Fortunately, I was able tohelp her regain hormonal balance, restoring her zest for livingand ability to have a full life with her loved ones. But howmany chronically fatigued homemakers stumble through thedaily grind of the caregiver’s life, branded as hypochondriacsand failing to receive help? I’ve chosen to include Rhonda in this book because I find
something frightening in the way the medical system failed herand fails people like her every day. Here is her story: 
My medical problems began early, with pains in my pelvic
area that would get so bad I would be doubled over. My firstpregnancy was an ectopic pregnancy. That’s a pregnancy in whichthe fetus develops in the fallopian tubes, and I had to have surgeryfor that. Later I had endometriosis and went through severaloperations for that. My two sons were conceived through theexpensive and painful method of in vitro fertilization. At age 31 my whole system started taking a dive. That was
when the weight gain started. My weight had always been normal,
35but suddenly I started putting on pounds. Along with the weight
came a host of new symptoms. One was asthma. Another was acid reflux, which was very
painful, and then came a third painful condition, irritable bowelsyndrome. I developed high blood pressure and also had a kidneyinfection. These were all debilitating conditions, but the worst ofit was a new level of fatigue that hit me, that made raising mychildren a kind of daily torment. The fatigue went on all day, but it would hit me hard at
about 7 or 8 o’clock at night, at which time I just couldn’t doanything. I pretty much set my bedtime at 8 
P.M. The fatigue
made domestic chores impossible to complete. I needed to rest a lotduring the day. The messes around the house began to seem likemountains I had to climb. The kids’ demands were constant, andI lost my cheerfulness early in the day. I yelled a lot and feltconstantly irritable. Often I couldn’t face putting a big meal on the table in the
evening and cleaning up afterwards, so I’d take the kids out forfast food. (My husband didn’t come home until 8 or 9 o’clock atnight.) I was craving caffeine and sugar to give myself a lift, andI could get those at a fast food place. I felt guilty about not givingmy kids whole foods, but by the time evening came around I oftenfelt too tired to care. Luckily, I’m blessed with wonderful kidswho were aware of my problem and learned how to take careof themselves. I was just getting by as a mother, doing the bare minimum. The area where there was the most fallout was recreation andsocial activities. Once I’d taken care of the necessities, I just didn’thave the energy for anything more. My husband would take thekids places on Sundays, but I never went with them; I was sorelieved just to be able to rest and not have anyone asking me foranything. The kids got used to playing with their dad and notexpecting mom to be there.36 THE MIRACLE OF BIO-IDENTICAL HORMONES  As far as socializing with other families went, I didn’t have
what it took to prepare meals and entertain. We were isolated. Myhusband compensated by socializing with his family, who live closeby. I enjoy my husband’s family but I rarely went with him andthe kids. I just wanted to rest. I went to a lot of doctors about the fatigue. They all said there
was nothing they could do about it. Most of them were conde-scending and treated me like a child or some kind of mental case. My husband was constantly concerned about my health and
what was going on with me. Our sex life had come to a standstill.I had no sex drive. It could have been because of the 20 milligramsof Paxil that I was taking for my depression. Or it might havebeen the blood pressure medication, which I took in high doses. Orit could have been plain old fatigue. You don’t feel much likehaving sex when all you want to do is lie down and rest. What with all of my ailments and the depression and the
fatigue, I started to think my life was coming to an end. Familylife had become nothing but domestic tasks, and it seemed asthough every week my body was failing in another way. I was onmedication for depression but it didn’t help because I had this senseof impending doom. I wondered what would happen next thatwould cause me to be put on even more medication. I was unsureand frightened. One day I was talking with the therapist I saw for my depres-
sion, and she mentioned that she had some other clients who’dbenefited from going to the compounding pharmacy in PalmDesert and getting natural hormone therapy. I went there, andthey recommended I see Dr. Platt. Since I had consulted with atleast 25 or 30 doctors, I was a little skeptical about seeing Dr.Platt. But I was desperate. Soon after I went in for my intake interview, I started the
meal plan and I got off caffeine and sugar. A week later I startedtaking DHEA, progesterone, testosterone, and a T3 thyroid37 HORMONAL F ATIGUE AND RHONDA Y.   preparation. Dr. Platt told me about the Synthroid I’d been
taking for years, which previous doctors had prescribed for my lowthyroid. He explained to me that my body was unable to convertSynthroid’s T4 into T3, which is the actual thyroid hormone thatdoes all the metabolic work of the thyroid gland. Apparently I’dbeen taking Synthroid all those years, and it hadn’t been doinganything for me. My energy level increased drastically. Between the hormones,
the increase in protein, the diet in general, and the removal ofmedications that had been throwing my body off balance, I founda big difference in my ability to function. Once I had more energy, I wasn’t as grouchy or impatient as I
used to be. I was able to deal with things better both emotionallyand physically. The best part has been my ability to participatewith my family more. Whereas I used to let my husband take thechildren out while I stayed home and rested, now I can participatein family outings. Our church has volleyball twice a month, andnow I enjoy playing that with my family. We go walking andsightseeing. My children are so happy that mom can go places withthem now; I think they feel comfortable that mommy will be therewith them. Also, before, we had no social life as a family. Now we try to
have guests visit the house twice a month to eat with us. Myhusband and I go out with other couples more often. I also see hisfamily more, which I enjoy. Being able to socialize again, especially with my family, has
been so wonderful. For something so simple, it’s astonishing. THE ROOTS OF FATIGUE
Let’s talk about fatigue. It came very close to ruining Rhonda’s
home life. She went to doctor after doctor, and no one could38 THE MIRACLE OF BIO-IDENTICAL HORMONES  help her. Does that sound familiar? If it does, you’re not alone. In my practice I meet many women who go to bed exhaustedand wake up tired. They’ve lost their zest for life, and they feelinadequate to the demands of a normal life. Rhonda’s fatigue was caused by multiple factors, all of
them influenced by an imbalance of hormones. The mainsource of her fatigue was fibromyalgia—again, a very commoncondition and mostly ignored by the medical community. Animportant hormone associated with this condition is thyroid.Just getting the thyroid into balance often leads to a reductionin symptoms. Another cause of her fatigue was recurrent hypoglycemia,
which is a low blood sugar or a rapid drop in blood sugar, acondition caused by the over-production of insulin, often dueto a lack of progesterone. Any time insulin levels go up, bloodsugar goes down. When you take sugar from the brain, thebrain gets severely fatigued (many readers will note this happen-ing between 3 and 4 in the afternoon). Progesterone helps tostabilize blood sugar and often eliminates afternoon fatigue. Another cause of Rhonda’s fatigue was depression. This too
was caused by a low progesterone level, as well as the internal-ization of anger. She also had asthma, which can lower oxygenlevels in the body, contributing to fatigue. A low thyroid level by itself can cause fatigue. Furthermore,
Rhonda was on Claritin for allergies and Paxil for depres-sion—and the side effects of both drugs include weaknessand fatigue. Why couldn’t her doctors help her? As I’ve said before,
doctors are for the most part unaware of the pivotal role ofhormones in sustaining health. They simply don’t know howeasy it is to help people like Rhonda. For me, turning Rhonda’shealth around was simple: we adjusted a couple of little thingshere and there. It’s not hard to take care of patients. You just39 HORMONAL F ATIGUE AND RHONDA Y.   have to listen to them and be aware of how hormones affect
the body. Rhonda’s brand of fatigue was something I would never
have confused with chronic fatigue syndrome, which is adisease associated with fevers and swollen lymph glands. But Ithink many doctors misdiagnose people like Rhonda, treatingthem for chronic fatigue syndrome when what they actuallyhave is a simple case of unbalanced hormones. You can see howpeople like Rhonda could be labeled as having chronic fatiguesyndrome. The signs and symptoms are there, but theunderlying causes are different. DRUGS AND MORE DRUGS 
This brings up another point I will make again and again in
this book: many members of the medical community tend toover-prescribe drugs as a consequence of misdiagnosing simplehormone imbalances. Besides the anti-depressant Paxil,Rhonda was also taking Claritin, prednisone, Prevacid, andSynthroid. Each drug was causing one or more side effects, andRhonda’s body was spiraling out of control under the influenceof all of these chemicals. My first step with patients like Rhonda is to get them off
of as many medications as possible while giving them proges-terone to start the healing process. However, with some drugs,such as Paxil, usage should be gradually tapered off, notsimply stopped “cold turkey.”
