Even with my son124 THE MIRACLE OF BIO-IDENTICAL HORMONES  at home I couldn’t tear myself away from work. Stephanie insisted I see a psychiatrist about my workaholic
attitude. I began seeing a woman who diagnosed me as bi-polarand gave me three strong medications to even out my highs andlows. I began talk therapy as well. Looking back, I probably should have gotten a second
opinion from another psychiatrist. The talk therapy only dealtwith my euphoria and my depression. We never talked about theunderlying problems that were driving me. I began getting worseand worse. I felt so much responsibility that I couldn’t handle it.There was nothing in my life that felt comfortable and grounded.I felt anxious all the time; I couldn’t sleep or eat. At one point I threatened to drive to Hoover Dam and
jump. Stephanie got on her knees and cried and begged me to getsome real help. There is a psychiatric hospital in Connecticut myfamily knows about and they offered to send me there. By nowI’d lost my job. I knew that if I wanted to get my life on trackI’d have to get more help. So I spent the summer in Connecticut getting a lot of
individual counseling, and group therapy, too. Stephanie wentto Chicago with our son to stay with her parents. We lost ourhouse. Stephanie is now in Chicago and we are both praying forreconciliation and a chance to start life over together. In Connecticut they added lithium to the drugs I was taking,
bringing the number to four. These were all very strong drugs,including Effexor, Paxil, and Depakote. I didn ’t like the way Ifelt on the drugs. They made me drowsy and blurred my thinking. Another side effect was weight gain. I went from my habit-
ual 165 pounds (I’m 6 feet tall) up to 215. When I left the psychiatric hospital, I came to the desert to stay
with my mother. T oday I’m under the care of a psychiatrist, goingthrough a healing process. When I told a friend about how uncom-fortable I felt weighing 215, he recommended I see Dr. Platt.125 PSYCHOGENIC MEDICATION AND GREG C.  Initially I went just for the weight loss, but I have received
so much more from my treatment. The great miracle is that notonly have I gone back to my usual weight, I’ve been able to weanmyself off all the drugs I was on. My intake interview with Dr. Platt made me feel very
comfortable. When I told him about all the drugs 1 was taking,he told me I was over-medicated, and that if I followed hishormone treatment and his diet I would be able to wean myselfoff the drugs. I told my psychiatrist about Dr. Platt and he wasopen to the idea of helping the weaning process along, as long asI continued in therapy with him and continued to examine theissues that got me into trouble in the first place. I started Dr. Platt’s treatment in January and set myself the
goal of being drug-free and at the proper weight by the end ofMarch. I reached my goal by early March, and today feelabsolutely fantastic. I feel so lucid and my thought processes areso clear compared to how I felt on the drugs. I’m continuing in therapy and applying for jobs in various
industries such as banking and insurance—more conventionalindustries where the hours are normal. I don’t want to be in thehospitality business any more. While I’m waiting for a job to come through, I’m delivering
newspapers at night. It’s something I never could have imaginedmyself doing at the age of 32. But it gives me time to think aboutwhat I want for my future, and I see the moon and stars everynight and watch the sun rise every morning. It’s a humblingexperience, but it’s also a rebirth. I feel the foundation of myhouse has been properly poured this time. I’ve gotten so muchhelp with my worldview, both from my psychiatrist and from Dr.Platt, who encourages me to approach life as an enjoyable jour-ney. I’m thinking in a way I’ve never thought before. I used tohave so much fear that I was never going to amount to anythingin life. Now I know that if I stay balanced I will have an impact126 THE MIRACLE OF BIO-IDENTICAL HORMONES  on the lives of my loved ones and hopefully my community, and
that’s all I want. THE DANGERS OF PSYCHOTROPIC
MEDICATION
Greg’s case is a classic example of how medications can
contribute to a person’s problems instead of helping them. My approach with my patients is always to look for the
underlying causes of their problems. I can’t just look at theproblems without seeing the entire person. Greg came to mefor weight loss, but I did not want to treat him as a straight-forward weight management patient without addressing thosefour incredibly powerful drugs he was taking. I knew that evenif I were to get him down to his ideal weight, those drugswould eventually bring him right back to where he was. So itwould make sense to address the psychogenic drugs first. Although I’m not a psychiatrist, I found the diagnosis of
bi-polar disorder suspicious. That’s a very specific disorder—one that tends to be over-diagnosed, by the way. I didn’tbelieve that Greg was really suffering from that malady. SinceI know that hormones have a tremendous impact on theneurotransmitters in the brain, I decided to go on the workingtheory that Greg, like many people, was being diagnosed withsomething very serious when in fact he was probably justsuffering from unbalanced hormones. Whatever Greg’s psychological difficulties were, I knew that
with the right hormones he could get some relief from hissymptoms. I told him that my goal was to get him off his drugsand to get his hormones in balance. He was delighted with that,since he felt foggy and uncomfortable on the medications.127 PSYCHOGENIC MEDICATION AND GREG C.  Fortunately, Greg’s psychiatrist was open to the idea of
weaning him off of these powerful drugs. He felt that Greg’snervous breakdown was an extreme stress reaction, not asymptom of bi-polar disorder, and that if Greg could addresshis issues in talk therapy he could eventually go back to livinga normal, drug-free life. ADJUSTING GREG’S HORMONES
In my view, Greg’s weight problem was caused by a combination
of the medications he was on plus too much insulin. The factthat most of Greg’s weight had settled in around his abdomenwas a sign of over-producing insulin. So I started him onnatural progesterone right away. I did this for four reasons:
• Progesterone reduces insulin
• Progesterone regulates blood sugar levels• Progesterone is wonderful for brain tissue 
(progesterone levels are 20 times higher in brain tissue than anywhere else)
• Progesterone is a natural anti-depressant
Between progesterone and the meal plan, Greg began
losing weight right away. With his psychiatrist’s help, heslowly reduced the amount of Paxil, Effexor, Depakote, andlithium he was taking. As he continuously lowered the dosagesof those lipogenic medications, his weight loss speeded up. He got into a positive feedback loop whereby he liked the
way he was looking, which led to feeling better about himselfand making faster progress in talk therapy, which led to furthersuccess with his weight management program, and so on. Asthe weeks went by, you could see the transformation.128 THE MIRACLE OF BIO-IDENTICAL HORMONES  Eventually Greg returned to being the person he’d been
before he started the medications, minus the driven, worka-holic overlay. T oday he’s a very energetic, forward-looking manwith a lot to live for. Greg will eventually be reunited with his wife and child. With the help of hormones, he’ll be able to live a balanced lifethat he truly enjoys. In addition, he is now acutely aware of theimportance of balancing his son’s hormones and his wife’shormones. Greg’s problems were strictly hormonal: too much
adrenaline, too much insulin, too much cortisol, and too littleprogesterone. Putting them back into balance gave him the“miracle” he was looking for. THE UNDERLYING PROBLEM
Greg’s story illustrates why it is so important to understand the
background of one’s patients. When I first talked with Greg, it was immediately
apparent that he had a classic case of ADHD. Adults with thisproblem frequently become workaholics and type A personal-ities. These people are living on adrenaline. They start out withlow progesterone levels, which causes an over-production ofinsulin. This leads to hypoglycemia and to an outpouring ofadrenaline to bring sugar levels up. This was Greg’s underlying metabolic state. When he began
working in Las Vegas, the new element of stress was added. Now his adrenal glands were over-producing not only
adrenaline but also cortisol (this is addressed in chapter 20).The cortisol raised his sugar levels, leading to even moreinsulin production. This led to more hypoglycemia, which ledto more adrenaline. He lost his appetite because of the high129 PSYCHOGENIC MEDICATION AND GREG C.  levels of adrenaline, leading to a body starved for fuel, which
created even more stress. He did not have bi-polar disorder; he just had a major
hormonal imbalance. One can readily see why sometimespsychological conditions can be treated with hormones in amore effective manner than with drugs.130 THE MIRACLE OF BIO-IDENTICAL HORMONES  ADD AND ADHD—
THE SILENT EPIDEMIC
chapter FIFTEEN
I could not write a book about the influence of hormones
without making special mention of attention deficit disorder(ADD) and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).In my view, these two conditions are primarily related to ahormonal imbalance involving high insulin and the resultanthypoglycemia, or low blood sugar. There are many kids with symptoms of ADD who are
struggling in school today because they have difficultiesfocusing. Often the reason they cannot pay attention in classor do homework is that they are hypoglycemic. Any time sugaris taken from the brain, the brain cannot focus. The reason forthe low sugars is that the kids are over-producing insulin. Because of the hypoglycemia these youngsters experience a
persistent craving for foods that provide sugar, such as fruitjuice, soda, and candy. And very often kids with ADD have aweight problem, since they are continuously eating highglycemic carbohydrates. ADHD starts out the same way—too much insulin
leading to low sugar levels. However, kids with ADHD have tocontend with another hormone: adrenaline. 131The brain cannot function without sugar, and the body
has an amazing capacity for finding ways to raise the bloodsugar level when it is low. Prominent among these regulatoryreactions is a process called gluconeogenesis, which, simplyput, creates sugar from protein. It is mediated through thesympathetic nervous system, which means the body pours outadrenaline to raise sugar levels. Adrenaline, which is naturalspeed, causes these kids to be hyperactive. At the same time that the body is creating adrenaline, the
low sugar levels are prompting cravings for food high in sugar.Ingestion of sugar then leads to the over-production of insulin,leading to a drop in sugar, leading to difficulty focusing,leading to the over-production of adrenaline, leading to hyper-active behavior, and on and on. Kids with ADHD are usually thin. The hyperactivity
burns up the sugar before it’s converted to fat for storage.Oftentimes the hyperactivity is masked by the child’s activeinvolvement in sports. Kids with ADHD are treated with drugs such as Ritalin,
Adderal, and Strattera. However, approaching this conditionfrom a hormonal standpoint in most cases eliminates ADHDwithout having to resort to medication. You can probably guess that the missing hormone that can
balance the high insulin and adrenaline levels and alleviateADD and ADHD would be progesterone. We inherit ourhormone levels from either parent. If a mother is estrogendominant, she is also low in progesterone. This can be passedon to her daughter or son. Anyone with a low progesteronelevel will over-produce insulin, thereby causing hypoglycemia,leading to ADD.132 THE MIRACLE OF BIO-IDENTICAL HORMONES  AN AMAZING TRANSFORMATION
I should mention my experience with one nine-year-old child
who had a classic case of ADHD. He had been thrown out ofevery public school in the city of Indio, California, for fightingwith other children, shoving teachers, and similar behaviors.His mother was desperate because the boy sincerely wanted togo back to school. I do not treat young children with ADHDin my practice, but I made an exception in this case. I talked with the boy and helped him understand that the
sugar-based diet he had been eating and drinking was part ofthe problem. I told him he would be putting a cream on hislower forearm. He agreed to follow the protocol and was givena meal plan. T wenty-four hours later, his mother told me she could
not stop crying; she had never seen her son behave so well.He did ten pages of homework—quite an accomplishmentfor someone who had never done homework before. HisADHD was gone. In spite of his recovery, the Indio school board refused to
re-admit him into the system. I had written a two-page letterexplaining that he was better, but the educational system, notsurprisingly, proved to be blind to how simply ADHD can beaddressed. On the positive side, he is now attending a parochial
school. His sixth-month report card was all A’s—not surpris-ing since most ADHD children are extremely intelligent. When the boy went for his next therapy appointment, the
psychiatrist, who had been following him for his ADHD, sawright away that the signs of the disorder were gone. But whenhe asked the mother what her son was taking and she told himnatural progesterone cream, he told her to stop the cream133 ADD AND ADH D—THE SILENT EPIDEMIC  immediately, that it was a female hormone, and to put her son
back on the drugs that had been prescribed. She explained thatthe boy wouldn’t take them because they made him feel sick.He told her to do it anyway. Needless to say, the mothercontinued with the cream. I subsequently spoke with the psychiatrist, who refused to
accept anything I was saying because there were no drug-company studies to verify it. He refused to allow his ownpowers of observation to see that progesterone was beneficial.Psychiatry developed purely as an observational science; now itis almost purely about psychopharmacology. He would ratherplace this nine-year-old boy on potentially lethal drugs, withmultiple side effects, than use a natural bio-identical hormonewith no side effects. His statement that progesterone is afemale hormone is typical of the lack of education doctorsreceive about hormones. As stated previously, I do not treat young children that are
hyperactive in my practice—but I do treat their parents. If aparent has ADHD, there is a 50 percent chance that the childwill also be hyperactive. If the child is adopted, then he or shehas an even greater likelihood of having ADHD. This isbecause the majority of women who give up their children foradoption seem to be young mothers who have gotten intodrugs and alcohol and gotten pregnant, and, in my opinion,most young people who get involved with drugs and alcoholhave ADHD. ADHD IN ADULTS
There are many adults with undiagnosed ADD or ADHD. People who experience sleepiness between 3 and 4 in the after-noon or while driving—this is ADD. I use the word “ADD”interchangeably with “hypoglycemia,” because when the level134 THE MIRACLE OF BIO-IDENTICAL HORMONES  of sugar in the brain is low, the person can’t focus. People who
become workaholics may actually have ADHD and are livingon high levels of adrenaline caused by recurrent hypoglycemia. /Sswashimply put, I view ADD and ADHD as a matter of 
too little progesterone, too much insulin, and, 
in the case of ADHD, too much adrenaline. If you ask a specialist in ADD/ADHD what is causing the
problem, they generally say they don’t know. I am not aware ofany other doctor beside myself who approaches these condi-tions from a hormonal standpoint. Simply put, I view ADDand ADHD as a matter of too little progesterone, too muchinsulin, and, in the case of ADHD, too much adrenaline. Myphilosophy is so far removed from the standard of medicalpractice, which calls for the use of dangerous stimulants totreat the problem, that it can create concerns for traditionalpractitioners. Yet, as they say, the proof is in the pudding.When I treat the symptoms of ADD and ADHD with proges-terone and a diet that encourages the lowering of insulin, thereare positive results. The immediate response of one patient, a 53-year-old
