by Jacob Teitelbaum, M.D.
Our body’s control systems
are managed through a
series of chemical messengers
called hormones.
These hormones regulate
everything from energy production/
metabolism to reproduction.
Unfortunately, the glands that make these
hormones age as we do and many of the
chemicals in our environment interfere
with hormone function. A classic example
is DDT which, by interfering with estrogen function, almost drove the bald eagle to
extinction. Excessive stress, nutritional
deficiencies, infections and autoimmune
injury can also damage glands. In addition
to causing fatigue, pain and depression,
suboptimal hormonal function may cause
premature aging and death. Fortunately,
natural hormones and other products are
available that support hormone health—
allowing us to stay young and vital late
into life.
Types of Hormonal
Dysfunction
The hypothalamus is our body’s master
gland, controlling the activity of most
other glands in the body through the
pituitary. The effects of diminished function
of the body’s hormone levels can
include:
Low thyroid hormone. This can
cause decreased metabolism, weight
gain, elevated cholesterol, fatigue, pain
and low body temperature.
Low growth hormone. Also called
the “Fountain of youth hormone,”
growth hormone is critical for tissue
repair and is associated with looking young,
increased muscle strength and
increased vigor. Growth hormone also
stimulates production of dehydroepiandrosterone
(DHEA) and contributes
to energy levels and a general
feeling of well-being.
Decreased cortisol. Low levels of
this “stress hormone” cause immune dysfunction,
hypoglycemia and hypotension
and the tendency to “crash” in
stressful situations.
Low ovarian and testicular function.
Low estrogen can contribute to
insomnia, aging, depression and pain—as well as the well-known symptoms of hot
flashes and vaginal dryness. Low testosterone
(in both males and females) can
cause loss of libido, depression and
increased risk of diabetes and heart attacks.
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Let’s look at how you can tell what hormones
you are deficient in and how to
treat these problems easily and effectively.
Addressing each of these hormonal deficiencies,
when present, can result in dramatic
benefits. It can leave you feeling
great while allowing you to die very
young—very late in life!
GROWTH HORMONE
As we age, growth hormone levels decrease
and this contributes to our “planned obsolescence.”
Some people take regular injections
of growth hormone at a cost of
approximately $12,000 a year. Although
many excellent physicians take this
approach, I do not recommend it. Besides
the cost and the hassle of sticking yourself
with needles regularly, there is the possibility
that these injections may increase the
risk of certain cancers. More importantly,
there are easier, cheaper and more fun ways
to raise growth hormone levels. These
include:
Sleep. Growth hormone is largely produced
during deep sleep. Because growth
hormone is critical for tissue repair and
proper insulin sensitivity (two reasons why
it keeps us young), lack of sleep leaves you
looking and feeling older. This is why
insomnia often results in pain as well. The
term “beauty sleep” is in fact also quite
accurate. The elevation in growth hormone
that occurs from getting eight or
nine hours of deep sleep at night can result
in your losing weight and looking younger.
Until 100 years ago, when light bulbs were
developed, the average American got nine
hours of sleep each night. We are now
down to six-and-a-half hours a night.
Unfortunately, stress can also decrease our
ability to sleep, resulting in insomnia and
low growth hormone levels. In most
people this can be easily handled by using
herbal sleep remedies. My favorites are
wild lettuce, Jamaican dogwood, theanine,
hops, valerian and passionflower. All of
these are combined in the Revitalizing
Sleep Formula by Enzymatic Therapy.* If
you want to stay young and healthy and
raise your growth hormone inexpensively,
get at least eight hours of sleep a night.
Exercise. Growth hormone can
increase by 800 percent after an even
modest workout.
Sex. Growth hormone is increased
when you have sex. One study showed that
people who had sex three times a week
landed up looking 10 years younger than
those who didn’t because of the elevation
in growth hormone.
DHEA. Much of the effect of growth
hormone is carried out by DHEA (see
below).
HYPOTHYROIDISM—
YOUR BODY’S GAS PEDAL
The thyroid gland, located in the neck
area, is the body’s gas pedal. It regulates the
body’s metabolic speed. If the thyroid
gland produces insufficient amounts of
thyroid hormones, metabolism decreases
and the person gains (and is unable to
lose) weight. Other symptoms of
hypothyroidism include intolerance to
cold, fatigue, achiness, confusion and
constipation.
The thyroid makes two primary hormones.
They are:
• Thyroxine (T4 ), is the storage form of thyroid hormone. The body uses it to make
triiodothyronine (T3 ), the active form of thyroid
hormone. Most synthetic thyroid medications,
such as Synthroid and Levothroid, are
pure T4 . These synthetics are fine if your body
has the ability to turn them into T3 properly.