Progesterone helps take away asthma, so they can soon
start weaning themselves off any asthma medications theymight be taking, too. In fact, progesterone has a significantlypositive influence on asthma in both men and women. I40 THE MIRACLE OF BIO-IDENTICAL HORMONES  suspect it is estrogen that creates asthma in many people. Keep
in mind that men and women have the same hormones. A male patient, 57 years old, who came to see me because
of weight concerns, was on four medications for asthma.When I told him that in three weeks he would be off all of hisasthma medications, he responded, “Doc, I’ve had asthma for35 years, and the Mayo Clinic prescribes my medications.” Isaid, “Watch.” Three weeks later he came into my office, satdown, and said, “Doc, you won’t believe this … I’m off all ofmy medications for asthma!”
Progesterone treats asthma for two reasons—it blocks
estrogen, a very common cause of asthma, and it breaks downinto cortisone, which relieves asthma. Also, people who are lowin progesterone very commonly have hay fever. Very often,within two weeks of starting progesterone all their hay feverand allergies are gone. /Kswasheep in mind that men and women
have the same hormones. The prednisone Rhonda had been prescribed for her
asthma was hurting her more than it was helping her.Prednisone has a lot of side effects. It can cause osteoporosis,cataracts, stomach ulcers, and weight gain. LOW THYROID 
Doctors had prescribed Synthroid for Rhonda’s low metabo-
lism, but it actually had little effect. This is something we sawwith Brenda J., too: she was taking Synthroid but it wasn’thelping her thyroid problem. 41 HORMONAL F ATIGUE AND RHONDA Y. 42
Rhonda’s under-active thyroid condition was missed due
to several factors. Rhonda had a condition called secondaryhypothyroidism, which is caused by an insufficient amount ofTSH being put out by the pituitary. Her free T3 level wasbelow normal. Her pituitary should have been pouring outTSH to elevate this level, but it wasn’t. A doctor looking onlyat Rhonda’s TSH levels would fail to diagnose her condition.Correct thyroid testing would have easily picked this up. Herelevated cholesterol also pointed to a low thyroid. OTHER BENEFITS OF PROGESTERONE 
Rhonda had high blood pressure. About 50 percent of the
people with high blood pressure have it because they over-produce insulin. As I’ve mentioned before, hyperinsulinemia(too much insulin in the bloodstream) is associated with lowprogesterone levels. Sometimes just reducing patients’ insulinlevels with progesterone relieves their high blood pressure. The depression Rhonda experienced was at least partly due
to low progesterone. Progesterone is a natural anti-depressant,so women with low progesterone are commonly depressed. Rhonda was a wonderful candidate for progesterone. It
had multiple benefits for her. Just by putting her on proges-terone I was able to lower her insulin levels, eliminate her high-blood pressure, help her to begin losing weight, help relieve herdepression, and get rid of the asthma. It’s possible that the progesterone helped with her acid
reflux problem, too. Rhonda was on a drug called Prevacid,which reduces acid secretion. By lowering insulin levels andreducing certain carbohydrates, you can relieve acid reflux.THE MIRACLE OF BIO-IDENTICAL HORMONES  SUMMING UP
Getting Rhonda’s life turned around was a simple matter of
adding several hormones and eliminating the medications shewas taking, which removed their concomitant side effects. In her initial interview, Rhonda indicated she was on a
number of medications including thyroid, an antihistamine,an anti-depressant, prednisone, and a medication to preventacid reflux. Although she was taking thyroid medication, likemany people, she was unable to convert the thyroid she wasgiven into the active form, so she remained hypothyroid inspite of being treated. This, of course, contributed to herfeeling tired all the time. Rhonda was estrogen dominant and low in progesterone. This was the cause of her miscarriages, difficulty with concep-tion, morning sickness, fibroid tumors, and endometriosis.Another symptom of low progesterone levels is high insulinlevels. Insulin controls blood sugar: when insulin goes up,blood sugar goes down. When the brain doesn’t get enoughblood sugar, it falls asleep. This, too, contributed to heroverall sense of fatigue. Yet another factor contributing to her fatigue was depres-
sion. Some of Rhonda’s depression was related to suppressedanger, which manifested as fibromyalgia, a condition in whichthe body contracts its muscles even during sleep. Patients withthis condition wake up stiff in the morning, often in pain, andfeeling as though they haven’t had enough rest. Prolongedmuscle tensing uses up energy, causing daytime fatigue. Estrogen dominance and low progesterone levels also
contributed to Rhonda’s developing allergies and asthma. Shewas placed on antihistamines, which unfortunately com-pounded her fatigue. The prednisone she was taking forasthma elevates sugar levels. The high blood sugar led to more43 HORMONAL F ATIGUE AND RHONDA Y.   insulin production, which added to Rhonda’s hypoglycemia, a
condition that results in feelings of fatigue. The anti-depressant Paxil has its own list of multiple side
effects, including weight gain, loss of libido and—you guessedit—fatigue. When you add up all of the fatigue-inducingchemicals she was both ingesting and producing within herown body, it’s a wonder Rhonda was able to accomplishanything at all. Again, my approach to this patient was simply to deal with
the underlying causes rather than the symptoms of her fatigue.Adding progesterone balanced her estrogen dominance andrestored her insulin level to normal. This in turn eliminatedher asthma, part of her depression, her hypoglycemia, and herallergies, which allowed me to wean her off the fatigue-induc-ing medications prednisone and Paxil. At this point we were halfway home. The patient had more
control over her life, she was feeling better, and as a result, shewas not feeling so angry. Then her fibromyalgia, with all theassociated muscle tensing and fatigue, went away. Adding T3,the thyroid hormone her body was craving, gave her even morefeelings of well-being, allowing her to lose weight and moveeven further away from depression. THE FUEL TO KEEP FAMILIES RUNNING
Rhonda continues to do well with her weight and, more impor-
tantly, with her energy and ability to function in her family. Ihave had other patients who weren’t so lucky. I have seenmarriages flounder on the issue of fatigue. Without a highenergy level it’s almost impossible to be effective as a homemakerand mother. 44 THE MIRACLE OF BIO-IDENTICAL HORMONES  When I read the statistics about the vast number of
American women taking anti-depressants, I wonder how manyof them would be better served having their metabolismsenergized through the use of natural hormones. I would like tosee more doctors understand the role hormones play increating and sustaining a normal zest for life—something thatis everyone’s birthright.45 HORMONAL F ATIGUE AND RHONDA Y.   MIGRAINE HEADACHES
AND KAREN H.