male, after starting on progesterone was that it made himextremely tired. As soon as he said that, I realized he was anadult with ADHD. He was a trim male, working a 12-to-14-hour day. Placing him on progesterone prevented his insulinlevels from rising. It took away his hypoglycemia, so hisadrenaline levels went down. I adjusted his diet, providingmore carbohydrates to normalize the sugar, and also gave himthyroid. As a result, his fatigue disappeared. I think part of the reason why ADD/ADHD is under-
diagnosed is that doctors approach it as a “learning problem.”My feeling is that this is not true. People with ADHD have no135 ADD AND ADH D—THE SILENT EPIDEMIC  trouble focusing on things that interest them; however, they
will not focus on anything that they have no interest in. Inother words, ADHD is not a learning disorder; it is, morecorrectly, an interest disorder. Interestingly, most of the patients I see in my practice are
adults with unrecognized ADHD. CHARACTERISTICS OF ADHD
The typical adult with ADHD has a history of increased
physical activity as a teenager, being slim during his or heryouth, never opening a book in high school or college untilthe night before an exam, and possibly becoming a type-Apersonality or workaholic. They usually have a history ofbeing easily irritated and quick to anger, and they might havehigh expectations of other people. As they approach theirmiddle years they start putting on weight around the waist.They have symptoms of hypoglycemia: sleepiness in the lateafternoon or while driving or after eating. They commonlydisplay restlessness—tapping their hands or feet during theday, and manifesting restless leg syndrome or tossing andturning at night. All of these symptoms and behaviors canbe linked with the high adrenaline levels and high-insulin,low-blood-sugar syndrome of ADHD. There is often a strong family history of associated
hormonal problems—a mother with breast cancer, a sister withendometriosis, a brother with bi-polar disorder, children ornephews and nieces who are hyperactive (ADHD). Othercommonly associated conditions are type II diabetes andalso fibromyalgia. Please keep in mind that adrenaline is not only a hormone
but also acts as a neurotransmitter in the brain. Adults with136 THE MIRACLE OF BIO-IDENTICAL HORMONES  ADHD are often extremely intelligent as well as extremely
successful. I suspect that most of the CEOs of the largestcompanies in the world are diagnosable as having ADHD.They use their adrenaline to become workaholics—they put in14-hour days and rise to the top of their businesses. Likewise,I suspect that many Hollywood stars have ADHD—classicexamples might include T om Cruise, Mel Gibson, and thecomic actor Michael Richards, who played Kramer on
Seinfield. Again, most professional athletes probably have
ADHD—they use their adrenaline to excel in sports. On the other end of the spectrum, I would not be
surprised if most drug addicts and alcoholics would turn outto have ADHD. They turn to drugs and alcohol to deal withthe anger caused by an excess of adrenaline. Similarly, a highnumber of people in prison might be diagnosable as havingADHD, also people with road rage and people who abusespouses. Certainly, anger management classes would be largelyattended by ADHD sufferers. People are sometimes characterized as left- or right-brain
dominant. People who are right-brain dominant tend to becreative. I suspect that if you take right-brain dominance andadd adrenaline, you wind up with a creative genius. AlbertEinstein, for instance, is well-known as having a classic case ofADHD (he failed a number of subjects in school). It may havebeen high levels of adrenaline that made the brains of Einsteinand other creative geniuses such as Da Vinci and Beethovenfunction so brilliantly. I also wonder whether people withautism or with T ourette’s syndrome could also have anoverload of adrenaline in the brain. In autism, the excessadrenaline might be manifesting as sensory overload, and sothe person shrinks back from the world to decrease the amountof stimulus.137 ADD AND ADH D—THE SILENT EPIDEMIC  It should also not be surprising that many conditions
associated with adult ADHD are considered incurable by themedical community, since, in my view, the cause is hormonesout of balance—an unfamiliar concept for many physicians.These conditions include: restless leg syndrome, fibromyalgia,type II diabetes, endometriosis, menstrual migraines, andasthma, to mention a few. Yet utilizing natural bio-identicalhormones, altering the patient’s eating habits, and helpingthem gain insight into their condition often lead to a “mirac-ulous” resolution of these very problems. A WIDESPREAD PHENOMENON
My point is that the medical system has failed to appreciate the
influence of hormones on our behavior and how they affect usclinically. I suspect there are well over 200 million adultsnationwide with unrecognized ADHD. Obviously, this israther a bold statement. But consider the people you interactwith on a daily basis—those who are quick to anger, thepeople with nervous energy, those who are restless at night,who tap their hands or legs, who have cold hands when youshake hands with them (due to vasoconstriction of bloodvessels caused by high adrenaline levels), who drink too muchor use drugs. Look at the millions of women with estrogen-dominant conditions—menstrual cramps, migraines, fibroids,endometriosis—all related to low progesterone levels. Howmany of these women are hypoglycemic from increased insulinand put out adrenaline to bring their sugar levels up so thebrain can function? Since hormone patterns are genetically inherited, people
with ADHD will have at least one parent with ADHD—possibly a workaholic mother or father, who may have had a138 THE MIRACLE OF BIO-IDENTICAL HORMONES  tendency toward anger and perhaps drank too much. If they
have children, each child has a 50 percent chance of havingADHD. If their spouse also has ADHD (a fairly commonoccurrence, by the way) then their children are 100 percentlikely to have ADHD. And then there are the grandchildren.139 ADD AND ADH D—THE SILENT EPIDEMIC  HORMONAL IMBALANCES
IN CHILDREN
chapter SIXTEEN
I want to begin this chapter by noting that the relationship
between childhood illness and hormonal influence has to dateessentially been ignored. What I have to say here is based onlogic and my own clinical observations; there are no studies tofall back on. Before we start, I want to remind the reader of a few well-
established medical facts:
• Hormones control every system of the body. • Males and females have the same hormones but 
their levels differ. • Hormones are inherited from either parent.• At different stages in life, hormone levels vary. It is also worth mentioning that, as in adults, an imbalance
of one hormone in children often leads to an imbalance ofother hormones as the body tries to adjust to the deficiency. Girls who have started their periods may experience irregular
menses, severe cramps, migraines, or other symptoms. Inaddition, most people are aware that we have a nationwideproblem with over-weight and obese children. We are also
141beginning to see a significant increase in attention deficit
disorder (ADD) among children. This chapter discusses allthree of these problems. I’ll begin with ADD. THE MISSING LINK
It is apparent to me that the over-production of a single
hormone, insulin, is associated with many metabolic problems.Insulin is the number one hormone that creates fat, especiallyaround the middle of the body. It is the number one hormonethat causes type II diabetes, and, in my opinion, it is thehormone that precipitates ADD and ADHD. (See chapter 15for the hormonal difference between the two.) If too much insulin is creating problems, then let’s go one
step further: Why is the body producing excess insulin?Although the over-production of insulin in children can bedue to many factors, its causes can probably be reduced to two:The first, and not necessarily the most important, is the typeof food children are exposed to. T oo many carbohydrates, inthe form of fruit juice, soda, cereal, chips, fries, candy, cookies,and similar foods, leads to high sugar levels and subsequentlyto over-production of insulin, which then puts the sugar intothe fat cells. The other factor, which may be the root cause for all the
problems discussed in this chapter, is a deficiency of proges-terone. I consider this the missing link. Low progesterone is almost always associated with the
over-production of insulin. If a parent is low in progesterone,they can pass this trait on to their child. A mother low inprogesterone will have a medical history that shows estrogendominance—with symptoms that include cramps, PMS,breast tenderness, nausea with pregnancy, fibroids, fibrocystic142 THE MIRACLE OF BIO-IDENTICAL HORMONES  disease, and migraine headaches. The father may have a history
of hypoglycemia, increased fat around the middle, type IIdiabetes, or symptoms of ADHD. My own mother was estrogen dominant and wound up
dying of breast cancer because of it. She had thin arms and legsand a large abdomen—classic for hyperinsulinemia secondaryto low progesterone. I inherited a progesterone deficiency fromher. I had ADD as a child—I used to get up and walk out ofclass and could not focus. They didn’t diagnose ADD backthen; they thought I was bored. I wasn’t bored—I just couldn’tpay attention. I was continuously hypoglycemic—I cravedsweets. I rarely studied in high school or college, except thenight before exams. I could only focus on things that interestedme, like early rock and roll in high school, and bridge andpoker in college. (I studied 4 hours every night once I got tomedical school—but I was interested in medicine.) I have fought with my weight all my life because my body
over-produces insulin. When I first went into practice, I usedto nod off between 3 and 4 
p.m.—sometimes while talking to
patients! Oftentimes when I was driving I had to slap my faceto keep my eyes open. All these symptoms disappeared after Istarted using natural progesterone. THE OVER-WEIGHT CHILD
When people are young, it is often possible to get fat to almost
melt off their bodies. They have not yet reached the stage wheretheir bodies become sophisticated, efficient machines forfat-production and maintenance of fat. Another chapter of this book (chapter 20) deals with
weight control; the approach for children is similar to thatfor adults, but it is easier. Very often just teaching the child143 HORMONAL IMBAL ANCES IN CHILDREN (and/or the parents) how to eat properly is all that’s required. Instructing them on the importance of exercise—primarily toburn sugar rather than fat—is mandatory. Adjusting hormonessuch as progesterone and thyroid may be necessary. Eliminatingunnecessary medications, when possible, is helpful. What would be of immeasurable benefit is if parents
would unite in a campaign to eliminate the candy-juice-sodamachines in the schools, and work with the school dietitiansand the fast-food purveyors outside the school to offer lower-carb choices for their children. PUTTING PERIODS IN PERSPECTIVE
When girls enter puberty, if the ovaries are not producing an
adequate amount of progesterone, the pituitary sends outhormones to step up the production. In many cases, theovaries, for genetic reasons, are not capable of increasingprogesterone, but the extra stimulation increases the amountof estrogen. This extra estrogen can lead to cysts on the ovaries.Ovarian cysts can produce an excess of testosterone, causingproblems with acne and excessive hair growth. This is knownas polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS)—again, most likelycaused by a deficiency of progesterone. Keep in mind, the lowprogesterone associated with all of the above changes alsocauses the production of excess insulin, creating weight aroundthe middle. At the same time, the excess estrogen is putting onfat around the hips, thighs, and buttocks. Very often teenage girls with menstrual problems are put
on birth control pills to help with cramps or acne. However,this is treating the symptoms instead of dealing with thecause of the problem.144 THE MIRACLE OF BIO-IDENTICAL HORMONES  The cause, in my opinion, is a reduced level of proges-
terone. The only time a female produces progesterone isduring ovulation. Birth control pills prevent the ovaries fromovulating—so these girls go from low levels of progesterone tonone. Keep in mind in this regard that progesterone is one ofthe most important hormones in the female body. Giving the patient a natural, bio-identical progesterone
cream obtainable from a compounding pharmacy (not anover-the-counter cream because it is too weak) will eliminatethe cramps; it will help clear up acne and improve PCOS. Itwill also help with other problems if they are present, such asPMS, migraine headaches, and asthma, as well as lowering ahigh insulin level and helping to eliminate fat, ADD, andADHD. The dosage I would probably recommend isprogesterone cream 100 mg/
¼tsp applied twice a day to the
forearm and wrist on days 7 thru 28 of the cycle. FINAL THOUGHTS
Again, I am very aware that I am touching on controversial
areas by making recommendations on treating conditions inchildren with natural hormones when there have been nodirect studies. The major funding for medical studies comesfrom drug companies, and since drug companies cannotpatent natural products, it is unlikely that we will see studiespertaining to natural hormones in children for a long time.Used correctly, however, natural progesterone is non-toxic. T o put the safety of natural, bio-identical progesterone
into perspective, consider this: During a woman’s monthlycycle, progesterone peaks at 28 ng/dl. When a woman ispregnant, this level goes up to 450 ng/dl—a significantly highlevel that the fetus is exposed to for about 5 
½ months and145 HORMONAL IMBAL ANCES IN CHILDREN obviously has no trouble tolerating. In fact, the high levels of
progesterone aid in brain development, among other things.When progesterone is applied transdermally to an adult orchild, the blood level rises about 2 ng/dl—a mere fraction ofwhat the fetus is exposed to. I have recommended natural progesterone for a nine-year-
old girl who was having monthly migraine headaches. She hadalready started developing breasts and was evidently estrogendominant, like her mother. After she started taking proges-terone, her migraine headaches disappeared. /Iswashn my view, children with undiagnosed hormonal problems
are likely to face a multitude of lifelong difficulties. In my view, children with undiagnosed hormonal
problems are likely to face a multitude of lifelong difficulties.Children with ADD can wind up with diabetes, weightproblems, and experience difficulty holding jobs. Childrenwith ADHD often become adults with type A personalities—workaholics—and are at risk for developing bi-polar disorder.They frequently develop chemical dependencies on alcohol,cigarettes, methamphetamine, and other substances. Veryoften hormonal problems lead to depression in children.Children are also prone to thyroid conditions. Girls with lowprogesterone and high estrogen are more likely to have difficultygetting pregnant later on and are also possible candidates formiscarriages, morning sickness, postpartum depression,fibroids, endometriosis, asthma, migraine headaches, breastcancer, weight problems, and other difficulties. The fact is that children are being exposed to toxic drugs
such as anti-depressants, birth control pills, and stimulants forhyper-activity. Wouldn’t it be more beneficial to treat the146 THE MIRACLE OF BIO-IDENTICAL HORMONES  actual cause of their problems by replacing the hormone that
is missing? A PREVENTABLE TRAGEDY
On December 13, 2006, four-year-old Rebecca Riley died of
an overdose of drugs given to her for treatment of ADHD/bi-polar disorder. Her parents were arrested on murdercharges, accused of over-medicating their daughter to “keepher quiet.” Her teachers, the school nurse, the principal, hersocial workers, even her pharmacist, all knew she was over-medicated. She was described as being like a floppy doll,unable to sit up, and she was shaking so badly she needed helpto get off the bus every day. T o me, this girl’s death represents a microcosm of the
