aging!

Every night she had brown rice (both white and brown rice are the highest glycemic food other than pure sugar). No one who is overweight should eat rice. The big lie is that rice is healthy, but it is not for non-Asians.  It is the sole reason all my female Indian patients born in India who are married to doctors in the US are obese.  Their diet is based on rice at every meal, and they won’t give it up.  Sugar increases inflammation even if it is in the form of simple sugar food!

Diet Coke/Diet anything stimulates insulin and contains a variety of chemicals that make a person sick and inflamed.  Diet soda is a bad choice due to the preservative chemicals and type of “sweetener-chemical” they contain. Diet soda fills your body with toxins and additives. If it says Diet, don’t believe it! Just another false advertising scheme is the label “Low fat”….ok, the government told us low fat was the way to go for 30 + years but they lied. Anything labeled low fat is high in carbohydrate or you would never eat a second bite!  Low fat means inflammation so steer away from those foods.

Fast Food is the worst thing we can eat because it is filled with chemicals that make them tastier, make us hungrier to eat more and contain microplastics and chemicals that alter your metabolism to make you hungry, fat…and inflamed!

So now you have learned what you should stop eating so what can you eat?

If you have inflammation and want to save yourself from aging and being disabled as you age, then lower your risk with your diet, and to do that you must become an expert in food…it should be fresh or frozen whole food (vegetables, fruit, meat, and or milk products without soy) containing the fewest additives you can find. Start the day with protein (free range eggs generally don’t have additives) and include a protein at every feeding.  and very low in grains. Red meat and chicken is good for us if fat is cut off to remove toxins. Fish should be eaten 2-3 times a week.  Yes, I get that some fish have heavy metals but if you don’t eat fish out of a can you can avoid a lot of them.

Milk contains a lot of carbohydrate, but whole milk in small doses is much better than low-fat milk, which has no redeeming qualities and is equivalent to “sugar water”…if you tolerate milk, buy organic whole milk, and limit yourself to a cup a day. Anything bought in the center of the grocery store is not going to help your inflammation and prevent disease. Shop around the outside of the store. Fill your grocery basket with:

• Fresh or frozen fruit (3 servings a day)
• Only Fresh and Frozen veggies and at least one serving of raw vegetables daily (e.g. salad).
• Grass-fed Beef only, and cut off the fat
• Meat for sandwiches should not be “cured” or processed. Make sandwiches with slicked turkey or ham that is not cured.
• Olive oil daily (1 Tablespoon) and use it to bake and cook.
• Chicken without antibiotics and without the skin (that is where the toxins are)
• Lean ground beef or ground chuck (remove the fat)
• Fish at least 3 x q week (not canned tuna, or other canned fish)
• A salad a day keeps the bacteria in your gut happy and helps your neurotransmitters and decreases inflammation.
• Salad dressing: creamy or balsamic vinegar and olive oil
• No low-fat foods! They contain carbs and chemicals to make them tasty.
• No soy unless you are Asian
• No whole wheat. Eat only Sour Dough Bread if possible.
• Pasta should be made from semolina flour only, not whole wheat (that is what they cook pasta within Italy)
• Make your own pizza with semolina flour dough to avoid additives.
• Honey is sugar so less than a teaspoon a day with a protein meal is advised.
• Half and half or whole cream in your coffee, no fake creamers.
• Even low carb creamers have dangerous chemical additives.
• Apple Cider Vinegar is ok if you like it, but Basaltic vinegar is made from grapes and is equivalent or better as salad dressing.
• Avoiding sugar and sweeteners improves and balances your gut bacteria and decreases inflammation, and inflammaging.

The take-away message is that to avoid inflammation we should not eat processed foods with chemicals and additives.  Fresh cooking with organic foods, if possible, including meat, fish, chicken and turkey, cheese, milk products, fresh vegetables and fruit, no sugar added, cook with olive oil if possible and no seed oils. Honestly you will gain health and prevent the diseases of aging if you follow these tenets.

The post Your Diet Affects Your “Inflammaging” appeared first on BioBalance Health.

Inflammaging is a condition that refers to the chronic, low-grade inflammation that contributes to the aging process and the development of various diseases. While inflammation is a necessary physiological process that helps heal acute injuries, chronic inflammation can be detrimental. It breaks down muscle, bone, brain, joints, and collagen in the skin, leading to diseases.

Inflammaging is the condition that is the mechanism that causes humans to age, and to become ill.  Inflammation is a necessary physiologic process that is helpful to heal acute injuries, but when it is chronic (affects the body all the time) it breaks down muscle, bone, brain, joints, collagen in the skin and results in diseases such as dementia, arthritis, Alzheimer’s, all autoimmune diseases, joint damage necessitating replacement, osteoporosis, diabetes and heart disease leading to pain, disability and an early death.