chapter FIVE
Karen is a fashionable woman in her 50s who came to me to solve
a post-menopausal weight problem. Her medical history indicatedthat she’d suffered from migraine headaches all her life. She wasamazed when I told her that the migraines were curable. She’dtried to get help with them, spending a considerable amount ofmoney, but to no avail. Readers who have been toleratingmigraines should learn from her example: it’s never too late todefeat an old enemy like migraines, although the earlier youaddress this problem the better. I’ll let Karen tell you her story: 
I’ve gotten migraine headaches about three or four times a month
for my entire life. There would be this intense throbbing behind myright eyeball, in my temples, a neck ache, and nausea. Doctors didn’tdiagnose these headaches as migraines because I didn’t see “auras”—the white light migraine sufferers typically see. I also was not sensitiveto light and I did not need to go into a dark room. Only when I wasin my 50s, was I told they were migraines. So when I was young I just called them “my headaches” and took
codeine to lessen the pain. When I was 29 years old, I had one so badthat it sent me to the emergency room at the local hospital. I wasvomiting, the pain was excruciating, and I thought, “Nobody has
47headaches like this. ” I asked my friend to drive me to the emergency
room. They treated me with a muscle relaxant and Valium. The nextday I just soldiered on and went to work. The second time I went to the emergency room with a migraine,
one of the doctors said it was a severe sinus headache, and he recom-mended nose surgery. I did have nose surgery and it didn’t do a thing. The third time a migraine sent me to the hospital, the doctors
wouldn’t let me leave without doing a spinal tap on me. My symp-toms were nearly identical to what you see in people who are aboutto have a stroke, an aneurysm, or who have spinal meningitis. Thatgives you an idea of how severe the migraines were. I was told the headaches might go away after menopause, but
they didn’t. When menopause failed to give me relief, I finally wentto see a neurosurgeon. My headaches were diagnosed as migrainesand I was given two medications that finally helped. He gave meInderal and Imitrex. The Inderal reduced the frequency of theheadaches to once every six weeks or so, which was a blessing.Whenever I did feel a headache coming on, I would self-injectthe Imitrex, which would stop the progression and leave mewithout pain. Naturally, I was grateful for this relief after all those years of
suffering. But I would later find out that Inderal and Imitrex werejust masking the pain, not getting to the cause of it. Meanwhile, I stopped smoking. The combination of stopping
smoking and going through menopause caused me to gain 50 pounds.This was scary to me. I had always been pretty close to the weight Iwanted to be. I was one of those Twiggy-generation people who wasalways trying to lose 10 pounds—you can never be quite thinenough— but, generally speaking, I didn’t have a weight problem.But once I had gained the 50 pounds I was scared. I looked matronly,felt old, and I didn’t know whether I would ever be able to losethis weight. I heard a friend talking about Dr. Platt, and she spoke so highly48 THE MIRACLE OF BIO-IDENTICAL HORMONES  of him that I decided to go to him for weight loss. I went to see him and we talked for an hour. I was comfortable
with him, and I was fascinated that he’s a traditionally trained M.D.who has a philosophy that crosses over into alternative medicine. Hetold me he could eliminate my migraine headaches and that losingthe 50 pounds would be just the icing on the cake. He put me on progesterone, thyroid medication, and DHEA
and started weaning me off the Inderal as well as the HRT mygynecologist had put me on at menopause. At some point during the weaning from Inderal I had a terrible,
terrible night when I couldn’t put my head on a pillow because myhead hurt so much. It wasn’t like a migraine; it was like every one ofmy hairs hurt my scalp. If I touched my hair, my scalp was in agony.I spent the night sitting up, catching whatever sleep I could, and thenext morning I called Dr. Platt’s office and went to see him. He told me what was happening—that I was getting my nerve
endings back. The drugs I’d been taking had numbed them, and nowthey were coming back to life. He told me the symptoms would begone within 36 hours, and he was right. It is now 20 months sinceI first saw Dr. Platt, and I have not had a single migraine headache. It was also the easiest weight loss I have ever experienced. I stuck
to the diet religiously and the pounds just melted off. I lost eightpounds the first week and about three pounds every successive week.I started in September and by Thanksgiving I had lost 32 pounds.I felt great, I wasn’t hungry, and I wasn’t getting headaches! AtThanksgiving I went off the diet because I had tons of guests andrelatives coming in for the holidays, and my passion is cooking forpeople. But I plan to go back on the diet at some point to lose the last18 pounds. The weight I lost was a different kind of 32 pounds—I can’t
quite explain it, but I had this feeling that I was losing stored-up fatfrom a long time ago. There is a different definition to my body. Itlooks and feels different.MIGRAINE HEADACHES AND KAREN H. 49 The other day I was cleaning out my medicine cabinet and I
came upon some Imitrex shots that were still good. One part of mewanted to keep them—what if I got another headache? These thingswere lifesavers at one point in my life. But I had the courage tothrow them out. I’ve been headache-free for 20 months, through allkinds of changes in my diet, and I don’t see any reason why thatshould change. PROGESTERONE AND MIGRAINES 
Karen is another example of a woman who had been estrogen
dominant her entire life. Migraine headaches are one result of theadverse effect estrogen has on blood vessels. You might ask, why did Karen feel the toxicity of estrogen as
migraines, while in someone like Brenda J. it took the form offibroid tumors and troubled pregnancies? As I’ve explainedbefore, there are receptor sites for hormones all over the body,and in different people different sites predominate. Thus thesymptoms of estrogen dominance will vary according to where aperson’s estrogen sites are located. I suppose one could say thatKaren was lucky her excess estrogen didn’t eventually cause breastor ovarian cancer. However, you’d have had a hard time convincingKaren of her good luck in the middle of a migraine attack. Thoseare brutal. I once treated a woman who had severe menstrualmigraines starting at age 14 with her first menses. On twooccasions she had paralytic migraines resulting in strokes. Everyone knows somebody who has migraines, and everyone
knows how excruciating they are, so it’s quite remarkable that themedical community has missed the simple fact that naturalprogesterone is a cost-effective cure for menstrual migraines.There are millions of women out there like Karen all desperatefor relief. Many of them attend pain clinics and explore every50 THE MIRACLE OF BIO-IDENTICAL HORMONES  avenue they can—meditation, acupressure, and so on—but
continue to suffer month after month. Karen went all the way from her teenage years—when her
body first started producing estrogen—to menopause sufferingfrom these headaches. At menopause, she might have hoped toget some relief since her body was reducing its production ofestrogen, but doctors placed her on hormone replacementtherapy (HRT), which made sure the migraines continued. All she needed to solve a lifelong problem was progesterone,
the hormone that protects women from the effects of too muchestrogen. As long as she continues taking it, Karen won’t have anymore migraine headaches. She also tested low in thyroid, which isn’t surprising in
someone with low progesterone levels, because progesterone hasa major influence on the thyroid. Giving her the right thyroidmedication helped her to lose weight in a comfortable fashion. When Karen talks about feeling as though she was losing
stored-up fat and seeing her body change in a way she had notseen before, she is talking about the difference between afat-burning weight loss program and a muscle-burning calorierestriction diet. In her youth, Karen did a lot of calorie restrictiondiets—those grapefruit-and-lean-meat diets that were popular inthe l960s and 1970s. Those make you lose muscle. They give youa sagging look, make your skin look droopy, and impair muscletone. T o Karen, actually losing fat and seeing some muscledefinition was a revelation. Would it be fair to say that Karen felt eliminating her
migraine headaches with a natural bio-identical hormone wasa miracle?51 MIGRAINE HEADA CHES AND KAREN H. POSTPARTUM DEPRESSION
AND SUSAN B.