tragedy of ADHD. Do you blame the parents who hadADHD themselves, the doctor who prescribed these toxicmedications, the pharmacist who knowingly dispensed toomany drugs, her school, or the social workers? Her deathmight easily have been prevented if the medical professionwas aware of how hormones contribute to this condition. Istrongly feel that her ADHD/bi-polar disorder might havebeen eliminated with proper nutrition and utilizing naturalbio-identical progesterone. In 2002, there were about 2.5 million children in the United
States on anti-psychotic medication alone, and millions of otherson stimulants and anti-depressants. T oday there are probablymore. How many have wound up like Rebecca Riley or will doso in the future?147 HORMONAL IMBAL ANCES IN CHILDREN THOUGHTS ON CHOLESTEROL
chapter SEVENTEEN
Elevated cholesterol is often a barometer pointing to some
underlying problem in the body’s metabolic system. It’s anextremely complex issue that goes way beyond what I intendto cover in this book. However, I would like to addresscertain factors. The liver is the main source of cholesterol, and the raw
material for making cholesterol is the fat that is stored there.The primary source of this fat is excess carbohydrates that areingested, rather than fat that is ingested. A study was done atJohns Hopkins University to determine the effect on choles-terol of eating white meat (fish and chicken) versus red meat(all other meats). The results showed that white meat and redmeat 
lowered cholesterol by the same amount. T o a large extent the thyroid gland controls cholesterol
metabolism. In fact, when I went to medical school they oftenreferred to the cholesterol level as “the poor man’s thyroid test.”Unfortunately, many doctors fail to assess thyroid functionwhen dealing with elevated cholesterol because the emphasis inmedicine is on treating the symptom and not the cause. Givingthyroid hormone can very often lower the cholesterol level. Most people are aware of HDL and LDL as two types of
cholesterol. These are actually lipoproteins that transport
149cholesterol throughout the body. Both are necessary for
proper health. LDL has a reputation for being “bad” because itcan oxidize and cause damage to the coronary arteries. HDL isconsidered “good” because it prevents LDL from oxidizing: thehigher the HDL level, the better. There are studies indicatingthat more people with low total cholesterol levels have heartattacks than those with high levels. If this is the case, then pre-sumably the issue is not the level of cholesterol but whether ornot it is being oxidized. It is estimated that 20 percent of the American population
has Syndrome X, a disease of hyperinsulinemia, or highinsulin. Insulin puts sugar not only into fat cells, where it getsconverted into fat, but also into the liver—where it also isconverted into fat. This is the primary fuel used to manufac-ture cholesterol. If someone has high LDL cholesterol and alsohas a low HDL cholesterol and an elevated triglyceride level(the hallmarks of Syndrome X), lowering their insulin leveloften helps bring the total cholesterol level down. As people get older, hormone levels go down, and most
hormones are made with cholesterol. One theory says that therise in cholesterol levels as we get older is partially a responseby the body to the lowering of our hormones, that is, it istrying to provide more substrate to raise our hormones. Alongthese lines, one might anticipate that bio-identical hormonereplacement would lead to a lowering of cholesterol. STATIN DRUGS AND COENZYME Q- 10
The largest-selling drugs in the world are Lipitor and Zocor. Other statin-type drugs that lower cholesterol by preventingcholesterol production include Pravachol, Mevacor, Lescol,Crestor, and Vytorin. All these drugs have the same side effects,150 THE MIRACLE OF BIO-IDENTICAL HORMONES  which include brain damage and memory loss. Perhaps this is
not surprising, given that most brain tissue is made up ofcholesterol and there are special cells in the brain that producecholesterol. I suspect that years from now, statin drugs may beimplicated in an epidemic of Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’sdisease. They can also cause damage to the liver, nerves,muscles, and the heart. The most serious side effects areirreversible kidney failure and sudden death. One of the most powerful antioxidants for the heart is
coenzyme Q-10. As people get older, the body producesdecreasing amounts of this element. Because of this, there areprobably no benefits to taking a statin drug after the age of 60. Statin drugs lower coenzyme Q-10 levels, which is what
produces the majority of the side effects of these medications.Obviously, if you are taking one of these drugs, I wouldrecommend also taking coenzyme Q-10. It is available in drugstores and health food stores. My recommended dosage is atleast 200 mg a day. One wonders if the utilization of antioxidants by
themselves might be of more benefit in preventing coronaryartery disease than lowering cholesterol. A FRIENDLY WARNING
Many people have heard of Vioxx, a pain medication removed
from the market because of cardiac concerns. Recently a juryawarded 253 million dollars to the wife of a patient who diedof a heart attack while on Vioxx. This sum was primarilypunitive damages, because evidence at the trial indicated that themanufacturer had been aware of cardiac problems associatedwith Vioxx for many years. In point of fact, this was not secretinformation. The association between Vioxx and heart151 THOUGHT S ON CHOLESTEROL  attacks was generally well publicized in various studies but
unfortunately was not noted by the physicians, whoprescribed 2.3 billion dollars worth of the drug per year. Inmy view, the jury was saying: we understand that drugs cancause serious side effects, and if a drug company knows thata certain segment of a population (e.g., heart patients) shouldnot take a certain drug, then the company should let theFDA and the drug-taking population know it, too, and sendout “Dear Doctor” letters. That brings us to the medication Zocor, made by the
same pharmaceutical company. Right now, it is the numberone selling drug in the world. Side effects of the drug includebrain damage, memory loss, nerve damage, irreversiblekidney damage secondary to severe muscle damage, heartdamage, and sudden death. Most, if not all, of these sideeffects are related to the lowering of coenzyme Q-10, anextremely potent antioxidant that the heart cannot functionwithout. Sixteen years ago the company that manufacturesZocor received a patent for a new formulation of Zocor thatincludes coenzyme Q-10. When the time comes forstatin-type drugs to be scrutinized more for safety, this factmay come back to haunt the manufacturers. It may representanother example of prior knowledge of potential problemsand not publicizing the fact that all people taking statindrugs should probably also be taking coenzyme Q-10.152 THE MIRACLE OF BIO-IDENTICAL HORMONES  MORBID OBESITY AND
ROGER P . chapter EIGHTEEN
Roger P ., 47, arrived for his intake interview weighing 420
pounds. His pear-shaped body was the classic body type forsomeone who is pouring out excess estrogen along with toomuch insulin. His hormone imbalance was accompanied by a host of
other problems. He was reclusive, a drinker, and his body wasin constant pain. As Roger tells his story, the reader willappreciate the extent of his struggle against obesity, whichcreated devastating physical and emotional havoc. I’ve been fat my whole life. Being the fat kid in school made
me an outcast. When you’re always on the outside looking in, yourlevel of caring declines. I felt that everything and everyone wasagainst me, and I was an angry kid. Not only was I fat but I was weird looking, too. I carried all
my weight in my hips and thighs, like a woman. I was one of thoseobese people who seem to be not a “he” or a “she” but an “it.” Ilooked like two different people stuck together. In my line of work, which is designing and building binary data
systems, I’m able to work solo as a contract employee. I always choseto work from home, going in for meetings as infrequently as possible.I fashioned my career to allow for maximum reclusiveness. 153I was always ashamed and embarrassed. Whenever I went out
to eat I would find the darkest, most secluded corner in therestaurant to hide out in. Clothes were a problem, too. For years Iwore bib overalls, the monster size. I couldn’t button them all theway up on the sides. And I lived in fear of children. Children would see me in
public and pipe up with something totally humiliating. I startedscheduling my visits to the market for the middle of the night justto avoid being humiliated by little kids. In the midst of all of this humiliation, I had a strong feeling
that this obesity was not my fault. I would keep going to doctors totry and get some help. Normally their response, after they’d takenmy money, was to say, “Go home, kid, and quit eating so much.”I would tell them, “I don’t eat that much,” and I didn’t, I neverhave. You and I could eat the same exact meal and you’d beunaffected, but I’d wake up the next morning and my pantswouldn’t fit. But every doctor I tried to get help from told methat although I probably didn’t think I was a huge eater, inreality I was. They made me feel like a liar. Some of them gaveme amphetamines. At age 23 I started getting leg pains, and then later on I
developed full body cramps. I was cramping all the time, havingnight sweats and weird vision problems. None of the doctors Iwent to had any solutions for me. These problems were variouslymisdiagnosed as gout, pseudo-gout, tendonitis, and a bunch ofother things. My life was miserable. I’d do my work, come home, drink a
six-pack of beer and a half bottle of T equila every night, and go tosleep and get up and do the whole thing over again. One night afriend infuriated me on the phone by telling me I was like somelittle old lady with her two dogs and no life. It sent me off the scale.I yelled at her. But I thought about it all night, and the next day154 THE MIRACLE OF BIO-IDENTICAL HORMONES  I realized that she had only described me as I really was. I had heard Dr. Platt talking about weight loss on the radio. The day after the fight with my friend I went to see him. He satme down and talked to me for over an hour. He wanted to knoweverything about my family history and my life. After my initialvisit he put me on progesterone and DHEA and started me on thediet. Right away I started losing weight. About three months into the program I had a real bad
flare-up in my knee, hip and in between; it felt like having hotsteel shoved up your leg. I tried a chiropractor and then a sportsmedicine specialist, but they didn’t help. Finally I thought, “Whatthe heck; I’ll ask Dr. Platt about it.”
I was totally shocked by his reaction. “Look, I’m your physi-
cian and I’m treating you,” he said. “I want to know everythingthat’s happening to you.” I found that such a strange attitude fora doctor. He added testosterone and thyroid to my medications, and
changed the type of DHEA I was taking. That same day hediagnosed my fibromyalgia, which is the pain in my leg that hadbeen misdiagnosed by so many doctors. About three days later I feltas though I’d come out of a fog. It’s hard to describe. I had beenthere so long I didn’t know I was there. I had an amazing change,a new clarity of thought. It was startling. And I was pain-free for the first time in 24 years. Strange
things started happening to me physically at this point. All my lifeI’ve been kind of a big, white farm-boy-looking guy without anymuscle definition at all. Now I’ve developed all this muscledefinition. I’m much stronger. I used to sleep eight or ten hours anight and then sit all day without wanting to do anything. NowI sleep about four hours a night and I’m never tired. Life is good. I weigh 195 pounds. It’s the first time I’ve been less than 200
pounds since I was 12 years old. My brain hasn’t kept up with my155 MORBID OBESIT Y AND ROGER P . body and my biggest challenges now are social and psychological. I’d say socially I’m probably at a junior high school grade levelbecause I’ve never participated in society outside of work. People sometimes ask me if I’m bitter about all the years when
I was looking for help and doors were being shut in my face. ButI’m not. They were blessings and gifts even though they werepainful. I’m pretty happy with who I am now. THE PAIN OF MORBID OBESITY
T o me, Roger’s case highlights the pivotal problem with the way
medicine is practiced today. As I’ve said before, too many doctors don’t have the time it
takes to listen to their patients any more. For years Roger wentfrom doctor to doctor about his weight problem, telling themthat he didn’t over-eat and asking for help. But they didn’tlisten to him. They dismissed him. And they didn’t observe him. They didn’t look at him. It
was so obvious from the distribution of his fat that there wassomething more than an eating problem going on. He had tohave a hormone problem—it was unmistakable. It’s amazingto me that so many doctors were blind to it. When I went through medical school, we had a course
called “Physical Diagnosis,” and it was fascinating. We learnedabout an array of outward physical signs, many of them verysubtle, that you could observe in a patient to pick up informa-tion about what might be going on inside their bodies. It wasa kind of visual detective work. It kept you attuned to whatyou were really seeing when you looked at your patient. I wonder if they even teach this course any more. The
medical profession has become so fixated on technology thatsimple first-person observation seems to have lost its value.156 THE MIRACLE OF BIO-IDENTICAL HORMONES  TWO STEPS FORWARD, ONE STEP BACK
This may sound strange, but I often feel that the development
of blood tests has been a major setback in medicine. In the olddays—going back 100 or 200 years—the only thing doctors hadto rely on was talking to their patients and observing them. (Inthe really early days they didn’t even have stethoscopes. They’droll up a piece of paper and listen to people’s hearts throughthat.) T oday doctors have blood tests to fall back on, and theyseem to find the statistical “hard facts” of blood tests reassuring.It seems that they would rather treat the blood test than look atthe patient and find out what’s actually going on. With everytechnological advance it seems as though doctors recede furtherand further from direct contact with their patients. Roger was obviously crying out for help, and nobody
would give it to him. He was just about suicidal when he cameto me. Looking at him, at the way he stored fat in theabdomen and buttocks, it was obvious to me that his bodyproduced too much insulin and estrogen. So I put him onprogesterone right away. He went on the diet, and I eventuallyadded other hormones to help him with his metabolism andmuscle mass. THE ROAD HOME
As he lost weight, Roger’s anger melted away too, and that
helped to mitigate his fibromyalgia. This man had been furi-ous for practically all of his 47 years. He’d been a fat child, andwe all know how cruel children are to the fat kids at school. Asan adult he carried this humiliation with him, becoming arecluse and living a life of quiet desperation. The suppressedanger he felt must have been crushing.157 MORBID OBESIT Y AND ROGER P . Once he finally got help at our office, once he talked to a
doctor who confirmed that he was not over-eating and he wasnot the cause of his own disfigurement, his gratitude knew nobounds. T oday Roger will tell anyone who will listen that he’dwalk through fire for me or anyone in my office. If you saw Roger now, you would never know this man had
once been morbidly obese. He looks like a normal person, andhis entire life has been transformed. And it was so simple. It wasjust a matter of getting his hormones in balance and getting himto eat in a way that would force his body to burn fat. THE INFORMATION IS A VAILABLE
The sad thing is that what I’m doing for people like Roger is
based on information that’s available to any doctor who wantsto avail himself or herself of it. The other day I saw an ad in the newspaper with the head-
