Bombshell: Explosive Medical Secrets That Will Redefine Aging (24 page)

JW:
Correct. For men, testosterone is the major hormone, along with perhaps needing some DHEA (another hormone) and thyroid, and in a few cases they might require some progesterone. The restoration of these hormones—particularly estrogens for women, testosterone for men—reduces the risk of Alzheimer’s disease dramatically. Frankly, I can’t think of a better reason for using bioidentical hormones than to protect our brains.

SS:
Yes, and I believe the biggest fear most people have regarding their health is getting Alzheimer’s.

JW:
In the early part of this century—not so long ago actually—researchers at Rockefeller University made some amazing discoveries. They obtained autopsies of people who had no brain disease at all, maybe died in a car crash or something like that, and they put the neurons from these people into cell cultures and grew them, also adding in all the right nutrients, but no hormones. What they observed was pretty incredible: relatively rapid accumulation of large excesses of natural substances, beta-amyloid, tau protein, and neurofibrillary tangle. These large excess accumulations are “hallmarks” of Alzheimer’s disease.

Then the researchers put what is called a
physiologic dose
(meaning the amount that is usually there by nature) of testosterone in the petri dishes with male neurons, and physiologic doses of estrogen
in the petri dishes with female neurons. What they observed was amazing: The rate of accumulation of the intracellular garbage just mentioned went down by nearly 90 percent.

SS:
What does that mean?

JW:
It means that the sex-specific testosterone and estrogen were inducing the formation of a protein that we could think of as the head of the janitorial crew that cleans up the cell. All cells take in nutrients and make waste like whole bodies do. In these cells before adding the hormones, the waste—again, in Alzheimer’s the waste is beta-amyloid, tau protein, and neurofibrillary tangle—wasn’t being disposed of properly, but with the addition of testosterone for male neurons and estrogen for female neurons, the waste was suddenly being disposed of efficiently, not perfectly, but more efficiently.

SS:
So if those neurons were actually “people,” they most likely would have contracted Alzheimer’s disease because the waste was accumulating like trash being stuffed into a garbage can, and damaging the brain? But I can hear my readers right now, “But what if I get cancer from those hormones? ”

JW:
Of course, a good question. There is evidence that bioidentical estrogen actually
lowers
the risk. As you have informed us so well in your prior books, Suzanne, bioidentical estrogen means that it is identical in every way: size, shape, molecular structure, quantity, in timing, in everything to what our bodies naturally produce. Bioidentical estrogen is associated with a lower risk of cancer than any of the phony estrogens, meaning synthetic hormones. On the male side, Professor Morgentaler from Harvard …

SS:
Yes, he is a great guy, smart guy, and he is featured in this book, another Harvard guy like you. Sorry I interrupted …

JW:
Yes, and he shows us evidence that the lower the testosterone, the higher the risk of prostate cancer for men. For years, dogma made it impossible to question the unproven theory that testosterone causes cancer. It took Professor Morgentaler to show through scientific dogma that this wasn’t the case.

SS:
And does this theory go for women also?

JW:
If they have their balance of estrogens correct, and that is key. Balancing estrogen for females is even more important than balancing testosterone for men. For women, the balance needs to be firmly anticarcinogenic, which happens when the woman’s body makes sufficient estriol greater than the quantity of estrone and estradiol, the ratio of
2-hydroxyestrogen is higher than her 16-hydroxy estrogen, and her body is making sufficient amounts of 2-methoxyestradiol.

SS:
You discovered that my body doesn’t make estriol, an estrogen that protects against cancer. That protection along with the right ratios, stay with me, of 2-hydroxy and 16-hydroxy estrogen and enough 2-methoxyestradiol is why hormones won’t give us cancer when these ratios are correct, but it takes a qualified doctor who specializes in bioidentical hormones to correctly interpret these ratios. The fact that my body for some strange reason wasn’t making estriol is most likely why I got breast cancer, and I imagine twenty-two years of birth control pills couldn’t have helped either, but that’s another story. Your making this discovery about my body has most likely prevented a recurrence.

What about the other profoundly protective estrogen you were telling me about?

JW:
Yes, that would be
2-methoxyestradiol
, which is a very, very potent
anti
carcinogenic estrogen. If the ladies out there would like to put into the search engines of their computers the number “2” sometimes they will find 2-methoxyestradiol. Every woman’s body is supposed to make this estrogen, and nearly all women’s bodies do. This natural metabolite of estrogen is such a potent anticarcinogen; for instance, if you were to have chemotherapy and took, in addition, 2-methoxyestradiol, you wouldn’t need nearly as much chemotherapy. But even all by itself it works against breast and prostate cancers. It actually works against just about any cancer you can name: blood cancers, all kinds of cancers. When taken, the cancers either regress on their own, or get better in combination with a therapeutic agent. This has been studied at a number of universities now.

A woman’s body makes 2-methoxyestradiol, and it is so potent that another researcher found it was able to inhibit fibroid tumor growth.

SS:
Are fibroid tumors then a result of a deficiency of 2-methoxyestradiol?

JW:
Yes, that would be one of the causes … adding it to an estrogen protocol has been very useful in shrinking fibroids.

SS:
So instead of surgery to remove fibroids, all she would have to do is take 2-methoxyestradiol and the fibroids regress? How long does she take it? Is it known yet?

JW:
There’s no published research on that point yet, but it likely would take years if the fibroids have been there for years.

SS:
Why do women get low in 2-methoxyestradiol?