chapter SIX
When I first started to write this book, the headlines were filled
with news of the trial of Andrea Yates, the woman who struggledwith postpartum depression and eventually drowned her fivechildren. Although I think Yates’ problems went well beyondpostpartum depression, it was a major factor in her breakdown.This is a very real condition that causes untold misery to newmothers. Fortunately, it is easy to treat. Susan B. found a solution to her postpartum depression by
balancing her hormones. I hope her experience will be instructiveto other mothers, particularly breastfeeding mothers, who canavoid the side effects of psychogenic drugs by taking thisapproach. I’ll let Susan tell you what happened: 
Depression has been a problem in my family for a long time. My mother and sister and I seemed always to be depressed when Iwas growing up. Eventually my mother committed suicide, whenI was 16 years old. Along with our depression went low metabolism, and, in my
case, I can’t remember when I wasn’t battling my weight. I atenormal amounts of food but I was always fat. Once, as an adult, I got so fed up with always being fat that
I went on this rigorous program, exercising three hours a day, six
53days a week. I did slim down, of course. But it was impossible to
keep up that kind of schedule. As soon as I slacked off even a littlebit, the weight came right back on. At the age of 45 I had a child. The moment she was born, I
went into a massive depression. It was difficult caring for the babybecause I didn’t feel any of the joy of motherhood but I still hadall of the daily responsibilities. One day I was talking to mydoctor about my depression, complaining a bit about how beingover-weight contributed to my overall feelings of hopelessness. Shetold me about other patients of hers who had taken off weight bygoing to Dr. Platt. I decided to go see him, figuring that slimmingdown would be one way of improving my situation. Little did Irealize it would be the solution to my depression, too. I was a size 20 when I went to see him. I weighed 190
pounds—it was hard just moving around with that much weighton my 5’3” frame. At first I just went on the diet and held offtaking the hormones he had recommended. After a few months Ilost 22 pounds. At that point Dr. Platt said I had to start progesterone and
thyroid. So he started me on both of those and, my God, what adifference it made in my mood! It was an incredible difference. Ifeel like I’m a different person today, like a person I haven’t seen inabout 10 years. Two months after starting the hormones I was able to start
weaning myself off my prescription anti-depressants. With the progesterone and the thyroid medication, I had lots
of energy and a whole new outlook on life. The other beneficialthing was what it did for my skin. My skin looked so much betterafter I started the progesterone. It became more radiant, which isa great thing to have happen at my age. I used to have all of theseskin tags on my neck, and about a month after I started theprogesterone they all disappeared.54 THE MIRACLE OF BIO-IDENTICAL HORMONES  Ultimately, it took me ten months to lose about 60 pounds
and get down to a size 4. I must have gained a lot of muscle mass,because I don’t weigh 105 pounds like most size 4 women. I weigh137 pounds. Of course, with more muscle mass my metabolismis much higher than it used to be, so it is that much easier tomaintain my weight while still eating the foods I love to eat. A LIFETIME OF BATTLING OBESITY 
Susan B. is typical of the many people who have fought obesity
their entire life not because of an eating problem but because ofa hormone problem. I believe the only cause for postpartum depression
is low progesterone. Susan had the classic history of someone with a low
progesterone level who becomes estrogen dominant anddepressed. I believe the only cause for postpartum depressionis low progesterone. In the second and third trimesters theplacenta pours out progesterone, which is why women feel sogood during this time of their pregnancy. But after the baby isdelivered, progesterone levels go down. For most women, once they start ovulating again, their
bodies begin producing progesterone and their moods lift. ButSusan was low in progesterone to begin with, and she was in her40s, when hormone levels are on the decline anyway. So she hadno source of progesterone. Her low progesterone caused high insulin levels—the  num-
ber one cause of obesity. Low progesterone also led to an increasein estrogen—another hormone that creates fat. Low proges-terone leads to depression and other psychological problems.55 POSTP ARTUM DEPRESSION AND SUSAN B. She also had the standard symptoms of an under-active
thyroid: her skin was dry, her nails didn’t grow well, she waseasily fatigued, and so on. Her blood tests bore out thisdeficiency. Her low thyroid contributed to her depression, too.The thyroid has a tremendous influence on the metabolism ofevery cell of the body, including the brain cells. Helping Susan was a very simple matter. As soon as her
hormones were balanced she regained a zest for living. Theweight loss made her feel even better—it was a particularlysweet reward for a woman who had spent half a lifetimestruggling with obesity. I hope you, the reader, are beginning to understand the
importance of hormones when it comes to health. Susan’s caseis another example of a deficiency of hormones creating havocwith one’s health and illustrates the importance of beingpro-active with your own health care. For the most part, youcannot expect the medical community to come up withanswers it is ill-equipped to find. EVEN MOVIE STARS GET THE BLUES
As many of you are aware, actress/model Brooke Shields wrote
a book detailing her experience with severe postpartum depression.Her advice to women with this problem is to avail themselvesof anti-depressant medications. She has been on multiple talkshows reiterating this advice. What she is proposing is the classic, standard medical care
approach: take a Band-Aid (drug) for your problem. It is my understanding that Ms. Shields utilized in vitro
fertilization to get pregnant. The number one reason why awoman cannot get pregnant is a low progesterone level. Myunderstanding is that she did not have morning sickness, theoccurrence of which I would have expected. After her delivery,56 THE MIRACLE OF BIO-IDENTICAL HORMONES  her progesterone level might have dropped to non-existent
levels, which could have precipitated her severe postpartumdepression. Using natural, bio-identical progesterone might have
eliminated the need for in vitro fertilization and preventedpostpartum depression. In fact, giving her progesterone wouldhave eliminated her depression almost immediately. There is an ironic twist to this situation. Many of you
might be aware that actor T om Cruise, who I understand is apracticing Scientologist, advised Ms. Shields to take a morenatural approach for her depression—healing with prayer, andso on. Interestingly, T om Cruise has said that he has a problem
with ADHD—a condition I feel is also caused by a lowprogesterone level. So both of these well-known actors havethe same hormone deficiency, in my view, yet neither of themis aware of it.57 POSTP ARTUM DEPRESSION AND SUSAN B.  FIBROMYALGIA AND
JANET L.
chapter SEVEN
Fibromyalgia is a rheumatism of the muscles, ligaments, and
tendons that can cause crippling pain and can make normalactivity excruciating. It is far more common than most peoplerealize and seems to occur with great frequency among over-weight people. Fibromyalgia can be healed using a natural,drugless approach, a fact that should bring joy to the hearts ofmany sufferers. I hope Janet’s story will inspire others to “say no”to this debilitating condition and begin living a pain-free,joyous life. I’ve had fibromyalgia for 20 years, although it wasn’t diagnosed
until recently. Most people who have fibromyalgia do not getproperly diagnosed until they have had it for at least seven years.That’s because it is a progressive disease, and when it starts out itmight only manifest as a stiff neck or isolated pain and generalfatigue. The symptoms, in other words, are so general they can beinterpreted as the flu, tired muscles, a sleep disorder, or anynumber of less serious problems. When I first started experiencing the pain of fibromyalgia I
was living in the mountains in Washington State. In that oftencold, usually moist climate my body behaved like a barometer—
59whenever the weather changed my body would feel it. Whether it
was dampness, cold, a change in the wind—any change wouldregister in my body as pain. I went to rheumatologists, chiropractors,all kinds of doctors about my pain, but none of them had asolution for me. One doctor started me on cortisone shots. We reached a point
where he was shooting cortisone into 42 muscles in my back everyday. He finally said, “Janet, I can’t do this any more. You’vebecome a human pincushion.”