line “An Amazing Weight Loss Discovery.” The ad was for apill that “causes the body to get rid of fat in three differentways.” You wouldn’t have to change anything in your lifestyle;you could still eat everything, you wouldn’t have to exercise,and the fat would just come right off. I’m sure you’ve seen such ads and scoffed at their disingen-
uousness. They all have little disclaimers way down at thebottom of the page, usually next to the before-and-afterphotos that are captioned “Results not typical.” Well, if thesearen’t the typical results, then why buy the pills? Theytypically don’t work! It says so right there in the ad! I’m being a bit facetious here, but it’s for a good reason. I’m
trying to drive home the point that as a society we tolerate allkinds of ridiculous misinformation about weight loss, while realinformation that could actually help people goes unheeded.158 THE MIRACLE OF BIO-IDENTICAL HORMONES  It’s my hope that people suffering from morbid obesity will
take this book into their doctors’ offices and demand the sim-ple, inexpensive solutions to their plight that they deserve. A HAPPY ENDING
At the time Roger, at age 47, first walked into my office, he told
me he had never had a date in his life. He started on theprogram, lost weight, got down to a size 32 waist, eliminatedhis fibromyalgia, started dating, got engaged … and is nowhappily married. It is truly miraculous what a little natural hormone balanc-
ing can accomplish.159 MORBID OBESIT Y AND ROGER P . WEIGHT LOSS—
HOW MEDICATIONS
CAN PREVENT IT
chapter NINETEEN
Many of the medications commonly prescribed by doctors
today affect people’s ability to manage their weight. Some ofthese effects are publicized and some aren’t. For instance, mostpeople taking Prozac know that it causes weight gain, andthey make a conscious choice to sacrifice optimum weightmanagement in order to get an improvement in theiremotional outlook. But the lipogenic (fat-creating) effects of some other
medications aren’t well known. People who take thesemedications may be struggling with their weight, unawarethey’re fighting a losing battle against an unrecognized enemy.These people should at least know what they are up against. ANTI-DEPRESSANTS
Anti-depressants are a major source of weight gain. I suspect
this is the case in part because anti-depressants may elevateestrogen levels. 161SSRIs (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors) like Zoloft,
Paxil, Effexor, Celexa, Lexapro, and Prozac are particularlyprone to causing weight gain. Some doctors prescribe theseanti-depressants to help people lose weight by elevating theirserotonin levels—serotonin is the neurotransmitter in thebrain that takes away cravings. People who have a weightproblem only because they crave certain foods can sometimesfind benefit in taking anti-depressants. But for the most part,people on anti-depressants will gain weight. The tricyclic anti-depressants like Elavil, Desipramine, and
Norpramin also cause weight gain. A common phenomenon in our society is that people who
are depressed about their weight start taking anti-depressantsto help them manage their depression. But then the anti-depressants cause further weight gain, making these peoplefeel even worse about themselves. It’s a vicious cycle. In my experience, the only anti-depressant that possibly
doesn’t cause weight gain is Wellbutrin. BETA-BLOCKERS
People taking beta-blockers are almost guaranteed to gain
weight. Drugs like atenolol, Lopressor, Ziac, and Inderal blockadrenaline from entering the bloodstream. Adrenaline is whatthe body uses to stimulate the release of fat from the fat cells. Ifyou can’t get fat out of the fat cells, the muscles can’t burn it. Beta-blockers are also anti-thyroid drugs, as I mentioned
in chapter 3. One of the treatments for someone with anover-active thyroid is to give them a beta-blocker to quiet thethyroid down. It prevents the conversion of T4 into T3,something we also saw in chapter 3.162 THE MIRACLE OF BIO-IDENTICAL HORMONES  Ironically, the biggest prescribers of beta-blockers are
cardiologists, who give it to patients because it decreases theworkload of the heart. I call this an irony because obesity is amajor risk factor for heart disease. What they are prescribing toreduce the heart’s work will ultimately give the heart morework—in the form of excess weight the patient will sooncarry around. Beta-blockers very quickly reach a point of diminishing
returns for patients at risk for heart disease. The weight thesepatients gain cancels out many of the benefits the beta-blockers might offer at the outset. ESTROGEN
Perhaps the biggest influence in the tendency to gain weight in
women comes from estrogen. I say this because estrogen is oneof the largest-selling drugs in the world, and it is prescribed towomen throughout their lives, whether in the form of birthcontrol pills in their youth or as part of hormone replacementtherapy after menopause. Estrogen is lipogenic—it encouragesthe accumulation of fat—and this is true of both natural andsynthetic estrogen. Women who still have their uterus are conventionally
prescribed a progestin along with any estrogen they are taking,since unopposed estrogen has been found to cause cancer ofthe uterus. The progestin most commonly prescribed isProvera, which helps protect the uterus from cancer. Butprogestins are also lipogenic and, like estrogen, producecellulite and fat and increase the risk of breast cancer. Women who take Depo-Provera shots for birth control are
practically guaranteed to gain as much as 20 pounds of weight.163 HOW MEDICATIONS PREVENT WEIGHT LOSS  DIURETICS
Many people take diuretics for high blood pressure, and these
medications can elevate blood sugar. Anything that elevatesblood sugar will increase insulin production, and as I’ve saidbefore, insulin is the fat-storing hormone. ANTI-INFLAMMATORY DRUGS
Patients taking anti-inflammatory medications very often
report an immediate weight gain. This increase in weight isprobably a result of fluid retention. STATIN DRUGS
Statin drugs, like Lipitor, Zocor, Pravachol, Mevacor, Lescol,
Vytorin, and Crestor, can also cause weight gain. This is becausethey lower coenzyme Q-10 levels, preventing the conversion ofT4 (thyroxine) into T3 (triiodothyronine), the active thyroidhormone. And people concerned with weight want theirthyroid to be functioning as well as possible. Interestingly, the most commonly prescribed drugs in this
country all tend to cause weight gain. Could this be contributingto the epidemic of obesity in this country? Could this be whypeople almost always put weight back on after they struggle tolose it, and why some people cannot lose weight, no matterwhat they do?164 THE MIRACLE OF BIO-IDENTICAL HORMONES  PERMANENT WEIGHT LOSS
chapter TWENTY
From the beginning of my clinical career, my approach to
medicine has been preventive. It always made a lot more senseto me to prevent disease rather than to treat it. As an internist, I continuously deal with patients concerned
about their weight or trying to cope with obesity. Thiscondition is clearly wreaking havoc on many levels. If mypatients could manage their weight, the task of creating over-all wellness would be eased greatly. In other words, I havefound that weight management fits easily into a category ofpreventive medicine. From the outset I have been struck by these interesting
statistics: 
• 98 percent of people who lose weight gain it all
back again within five years. • Obesity is the second leading preventable cause
of death (smoking is number one). What if there was a type of cancer that had a 98 percent
relapse rate after it was treated? Who would be happy with thattype of success rate for a cancer? Patients would demand an
165alternative approach. But for the last 50 years, Americans have
bought into the traditional, time-worn medical advice that“you have to diet, exercise, and watch your fat intake” in orderto manage your weight. Sound familiar? By now you should have an understanding of my point of
view about weight management, including my conviction thatembarking on a weight loss program entails more thandetermination and will power. Balancing one’s hormones,eliminating certain drugs, and acquiring fundamentalknowledge of certain nutritional guidelines set the stage for asuccessful approach to weight loss and wellness. In this chapter I lay out the logic of how to achieve
permanent weight loss. THE DISEASE CALLED OBESITY
I feel that a major cause of our current epidemic of obesity is
that most physicians have been reluctant to look at obesity as adisease and continue to see it as an eating problem. Doctorshave an absolutely clear understanding that conditions likehypertension and diabetes are real diseases that cannot bemanaged using will power. They are not reluctant abouthelping their patients manage these conditions, even if it meanstreating them over their entire life span. But obesity, they feel, can be treated with unsophisticated
advice and without addressing the underlying cause. If it’s nota disease, why look for a cause? This is like trying to treat acancer without treating the cause of the cancer. I prefer a more scientific method. Let’s look at the
traditional approaches to weight management to get anunderstanding of why they don’t work.166 THE MIRACLE OF BIO-IDENTICAL HORMONES  WHY CUTTING CALORIES
DOESN’T WORK
The problem with calorie restriction (dieting) as a weight loss
strategy is that it triggers the body’s survival mechanisms. Whenwe limit our meal plans to 1,200 calories per day or less, thebody gets alarmed. Is starvation in the offing? Best to startstoring and locking away fat in earnest. The body is a complex, multi-layered operating system. It
has a whole arsenal of techniques for maintaining homeostasisand for ensuring survival. This is something that dieters forget.They become fixated on counting calories, assuming that abody deprived of energy will burn its own fat to survive. Butthey are wrong. A body deprived of energy will go after its ownmuscle tissue before it will burn fat. And in the meantime, itwill marshal its powerful hormone system to alter the way itmetabolizes food for energy. People who lose weight on a diet are fooling themselves. They get on the scale and see that they weigh less, but theyshouldn’t be celebrating. They’ve just burned up muscle tissue—the only kind of tissue that burns fat. Now they have a bodythat’s less efficient at burning fat. When they “finish” their diet(i.e., stop restricting calories) they will have less of the tissueneeded to maintain homeostasis at a low weight. /Nswashinety-eight percent of people who lose weight
gain it all back again
within five years. This is why those who diet not only gain back all the weight
they’ve lost, but typically put on an extra two or three pounds.Lost muscle tissue, together with the body’s newly improved fat-storing mechanism, causes them to stabilize at a higher weight.167 PERMANENT WEIGHT LOSS  WHAT ABOUT EXERCISE ? Many people reason that if restricting calories is unrealistic,
then the solution must be to exercise more. Exercise, after all,burns calories. Or does it?Exercise offers tremendous benefits to those who incorporate
it into their lifestyle. It improves cardiovascular health, itmakes people feel better, it’s great for bones and muscles, itlowers insulin levels, and so on. However, as the sole approachto weight loss it’s not what it’s cracked up to be. T o lose one pound of fat by exercising, you must burn
3,500 calories. This is equivalent to going out and running 35miles. The alternative would be walking on a treadmill at fourmiles per hour for 7 
½hours. In my practice I have come upon patients who were living
on 800 calories a day and exercising four hours a day, and theycouldn’t lose an ounce. Talk about frustrated! These peopleobviously were in a severe starvation mode, and the body willnot burn fat when it’s starving. WHAT ABOUT EATING LESS FAT ? Another timeworn piece of advice is to tell patients to cut out
fat from their diets. Interestingly, fat is the only food substancethat does not stimulate insulin. And insulin, as you now know,is the number one hormone that creates fat, especially aroundthe middle. Ever since this country got into a nonfat, fat-free
thinking mode, we have had an epidemic of obesity. Foodslike popcorn and pretzels, which are nonfat and low incalories, create more insulin than candy does. (However, themessage here is not to eat candy. )168 THE MIRACLE OF BIO-IDENTICAL HORMONES  As reported in the Framingham Heart Study, which is the
largest on-going heart study in the world, the men who ate themost saturated fat (butter, meat, eggs, etc.) weighed the least.Additionally, they had the lowest cholesterol levels and thefewest incidents of coronary artery disease. Fat is not the enemy. Additionally, given that fat is the preferred fuel for survival,
the body is not likely to burn it if a person restricts their fatintake. Even more important: nonfat foods are usually high incarbohydrates (sugar), so eating them causes insulin levelsto increase. THE LOGICAL APPROACH
So we’ve eliminated dieting, we’ve eliminated exercise, and
we’ve eliminated eating less fat. Now what are we going to do? Well, it all comes down to metabolism. The trick is to
convert your body from a sugar-burning metabolism to a fat-burning metabolism. The way to do this is to take away sugar.The body gets sugar from carbohydrates. All carbohydratesbreak down into sugar. You must eliminate those particularcarbohydrates that create the most sugar and/or stimulate themost insulin production. It takes three days from the time you stop taking in sugar
and certain other carbohydrates for your body to beginburning fat. It takes that long to get the sugar, or glycogen, outof the muscle tissue. Once you get rid of the glycogen, theusual source of energy, the muscles have no choice: they haveto start burning fat. After that point, everything you do burnsfat. Cleaning the house, walking out to the car, walkingyour dog—everything you do burns fat. Even while you aresleeping, you are burning fat. You’re still up against the fact that it takes 3,500 calories to
lose a pound of fat, but now you are burning fat constantly.169 PERMANENT WEIGHT LOSS  Most people using this type of approach, depending upon how
much they weigh and how active they are, are able to burnanywhere from 7,000 to 10,000 calories per week So theirexpected fat loss would be two to three pounds per week, oreight to twelve pounds per month. SAYING GOOD-BYE TO INSULIN
Obviously, this type of approach is not for everybody. However,
certain types of people have no other choice except to followthis plan. These are the people who:
• are not big eaters; they can’t shave 3,500 calories        
from their meal plans in order to lose one pound of fat
• over-produce insulin• have Syndrome X• have low progesterone levels• eat too much sugar. For most people, insulin is the enemy. Insulin creates fat by
taking any sugar the muscles have no need for and placing itinto fat cells, where the sugar is immediately converted intofat. Then the insulin sits there preventing release of fat fromthe fat cells—it is a fat-storing hormone. The bottom line for most people is that to get rid of fat they
have to reduce insulin. If they want to reduce insulin, they haveto take away sugar. Sugar stimulates insulin production. SIMILAR APPROACHES
Cutting out carbs is the basic premise behind many weight loss
approaches: Atkins, the South Beach Diet, Sugar Busters, the170 THE MIRACLE OF BIO-IDENTICAL HORMONES  Zone, Protein Power, the Carbohydrate Addict’s Diet, the
Mayo Clinic Diet, the Grapefruit Diet, the Stillman Diet aresome of the better-known ones. What used to be a low-fat world is rapidly converting into
a low-carb world. Many restaurants offer low-carb menus, andfast food places have also jumped on the bandwagon. This concept of eating low carb is not new. It has actually
been around for more than 150 years. There were severalsuccessful low-carb programs in the 1800s, though theyeventually died out. The idea was resurrected in the 1970s byStillman and Atkins. Now there are low-carb proponents ofall kinds. One must be aware that no single diet plan is for every-
body—there is no “one-size-fits-all” approach. For example,one diet plan allows a “reward meal” at supper (eat as manycarbohydrates as you want within the space of an hour).