JW:
One major reason women deplete this valuable anticancer estrogen component is stress. When we are under stress, our bodies make more cortisol and also more adrenaline. Making more adrenaline-related molecules requires more methyl groups—from methylfolate, methylcobalamine, trimethylglycine, anything in our food and supplements that contains a methyl group—so the methyl groups are no longer as available to make 2-methoxy (there’s that methyl group again) and more 2-methoxyestradiol. If stress is long and unremitting, it can open up the body to cancer because it depletes so many methyl groups to make methylated catecholamines (that’s medicalspeak for methyl groups “stuck on” adrenaline-like molecules). So 2-methoxyestradiol is made in very low quantities—those adrenaline-like molecules have preference—and 2-methoxyestradiol goes way down.

SS:
Okay, that’s a lot to grasp, but it shows you again that we are in control of not getting cancer. Managing stress is as important as eating.

Luckily for me, you found that my body doesn’t make the estrogen component called estriol, and lack of estriol is also a pathway to cancer, right?

JW:
That is correct. It’s all chemistry and getting the ratios correct.

SS:
What about young women and cancer?

JW:
The majority of young women metabolize their estrogen properly and have more anticarcinogens than procarcinogens; a minority don’t have this ratio, and these are the women who are much more likely to get cancer.

SS:
So all women should test for the right ratios, including estriol and 2-methoxyestradiol?

JW:
Yes. If bioidentical hormones are done properly and balanced properly and followed carefully with very careful testing of all the things I mentioned, plus a bunch more, then it’s a much safer path.

SS:
I mentioned cancer, so let’s talk about it. I hear over and over that women and men are afraid to take hormone replacement because of their fear of cancer.

JW:
The risk of cancer is much less if hormones are balanced properly with bioidenticals. There is also less risk of osteoporosis and fractures because bioidentical hormones build bones, plus there is less risk of heart attack and stroke.

SS:
Those are pretty huge benefits. Bioidenticals are so terribly misunderstood. I attribute my lack of a cancer recurrence (I had cancer before I was taking hormones but didn’t realize it) and my superb health, bone strength, lack of plaque, vitality, and strong libido to replacing my missing hormones all these years. I have been cancer-free for twelve years at present.

JW:
Of course, and surprisingly enough, researchers have found that the bone effect, heart attack, and stroke risk reduction are due to the same molecule in both men and women.

SS:
When you say “molecule,” you mean hormone, right?

JW:
Yes, it’s called estradiol. Estrogen protects women’s arteries and bones and so does progesterone. Recently it’s been discovered (in just the last few years) that for men when testosterone gets to the bone, it’s transformed into estrogen that builds bone strength. Testosterone is also transformed right in the walls of the arteries into estrogen and that helps combat cardiovascular disease for men.

SS:
So bioidentical hormone replacement protects against cancer, protects bones, reduces heart attack and stroke, stimulates the libido, and makes you look better … which all affects the aging process. Sounds pretty great to me.

JW:
And you already know this yourself, but the women I work with who’ve been on bioidenticals for ten years simply look significantly younger than women their same birth year who aren’t taking replacement. For women it really makes a significant difference in their appearance. It has effects all over the body; for instance, hormones stimulate collagen, which is what keeps the skin thick and prevents it from getting thin.

SS:
Thin skin is very aging.

JW:
Absolutely. It’s also important for lung health, and it literally stimulates better oxygen–carbon dioxide exchange. At the Lung Biology Laboratory at Georgetown University, some doctors (Massaro and others) have done a series of experiments with animals, and now with people, and found that the enzyme that exchanges oxygen
for carbon dioxide is stimulated to work more effectively by estrogen. Also, the gradual breakdown in the lungs that happens naturally with time and aging is slowed down by estrogen.

SS:
How is that?

JW:
You always hear when a woman is pregnant she’s eating for two, but what you don’t realize is she’s breathing for two.

SS:
And this is because of her high estrogen levels when she is pregnant?

JW:
Right; she’s got to get enough oxygen not only for her but also for the baby, especially when it gets into the second half of pregnancy.

SS:
Very interesting. Is estrogen replacement for a menopausal woman essential if she wants to stay athletically active?

JW:
Yes, if she wants to be as athletically active as she can. And here’s another thing affected by estrogen or testosterone depletion: our voices. We all know our voices change through puberty because that’s when the hormones rise dramatically. When a man or woman begins to decline in hormones, their voices change once again.

SS:
Wow. That’s true, as men age their voices get higher, and weaker, sounding old, and women’s voices get deeper, like Lauren Bacall’s.

JW:
Right, but with hormone replacement that doesn’t happen. For instance, your voice, Suzanne, sounds very, very young.

SS:
Interesting. One of my dear friends said to me recently, “You should record before you lose your voice.” I hadn’t thought of that because I’ve noticed no change in my sound. But come to think of it, older singers’ voices get deeper.

Here’s the big debate with taking bioidentical hormones correctly … Women hate to get their period back. Can you explain the importance of this natural function?

JW:
There is a five-year scientific study on this. Researchers at USC recruited women to take estrogen and progesterone together in a
cycling
fashion. The first group took estrogen and progesterone in amounts to make a period just like in nature. The other group took estrogen and progesterone in a
cycling
fashion but not enough to make a period. The first group were very brave women because they agreed to have endometrial biopsies (scraping the inside of the uterus) done at regular intervals to really examine what was going on. They also had regular breast exams.

SS:
What happened at the end of the five-year point?

JW:
To start with, no one had an abnormal biopsy, and, second,
no one had more breast abnormalities than the other group; the researchers concluded that it didn’t make any difference as long as they cycled the women, meaning giving them a three-day pause.