I would have good days and bad days. On my good days I was
energetic and took part in family activities with great zest. Onbad days I wouldn’t be able to get dressed without stopping a fewtimes to lie down and rest and get my energy back. In the days before the fibromyalgia was advanced, my husband
and I decided to build our dream house up in the mountains inCardiff. I took a very active part in designing it, a house on threelevels. It was a project that went on for several years. By the timewe were close to finishing it, the major symptoms of my fibromyalgiahad set in. At that point, I found it unbearable to climb stairs. Ihad to wonder who that person was who had thought to design athree-story house. But no one had diagnosed me or told me myproblem would get worse every year. I was given various medications for pain, Neurontin being the
one I ended up taking long-term. It dulled the pain withoutgetting at the source of the problem. The way I dealt with the pain in the early days was to be very
active. Inactivity seemed to exacerbate the stiffness and pain, so Ithrew myself into family activities. We have a large extendedfamily up north and I loved making dinners and entertaining. Icould forget about my pain if I had a goal like cooking for 40people. However, the activity took a lot out of me and after thesedinners were over I would have to recuperate for a week.60 THE MIRACLE OF BIO-IDENTICAL HORMONES  Part of the fibromyalgia was a sleeping problem—the pain
kept me awake. Often I would get only three hours of sleep atnight. I would toss and turn and then finally go to my husband’srecliner to get some sleep. It was easier to find a comfortableposition there. I also started getting migraine headaches. Gradually I reached the point where I was quite debilitated. If it were snowing outside I could only walk a half a block or sobefore exhaustion would set in. My knees would get so swollen theywould be like footballs. I couldn’t bend them. A rheumatologist finally diagnosed me. He checked my
pressure points and told me all 18 of them were inflamed. He saidI had both osteoarthritis and fibromyalgia. I finally had a diagnosis, but the rheumatologist didn’t have a
solution for my pain. He just prescribed more Neurontin. Myhusband and I arrived at the point where we were ready tosacrifice our dream house so we could live in a warm, dry climatewhere I could be in less pain. We sold our house in Cardiff andbought a house in the desert. As soon as we’d moved in I contacteda rheumatologist—I needed a local source for my Neurontin. Thisdoctor checked my pressure points, and they were, as usual,inflamed. Meanwhile, I happened to see Dr. Platt on television talking
about hormones and weight loss. I thought that if I could lose someweight I might be able to move around better. I weighed 185 backthen, and I am 5 feet tall. The weight seemed to exacerbate mypain. So I decided to go in to see him. He was astounding. I sat and talked to him for two and a half
hours for my first visit! He went over all my records, and then hestarted asking me such pointed questions that I kept on saying tomyself, “How did he know that?”
He told me I was internalizing anger and that I needed to
face what was angering me and cope with it. We talked aboutsome fairly personal stuff. He gave me some ideas for changing the61 FIBR OMYALGIA AND JANET L.  patterns in my life that were forcing me to swallow all this anger. He said I could put the fibromyalgia into remission throughlifestyle changes and balancing my hormones. I started taking progesterone and I went on the diet. Three
weeks after seeing Dr. Platt I went to see the rheumatologist. Hechecked my pressure points and told me there was no more inflam-mation. I told him that for the first time I was able to sleepthrough the night and that I didn’t have pain any more. This wasthree weeks after starting the progesterone! The rheumatologistsaid, “Whatever you’re doing, continue doing it. Your osteoarthritishas gone into remission.”
I got really excited about how effective the progesterone had
been. The next time I went in to see Dr. Platt I wanted to have awhole blood panel done. If one hormone could take away allthat pain, what else could we accomplish by balancing all ofmy hormones? When he examined my blood panel, Dr. Platt said that I had
a thyroid deficiency. He gave me a prescription for thyroidmedication and my energy level increased dramatically. I continuedwith the diet, eventually losing 53 pounds. T oday I weigh 132and I feel so incredible, it’s as though someone gave me back mylife from years ago. I feel young inside. When I visited my grand-children up north last time, I went hiking and swimming withthem, things I’d never been able to do. “It’s like we have a newgrandma!” all the kids said. Dr. Platt also prescribed testosterone, which has given me back
my sex life—my husband is absolutely thrilled. I feel so blessed to have met Dr. Platt. He’s changed my life. Some of my friends ask me whether I’d have sold my dream houseif I’d known I was going to feel this good—today I’d have noproblem with those flights of stairs. But I know everything happensfor a reason. I’m just grateful things have turned out the waythey have.62 THE MIRACLE OF BIO-IDENTICAL HORMONES  AN UNDER-RECOGNIZED DISEASE 
Janet’s long and unsuccessful quest to get help with her
fibromyalgia doesn’t surprise me at all. Only about 50 percentof doctors even acknowledge the reality of the disease. Even ifthey make the diagnosis, they usually tell their patients there’sno known cure. The reason the majority of doctors say theycannot cure fibromyalgia is because they are unaware of itsprobable causes. In my experience, a large part of the cause is internalization
of anger. The other major cause is an imbalance in hormones. Every patient I’ve ever treated for fibromyalgia has been
someone who internalizes anger. Often they are perfectionistswho have unrealistically high expectations of themselves and ofthe people living around them. They allow the behavior ofother people to control how they feel or allow the world theydeal with to make them angry. From what I have seen with mypatients, the challenge for those with fibromyalgia is often thisissue of control. This means disappointments can be many. Think of a person with “road rage”; he or she is allowing
other drivers to determine how they feel. Instead of road rage,fibromyalgia sufferers have “life-in-general rage.”
The response to loss of control is anger, which they often
do not realize is internalized. The anger causes, in turn, a gen-eral tensing of muscles. When muscles are tensed, two thingshappen: lactic acid builds up, causing pain (athletes call it mus-cle burn), and a large amount of energy is expended, causingpersistent fatigue. At night the mind may continue to deal with something
that is frustrating, so all night long their muscles tense. Thejaw tightens, causing them to grind their teeth or develop TMJ(temporomandibular joint dysfunction). A lot of anger couldalso be internalized into the GI tract, causing problems with63 FIBR OMYALGIA AND JANET L.  constipation and diarrhea, often referred to as IBS (irritable
bowel syndrome). People with fibromyalgia often awaken inthe morning with aches and pains: upper back pain, neck pain,low back pain, and pain along the sides of the hips. Fibromyalgia sufferers are often people who can’t say no. They wind up having unwanted house guests, havingThanksgiving and Christmas dinners at their house every year(talk about stress! ), taking care of aging parents, and so on. Very often they live with a controlling mate. They contin-
ually walk around “on eggshells,” with their muscles perpetuallytensed whether they are aware of it or not, always trying toplease their mate. Another common example of anger due to loss of control
is the patient who can’t lose weight. They are dieting, exercising,cutting out fat, doing everything they think is right, and theycannot lose an ounce. Imagine their anger when they look inthe mirror every day. Their inability to lose weight is control-ling them. Part of my approach with fibromyalgia patients is to give
them insight into their anger and work with them to discoverways to dissipate it. I urge them to make changes in their livesand to seek the help of a therapist, if necessary, to deal with thesource of their anger. I explain to my patients that I can gettheir hormones into balance, but I cannot eliminate theiranger. However, I help them begin to deal with the sources ofnegative energy in their lives. FIBROMYALGIA AND METABOLISM
Janet L. and I had discussions about her anger, and she started
taking steps to change certain parts of her life accordingly.Meanwhile, I explained that her under-active thyroid was64 THE MIRACLE OF BIO-IDENTICAL HORMONES  contributing to her problem. The thyroid gland has a tremen-
dous influence on muscle tissue, and when you’re dealing withfibromyalgia, you’re dealing with muscle tissue. The conditionthat causes the greatest damage to the muscles—more than heartattacks, more than anything else—is an under-active thyroid.Every patient I’ve ever treated for fibromyalgia has had anunder-active thyroid. For muscles to work properly, one must replace certain
fuels they require that may have been depleted. The majorfuels include d-ribose, coenzyme Q-10, and magnesium—allavailable in health food stores. I put Janet on thyroid medication and replaced certain
supplements, and that was the beginning of a healing processfor her muscles that eventually left her pain-free. I also pre-scribed progesterone. It’s a feel-good hormone that is effectivefor everyone, especially women. Janet responded nicely to the hormones, to the weight loss,
and most especially to getting rid of her anger. T oday she’s avery happy woman. THE MISSING LINK
So far I have talked about one aspect of fibromyalgia—the inter-
nalization of anger and the associated muscle tension, causingthe buildup of lactic acid and fatigue. Now I’d like to identifywhat I feel is another very common underlying cause offibromyalgia: ADHD. I do not make this statement lightly. It isbased on years of treating patients with adult ADHD. ADHDis associated with high levels of adrenaline, the fight-or-flighthormone. This can cause an increase in anger, stress, nervoustension, or rage. Any of these emotions can cause muscletension, leading to a buildup of lactic acid and subsequently65 FIBR OMYALGIA AND JANET L.  fibromyalgia. Very often, getting rid of the excess adrenaline