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:

        Even with my son124 THE MIRACLE OF BIO-IDENTICAL HORMONES  at home I couldn’t tear myself away from work. Stephanie insisted I see a psychiatrist about my workaholic
attitude. I began seeing a woman who diagnosed me as bi-polarand gave me three strong medications to even out my highs andlows. I began talk therapy as well. Looking back, I probably should have gotten a second
opinion from another psychiatrist. The talk therapy only dealtwith my euphoria and my depression. We never talked about theunderlying problems that were driving me. I began getting worseand worse. I felt so much responsibility that I couldn’t handle it. There was nothing in my life that felt comfortable and grounded. I felt anxious all the time; I couldn’t sleep or eat. At one point I threatened to drive to Hoover Dam and
jump. Stephanie got on her knees and cried and begged me to getsome real help. There is a psychiatric hospital in Connecticut myfamily knows about and they offered to send me there. By nowI’d lost my job. I knew that if I wanted to get my life on trackI’d have to get more help. So I spent the summer in Connecticut getting a lot of
individual counseling, and group therapy, too. Stephanie wentto Chicago with our son to stay with her parents. We lost ourhouse. Stephanie is now in Chicago and we are both praying forreconciliation and a chance to start life over together. In Connecticut they added lithium to the drugs I was taking,
bringing the number to four. These were all very strong drugs,including Effexor, Paxil, and Depakote. I didn ’t like the way Ifelt on the drugs. They made me drowsy and blurred my thinking. Another side effect was weight gain. I went from my habit-
ual 165 pounds (I’m 6 feet tall) up to 215. When I left the psychiatric hospital, I came to the desert to stay
with my mother. T oday I’m under the care of a psychiatrist, goingthrough a healing process. When I told a friend about how uncom-fortable I felt weighing 215, he recommended I see Dr. Platt. 125 PSYCHOGENIC MEDICATION AND GREG C. Initially I went just for the weight loss, but I have received
so much more from my treatment. The great miracle is that notonly have I gone back to my usual weight, I’ve been able to weanmyself off all the drugs I was on. My intake interview with Dr. Platt made me feel very
comfortable. When I told him about all the drugs 1 was taking,he told me I was over-medicated, and that if I followed hishormone treatment and his diet I would be able to wean myselfoff the drugs. I told my psychiatrist about Dr. Platt and he wasopen to the idea of helping the weaning process along, as long asI continued in therapy with him and continued to examine theissues that got me into trouble in the first place. I started Dr. Platt’s treatment in January and set myself the
goal of being drug-free and at the proper weight by the end ofMarch. I reached my goal by early March, and today feelabsolutely fantastic. I feel so lucid and my thought processes areso clear compared to how I felt on the drugs. I’m continuing in therapy and applying for jobs in various
industries such as banking and insurance—more conventionalindustries where the hours are normal. I don’t want to be in thehospitality business any more. While I’m waiting for a job to come through, I’m delivering
newspapers at night. It’s something I never could have imaginedmyself doing at the age of 32. But it gives me time to think aboutwhat I want for my future, and I see the moon and stars everynight and watch the sun rise every morning. It’s a humblingexperience, but it’s also a rebirth. I feel the foundation of myhouse has been properly poured this time. I’ve gotten so muchhelp with my worldview, both from my psychiatrist and from Dr. Platt, who encourages me to approach life as an enjoyable jour-ney. I’m thinking in a way I’ve never thought before. I used tohave so much fear that I was never going to amount to anythingin life. Now I know that if I stay balanced I will have an impact126 THE MIRACLE OF BIO-IDENTICAL HORMONES  on the lives of my loved ones and hopefully my community, and
that’s all I want. THE DANGERS OF PSYCHOTROPIC
MEDICATION
Greg’s case is a classic example of how medications can
contribute to a person’s problems instead of helping them. My approach with my patients is always to look for the
underlying causes of their problems. I can’t just look at theproblems without seeing the entire person. Greg came to mefor weight loss, but I did not want to treat him as a straight-forward weight management patient without addressing thosefour incredibly powerful drugs he was taking. I knew that evenif I were to get him down to his ideal weight, those drugswould eventually bring him right back to where he was. So itwould make sense to address the psychogenic drugs first. Although I’m not a psychiatrist, I found the diagnosis of
bi-polar disorder suspicious. That’s a very specific disorder—one that tends to be over-diagnosed, by the way. I didn’tbelieve that Greg was really suffering from that malady. SinceI know that hormones have a tremendous impact on theneurotransmitters in the brain, I decided to go on the workingtheory that Greg, like many people, was being diagnosed withsomething very serious when in fact he was probably justsuffering from unbalanced hormones. Whatever Greg’s psychological difficulties were, I knew that
with the right hormones he could get some relief from hissymptoms. I told him that my goal was to get him off his drugsand to get his hormones in balance. He was delighted with that,since he felt foggy and uncomfortable on the medications. 127 PSYCHOGENIC MEDICATION AND GREG C. Fortunately, Greg’s psychiatrist was open to the idea of
weaning him off of these powerful drugs. He felt that Greg’snervous breakdown was an extreme stress reaction, not asymptom of bi-polar disorder, and that if Greg could addresshis issues in talk therapy he could eventually go back to livinga normal, drug-free life. ADJUSTING GREG’S HORMONES
In my view, Greg’s weight problem was caused by a combination
of the medications he was on plus too much insulin. The factthat most of Greg’s weight had settled in around his abdomenwas a sign of over-producing insulin. So I started him onnatural progesterone right away. I did this for four reasons:
• Progesterone reduces insulin
• Progesterone regulates blood sugar levels• Progesterone is wonderful for brain tissue 
(progesterone levels are 20 times higher in brain tissue than anywhere else)
• Progesterone is a natural anti-depressant
Between progesterone and the meal plan, Greg began
losing weight right away. With his psychiatrist’s help, heslowly reduced the amount of Paxil, Effexor, Depakote, andlithium he was taking. As he continuously lowered the dosagesof those lipogenic medications, his weight loss speeded up. He got into a positive feedback loop whereby he liked the
way he was looking, which led to feeling better about himselfand making faster progress in talk therapy, which led to furthersuccess with his weight management program, and so on. Asthe weeks went by, you could see the transformation. 128 THE MIRACLE OF BIO-IDENTICAL HORMONES  Eventually Greg returned to being the person he’d been
before he started the medications, minus the driven, worka-holic overlay. T oday he’s a very energetic, forward-looking manwith a lot to live for. Greg will eventually be reunited with his wife and child. With the help of hormones, he’ll be able to live a balanced lifethat he truly enjoys. In addition, he is now acutely aware of theimportance of balancing his son’s hormones and his wife’shormones. Greg’s problems were strictly hormonal: too much
adrenaline, too much insulin, too much cortisol, and too littleprogesterone. Putting them back into balance gave him the“miracle” he was looking for. THE UNDERLYING PROBLEM
Greg’s story illustrates why it is so important to understand the
background of one’s patients. When I first talked with Greg, it was immediately
apparent that he had a classic case of ADHD. Adults with thisproblem frequently become workaholics and type A personal-ities. These people are living on adrenaline. They start out withlow progesterone levels, which causes an over-production ofinsulin. This leads to hypoglycemia and to an outpouring ofadrenaline to bring sugar levels up. This was Greg’s underlying metabolic state. When he began
working in Las Vegas, the new element of stress was added. Now his adrenal glands were over-producing not only
adrenaline but also cortisol (this is addressed in chapter 20). The cortisol raised his sugar levels, leading to even moreinsulin production. This led to more hypoglycemia, which ledto more adrenaline. He lost his appetite because of the high129 PSYCHOGENIC MEDICATION AND GREG C. levels of adrenaline, leading to a body starved for fuel, which
created even more stress. He did not have bi-polar disorder; he just had a major
hormonal imbalance. One can readily see why sometimespsychological conditions can be treated with hormones in amore effective manner than with drugs. 130 THE MIRACLE OF BIO-IDENTICAL HORMONES  ADD AND ADHD—
THE SILENT EPIDEMIC
chapter FIFTEEN
I could not write a book about the influence of hormones
without making special mention of attention deficit disorder(ADD) and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). In my view, these two conditions are primarily related to ahormonal imbalance involving high insulin and the resultanthypoglycemia, or low blood sugar. There are many kids with symptoms of ADD who are
struggling in school today because they have difficultiesfocusing. Often the reason they cannot pay attention in classor do homework is that they are hypoglycemic. Any time sugaris taken from the brain, the brain cannot focus. The reason forthe low sugars is that the kids are over-producing insulin. Because of the hypoglycemia these youngsters experience a
persistent craving for foods that provide sugar, such as fruitjuice, soda, and candy. And very often kids with ADD have aweight problem, since they are continuously eating highglycemic carbohydrates. ADHD starts out the same way—too much insulin
leading to low sugar levels. However, kids with ADHD have tocontend with another hormone: adrenaline. 131The brain cannot function without sugar, and the body
has an amazing capacity for finding ways to raise the bloodsugar level when it is low. Prominent among these regulatoryreactions is a process called gluconeogenesis, which, simplyput, creates sugar from protein. It is mediated through thesympathetic nervous system, which means the body pours outadrenaline to raise sugar levels. Adrenaline, which is naturalspeed, causes these kids to be hyperactive. At the same time that the body is creating adrenaline, the
low sugar levels are prompting cravings for food high in sugar. Ingestion of sugar then leads to the over-production of insulin,leading to a drop in sugar, leading to difficulty focusing,leading to the over-production of adrenaline, leading to hyper-active behavior, and on and on. Kids with ADHD are usually thin. The hyperactivity
burns up the sugar before it’s converted to fat for storage. Oftentimes the hyperactivity is masked by the child’s activeinvolvement in sports. Kids with ADHD are treated with drugs such as Ritalin,
Adderal, and Strattera. However, approaching this conditionfrom a hormonal standpoint in most cases eliminates ADHDwithout having to resort to medication. You can probably guess that the missing hormone that can
balance the high insulin and adrenaline levels and alleviateADD and ADHD would be progesterone. We inherit ourhormone levels from either parent. If a mother is estrogendominant, she is also low in progesterone. This can be passedon to her daughter or son. Anyone with a low progesteronelevel will over-produce insulin, thereby causing hypoglycemia,leading to ADD. 132 THE MIRACLE OF BIO-IDENTICAL HORMONES  AN AMAZING TRANSFORMATION
I should mention my experience with one nine-year-old child
who had a classic case of ADHD. He had been thrown out ofevery public school in the city of Indio, California, for fightingwith other children, shoving teachers, and similar behaviors. His mother was desperate because the boy sincerely wanted togo back to school. I do not treat young children with ADHDin my practice, but I made an exception in this case. I talked with the boy and helped him understand that the
sugar-based diet he had been eating and drinking was part ofthe problem. I told him he would be putting a cream on hislower forearm. He agreed to follow the protocol and was givena meal plan. T wenty-four hours later, his mother told me she could
not stop crying; she had never seen her son behave so well. He did ten pages of homework—quite an accomplishmentfor someone who had never done homework before. HisADHD was gone. In spite of his recovery, the Indio school board refused to
re-admit him into the system. I had written a two-page letterexplaining that he was better, but the educational system, notsurprisingly, proved to be blind to how simply ADHD can beaddressed. On the positive side, he is now attending a parochial
school. His sixth-month report card was all A’s—not surpris-ing since most ADHD children are extremely intelligent. When the boy went for his next therapy appointment, the
psychiatrist, who had been following him for his ADHD, sawright away that the signs of the disorder were gone. But whenhe asked the mother what her son was taking and she told himnatural progesterone cream, he told her to stop the cream133 ADD AND ADH D—THE SILENT EPIDEMIC  immediately, that it was a female hormone, and to put her son
back on the drugs that had been prescribed. She explained thatthe boy wouldn’t take them because they made him feel sick. He told her to do it anyway. Needless to say, the mothercontinued with the cream. I subsequently spoke with the psychiatrist, who refused to
accept anything I was saying because there were no drug-company studies to verify it. He refused to allow his ownpowers of observation to see that progesterone was beneficial. Psychiatry developed purely as an observational science; now itis almost purely about psychopharmacology. He would ratherplace this nine-year-old boy on potentially lethal drugs, withmultiple side effects, than use a natural bio-identical hormonewith no side effects. His statement that progesterone is afemale hormone is typical of the lack of education doctorsreceive about hormones. As stated previously, I do not treat young children that are
hyperactive in my practice—but I do treat their parents. If aparent has ADHD, there is a 50 percent chance that the childwill also be hyperactive. If the child is adopted, then he or shehas an even greater likelihood of having ADHD. This isbecause the majority of women who give up their children foradoption seem to be young mothers who have gotten intodrugs and alcohol and gotten pregnant, and, in my opinion,most young people who get involved with drugs and alcoholhave ADHD. ADHD IN ADULTS
There are many adults with undiagnosed ADD or ADHD. People who experience sleepiness between 3 and 4 in the after-noon or while driving—this is ADD. I use the word “ADD”interchangeably with “hypoglycemia,” because when the level134 THE MIRACLE OF BIO-IDENTICAL HORMONES  of sugar in the brain is low, the person can’t focus. People who
become workaholics may actually have ADHD and are livingon high levels of adrenaline caused by recurrent hypoglycemia. /Sswashimply put, I view ADD and ADHD as a matter of 
too little progesterone, too much insulin, and, 
in the case of ADHD, too much adrenaline. If you ask a specialist in ADD/ADHD what is causing the
problem, they generally say they don’t know. I am not aware ofany other doctor beside myself who approaches these condi-tions from a hormonal standpoint. Simply put, I view ADDand ADHD as a matter of too little progesterone, too muchinsulin, and, in the case of ADHD, too much adrenaline. Myphilosophy is so far removed from the standard of medicalpractice, which calls for the use of dangerous stimulants totreat the problem, that it can create concerns for traditionalpractitioners. Yet, as they say, the proof is in the pudding. When I treat the symptoms of ADD and ADHD with proges-terone and a diet that encourages the lowering of insulin, thereare positive results. The immediate response of one patient, a 53-year-old
male, after starting on progesterone was that it made himextremely tired. As soon as he said that, I realized he was anadult with ADHD. He was a trim male, working a 12-to-14-hour day. Placing him on progesterone prevented his insulinlevels from rising. It took away his hypoglycemia, so hisadrenaline levels went down. I adjusted his diet, providingmore carbohydrates to normalize the sugar, and also gave himthyroid. As a result, his fatigue disappeared. I think part of the reason why ADD/ADHD is under-