There are several causes of chronic inflammation and most of them are not factors that an individual can alter:

• Aging
• Injury
• Viral illnesses
• Physical Stress
• Psychological stress
• Air contamination
• Toxins in our water and food

However, there are many factors that a person can alter to change their trajectory heading to disease and disability.  You may be saying wait, how do we measure inflammation to see if I am at risk?  The easiest way is to have a blood test called a Highly Sensitive CRP. If it is below1.0, you are safe and don’t have chronic inflammation at this time.

If your result is 1-3 you have smoldering inflammation that over time will destroy your healthy tissue and cause your heart to collect atherosclerosis, and your brain to form neural plaque that is the beginning of Alzheimer’s Dementia.

If your test result is over 3 you already have a serious problem that may reveal a disease process already in progress: autoimmune diseases, heart disease, vascular damage, diabetes and kidney disease, cancer and many other diseases of aging.

What can you do yourself to avoid or treat this inflammation problem? There are a few obvious lifestyle changes you can make and supplements you can take.

Your Plan to Reduce Inflammaging:

1. Daily exercise for one hour every day
2. Stop smoking
3. Stop drinking more than the equivalent of 1 oz of alcohol a day.
4. Drink filtered water.
5. Drink 2 cups of coffee every day—not more or less
6. Take a multivitamin with methyl B12 and methyl folate.
7. Take Vitamin D 5,000 miu/day
8. Take Curcumin 800 mg 1-3 times a day. Our Dim product also has Curcumin in it.
9. Take Magnesium 400-800 mg/day.
10. Everyone needs SporeBiotics (Mega Sporebiotics) to repair your gut with healthy bacteria…you also must eat some type of raw veggies every day to feed the good bacteria that keep you healthy, and not inflamed.

Other preventive treatments will require a physician to order tests, meds  and treatments.

1. As soon as your Testosterone decreases (when you are symptomatic) replace testosterone with non-oral pellet therapy. Testosterone lowers inflammation!
2. As soon as you are in menopause replace your Estradiol with bioidentical pellets.
3. Lose weight and achieve your ideal body fat level of < 26% for women and <19% for men. Your doctor will help you with the new medications we have that help you achieve your goal. Fat causes inflammation all by itself so if you do everything else and are obese you will not cure your inflammation.
4. Treat your insulin resistance/ or diabetes with Metformin ER  or GLP-1 meds to keep your blood sugar normal, and lose weight
5. Treat any thyroid or hormone deficiencies which cause increasing inflammation.
6. If you have a joint that needs to be replaced, don’t wait…the longer you are walking around on an inflamed knee, the worse the damage that will be done by inflammation. Get it fixed!
7. If you have had cancer or have it now, cancer is spread in people with inflammation. Clean up your lifestyle and diet right away.

Now let’s talk about other Alternate therapies that can improve your immune system and decrease inflammation.

My favorite is Red light therapy: You can sit in a redlight spa, or put a red-light mask on, or one on your head to help your hair grow or sit in front of a redlight daily before bed.  Red light stimulates your mitochondria to make energy in your cells, which makes your metabolism works more normally.  It repairs cells and improves the surveillance that your immune system does to kill cancer cells on a daily basis.

Weekly Massage is stimulating to your immune system, improves the ability of your lymph system to get rid of toxins, and relaxes muscles and the body in general which is a way to decrease stress.

Get a good night’s sleep! Sleep is critical for cellular repair and containing inflammation.  Whatever you have to do to get a restful 7-8 hours is what you should do…listen to Brain Waves is an app that puts you to sleep, to deep and restful sleep.

Meditation and Yoga helps release stress and decreases inflammation. Exercise that is not extreme decreases stress and inflammation.  Extreme exercise can make stress worse in increase inflammation. These are just a few of the methods of lowering inflammation that can cause us to age and get diseases that we could have prevented. I think prayer is important… it is a good way to stay grounded and let your stress be transferred to God so you can get some rest!

In future healthcasts I will be providing you with the best foods to eat to prevent inflammaging, and you can take control of your health through the foods you choose.

The post Inflammaging, what does it mean? appeared first on BioBalance Health.

Estradiol, is the essential, necessary hormone of women, sometimes called the “female hormone”. It is produced in the ovary prior to menopause and is the primary feminizing hormone women make. A normal blood level for cycling, fertile women is betwee 60-250 pg/dl.  The perfect blood level for each woman is unique, and controlled by genetics, age, health, and amount of exercise the woman does.