goes a long way toward eliminating fibromyalgia. WHEN ALL ELSE FAILS
A number of my patients have had the perfect psychological and
physiological characteristics for fibromyalgia—yet they experi-enced no muscle tenderness. The one characteristic these peopleinvariably shared was that they practiced breathing exercises.Nothing that I am aware of brings about better musclerelaxation than deep breathing. With eyes closed, take a deep breath in slowly, hold it for
a few seconds, then let it out slowly. T ry to keep the mindblank. Doing this for a few minutes several times a day can beextremely beneficial. Taking a deep breath when you feel angercoming on can help relieve muscle tension. Deep breathing provides a dual benefit—it relaxes muscles
directly and, at the same time, enhances the flow of lymph.The body’s lymph system helps to drain waste products, whichincludes lactic acid, from muscle tissues. The secret to a long life is to keep on breathing. Every moment that you spend upset, in despair,
in anguish, angry or hurt because of the behavior of anybody else in your life is a moment in whichyou have given up control of your life. – 
WAYNE DYER66 THE MIRACLE OF BIO-IDENTICAL HORMONES  OSTEOPOROSIS—MYTH
VERSUS REALITY
chapter EIGHT
Not too long ago, osteoporosis was associated with fractured hips
and often led to permanent residence in a nursing home.Nowadays, the scenario is about the same, except that, because ofmodern surgical methods, nursing homes are rarely the patient’sfinal destination any more. With the advent of DEXA scans, which measure bone
density, we can now measure the state of bone health andeasily measure the extent, if any, of bone loss. These studies canalso be used to assess the response (if any) to therapy. DEXAstands for dual-energy X-ray absorptionometry. The mostimportant measurement is called the T-score, a measure of thestandard deviation away from the “norm,” which is based onthe bone density in a 24-year-old person. A reading of -2.5below the norm is considered osteoporosis. A reading between-1.0 and -2.5 is designated as osteopenia. The diagnosis “osteopenia” was created after DEXA scans
were put in use. Realistically, a person in their 50s or 60s is notlikely to have the same bone density as a person in their mid20s. So is this a condition that needs pharmaceutical interven-tion, or is it a natural condition of aging that simply requireshormonal balance and natural supplementation to maintain
67bone health? This question is important because doctors often
prescribe the same toxic medications for osteopenia as they dofor osteoporosis. Again, this book is not intended as a diatribe against
conventional medicine. However, I feel patients should bebetter informed so that perhaps more healthful decisions canbe made. TRADITIONAL TREATMENTS FOR
OSTEOPOROSIS AND OSTEOPENIA  
The traditional approach to treating osteoporosis in women
was to give them estrogen, usually in the form of Premarin,along with a high dose of calcium. Improving bone healthwas touted as one of the major benefits of taking estrogen.The problem is, there has never been a single study indi-cating that estrogen has any benefit in reversing osteoporosis—in fact, in 1999 the FDA eliminated osteoporosis as an indicationfor giving estrogen. It is true that when a woman is still havingmenstrual cycles, and for several years after menopause, estro-gen does have a positive effect on bone health. But it will not pre-vent the eventual onset of osteoporosis. The main classes of therapeutic drugs utilized for
osteoporosis (and, unfortunately, osteopenia) are calledbisphosphonates. They go by several brand names, such asFosamax, Actonel, and Binova. Bone is in a constant state ofregeneration, aided by cells that help resorb bone (the osteo-clasts), and then cells that build bone (the osteoblasts). Thebisphosphonates act in a way that prevents the osteoclasts fromresorbing bone but at the same time prevents the osteoblastsfrom forming new bone.68 THE MIRACLE OF BIO-IDENTICAL HORMONES  As a result, you wind up with old, brittle bone that looks
good on a DEXA scan but can actually be more easily fracturedthan an untreated bone. This is certainly not the desired effect. In addition, bisphosphonates have serious potential side
effects. They are very similar to the same chemicals used toclear drain pipes and clean away bathtub residue. This is whyit is necessary to avoid lying down after taking these pillsbecause they can eat a hole through the esophagus. They canalso cause gastric erosions and severe diarrhea. Other side effects include blindness and a condition referred
to as osteonecrosis—an eating away of the jaw bone leading tothe teeth falling out as well as other dental nightmares. Bisphosphonates are the largest-selling drugs in the world
for osteoporosis and, unfortunately, osteopenia as well.Another fact to keep in mind is that these drugs have aten-year half-life, which means this is how long it takes toeliminate 50 percent of the medication from your body. So what about taking calcium supplements—another
traditional approach that no one seems to question? Is it reallysafe and is it necessary? Consider the fact that most of the foods we eat have
calcium in their makeup. In 35 years of practice, I have neverseen a patient with a calcium deficiency. Interestingly enough,Asians, who traditionally cannot digest milk products dueto a low level of lactase, have an extremely low incidenceof osteoporosis. Another thing to consider: Is it possible that taking an excess
of calcium may enhance calcification (hardening) of our arteries?Doctors actually use calcium channel blocking agents to treatcoronary artery disease and lower blood pressure. Calcium stim-ulates gastric acid secretion, which possibly contributes to refluxesophagitis. There are other concerns as well. Calcium canpromote prostate cancer and can also promote kidney stones.69 OSTEOPOR OSIS—MYTH VERSUS REALITY My own feeling is that if one does take calcium, perhaps in
the form of calcium citrate, it is wise to limit the intake to onetablet per day. Magnesium is a lot more important thancalcium for building bones and should be taken in a quantitytwo to three times that of calcium. A BETTER APPROACH TO BONE HEALTH
There are two points of view to consider with osteoporosis and
osteopenia—prevention and treatment. Since this book isabout hormones, and since hormones are important for bothprevention and treatment, let us start with them. I, for one, suspect that the number one cause of osteoporosis
in both men and women is a low progesterone level. The primary hormones involved in bone health are testos-
terone, progesterone, estrogen, and dihydroepiandosterone, orDHEA. There is a strong hereditary factor to osteoporosis, butwhat we’re really talking about is inheriting a hormonal predis-position to osteoporosis. If a person is aware that their motheror father has or had osteoporosis, then the primary concernshould be hormone balance. I, for one, suspect that thenumber one cause of osteoporosis in both men and women isa low progesterone level. Women who are on birth control pills, and thereby are not
ovulating and have no progesterone, are certainly settingthemselves up for bone problems. On the other hand, womenwho are estrogen dominant (who have or did have PMS,cramps, breast tenderness, and so on) often have great bonedensities; however, they also have a high incidence of breastcancer. Balance seems to be the key when it comes to estrogen.70 THE MIRACLE OF BIO-IDENTICAL HORMONES  T estosterone is also intricately involved with bone
metabolism. Women who have had hysterectomies, whethertotal (with the ovaries removed) or partial (with the ovaries leftin) will have low testosterone levels. In men, the level of testos-terone starts dropping when they are in their 20s and continuessteadily downward. A man who has lost his libido, often dueto low testosterone, is a person obviously at risk for osteoporosis. Osteoporosis in men, the incidence of which is almost on
a par with women, can have deadly consequences. A fracturedhip in a male over the age of 65 is associated with a 25 percentmortality rate during the following year. In addition, men verycommonly have low progesterone levels. This situationbecomes moot around the age of 50 when virtually all menstop producing progesterone. Needless to say, I feel that both testosterone and proges-
terone are extremely important for preventing osteoporosis.DHEA is another hormone that gradually but consistentlydeclines as we age; it is a balancing hormone, in that it helpsproduce both estrogen and testosterone—both being importantfor bone health. ADDITIONAL CONSIDERATIONS
Another hormone that certainly bears mentioning is melatonin,
which is put out by the pineal gland. It is generally known asthe hormone that puts us to sleep at night. However, it hasother functions as well. It is extremely important in bonemetabolism. It also plays a significant role with regard to ourimmune system. It helps to produce natural killer cells andinterleukin-2, both of which the body uses to fight cancer on adaily basis (cells are constantly mutating and have to be dealtwith regularly). The problem is that we stop producing thishormone around the age of 60. So one should consider71 OSTEOPOR OSIS—MYTH VERSUS REALITY melatonin for both prevention and treatment of osteoporosis,
especially as one gets older. The bottom line concerning osteoporosis is that it can often
be prevented—though unfortunately, we live in a world wherepreventive medicine is not practiced. The preventive approachfor osteoporosis is not only a matter of achieving hormonalbalance, but includes other factors of extreme importance, suchas exercise, proper nutrition, and lack of stress. I certainly appreciate and admire people who are able to
avail themselves of the benefits of a disciplined lifestyle. I amtalking about people who eat right, exercise three to four timesa week, do breathing exercises to reduce stress, avoid takingmedications with toxic side effects, and so on. I know there aremillions of people in this category. Not surprisingly, they rarelycome to see me. In a perfect world, everyone would live thisway—and would maintain a balance of their hormones. I would recommend, for those who for whatever reason
cannot fit precisely into this scheme, a minimum of gettingtheir hormones balanced and utilizing one particular supple-ment, vitamin D.