diagnosed is that doctors approach it as a “learning problem. ”My feeling is that this is not true. People with ADHD have no135 ADD AND ADH D—THE SILENT EPIDEMIC  trouble focusing on things that interest them; however, they
will not focus on anything that they have no interest in. Inother words, ADHD is not a learning disorder; it is, morecorrectly, an interest disorder. Interestingly, most of the patients I see in my practice are
adults with unrecognized ADHD. CHARACTERISTICS OF ADHD
The typical adult with ADHD has a history of increased
physical activity as a teenager, being slim during his or heryouth, never opening a book in high school or college untilthe night before an exam, and possibly becoming a type-Apersonality or workaholic. They usually have a history ofbeing easily irritated and quick to anger, and they might havehigh expectations of other people. As they approach theirmiddle years they start putting on weight around the waist. They have symptoms of hypoglycemia: sleepiness in the lateafternoon or while driving or after eating. They commonlydisplay restlessness—tapping their hands or feet during theday, and manifesting restless leg syndrome or tossing andturning at night. All of these symptoms and behaviors canbe linked with the high adrenaline levels and high-insulin,low-blood-sugar syndrome of ADHD. There is often a strong family history of associated
hormonal problems—a mother with breast cancer, a sister withendometriosis, a brother with bi-polar disorder, children ornephews and nieces who are hyperactive (ADHD). Othercommonly associated conditions are type II diabetes andalso fibromyalgia. Please keep in mind that adrenaline is not only a hormone
but also acts as a neurotransmitter in the brain. Adults with136 THE MIRACLE OF BIO-IDENTICAL HORMONES  ADHD are often extremely intelligent as well as extremely
successful. I suspect that most of the CEOs of the largestcompanies in the world are diagnosable as having ADHD. They use their adrenaline to become workaholics—they put in14-hour days and rise to the top of their businesses. Likewise,I suspect that many Hollywood stars have ADHD—classicexamples might include T om Cruise, Mel Gibson, and thecomic actor Michael Richards, who played Kramer on
Seinfield. Again, most professional athletes probably have
ADHD—they use their adrenaline to excel in sports. On the other end of the spectrum, I would not be
surprised if most drug addicts and alcoholics would turn outto have ADHD. They turn to drugs and alcohol to deal withthe anger caused by an excess of adrenaline. Similarly, a highnumber of people in prison might be diagnosable as havingADHD, also people with road rage and people who abusespouses. Certainly, anger management classes would be largelyattended by ADHD sufferers. People are sometimes characterized as left- or right-brain
dominant. People who are right-brain dominant tend to becreative. I suspect that if you take right-brain dominance andadd adrenaline, you wind up with a creative genius. AlbertEinstein, for instance, is well-known as having a classic case ofADHD (he failed a number of subjects in school). It may havebeen high levels of adrenaline that made the brains of Einsteinand other creative geniuses such as Da Vinci and Beethovenfunction so brilliantly. I also wonder whether people withautism or with T ourette’s syndrome could also have anoverload of adrenaline in the brain. In autism, the excessadrenaline might be manifesting as sensory overload, and sothe person shrinks back from the world to decrease the amountof stimulus. 137 ADD AND ADH D—THE SILENT EPIDEMIC  It should also not be surprising that many conditions
associated with adult ADHD are considered incurable by themedical community, since, in my view, the cause is hormonesout of balance—an unfamiliar concept for many physicians. These conditions include: restless leg syndrome, fibromyalgia,type II diabetes, endometriosis, menstrual migraines, andasthma, to mention a few. Yet utilizing natural bio-identicalhormones, altering the patient’s eating habits, and helpingthem gain insight into their condition often lead to a “mirac-ulous” resolution of these very problems. A WIDESPREAD PHENOMENON
My point is that the medical system has failed to appreciate the
influence of hormones on our behavior and how they affect usclinically. I suspect there are well over 200 million adultsnationwide with unrecognized ADHD. Obviously, this israther a bold statement. But consider the people you interactwith on a daily basis—those who are quick to anger, thepeople with nervous energy, those who are restless at night,who tap their hands or legs, who have cold hands when youshake hands with them (due to vasoconstriction of bloodvessels caused by high adrenaline levels), who drink too muchor use drugs. Look at the millions of women with estrogen-dominant conditions—menstrual cramps, migraines, fibroids,endometriosis—all related to low progesterone levels. Howmany of these women are hypoglycemic from increased insulinand put out adrenaline to bring their sugar levels up so thebrain can function. Since hormone patterns are genetically inherited, people
with ADHD will have at least one parent with ADHD—possibly a workaholic mother or father, who may have had a138 THE MIRACLE OF BIO-IDENTICAL HORMONES  tendency toward anger and perhaps drank too much. If they
have children, each child has a 50 percent chance of havingADHD. If their spouse also has ADHD (a fairly commonoccurrence, by the way) then their children are 100 percentlikely to have ADHD. And then there are the grandchildren. 139 ADD AND ADH D—THE SILENT EPIDEMIC  HORMONAL IMBALANCES
IN CHILDREN
chapter SIXTEEN
I want to begin this chapter by noting that the relationship
between childhood illness and hormonal influence has to dateessentially been ignored. What I have to say here is based onlogic and my own clinical observations; there are no studies tofall back on. Before we start, I want to remind the reader of a few well-
established medical facts:
• Hormones control every system of the body. • Males and females have the same hormones but 
their levels differ. • Hormones are inherited from either parent. • At different stages in life, hormone levels vary. It is also worth mentioning that, as in adults, an imbalance
of one hormone in children often leads to an imbalance ofother hormones as the body tries to adjust to the deficiency. Girls who have started their periods may experience irregular
menses, severe cramps, migraines, or other symptoms. Inaddition, most people are aware that we have a nationwideproblem with over-weight and obese children. We are also
141beginning to see a significant increase in attention deficit
disorder (ADD) among children. This chapter discusses allthree of these problems. I’ll begin with ADD. THE MISSING LINK
It is apparent to me that the over-production of a single
hormone, insulin, is associated with many metabolic problems. Insulin is the number one hormone that creates fat, especiallyaround the middle of the body. It is the number one hormonethat causes type II diabetes, and, in my opinion, it is thehormone that precipitates ADD and ADHD. (See chapter 15for the hormonal difference between the two. ) If too much insulin is creating problems, then let’s go one
step further: Why is the body producing excess insulin. Although the over-production of insulin in children can bedue to many factors, its causes can probably be reduced to two:The first, and not necessarily the most important, is the typeof food children are exposed to. T oo many carbohydrates, inthe form of fruit juice, soda, cereal, chips, fries, candy, cookies,and similar foods, leads to high sugar levels and subsequentlyto over-production of insulin, which then puts the sugar intothe fat cells. The other factor, which may be the root cause for all the
problems discussed in this chapter, is a deficiency of proges-terone. I consider this the missing link. Low progesterone is almost always associated with the
over-production of insulin. If a parent is low in progesterone,they can pass this trait on to their child. A mother low inprogesterone will have a medical history that shows estrogendominance—with symptoms that include cramps, PMS,breast tenderness, nausea with pregnancy, fibroids, fibrocystic142 THE MIRACLE OF BIO-IDENTICAL HORMONES  disease, and migraine headaches. The father may have a history
of hypoglycemia, increased fat around the middle, type IIdiabetes, or symptoms of ADHD. My own mother was estrogen dominant and wound up
dying of breast cancer because of it. She had thin arms and legsand a large abdomen—classic for hyperinsulinemia secondaryto low progesterone. I inherited a progesterone deficiency fromher. I had ADD as a child—I used to get up and walk out ofclass and could not focus. They didn’t diagnose ADD backthen; they thought I was bored. I wasn’t bored—I just couldn’tpay attention. I was continuously hypoglycemic—I cravedsweets. I rarely studied in high school or college, except thenight before exams. I could only focus on things that interestedme, like early rock and roll in high school, and bridge andpoker in college. (I studied 4 hours every night once I got tomedical school—but I was interested in medicine. ) I have fought with my weight all my life because my body
over-produces insulin. When I first went into practice, I usedto nod off between 3 and 4 
p. m. —sometimes while talking to
patients. Oftentimes when I was driving I had to slap my faceto keep my eyes open. All these symptoms disappeared after Istarted using natural progesterone. THE OVER-WEIGHT CHILD
When people are young, it is often possible to get fat to almost
melt off their bodies. They have not yet reached the stage wheretheir bodies become sophisticated, efficient machines forfat-production and maintenance of fat. Another chapter of this book (chapter 20) deals with
weight control; the approach for children is similar to thatfor adults, but it is easier. Very often just teaching the child143 HORMONAL IMBAL ANCES IN CHILDREN (and/or the parents) how to eat properly is all that’s required. Instructing them on the importance of exercise—primarily toburn sugar rather than fat—is mandatory. Adjusting hormonessuch as progesterone and thyroid may be necessary. Eliminatingunnecessary medications, when possible, is helpful. What would be of immeasurable benefit is if parents
would unite in a campaign to eliminate the candy-juice-sodamachines in the schools, and work with the school dietitiansand the fast-food purveyors outside the school to offer lower-carb choices for their children. PUTTING PERIODS IN PERSPECTIVE
When girls enter puberty, if the ovaries are not producing an
adequate amount of progesterone, the pituitary sends outhormones to step up the production. In many cases, theovaries, for genetic reasons, are not capable of increasingprogesterone, but the extra stimulation increases the amountof estrogen. This extra estrogen can lead to cysts on the ovaries. Ovarian cysts can produce an excess of testosterone, causingproblems with acne and excessive hair growth. This is knownas polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS)—again, most likelycaused by a deficiency of progesterone. Keep in mind, the lowprogesterone associated with all of the above changes alsocauses the production of excess insulin, creating weight aroundthe middle. At the same time, the excess estrogen is putting onfat around the hips, thighs, and buttocks. Very often teenage girls with menstrual problems are put
on birth control pills to help with cramps or acne. However,this is treating the symptoms instead of dealing with thecause of the problem. 144 THE MIRACLE OF BIO-IDENTICAL HORMONES  The cause, in my opinion, is a reduced level of proges-
terone. The only time a female produces progesterone isduring ovulation. Birth control pills prevent the ovaries fromovulating—so these girls go from low levels of progesterone tonone. Keep in mind in this regard that progesterone is one ofthe most important hormones in the female body. Giving the patient a natural, bio-identical progesterone
cream obtainable from a compounding pharmacy (not anover-the-counter cream because it is too weak) will eliminatethe cramps; it will help clear up acne and improve PCOS. Itwill also help with other problems if they are present, such asPMS, migraine headaches, and asthma, as well as lowering ahigh insulin level and helping to eliminate fat, ADD, andADHD. The dosage I would probably recommend isprogesterone cream 100 mg/
¼tsp applied twice a day to the
forearm and wrist on days 7 thru 28 of the cycle. FINAL THOUGHTS
Again, I am very aware that I am touching on controversial
areas by making recommendations on treating conditions inchildren with natural hormones when there have been nodirect studies. The major funding for medical studies comesfrom drug companies, and since drug companies cannotpatent natural products, it is unlikely that we will see studiespertaining to natural hormones in children for a long time. Used correctly, however, natural progesterone is non-toxic. T o put the safety of natural, bio-identical progesterone
into perspective, consider this: During a woman’s monthlycycle, progesterone peaks at 28 ng/dl. When a woman ispregnant, this level goes up to 450 ng/dl—a significantly highlevel that the fetus is exposed to for about 5 
½ months and145 HORMONAL IMBAL ANCES IN CHILDREN obviously has no trouble tolerating. In fact, the high levels of
progesterone aid in brain development, among other things. When progesterone is applied transdermally to an adult orchild, the blood level rises about 2 ng/dl—a mere fraction ofwhat the fetus is exposed to. I have recommended natural progesterone for a nine-year-
old girl who was having monthly migraine headaches. She hadalready started developing breasts and was evidently estrogendominant, like her mother. After she started taking proges-terone, her migraine headaches disappeared. /Iswashn my view, children with undiagnosed hormonal problems
are likely to face a multitude of lifelong difficulties. In my view, children with undiagnosed hormonal
problems are likely to face a multitude of lifelong difficulties. Children with ADD can wind up with diabetes, weightproblems, and experience difficulty holding jobs. Childrenwith ADHD often become adults with type A personalities—workaholics—and are at risk for developing bi-polar disorder. They frequently develop chemical dependencies on alcohol,cigarettes, methamphetamine, and other substances. Veryoften hormonal problems lead to depression in children. Children are also prone to thyroid conditions. Girls with lowprogesterone and high estrogen are more likely to have difficultygetting pregnant later on and are also possible candidates formiscarriages, morning sickness, postpartum depression,fibroids, endometriosis, asthma, migraine headaches, breastcancer, weight problems, and other difficulties. The fact is that children are being exposed to toxic drugs
such as anti-depressants, birth control pills, and stimulants forhyper-activity. Wouldn’t it be more beneficial to treat the146 THE MIRACLE OF BIO-IDENTICAL HORMONES  actual cause of their problems by replacing the hormone that
is missing. A PREVENTABLE TRAGEDY
On December 13, 2006, four-year-old Rebecca Riley died of
an overdose of drugs given to her for treatment of ADHD/bi-polar disorder. Her parents were arrested on murdercharges, accused of over-medicating their daughter to “keepher quiet. ” Her teachers, the school nurse, the principal, hersocial workers, even her pharmacist, all knew she was over-medicated. She was described as being like a floppy doll,unable to sit up, and she was shaking so badly she needed helpto get off the bus every day. T o me, this girl’s death represents a microcosm of the
tragedy of ADHD. Do you blame the parents who hadADHD themselves, the doctor who prescribed these toxicmedications, the pharmacist who knowingly dispensed toomany drugs, her school, or the social workers. Her deathmight easily have been prevented if the medical professionwas aware of how hormones contribute to this condition. Istrongly feel that her ADHD/bi-polar disorder might havebeen eliminated with proper nutrition and utilizing naturalbio-identical progesterone. In 2002, there were about 2. 5 million children in the United
States on anti-psychotic medication alone, and millions of otherson stimulants and anti-depressants. T oday there are probablymore. How many have wound up like Rebecca Riley or will doso in the future. 147 HORMONAL IMBAL ANCES IN CHILDREN THOUGHTS ON CHOLESTEROL
chapter SEVENTEEN
Elevated cholesterol is often a barometer pointing to some