Unfortunately, many patients find that their
bodies do not have this ability. Because of this
I find that natural thyroid hormones, which
also contains active T3, usually work much
better than Synthroid. In addition, iodine,
selenium and amino acids are critical for
proper thyroid function.
THE PROBLEM WITH THYROID TESTS
Many years ago, while I was in medical school,
physicians were taught to diagnose hypothyroidism,
or low thyroid function, by using the
newly discovered method of measuring the
metabolic rate while the patient ran on a treadmill.
Doctors thought that this was a wonderful
new test and that they finally had a way
to identify patients with underactive thyroids.
We congratulated ourselves on being so clever,
but then a new test came out. The new test
measured protein-bound iodide (PBI). When
doctors began using the PBI test, we realized,
“Oh, we missed diagnosing so many people
with a low thyroid, but this new test will now
pick up everybody who has a problem.” We
patted ourselves on the back and told all our
newly discovered thyroid patients that it
turned out that they were not crazy—they just
had a low thyroid. Doctors were comfortable
that we could now determine with certainty
when someone had a thyroid problem.
Then the T4 level thyroid test was developed
and we said, “Oh, that silly old PBI test.
It missed so many people with a low thyroid,
but this new test will find everyone.” Then the
T7 test, which adjusts for protein binding of
thyroid hormone, came out and then the thyroid-
stimulating hormone (TSH) test. Modern
medicine is now into the fifth generation of
TSH tests. Current estimates are that less than
one quarter of people with an underactive thyroid
have been diagnosed and properly treated—even if they have had thyroid testing done. Even
minimal thyroid deficiencies can result in elevations
of cholesterol and premature death.
Fortunately, some doctors are finally starting
to catch on. One has to treat the patient and
not the blood test.
If you suffer from chronic fatigue, achy
muscles and joints, heavy periods, constipation,
elevated cholesterol, easy weight gain,
cold intolerance, dry skin, thin hair or a body
temperature that tends to be on the low side of normal, you should consider asking your
doctor to prescribe a low dose of natural thyroid
hormone (Armour® Thyroid). If your
doctor won’t prescribe it, you may wish to consult
one who will discuss it.** Before seeing a
new doctor, call and ask if he or she sometimes
treats people with thyroid hormone if their
symptoms show they need it, but the blood
tests are normal. As long as you do not have
underlying angina and you follow up with a
blood test to make sure that your thyroid levels
are in a safe range (going above the upper limit
of normal may aggravate osteoporosis), a trial
of natural low-dose thyroid hormone treatment
is usually very safe and may be dramatically
beneficial. In addition, if you have muscle
pain or fibromyalgia and an underactive thyroid
that is not treated (even if your blood tests
come back normal), your pain simply will not
resolve.
ADRENAL INSUFFICIENCY—THE STRESS HANDLER
Your adrenal glands make cortisol, which helps
you deal with stress. If you think back to your
biology classes in high school, you may
remember something called the fight-or-flight
response. This is a physical reaction that occurs
during times of stress. During the Stone Age,
when a caveman met an animal that wanted to
eat him, the caveman’s adrenal glands activated
multiple systems in his body that prompted
him to either fight or run. This reaction helped
the caveman survive. In those days, however,
people probably had a couple of weeks or
months to recover before facing the next major
stress. In today’s society people often experience
stress reactions every few minutes (think
of your average rush hour drive if you’re late
for work). Because of the physical and psychological
stresses of modern life, I suspect that
many people suffer from exhaustion of their
adrenal glands.
SYMPTOMS OF ADRENAL
INSUFFICIENCY
If your adrenal glands are underactive, what
might you be experiencing? Low adrenal
function can cause, among other symptoms:
- Fatigue
- Recurrent infections
- Difficulty shaking off infections
- Poor response and “crashing” during stress
- Achiness
- Hypoglycemia
- Low blood pressure and dizziness upon first standing.
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Hypoglycemia deserves special mention.
Many people sometimes become shaky and
nervous, then dizzy, irritable and fatigued.
These people often feel better after they eat
sweets which improve their energy and mood
for a short period of time. Most people with
hypoglycemia have underactive adrenal
glands. This makes sense because the adrenal
glands’ responsibilities include maintaining
blood sugar at an adequate level. Sugar is the
only fuel that the brain can use. When a
person’s blood sugar level drops, he or she feels
poorly.
TREATING ADRENAL INSUFFICIENCY
People with hypoglycemia can treat low blood
sugar symptoms by cutting sugar, processed
carbohydrates and caffeine out of their diets;
having frequent, small high protein meals; and
increasing their intake of complex carbohydrates
such as whole grains and vegetables. An
even more effective approach however, is to
support your adrenal glands directly.
Nutritional support, such as taking vitamin C
500–1000 mg/day, pantothenic acid 50+
mg/day and chromium 200 mcg/day often
helps smooth out hypoglycemic symptoms.
