Think Bigger: How to Raise Your Expectations and Achieve Everything by Hill Michael

Author:Hill, Michael [Michael Hill]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781869794125
Publisher: Random House New Zealand
Published: 2010-08-14T16:00:00+00:00

3. Books that made a difference: 4

Ageless by Suzanne Somers

Our internal organs and hormones don’t have to be as old as the date on our birth certificates. Ageless discusses bio-identical hormones — natural hormones made from soy and yams — taken as supplements when our own hormone levels start to decline, which the author believes can turn back the years. Traditional hormone replacement therapy, once popular as a treatment for women in menopause, fell out of favour when research showed the synthetic hormones being used had serious negative side effects.

It seems that the pharmaceutical industry doesn’t want you to know about bio-identical hormones because they are natural substances and therefore can’t be patented — and therefore can’t make money for the drug companies.

We are being artificially aged by the number of chemicals and toxins in our environment. So it makes sense to do what we can to counter these effects.

Previously, people died before their hormones started to run down. Thanks to technology, we are now living past that age. Once hormone levels go down, the brain regards the body as unproductive and lets it run down. Bio-identical hormone replacement therapy (BHRT) restores hormones to their optimal levels and tricks the brain into thinking the body is still reproductive.

In this way we can say goodbye to what Somers calls the seven dwarfs of menopause: Itchy, Bitchy, Sweaty, Sleepy, Bloated, Forgetful and All-Dried-Up.

To those who criticise this practice as ‘not natural’, I say (with Somers) it’s not natural to have an artificial hip, contact lenses or heart bypass surgery — but no one would turn down those life-saving or life-enhancing options.

While women have long had to learn to deal with menopause, we are only just beginning to understand that there is a male equivalent — andropause — in which men’s levels of testosterone, the steroid DHEA and growth hormone steadily decline. It takes longer than menopause and is therefore not as noticeable, but it is real and effects include low energy, fatigue, osteoporosis, enlarged prostate, depression, anxiety, less strong or infrequent erections and even impotence. The correct bio-identical hormones can reduce or reverse these effects. Men need testosterone, oestrogen, progesterone and thyroid in the correct balance for optimal hormone health.

Another important anti-ageing strategy with a hormone connection is getting enough sleep. People do best if they go to bed between 9 pm and 10 pm, giving your hormones time to ‘catch up’. Our sleep patterns were established before there were artificial lights, so we really are designed to sleep when it’s dark — cortisol levels drop during the day, leading to lowered insulin levels. These go up again when the sun comes up, giving us alertness and energy.

Stress also prematurely ages us. Calmness keeps you young; hence the importance of meditation, which is discussed in another part of this book, to keep down our levels of cortisol, the stress hormone. Regular exercise also helps lower stress. (If you don’t have time to exercise, think again as the alternatives are not good.) Even keeping a journal — writing out our worries — helps lower cortisol.

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