underlying problem in the body’s metabolic system. It’s anextremely complex issue that goes way beyond what I intendto cover in this book. However, I would like to addresscertain factors. The liver is the main source of cholesterol, and the raw
material for making cholesterol is the fat that is stored there. The primary source of this fat is excess carbohydrates that areingested, rather than fat that is ingested. A study was done atJohns Hopkins University to determine the effect on choles-terol of eating white meat (fish and chicken) versus red meat(all other meats). The results showed that white meat and redmeat 
lowered cholesterol by the same amount. T o a large extent the thyroid gland controls cholesterol
metabolism. In fact, when I went to medical school they oftenreferred to the cholesterol level as “the poor man’s thyroid test. ”Unfortunately, many doctors fail to assess thyroid functionwhen dealing with elevated cholesterol because the emphasis inmedicine is on treating the symptom and not the cause. Givingthyroid hormone can very often lower the cholesterol level. Most people are aware of HDL and LDL as two types of
cholesterol. These are actually lipoproteins that transport
149cholesterol throughout the body. Both are necessary for
proper health. LDL has a reputation for being “bad” because itcan oxidize and cause damage to the coronary arteries. HDL isconsidered “good” because it prevents LDL from oxidizing: thehigher the HDL level, the better. There are studies indicatingthat more people with low total cholesterol levels have heartattacks than those with high levels. If this is the case, then pre-sumably the issue is not the level of cholesterol but whether ornot it is being oxidized. It is estimated that 20 percent of the American population
has Syndrome X, a disease of hyperinsulinemia, or highinsulin. Insulin puts sugar not only into fat cells, where it getsconverted into fat, but also into the liver—where it also isconverted into fat. This is the primary fuel used to manufac-ture cholesterol. If someone has high LDL cholesterol and alsohas a low HDL cholesterol and an elevated triglyceride level(the hallmarks of Syndrome X), lowering their insulin leveloften helps bring the total cholesterol level down. As people get older, hormone levels go down, and most
hormones are made with cholesterol. One theory says that therise in cholesterol levels as we get older is partially a responseby the body to the lowering of our hormones, that is, it istrying to provide more substrate to raise our hormones. Alongthese lines, one might anticipate that bio-identical hormonereplacement would lead to a lowering of cholesterol. STATIN DRUGS AND COENZYME Q- 10
The largest-selling drugs in the world are Lipitor and Zocor. Other statin-type drugs that lower cholesterol by preventingcholesterol production include Pravachol, Mevacor, Lescol,Crestor, and Vytorin. All these drugs have the same side effects,150 THE MIRACLE OF BIO-IDENTICAL HORMONES  which include brain damage and memory loss. Perhaps this is
not surprising, given that most brain tissue is made up ofcholesterol and there are special cells in the brain that producecholesterol. I suspect that years from now, statin drugs may beimplicated in an epidemic of Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’sdisease. They can also cause damage to the liver, nerves,muscles, and the heart. The most serious side effects areirreversible kidney failure and sudden death. One of the most powerful antioxidants for the heart is
coenzyme Q-10. As people get older, the body producesdecreasing amounts of this element. Because of this, there areprobably no benefits to taking a statin drug after the age of 60. Statin drugs lower coenzyme Q-10 levels, which is what
produces the majority of the side effects of these medications. Obviously, if you are taking one of these drugs, I wouldrecommend also taking coenzyme Q-10. It is available in drugstores and health food stores. My recommended dosage is atleast 200 mg a day. One wonders if the utilization of antioxidants by
themselves might be of more benefit in preventing coronaryartery disease than lowering cholesterol. A FRIENDLY WARNING
Many people have heard of Vioxx, a pain medication removed
from the market because of cardiac concerns. Recently a juryawarded 253 million dollars to the wife of a patient who diedof a heart attack while on Vioxx. This sum was primarilypunitive damages, because evidence at the trial indicated that themanufacturer had been aware of cardiac problems associatedwith Vioxx for many years. In point of fact, this was not secretinformation. The association between Vioxx and heart151 THOUGHT S ON CHOLESTEROL  attacks was generally well publicized in various studies but
unfortunately was not noted by the physicians, whoprescribed 2. 3 billion dollars worth of the drug per year. Inmy view, the jury was saying: we understand that drugs cancause serious side effects, and if a drug company knows thata certain segment of a population (e. g. , heart patients) shouldnot take a certain drug, then the company should let theFDA and the drug-taking population know it, too, and sendout “Dear Doctor” letters. That brings us to the medication Zocor, made by the
same pharmaceutical company. Right now, it is the numberone selling drug in the world. Side effects of the drug includebrain damage, memory loss, nerve damage, irreversiblekidney damage secondary to severe muscle damage, heartdamage, and sudden death. Most, if not all, of these sideeffects are related to the lowering of coenzyme Q-10, anextremely potent antioxidant that the heart cannot functionwithout. Sixteen years ago the company that manufacturesZocor received a patent for a new formulation of Zocor thatincludes coenzyme Q-10. When the time comes forstatin-type drugs to be scrutinized more for safety, this factmay come back to haunt the manufacturers. It may representanother example of prior knowledge of potential problemsand not publicizing the fact that all people taking statindrugs should probably also be taking coenzyme Q-10. 152 THE MIRACLE OF BIO-IDENTICAL HORMONES  MORBID OBESITY AND
ROGER P. chapter EIGHTEEN
Roger P. , 47, arrived for his intake interview weighing 420
pounds. His pear-shaped body was the classic body type forsomeone who is pouring out excess estrogen along with toomuch insulin. His hormone imbalance was accompanied by a host of
other problems. He was reclusive, a drinker, and his body wasin constant pain. As Roger tells his story, the reader willappreciate the extent of his struggle against obesity, whichcreated devastating physical and emotional havoc. I’ve been fat my whole life. Being the fat kid in school made
me an outcast. When you’re always on the outside looking in, yourlevel of caring declines. I felt that everything and everyone wasagainst me, and I was an angry kid. Not only was I fat but I was weird looking, too. I carried all
my weight in my hips and thighs, like a woman. I was one of thoseobese people who seem to be not a “he” or a “she” but an “it. ” Ilooked like two different people stuck together. In my line of work, which is designing and building binary data
systems, I’m able to work solo as a contract employee. I always choseto work from home, going in for meetings as infrequently as possible. I fashioned my career to allow for maximum reclusiveness. 153I was always ashamed and embarrassed. Whenever I went out
to eat I would find the darkest, most secluded corner in therestaurant to hide out in. Clothes were a problem, too. For years Iwore bib overalls, the monster size. I couldn’t button them all theway up on the sides. And I lived in fear of children. Children would see me in
public and pipe up with something totally humiliating. I startedscheduling my visits to the market for the middle of the night justto avoid being humiliated by little kids. In the midst of all of this humiliation, I had a strong feeling
that this obesity was not my fault. I would keep going to doctors totry and get some help. Normally their response, after they’d takenmy money, was to say, “Go home, kid, and quit eating so much. ”I would tell them, “I don’t eat that much,” and I didn’t, I neverhave. You and I could eat the same exact meal and you’d beunaffected, but I’d wake up the next morning and my pantswouldn’t fit. But every doctor I tried to get help from told methat although I probably didn’t think I was a huge eater, inreality I was. They made me feel like a liar. Some of them gaveme amphetamines. At age 23 I started getting leg pains, and then later on I
developed full body cramps. I was cramping all the time, havingnight sweats and weird vision problems. None of the doctors Iwent to had any solutions for me. These problems were variouslymisdiagnosed as gout, pseudo-gout, tendonitis, and a bunch ofother things. My life was miserable. I’d do my work, come home, drink a
six-pack of beer and a half bottle of T equila every night, and go tosleep and get up and do the whole thing over again. One night afriend infuriated me on the phone by telling me I was like somelittle old lady with her two dogs and no life. It sent me off the scale. I yelled at her. But I thought about it all night, and the next day154 THE MIRACLE OF BIO-IDENTICAL HORMONES  I realized that she had only described me as I really was. I had heard Dr. Platt talking about weight loss on the radio. The day after the fight with my friend I went to see him. He satme down and talked to me for over an hour. He wanted to knoweverything about my family history and my life. After my initialvisit he put me on progesterone and DHEA and started me on thediet. Right away I started losing weight. About three months into the program I had a real bad
flare-up in my knee, hip and in between; it felt like having hotsteel shoved up your leg. I tried a chiropractor and then a sportsmedicine specialist, but they didn’t help. Finally I thought, “Whatthe heck; I’ll ask Dr. Platt about it. ”
I was totally shocked by his reaction. “Look, I’m your physi-
cian and I’m treating you,” he said. “I want to know everythingthat’s happening to you. ” I found that such a strange attitude fora doctor. He added testosterone and thyroid to my medications, and
changed the type of DHEA I was taking. That same day hediagnosed my fibromyalgia, which is the pain in my leg that hadbeen misdiagnosed by so many doctors. About three days later I feltas though I’d come out of a fog. It’s hard to describe. I had beenthere so long I didn’t know I was there. I had an amazing change,a new clarity of thought. It was startling. And I was pain-free for the first time in 24 years. Strange
things started happening to me physically at this point. All my lifeI’ve been kind of a big, white farm-boy-looking guy without anymuscle definition at all. Now I’ve developed all this muscledefinition. I’m much stronger. I used to sleep eight or ten hours anight and then sit all day without wanting to do anything. NowI sleep about four hours a night and I’m never tired. Life is good. I weigh 195 pounds. It’s the first time I’ve been less than 200
pounds since I was 12 years old. My brain hasn’t kept up with my155 MORBID OBESIT Y AND ROGER P. body and my biggest challenges now are social and psychological. I’d say socially I’m probably at a junior high school grade levelbecause I’ve never participated in society outside of work. People sometimes ask me if I’m bitter about all the years when
I was looking for help and doors were being shut in my face. ButI’m not. They were blessings and gifts even though they werepainful. I’m pretty happy with who I am now. THE PAIN OF MORBID OBESITY
T o me, Roger’s case highlights the pivotal problem with the way
medicine is practiced today. As I’ve said before, too many doctors don’t have the time it
takes to listen to their patients any more. For years Roger wentfrom doctor to doctor about his weight problem, telling themthat he didn’t over-eat and asking for help. But they didn’tlisten to him. They dismissed him. And they didn’t observe him. They didn’t look at him. It
was so obvious from the distribution of his fat that there wassomething more than an eating problem going on. He had tohave a hormone problem—it was unmistakable. It’s amazingto me that so many doctors were blind to it. When I went through medical school, we had a course
called “Physical Diagnosis,” and it was fascinating. We learnedabout an array of outward physical signs, many of them verysubtle, that you could observe in a patient to pick up informa-tion about what might be going on inside their bodies. It wasa kind of visual detective work. It kept you attuned to whatyou were really seeing when you looked at your patient. I wonder if they even teach this course any more. The
medical profession has become so fixated on technology thatsimple first-person observation seems to have lost its value. 156 THE MIRACLE OF BIO-IDENTICAL HORMONES  TWO STEPS FORWARD, ONE STEP BACK
This may sound strange, but I often feel that the development
of blood tests has been a major setback in medicine. In the olddays—going back 100 or 200 years—the only thing doctors hadto rely on was talking to their patients and observing them. (Inthe really early days they didn’t even have stethoscopes. They’droll up a piece of paper and listen to people’s hearts throughthat. ) T oday doctors have blood tests to fall back on, and theyseem to find the statistical “hard facts” of blood tests reassuring. It seems that they would rather treat the blood test than look atthe patient and find out what’s actually going on. With everytechnological advance it seems as though doctors recede furtherand further from direct contact with their patients. Roger was obviously crying out for help, and nobody
would give it to him. He was just about suicidal when he cameto me. Looking at him, at the way he stored fat in theabdomen and buttocks, it was obvious to me that his bodyproduced too much insulin and estrogen. So I put him onprogesterone right away. He went on the diet, and I eventuallyadded other hormones to help him with his metabolism andmuscle mass. THE ROAD HOME
As he lost weight, Roger’s anger melted away too, and that
helped to mitigate his fibromyalgia. This man had been furi-ous for practically all of his 47 years. He’d been a fat child, andwe all know how cruel children are to the fat kids at school. Asan adult he carried this humiliation with him, becoming arecluse and living a life of quiet desperation. The suppressedanger he felt must have been crushing. 157 MORBID OBESIT Y AND ROGER P. Once he finally got help at our office, once he talked to a
doctor who confirmed that he was not over-eating and he wasnot the cause of his own disfigurement, his gratitude knew nobounds. T oday Roger will tell anyone who will listen that he’dwalk through fire for me or anyone in my office. If you saw Roger now, you would never know this man had
once been morbidly obese. He looks like a normal person, andhis entire life has been transformed. And it was so simple. It wasjust a matter of getting his hormones in balance and getting himto eat in a way that would force his body to burn fat. THE INFORMATION IS A VAILABLE
The sad thing is that what I’m doing for people like Roger is
based on information that’s available to any doctor who wantsto avail himself or herself of it. The other day I saw an ad in the newspaper with the head-
line “An Amazing Weight Loss Discovery. ” The ad was for apill that “causes the body to get rid of fat in three differentways. ” You wouldn’t have to change anything in your lifestyle;you could still eat everything, you wouldn’t have to exercise,and the fat would just come right off. I’m sure you’ve seen such ads and scoffed at their disingen-
uousness. They all have little disclaimers way down at thebottom of the page, usually next to the before-and-afterphotos that are captioned “Results not typical. ” Well, if thesearen’t the typical results, then why buy the pills. Theytypically don’t work. It says so right there in the ad. I’m being a bit facetious here, but it’s for a good reason. I’m
trying to drive home the point that as a society we tolerate allkinds of ridiculous misinformation about weight loss, while realinformation that could actually help people goes unheeded. 158 THE MIRACLE OF BIO-IDENTICAL HORMONES  It’s my hope that people suffering from morbid obesity will
take this book into their doctors’ offices and demand the sim-ple, inexpensive solutions to their plight that they deserve. A HAPPY ENDING
At the time Roger, at age 47, first walked into my office, he told
me he had never had a date in his life. He started on theprogram, lost weight, got down to a size 32 waist, eliminatedhis fibromyalgia, started dating, got engaged … and is nowhappily married. It is truly miraculous what a little natural hormone balanc-