VITAMIN D —THE ULTIMATE SUPPLEMENT 
First off, vitamin D is not a vitamin. It is considered a prohor-
mone—a substance that converts into a hormone. This helpsto explain the multiplicity of its benefits. It is known to helpprevent 26 cancers, including cancer of the breast, colon,prostate, and pancreas. Not only does it help prevent cancer, itactually kills cancer cells. It is kind of ironic when you considerthat doctors continually advise patients to avoid the sun toprevent skin cancers, which for the most part are readilytreatable. Yet for most people the sun is the main source ofvitamin D, a substance that helps prevent many types of72 THE MIRACLE OF BIO-IDENTICAL HORMONES  cancer that are much more dangerous than skin cancers. (By
the way, I do not believe melanomas are always sun-related.) Among its many benefits, vitamin D acts as an ace-
inhibitor and may lower blood pressure. In addition, it isreported to effectively prevent the flu, help prevent multiplesclerosis, alleviate seasonal affective disorder, and help preventAlzheimer’s disease. When it comes to bone health, vitamin D is unsurpassed. In England, where osteoporosis is common because of a lack ofsunshine, this condition is often treated only with high dosagesof vitamin D. Vitamin D aids in the absorption of calciumfrom the diet and the deposition of calcium into bone. My recommendation for the treatment of osteoporosis is
10,000 I.U./day of vitamin D3. Compare this dosage to theRDA (recommended daily allowance) of 200 I.U., which isonly enough to prevent rickets, with no other benefit. Mostpeople take 400 to 600 I.U., which I feel is very inadequate tohelp with osteoporosis. I recommend 5,000 I.U. of vitaminD3 daily as a preventive dose. BONE-BUILDING SUPPLEMENTS  
Vitamin K is extremely important for treating osteoporosis. It
takes calcium out of blood vessels and puts it into bone—adouble benefit. My recommendation is 10,000 mcg of vitaminK1/K2 daily. Magnesium, again, is extremely important—much more so
than calcium. I recommend taking around 1,000 mg per day. Strontium is probably the best mineral for building bone.Other bone-building supplements are boron, whey protein,
proline, silica, lycopene, and glutathione (from N-acetylcysteine and/or alpha lipoic acid), and there are many others.73 OSTEOPOR OSIS—MYTH VERSUS REALITY END THOUGHTS  
Every system in the body is controlled by hormones and that
includes the skeletal system. Prevention and treatment ofosteoporosis requires the use of bio-identical hormone therapy.Taking certain supplements enhances the effect of thesehormones, and exercise is the icing on the cake. T ogether theseapproaches may help obviate the need for toxic medications,which may not provide the benefits one is looking for inany case.74 THE MIRACLE OF BIO-IDENTICAL HORMONES  DHEA —KEY TO WELL-BEING
chapter NINE
One hormone I’ve given only passing mention to so far is
dihydroepiandosterone, or DHEA. All of the effects of this veryimportant hormone have not yet been plumbed by medicalscience, but we know enough about it to know it is absolutelyessential for optimal health. Since the 1980s many research papers have been published
on the multiple healthful functions DHEA performs in thebody. It seems to help prevent heart disease, osteoporosis,prostate cancer in men, and breast cancer in women. DHEA is produced mainly by the adrenal glands, but also
by the gonads, the brain, and the skin. At one stage of life—during the teenage years—it is the most abundant steroidhormone in the body. DHEA levels decline in a straight line aswe age. This hormone begins to appear in our bodies at age 6,peaks during our 20s, is at the 50 percent level at age 40, andbetween the ages of 60 and 80 declines to between 20 and 10percent of peak levels. This definitive decrease is not seen withother hormones, and because of it, DHEA is considered thebiological marker for aging: those people with the highest levelsseem to have the greatest longevity. In fact, some believe thatmany of the manifestations of aging are caused by deficienciesin DHEA. 75WHAT TO EXPECT 
Administration of DHEA is associated with a remarkable
increase in perceived physical and psychological well-being.These benefits are noticed after about four months of therapy.People report increased energy, better sleep, a significantimprovement in sexuality and in mood, along with a betterability to handle stress. DHEA has been shown to enhance memory and mental
acuity and to decrease depression. Administration of DHEAhelps to boost the immune system, improves chronic fatiguesyndrome, helps to reduce body fat, and helps addressauto-immune diseases such as lupus, ulcerative colitis, andrheumatoid arthritis. DHEA has its own receptor sites. It raises growth hormone
levels and breaks down into testosterone, which may possibly bethe reason for some of its benefits. People with high levels of DHEA have lower incidences of
Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease. Some consider a low DHEAlevel to be the most significant biological marker for breastcancer in premenopausal women. When measuring DHEA levels, the proper lab test is the
one that assesses DHEA-S, not DHEA. In men, estradiol levels should be monitored while taking
DHEA. Ideally, the estradiol level should not be higher than20. If it is higher than this to begin with, I do not prescribeDHEA. If the level goes over 40 while the person is on DHEA,I cut back the dosage or the frequency of administration. When levels of estrogen or testosterone are problematic,
another approach is to use a different form of DHEA called7-keto DHEA. This formulation does not convert into estrogenor testosterone. It can be obtained over the counter; the dosageis 100 mg per day.76 THE MIRACLE OF BIO-IDENTICAL HORMONES  DHEA AND STRESS
People who live with a lot of stress start to show lowered
DHEA levels after a certain amount of time. Their adrenalglands become exhausted, and since the adrenal glandsproduce the majority of DHEA, their DHEA levels go waydown. Airline pilots, for instance, whose days consist ofmeeting strict schedules despite unpredictable weather,performing numerous take-offs and landings (landings ofteninvolve split-second timing and near misses), and otherstressful situations, often show up in my office with little orno DHEA on their hormone panels. It’s well known that pilots report unusually high levels of
prostate cancer. Many of them theorize that this might becaused by the radiation they are constantly exposed to, flyingat high altitudes. But it’s my theory that lack of DHEA maycontribute to the problem. Another likely cause is lack ofprogesterone. Progesterone, like DHEA, diminishes in people who live
under constant stress. The most dramatic example is seen inwomen living in abusive situations. They very often showalmost no DHEA on their hormone panels, and they tend tohave all the signs of estrogen dominance as well. Living inconstant fear depletes both DHEA and progesterone.77 DHEA—KE Y TO WELL-BEING  MENOPAUSE AND
PERIMENOPAUSE
chapter TEN
I purposefully did not put this chapter at the beginning of the
book, even though, for many readers, it will be the most impor-tant. Having read through the preceding chapters, you shouldnow have a feel for the importance of hormones—how necessaryit is for them to be in balance, and the devastating consequencesthat occur when they are out of balance. You should also be awareby now of the tragic lack of knowledge among doctors regardinghow the body operates with regard to hormones. It is no wonder,then, that the way of treating menopause in women (andandropause in men, which I discuss in chapter 12) has remainedbasically unchanged for the last 50 years. This situation has had more consequence for patients than