After menopause estradiol is no longer secreted from the ovary, and the ovary dies and shrinks. The ceasing of estradiol secretion from the ovary triggers the two stimulatory hormones, FSH and LH to rise. LH and FSH are responsible for the symptoms a woman experiences secondary to a lack of estradiol: hot flashes, night sweats, a dry vagina, painful intercourse, vaginal infections, bladder infections, weight gain, insomnia, thinning hair, thinning skin, inability to think and arthritis. At the time of menopause, the LH and FSH are rising and causing most of these symptoms.  I view LH and FSH as the check engine light that tells a woman that she needs to age in a healthy way and to maintain quality of life for the following 40-50 years.  Without it aging is speedy and diseases accumulate.

After menopause it is important to get a woman to the blood level of estradiol where her symptoms of estrogen deprivation are gone! 

With many franchised hormone pellets offices springing up all over I think it is important to know 2 major things about taking estrogen:

1. Every woman is unique and needs a customized dose of estrogen to bring them back to feel like they did at 35.
2. It takes a very well-trained doctor to customize estrogen dosages to each woman, and formulas or the “same size fits all” never works.

So why am I talking about this?

I am speaking about a hormone pellet practice that treats menopausal women with estradiol pellets.  I spend a lot of time determining an Estradiol dose for each new patient, and even then, there is a little trial and error involved.  Trying a dose of Estradiol pellet and talking to a woman about her symptoms (are hot flashes gone, is intercourse now comfortable?) and having the time to answer questions in a consultation is necessary to get a woman on the right estradiol dose!

You need to be aware of the nuances of hormone replacement.  We are not all the same, different genetics and different body types, different races, not to mention diets, lifestyle choices and diseases. The type of estrogen, the delivery system for the estrogen and the dose must be determined by a skilled hormone specialist.  Everyone else has a smaller repertoire of choices and doses.  You deserve to receive the accurate, unique dose of estradiol.

Estrogens are not the same either…the biggest differences are:

• What they are made of
• The delivery method
• Dosage
• How often you have to take it

Bio-identical hormones are made from yams, Premarin is made from horse urine!  Other estradiol products are made from chemicals in a pharmaceutical company.  I always choose bio-identical as it is the most effective and with the least amount of side effects.

Delivery method that I choose is pellet because it is most like the ovaries.  The estradiol is delivered to the blood directly, with being broken down by the liver before it is available to work.

Transdermal, creams and patches must go through the skin and most of the good estradiol is changed into the aging estrogen, estrone, that makes women gain weight and feel badly, instead of better.

Oral delivery changes the pellets into other chemicals by the stomach acid and liver breakdown. The factors that affect which estradiol is best for your unique include:

• Your premenopausal estradiol levels
• Your testosterone level
• Your genetic makeup
• The receptor sites located on all your cells
• Your activity (more requires a higher dose)
• Speed of liver breakdown of your estrogen

Replacing estradiol with a pill, patch, cream usually requires much trial and error and often you don’t feel completely better because there are some parts of your genetic makeup we don’t have a test for.

Think of estradiol as a plug, and your receptor sites are the receptacle.  If you have the wrong plug for the receptacle you can’t plug in and the way you feel based on your dose is blunted….

Replacing estradiol with pellets when in the hands of a skilled hormone specialist is the best method.  95% of my patients feel completely better after the second dose (4 months).

Replacing Estradiol with a pellet requires knowing:

• What the perfect target blood level is for an individual patient
• The dose of an estradiol pellet to get to that level and keep it there for 4 months.
• The weight and body fat of a patient determines how much estradiol a woman needs…bigger (taller) and fatter women need more than smaller and thinner women)
• The factors that cause pellets to dissolve in the fat faster or slower than is usual-exercise, amount of fat, genetic activity of the fat
• Amount of exercise a week
• Other hormones that can affect the estradiol blood level
• The medications that affect the breakdown of estrogen in the liver
• Genetic mutations that can cause high and low estradiol levels

Those are the factors a doctor can learn to determine the first dose of estradiol.

There are some factors we can’t measure that affect how a woman feels on estradiol.

• How easily estradiol sticks to a woman’s receptor sites- genetically determined. Some women take a small amount of E2 and it is enough because their receptors attach easily to the estrogen.
• How fast the liver will break down estradiol. Alcohol, multiple drugs and smoking increase the rate of breakdown..but we can’t know how fast!

It is my experience that women need their hormone, testosterone, replaced with estradiol.

At BioBalance we replace both in menopausal women and they feel better in 2-3 weeks and ideal in 4 weeks.  Please don’t waste your time training a doctor through trial and error. Come to a doctor who has experience with pellets and who can give you the unique dose that you need to be healthy and happy.

This Health cast was written and presented by Dr. Kathy Maupin, M.D., Bio-identical Hormone Replacement Expert and Author. www.BioBalanceHealth.com • (314) 993-0963. Please subscribe to our YouTube channel and please check “ Like “. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram at BioBalanceHealth.

The post Estrogen: Why One Size Doesn’t Fit All appeared first on BioBalance Health.