Dr. Gordon Reynolds spent thirty years in obstetrics and gynecology and then returned to school to get a PhD in nutrition. His interests today lie in reproductive endocrinology, and he is a sought-after speaker on the lecture circuit. He is currently part of the faculty at the Green Valley Spa in Utah.
SS: Let’s talk about the effects of stress on aging.
GR: We’ve accelerated our lives considerably. We’re in a state of constant compulsive thinking about making money, obtaining more things materially, and trying to do so many things—a state of turmoil that almost creates a collective disease. Stress is responsible for the majority of the processes we experience. Stress increases cortisol levels, which, in turn, can interfere with hormonal balance and inhibit thyroid function. In a postmenopausal woman or even in a premenopausal woman, usually the progesterone has already dropped out. Stress speeds up this process. In fact, 50 percent of women over thirty-five are no longer producing adequate progesterone. That may or may not influence testosterone or DHEA, but as soon as progesterone drops out, the rest of her hormones are now imbalanced.
SS: You obviously feel that stress is a major factor in today’s world, and it interferes with our hormonal system. I require enormous amounts of estrogen to think straight, and I believe in mimicking normal physiology, meaning having a period. If we need estrogen and progesterone in balance, or in the correct ratio, shouldn’t we try to achieve the same balance we had at our strongest and healthiest?
GR: It depends upon the individual. If she requires more, then we replace more. But I differ with you in that I don’t demand that a period occur if all the criteria are met. However, if a woman wants a period, if it makes sense to her as it does to you, then we can make that happen with bioidentical hormone replacement.
The reason I feel so strongly about replacing hormones is that I didn’t start at sixty-four, I started much earlier. When I speak to a group, I say, “Let’s draw a line down the middle of the board, fifty on this side and fifty on the other. Let’s look at the things we did when we were younger and what your hormone balance was then.” I show how DHEA peaks at twenty-five and then fizzles out at 2 percent a year, then testosterone drops off, and then progesterone stops production.
Then we look at the other side, and I ask what we can learn in these next fifty years from what we garnered from the past. If you understand that your peak health was in your reproductive years, can we safely increase these hormones by keeping them in balance on the other side of the fence without problems? I say we can. It’s been shown. There have been enough studies by the antiaging society medical groups and enough published worldwide literature to say that this is not hazardous.
Twenty-five percent of all women go through menopause pretty well; another 25 percent have a terrible time; and 50 percent are just all over the board. Those who go through it well, without a lot of stress, are the ones who have a good nutrition and exercise program in place.
Interestingly, most women in third world countries don’t have a problem with menopause. It’s not even in their vocabulary. Most of them don’t have hot flashes or any of the typical symptoms. What’s the difference? Stress!
SS: So American women who are trying to be everything are paying a price?
GR: Absolutely. You’ve got to get off the treadmill. It’s killing us. By contrast, we have more than fifty thousand people in this country who are over a hundred years old. When asked the secret of their longevity, these people say that it is attributable to a good diet. Moreover, the ones who lived the longest are insulin-sensitive; they have not had insulin resistance. In addition, they have a very positive outlook—they don’t think negative thoughts—and they are consciously positive.
Some of them might say staying away from doctors and hospitals (laugh). In actuality, the third or fourth common cause of death in this country is iatrogenic.
SS: Meaning?
GR: Induced by surgery or medicine.
SS: That’s scary. So it goes back to diet and lifestyle?
GR: Absolutely. Hormone imbalance is a very significant factor, which is why women should be having hormone panels done in their mid-thirties for the first time. Men should start at forty. But the number one factor is diet. Without a good diet, you get insulin resistance, type 2 diabetes, and all the problems that accompany these conditions. When I started practicing back in the 1950s, we were prescribing diets high in carbohydrates and low in fat. That kind of diet can lead to these conditions. It’s very tragic, and physicians played and continue to play a part in this.
SS: Don’t get me started; I have written several books on that subject. It all started when President Dwight Eisenhower had his heart attack in the 1950s. His doctor put him on a low-fat, high-carb diet, and that turned the tide to become the trend.
GR: The American Medical Association says that 50 million people in the United States have coronary artery disease. The sad thing is, heart disease is preventable, but it’s hard to get that across.
SS: You and I both agree that bioidentical hormones are a big missing piece of the health puzzle. Why is it so difficult to get the rest of the doctors to come along with this thinking, and how long is it going to take?
GR: Having been a physician for fifty-five years, I have certainly seen how slowly it does change. I believe it will take another twenty-five years for this concept to be accepted. It will take a long time because there is a kind of animosity toward physicians who follow the bioidentical protocol.
The thinking is: How dare you do something different? But it’s really fear of criticism by their peers, so the majority of doctors go along with the “standard of care.”
But you must have hope. I attend meetings that combine alternative and functional medicine. The discussion of menopause and bioidentical hormones is a topic of discussion. So slowly, it’s happening.
I also see the pressure put on the doctor by the patient. Patients are standing up and saying, “Hey, Doctor, I want more of an answer.”
SS: A lot of the women I have interviewed talk about estrogen dominance, bloating, and inability to lose weight, water, and fat. Explain estrogen dominance.