More directly, treating the underactive adrenal
problem with adrenal glandulars and licorice
(I recommend Adrenal Stress End by
Enzymatic Therapy) can dramatically improve
adrenal function and how you feel. Licorice
supports your adrenals. It contains glycyrrhizin,
a compound that raises the body’s
levels of the adrenal hormone cortisol. This
occurs because licorice slows the breakdown of
cortisol produced by the body.
The adrenal gland makes other hormones
in addition to hydrocortisone. Especially
important is DHEA. Although DHEA’s function
is not yet fully understood, it appears to
be important for good health. Studies suggest
that the higher a person’s DHEA level is (within
the normal range), the longer that person will
live and the healthier he or she will be. For
example, several studies have shown that
DHEA is effective against osteoporosis and may
even be more effective than estrogen. In addition,
other studies suggest that DHEA improves
cholesterol, decreases the risk of heart attacks
and diabetes, decreases depression and can
even decrease the damage done by lupus. For
many patients, in addition to long life, when a
low DHEA level is treated, the result is a dramatic
boost in energy.
From the study “Effective Treatment of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Fibromyalgia—a Placebo-controlled Study.”
Senior author Jacob Teitelbaum, M.D.
If your DHEA-S (not DHEA) level is low
(under 120 micrograms per deciliter [mg/dL]
of blood for females or 325 mcg/dL for males), I recommend beginning treatment with the
dosing used in my study. See graph above.
For women, I suggest keeping the DHEA-S
level at around 150 to 180 mcg/dL, which is
the middle of the normal range for a twentynine-
year-old female. For men, I keep the
DHEA-S level between 350 and 500 mcg/dL,
which is the normal range for a twenty-nineyear-
old male. The low ends of the normal
ranges are normal only for people over eighty.
If you use too high a dose, however, you can
get side effects such as acne, or if you ignore
the acne, darkening of facial hair. Because of
this, it is worthwhile to check your blood level
of DHEA-S and decrease your dose if it is too
high. Effective forms of DHEA (some are not)
are available without a prescription.***
LOW ESTROGEN AND TESTOSTERONE
Many people going through midlife develop
fatigue, poor libido or depression. This
includes men and women alike. Researchers
have found that if the estrogen level in females
or testosterone level in males or females is low,
a trial replacement of these hormones using
natural hormones (from soybeans) can bring
about dramatic improvement and is therefore
worth considering. An underactive adrenal
gland can also aggravate this problem, as the
adrenals make half of a woman's testosterone.
LOW TESTOSTERONE—
NOT ONLY A MALE PROBLEM
Low testosterone is associated with many
problems including fatigue, poor stamina,
muscle wasting and poor libido. In addition,
using natural testosterone to raise low testosterone
levels to mid-normal has been associated
with decreasing diabetes, cholesterol and
angina. Testosterone is critical in females as
well as males.
In many women, estrogen replacement can
also be very helpful. I suspect that most of you
have read the studies showing that taking pregnant
horse urine (Premarin) is dangerous. This
came as no shock to holistic physicians who
have been saying this for decades. On the other
hand, natural estrogen can often be used safely
and effectively. Interestingly, using estriol (the
estrogen that goes up during pregnancy) likely
decreases the risk of breast cancer.
It is important to remember to also get
optimum nutritional support. Because there
are so many key nutrients, the easiest way to
do this is to use a powdered formula. I recommend
the Energy Revitalization System by
Enzymatic Therapy. One good tasting drink
and one capsule replaces 35 tablets daily (containing
50 nutrients, including all of the ones
discussed in this article). You can stay young
and vital late into life!
Author's note:
*Revitalizing Sleep Formula by Enzymatic Therapy is available at health food stores and
www.Vitality101.com
**If your doctor won't prescribe it
(Armour. Thyroid), visit my Web site at
www.Vitality101.com for a list of over 900
health professionals, who may be open to this.
You may wish to consult one who is favorable
to the idea.
***Effective forms of DHEA are available
from compounding pharmacies, Enzymatic
Therapy, www.Vitality101.com and General
Nutrition Centers.
Dr. Teitelbaum is a board certified internist
and director of the Annapolis Center for
Effective CFS/Fibromyalgia Therapies.
Having suffered with and overcome these illnesses
in 1975, he spent the next 25 years creating,
researching, and teaching about
effective therapies. His office is in Annapolis,
Maryland (410-573-5389). He lectures internationally.
He is the senior author of the landmark
study “Effective Treatment of Chronic
Fatigue Syndrome and Fibromyalgia—a
Placebo-controlled Study.” He is also the
author of the best-selling book From Fatigued
to Fantastic! and the just released Three Steps to
Happiness! Healing through Joy. His Web site is
www.Vitality101.com
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