the inconvenience of putting up with symptoms; it has literallyput their health at risk for serious diseases and higher deathrates. This is particularly the case in two areas where informa-tion is deficient: how natural hormones can prevent many ofthe diseases of aging, and how the incorrect use of hormonescan cause unnecessary deaths due to cancer, heart disease,and strokes. 79USING BIO-IDENTICAL HORMONES
Perhaps the most commonly known application of hormone
therapy is the treatment of women going through menopause.The term “menopause” means the absence of periods, whetherthe absence occurs naturally or is surgically induced (e.g., due toa hysterectomy). As women approach the time of menopause, that is, during
perimenopause, there is a drop in levels of the hormonesproduced by the ovaries. This causes a number of symptoms,the most common of which is the onset of irregular periods,which may start occurring sporadically and be of shorter thanusual duration. This reflects a drop in estrogen levels. At thesame time, a drop in progesterone levels may cause women toexperience an increase in PMS (premenstrual syndrome) orcramps, a drop in libido, an increase in weight, and moredifficulty in thinking. Eventually, estrogen and progesterone levels will fall to a
level where they can no longer prepare the uterus for bleeding—menopause has begun. Some women go through this phase of their lives with few
or no symptoms. Other women develop hot flashes, nightsweats, and other symptoms and become very uncomfortable. But no matter how you look at it, menopause is a very
natural condition that all women eventually go through. Theproblem is that the medical system has taken this naturalcondition and turned it into a disease that has to be treated.
The_Miracle_of_Bioidentical_Hormones_by_Platt.txt
Summarize the following text section accurately and concisely. Maintain specific details and numerical information, and use anti-repetition mechanisms:

        Fortunately, I was able tohelp her regain hormonal balance, restoring her zest for livingand ability to have a full life with her loved ones. But howmany chronically fatigued homemakers stumble through thedaily grind of the caregiver’s life, branded as hypochondriacsand failing to receive help. I’ve chosen to include Rhonda in this book because I find
something frightening in the way the medical system failed herand fails people like her every day. Here is her story: 
My medical problems began early, with pains in my pelvic
area that would get so bad I would be doubled over. My firstpregnancy was an ectopic pregnancy. That’s a pregnancy in whichthe fetus develops in the fallopian tubes, and I had to have surgeryfor that. Later I had endometriosis and went through severaloperations for that. My two sons were conceived through theexpensive and painful method of in vitro fertilization. At age 31 my whole system started taking a dive. That was
when the weight gain started. My weight had always been normal,
35but suddenly I started putting on pounds. Along with the weight
came a host of new symptoms. One was asthma. Another was acid reflux, which was very
painful, and then came a third painful condition, irritable bowelsyndrome. I developed high blood pressure and also had a kidneyinfection. These were all debilitating conditions, but the worst ofit was a new level of fatigue that hit me, that made raising mychildren a kind of daily torment. The fatigue went on all day, but it would hit me hard at
about 7 or 8 o’clock at night, at which time I just couldn’t doanything. I pretty much set my bedtime at 8 
P. M. The fatigue
made domestic chores impossible to complete. I needed to rest a lotduring the day. The messes around the house began to seem likemountains I had to climb. The kids’ demands were constant, andI lost my cheerfulness early in the day. I yelled a lot and feltconstantly irritable. Often I couldn’t face putting a big meal on the table in the
evening and cleaning up afterwards, so I’d take the kids out forfast food. (My husband didn’t come home until 8 or 9 o’clock atnight. ) I was craving caffeine and sugar to give myself a lift, andI could get those at a fast food place. I felt guilty about not givingmy kids whole foods, but by the time evening came around I oftenfelt too tired to care. Luckily, I’m blessed with wonderful kidswho were aware of my problem and learned how to take careof themselves. I was just getting by as a mother, doing the bare minimum. The area where there was the most fallout was recreation andsocial activities. Once I’d taken care of the necessities, I just didn’thave the energy for anything more. My husband would take thekids places on Sundays, but I never went with them; I was sorelieved just to be able to rest and not have anyone asking me foranything. The kids got used to playing with their dad and notexpecting mom to be there. 36 THE MIRACLE OF BIO-IDENTICAL HORMONES  As far as socializing with other families went, I didn’t have
what it took to prepare meals and entertain. We were isolated. Myhusband compensated by socializing with his family, who live closeby. I enjoy my husband’s family but I rarely went with him andthe kids. I just wanted to rest. I went to a lot of doctors about the fatigue. They all said there
was nothing they could do about it. Most of them were conde-scending and treated me like a child or some kind of mental case. My husband was constantly concerned about my health and
what was going on with me. Our sex life had come to a standstill. I had no sex drive. It could have been because of the 20 milligramsof Paxil that I was taking for my depression. Or it might havebeen the blood pressure medication, which I took in high doses. Orit could have been plain old fatigue. You don’t feel much likehaving sex when all you want to do is lie down and rest. What with all of my ailments and the depression and the
fatigue, I started to think my life was coming to an end. Familylife had become nothing but domestic tasks, and it seemed asthough every week my body was failing in another way. I was onmedication for depression but it didn’t help because I had this senseof impending doom. I wondered what would happen next thatwould cause me to be put on even more medication. I was unsureand frightened. One day I was talking with the therapist I saw for my depres-
sion, and she mentioned that she had some other clients who’dbenefited from going to the compounding pharmacy in PalmDesert and getting natural hormone therapy. I went there, andthey recommended I see Dr. Platt. Since I had consulted with atleast 25 or 30 doctors, I was a little skeptical about seeing Dr.
The doctors were unaware of the pivotal role of hormones in sustaining health.
What was the main reason why the author's patient, Rhonda, was unable to receive help from doctors?
An imbalance of hormones, specifically a low progesterone level.
What was the main cause of Rhonda's fatigue?
The treatment helped her regain her zest for life, and she was able to participate in family activities and social events.
What was the result of Dr. Platt's treatment for Karen, who had been experiencing severe postpartum depression?
An imbalance of hormones, specifically an underactive thyroid and low progesterone levels.
What was the main cause of Janet's fibromyalgia symptoms?
10,000 I.U. of vitamin D3 daily
What is the author's recommendation for vitamin D intake to prevent osteoporosis?