GR: It’s the loss of balance with progesterone. Estrogen is a growth hormone; it’s also an excitatory hormone, so it’s responsible for insomnia and many of the mood changes as well, whereas progesterone is a very calming hormone that balances it.
The number one reason I would see patients as a gynecologist would be women in their forties complaining about weight gain in their lower abdomens. They were exercising and eating well but still gaining weight.
That, of course, was a major clue. It just told me that they were not producing progesterone anymore. They had estrogen dominance. It’s not being in balance—and, of course, estrogen likes to put on fat in the middle area. But more important, estrogen dominance inhibits thyroid. It inhibits the conversion of thyroxine, or T4, to T3 at the cellular level. T3 is by far the most potent of the thyroid hormones, and it’s seldom checked. Even when it is checked, it’s not that accurate, but it does give us a clue if we check.
The tiredness women experience, plus the fat deposition, are both probably due to a change in the thyroid as well. You know hormones all work together; if one hormone is off, then they are all off.
SS: Let me ask you again: Doesn’t cycling make sense?
GR: Absolutely, cycling. I just don’t necessarily subscribe to the fact that menstruation has to occur. That would depend upon the patient. During perimenopause or early menopause, the amount of estrogen needed to build the endometrium may be enough to have a period, and that’s fine because we’re using progesterone on a fourteen-day cycling basis. So if there is an increase in the endometrium, it will slough off at that time.
As time goes on, you continue to produce estrogen either from the ovaries or the fat cells, and studies go all the way up to eighty years of age that some women may still have enough estrogen. And if progesterone is in balance, it will enhance the receptor sites.
You don’t have to have as much estrogen to build the lining of the endometrium to make the brain feel good. I don’t think it was intended that way. I mean, when we didn’t have any medicines and women went through menopause, I don’t believe they were intended to fall apart.
SS: Yes, but we didn’t live as long as we do today. This long life is no fun without quality of life. What about the antidepressants prescribed for stress and anxiety? Most woman my age are on some kind of antidepressant.
GR: I don’t like them. I have never prescribed them, and I won’t prescribe them. A big problem in medicine today is the HMO. A doctor is given approximately eight minutes per patient. What can you do for a patient in eight minutes except write a prescription? That’s the kind of medicine we are practicing today. A prescription mill. Doctors no longer have time to sit down with their patients to find out what’s really going on.
The system is not working. I hope it has hit bottom, but I don’t know how it is going to straighten out. We have the government handling our health. I don’t know any agency in the government that is really helping people.
SS: What do you tell audiences in your lectures?
GR: To take responsibility for your own health and challenge whatever your doctor tells you to do. Verify and feel comfortable with what he or she is prescribing. When doctors have only eight minutes per patient, they have no time to make new discoveries or make changes. Doctors learn more today by reading lay magazines!
The reason I’m still doing at my age what I am doing (I’m eighty years old) is that it isn’t happening with the doctors. They don’t have the time. When I first started my practice, I talked to my patients and taught them how to stay healthy. Very few doctors do that anymore.
For instance, men need to know that testosterone levels are dropping about a decade earlier than they used to. Coronary heart disease is associated with low testosterone levels; it’s not just erectile dysfunction and libido. To stay healthy, a man has to have adequate testosterone levels. If estrogen dominance is an issue, then he may get cancer of the prostate, because that is likely to be caused by the estrogen rather than the testosterone. But who is going to tell people in the community these things when the doctors are too busy? This is why I say you’ve got to take responsibility for your own health.
How do you educate everybody? When you get hooked on sugar, how do you get off it? You can’t eat sugar every day and be healthy. Sugar should be a treat, a reward. There are some school systems that are taking junk food out of the school cafeterias. They are trying to educate kids in school, but it’s a drop in the bucket. But that is where it has to start, because I don’t think enough parents are into this. Parents are so busy that a good many of them really aren’t paying attention until something happens. I mean, 40 percent of today’s meals are eaten in restaurants and fast-food takeouts.
We have so many health problems, from bacteria overgrowth to inflammation to acid reflux, I’m hearing more and more about esophageal cancer probably as a result of acid reflux. Our whole medical system is in a big mess.
But I see little signs of hope. If people are educated and exposed to the new information, they will want it. Little by little, step by step, we’ll get the information out, and change will happen. This is what I dream about.
SS: Thank you for your wisdom.
DR. REYNOLDS’ TOP FIVE ANTIAGING RECOMMENDATIONS
1. The number one factor in managing health is diet. Without a good diet, you get insulin resistance, type 2 diabetes, and all the problems that accompany these conditions.
2. Testosterone levels are dropping about a decade earlier than they used to. Coronary heart disease is associated with low testosterone levels; it’s not just erectile dysfunction and libido. To stay healthy, a man has to have adequate testosterone levels. If estrogen dominance is an issue, then he may get cancer of the prostate, because that is likely to be caused by the estrogen rather than the testosterone.
3. As for menopause, those who go through it well, without a lot of stress, have a good nutrition and exercise program in place.
4. Women should be having hormone panels done in their mid-thirties for the first time. Men should start at forty. This is a different world.
5. Take responsibility for your own health, and challenge whatever your doctor tells you to do. Verify and feel comfortable with what he or she is prescribing.