ing can accomplish. 159 MORBID OBESIT Y AND ROGER P. WEIGHT LOSS—
HOW MEDICATIONS
CAN PREVENT IT
chapter NINETEEN
Many of the medications commonly prescribed by doctors
today affect people’s ability to manage their weight. Some ofthese effects are publicized and some aren’t. For instance, mostpeople taking Prozac know that it causes weight gain, andthey make a conscious choice to sacrifice optimum weightmanagement in order to get an improvement in theiremotional outlook. But the lipogenic (fat-creating) effects of some other
medications aren’t well known. People who take thesemedications may be struggling with their weight, unawarethey’re fighting a losing battle against an unrecognized enemy. These people should at least know what they are up against. ANTI-DEPRESSANTS
Anti-depressants are a major source of weight gain. I suspect
this is the case in part because anti-depressants may elevateestrogen levels. 161SSRIs (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors) like Zoloft,
Paxil, Effexor, Celexa, Lexapro, and Prozac are particularlyprone to causing weight gain. Some doctors prescribe theseanti-depressants to help people lose weight by elevating theirserotonin levels—serotonin is the neurotransmitter in thebrain that takes away cravings. People who have a weightproblem only because they crave certain foods can sometimesfind benefit in taking anti-depressants. But for the most part,people on anti-depressants will gain weight. The tricyclic anti-depressants like Elavil, Desipramine, and
Norpramin also cause weight gain. A common phenomenon in our society is that people who
are depressed about their weight start taking anti-depressantsto help them manage their depression. But then the anti-depressants cause further weight gain, making these peoplefeel even worse about themselves. It’s a vicious cycle. In my experience, the only anti-depressant that possibly
doesn’t cause weight gain is Wellbutrin. BETA-BLOCKERS
People taking beta-blockers are almost guaranteed to gain
weight. Drugs like atenolol, Lopressor, Ziac, and Inderal blockadrenaline from entering the bloodstream. Adrenaline is whatthe body uses to stimulate the release of fat from the fat cells. Ifyou can’t get fat out of the fat cells, the muscles can’t burn it. Beta-blockers are also anti-thyroid drugs, as I mentioned
in chapter 3. One of the treatments for someone with anover-active thyroid is to give them a beta-blocker to quiet thethyroid down. It prevents the conversion of T4 into T3,something we also saw in chapter 3. 162 THE MIRACLE OF BIO-IDENTICAL HORMONES  Ironically, the biggest prescribers of beta-blockers are
cardiologists, who give it to patients because it decreases theworkload of the heart. I call this an irony because obesity is amajor risk factor for heart disease. What they are prescribing toreduce the heart’s work will ultimately give the heart morework—in the form of excess weight the patient will sooncarry around. Beta-blockers very quickly reach a point of diminishing
returns for patients at risk for heart disease. The weight thesepatients gain cancels out many of the benefits the beta-blockers might offer at the outset. ESTROGEN
Perhaps the biggest influence in the tendency to gain weight in
women comes from estrogen. I say this because estrogen is oneof the largest-selling drugs in the world, and it is prescribed towomen throughout their lives, whether in the form of birthcontrol pills in their youth or as part of hormone replacementtherapy after menopause. Estrogen is lipogenic—it encouragesthe accumulation of fat—and this is true of both natural andsynthetic estrogen. Women who still have their uterus are conventionally
prescribed a progestin along with any estrogen they are taking,since unopposed estrogen has been found to cause cancer ofthe uterus. The progestin most commonly prescribed isProvera, which helps protect the uterus from cancer. Butprogestins are also lipogenic and, like estrogen, producecellulite and fat and increase the risk of breast cancer. Women who take Depo-Provera shots for birth control are
practically guaranteed to gain as much as 20 pounds of weight. 163 HOW MEDICATIONS PREVENT WEIGHT LOSS  DIURETICS
Many people take diuretics for high blood pressure, and these
medications can elevate blood sugar. Anything that elevatesblood sugar will increase insulin production, and as I’ve saidbefore, insulin is the fat-storing hormone. ANTI-INFLAMMATORY DRUGS
Patients taking anti-inflammatory medications very often
report an immediate weight gain. This increase in weight isprobably a result of fluid retention. STATIN DRUGS
Statin drugs, like Lipitor, Zocor, Pravachol, Mevacor, Lescol,
Vytorin, and Crestor, can also cause weight gain. This is becausethey lower coenzyme Q-10 levels, preventing the conversion ofT4 (thyroxine) into T3 (triiodothyronine), the active thyroidhormone. And people concerned with weight want theirthyroid to be functioning as well as possible. Interestingly, the most commonly prescribed drugs in this
country all tend to cause weight gain. Could this be contributingto the epidemic of obesity in this country. Could this be whypeople almost always put weight back on after they struggle tolose it, and why some people cannot lose weight, no matterwhat they do. 164 THE MIRACLE OF BIO-IDENTICAL HORMONES  PERMANENT WEIGHT LOSS
chapter TWENTY
From the beginning of my clinical career, my approach to
medicine has been preventive. It always made a lot more senseto me to prevent disease rather than to treat it. As an internist, I continuously deal with patients concerned
about their weight or trying to cope with obesity. Thiscondition is clearly wreaking havoc on many levels. If mypatients could manage their weight, the task of creating over-all wellness would be eased greatly. In other words, I havefound that weight management fits easily into a category ofpreventive medicine. From the outset I have been struck by these interesting
statistics: 
• 98 percent of people who lose weight gain it all
back again within five years. • Obesity is the second leading preventable cause
of death (smoking is number one). What if there was a type of cancer that had a 98 percent
relapse rate after it was treated. Who would be happy with thattype of success rate for a cancer. Patients would demand an
165alternative approach. But for the last 50 years, Americans have
bought into the traditional, time-worn medical advice that“you have to diet, exercise, and watch your fat intake” in orderto manage your weight. Sound familiar. By now you should have an understanding of my point of
view about weight management, including my conviction thatembarking on a weight loss program entails more thandetermination and will power. Balancing one’s hormones,eliminating certain drugs, and acquiring fundamentalknowledge of certain nutritional guidelines set the stage for asuccessful approach to weight loss and wellness. In this chapter I lay out the logic of how to achieve
permanent weight loss. THE DISEASE CALLED OBESITY
I feel that a major cause of our current epidemic of obesity is
that most physicians have been reluctant to look at obesity as adisease and continue to see it as an eating problem. Doctorshave an absolutely clear understanding that conditions likehypertension and diabetes are real diseases that cannot bemanaged using will power. They are not reluctant abouthelping their patients manage these conditions, even if it meanstreating them over their entire life span. But obesity, they feel, can be treated with unsophisticated
advice and without addressing the underlying cause. If it’s nota disease, why look for a cause. This is like trying to treat acancer without treating the cause of the cancer. I prefer a more scientific method. Let’s look at the
traditional approaches to weight management to get anunderstanding of why they don’t work. 166 THE MIRACLE OF BIO-IDENTICAL HORMONES  WHY CUTTING CALORIES
DOESN’T WORK
The problem with calorie restriction (dieting) as a weight loss
strategy is that it triggers the body’s survival mechanisms. Whenwe limit our meal plans to 1,200 calories per day or less, thebody gets alarmed. Is starvation in the offing. Best to startstoring and locking away fat in earnest. The body is a complex, multi-layered operating system. It
has a whole arsenal of techniques for maintaining homeostasisand for ensuring survival. This is something that dieters forget. They become fixated on counting calories, assuming that abody deprived of energy will burn its own fat to survive. Butthey are wrong. A body deprived of energy will go after its ownmuscle tissue before it will burn fat. And in the meantime, itwill marshal its powerful hormone system to alter the way itmetabolizes food for energy. People who lose weight on a diet are fooling themselves. They get on the scale and see that they weigh less, but theyshouldn’t be celebrating. They’ve just burned up muscle tissue—the only kind of tissue that burns fat. Now they have a bodythat’s less efficient at burning fat. When they “finish” their diet(i. e. , stop restricting calories) they will have less of the tissueneeded to maintain homeostasis at a low weight. /Nswashinety-eight percent of people who lose weight
gain it all back again
within five years. This is why those who diet not only gain back all the weight
they’ve lost, but typically put on an extra two or three pounds. Lost muscle tissue, together with the body’s newly improved fat-storing mechanism, causes them to stabilize at a higher weight. 167 PERMANENT WEIGHT LOSS  WHAT ABOUT EXERCISE. Many people reason that if restricting calories is unrealistic,
then the solution must be to exercise more. Exercise, after all,burns calories. Or does it. Exercise offers tremendous benefits to those who incorporate
it into their lifestyle. It improves cardiovascular health, itmakes people feel better, it’s great for bones and muscles, itlowers insulin levels, and so on. However, as the sole approachto weight loss it’s not what it’s cracked up to be. T o lose one pound of fat by exercising, you must burn
3,500 calories. This is equivalent to going out and running 35miles. The alternative would be walking on a treadmill at fourmiles per hour for 7 
½hours. In my practice I have come upon patients who were living
on 800 calories a day and exercising four hours a day, and theycouldn’t lose an ounce. Talk about frustrated. These peopleobviously were in a severe starvation mode, and the body willnot burn fat when it’s starving. WHAT ABOUT EATING LESS FAT. Another timeworn piece of advice is to tell patients to cut out
fat from their diets. Interestingly, fat is the only food substancethat does not stimulate insulin. And insulin, as you now know,is the number one hormone that creates fat, especially aroundthe middle. Ever since this country got into a nonfat, fat-free
thinking mode, we have had an epidemic of obesity. Foodslike popcorn and pretzels, which are nonfat and low incalories, create more insulin than candy does. (However, themessage here is not to eat candy. )168 THE MIRACLE OF BIO-IDENTICAL HORMONES  As reported in the Framingham Heart Study, which is the
largest on-going heart study in the world, the men who ate themost saturated fat (butter, meat, eggs, etc. ) weighed the least. Additionally, they had the lowest cholesterol levels and thefewest incidents of coronary artery disease. Fat is not the enemy. Additionally, given that fat is the preferred fuel for survival,
the body is not likely to burn it if a person restricts their fatintake. Even more important: nonfat foods are usually high incarbohydrates (sugar), so eating them causes insulin levelsto increase. THE LOGICAL APPROACH
So we’ve eliminated dieting, we’ve eliminated exercise, and
we’ve eliminated eating less fat. Now what are we going to do. Well, it all comes down to metabolism. The trick is to
convert your body from a sugar-burning metabolism to a fat-burning metabolism. The way to do this is to take away sugar. The body gets sugar from carbohydrates. All carbohydratesbreak down into sugar. You must eliminate those particularcarbohydrates that create the most sugar and/or stimulate themost insulin production. It takes three days from the time you stop taking in sugar
and certain other carbohydrates for your body to beginburning fat. It takes that long to get the sugar, or glycogen, outof the muscle tissue. Once you get rid of the glycogen, theusual source of energy, the muscles have no choice: they haveto start burning fat. After that point, everything you do burnsfat. Cleaning the house, walking out to the car, walkingyour dog—everything you do burns fat. Even while you aresleeping, you are burning fat. You’re still up against the fact that it takes 3,500 calories to
lose a pound of fat, but now you are burning fat constantly. 169 PERMANENT WEIGHT LOSS  Most people using this type of approach, depending upon how
much they weigh and how active they are, are able to burnanywhere from 7,000 to 10,000 calories per week So theirexpected fat loss would be two to three pounds per week, oreight to twelve pounds per month. SAYING GOOD-BYE TO INSULIN
Obviously, this type of approach is not for everybody. However,
certain types of people have no other choice except to followthis plan. These are the people who:
• are not big eaters; they can’t shave 3,500 calories        
from their meal plans in order to lose one pound of fat
• over-produce insulin• have Syndrome X• have low progesterone levels• eat too much sugar. For most people, insulin is the enemy. Insulin creates fat by
taking any sugar the muscles have no need for and placing itinto fat cells, where the sugar is immediately converted intofat. Then the insulin sits there preventing release of fat fromthe fat cells—it is a fat-storing hormone. The bottom line for most people is that to get rid of fat they
have to reduce insulin. If they want to reduce insulin, they haveto take away sugar. Sugar stimulates insulin production. SIMILAR APPROACHES
Cutting out carbs is the basic premise behind many weight loss
approaches: Atkins, the South Beach Diet, Sugar Busters, the170 THE MIRACLE OF BIO-IDENTICAL HORMONES  Zone, Protein Power, the Carbohydrate Addict’s Diet, the
Mayo Clinic Diet, the Grapefruit Diet, the Stillman Diet aresome of the better-known ones. What used to be a low-fat world is rapidly converting into
a low-carb world. Many restaurants offer low-carb menus, andfast food places have also jumped on the bandwagon. This concept of eating low carb is not new. It has actually
been around for more than 150 years. There were severalsuccessful low-carb programs in the 1800s, though theyeventually died out. The idea was resurrected in the 1970s byStillman and Atkins. Now there are low-carb proponents ofall kinds. One must be aware that no single diet plan is for every-
body—there is no “one-size-fits-all” approach. For example,one diet plan allows a “reward meal” at supper (eat as manycarbohydrates as you want within the space of an hour). Section summary: 

Please summarize briefly. Summary:


Notebook Entry

* Author's experiences & insights shared regarding bipolar-like tendencies due to biochemical reactions. * Overproduction of Cortisol-High Blood Pressure-Cholesterol-Cannot Burn Energy-The Body Burns Muscle Instead-Facts Don't Lie-Water-Rich Food Increases Cholestrol Levels-Diet Changes Can Help Reduce Stress-Prioritize Your Health-Today-I'm Doing Something-New Approach Required-Single Change Only-One Size Fits -All-Meanwhile-Look Around-In Conclusion-And Last Time:-


Let others read;
Donations welcomed-but-not-required.
The author was initially diagnosed with bi-polar disorder and given four strong medications (Effexor, Paxil, Depakote, and lithium). He began talk therapy, but it did not address the underlying issues. He also felt uncomfortable with the side effects of the medications.
What was the author's initial diagnosis and treatment plan?
The author started using natural progesterone cream and saw a significant improvement in his life, including losing weight and being able to wean himself off the medications.
What was the author's experience with natural progesterone?
The side effects of statin drugs include brain damage, memory loss, and the risk of irreversible kidney damage.
What are some common side effects of statin drugs?
The author believes that the medical profession has become too focused on technology and has lost the ability to listen to and observe patients, leading to a lack of effective treatment.
What is the author's perspective on the medical profession's approach to treating patients?
The author argues that no single diet plan is suitable for everyone and that people must be aware of their individual needs and circumstances.
What is the author's stance on the effectiveness of certain diets?