Reclaiming Your Life from Menopause Are you one of the women looking for a menopause treatment? The World Health Organization (WHO) and the International Menopause Society (IMS) have designated October as World Menopause Month and, specifically, Oct. 18 as World Menopause Day. The goal is to raise awareness around this natural stage of a woman’s life that has proven to be so disruptive and distressing to so many women. But “awareness” isn’t an issue for the 27 million women in the U.S. between the ages of 45 and 64 who experience menopause each year. They don’t need a reminder — they’re more aware of it than they care to be. During this stage of her life, a woman’s hormone levels decline, periods cease, and more than half of all women experience one or more of the following symptoms: Anxiety Brain fog (reduced mental clarity/focus) Dry, wrinkled skin Fatigue (lack of […]
Does a Happy Gut Mean a Happy Thyroid? What does your gut have to do with your thyroid gland? More than you might suspect. In fact, if you’re experiencing thyroid-related health issues, there’s a good chance your symptoms can be traced right to your gut — specifically, to the trillions of microbes living within it (collectively referred to as the gut microbiome). Maybe it is time to consider thyroid hormone therapy in Tampa, FL. According to recent research and what we have observed in our own clinical practice, restoring thyroid health often comes down to healing the gut. Understanding the Importance of the Gut Microbiome More than 100 trillion microorganisms, including bacteria and fungi (yeasts), live on and within our bodies. The densest and most diverse populations live in the gastrointestinal tract (the gut), where they play a vital role in digestion. It’s where they break down the food we
Treating Thyroid Disease by Fixing the Gut: The Thyroid-Gut Connection In a June 2020 study published in the journal Nutrition (see Thyroid-Gut-Axis: How Does the Microbiota Influence Thyroid Function?), researchers concluded that a healthy microbiota has “beneficial effects not only on the activity of the immune system but also on thyroid function.” Are you considering thyroid hormone therapy? These researchers base their conclusion on the close association between intestinal diseases, such as celiac disease (CD) and non-celiac wheat sensitivity (NCWS), and autoimmune thyroid diseases (AITDs). Also included are Hashimoto’s thyroiditis and Grave’s disease, as well as thyroid carcinoma (cancerous tumor). They also point out that the composition of gut microbiota influences the availability of micronutrients required for thyroid health and function, including iodine, iron, copper, selenium, zinc, vitamins A and D, B vitamins, and tyrosine. (Gut microbiota is a term used to describe the community of microorganisms living in the
If you’re looking for a hormone therapy clinic in Tampa and are interested in using a practice that takes a functional medicine strategy to medical care, then this article is for you. Here at BioDesign Wellness Center, we’ve invested years researching, training, and discussing hormone replacement therapy. Because we’re focused on the root causes of chronic health problems, our strategy to treatment tends to be more thorough than that offered at a traditional doctor’s office. Initially, we’d like to offer some background regarding hormone replacement therapy (HRT) or hormone therapy (HT), which doctors have been prescribing to ladies since the early 1940s. HRT is recommended to relieve menopausal symptoms, including menstrual cramps, hot flashes, night sweats, and mood swings. It also protects against age-related health conditions, such as cardiovascular disease, certain kinds of cancer, and osteoporosis. In fact, by 1992, Premarin became the top-prescribed drug in the U.S., with sales
According to a 2013 study published in The Journal of the Polish Biochemical Society, for the 10 years spanning 2003 to 2013, candida yeast infections (a type of fungal infection) increased by a factor of 15. And while conventional medicine practitioners have long recognized candida infection as a condition that requires treatment, the role that candida overgrowth plays in the development of autoimmune and inflammatory diseases has remained largely unnoticed. As a result, many patients continue to suffer from a wide variety of chronic health conditions unnecessarily. Even more alarming is the simple fact that most patients are never even tested for candida overgrowth. What Conventional Medical Doctors Know About Candida Candida overgrowth gets much more press in the context of alternative medicine than it does in conventional medicine, so it’s often thought of as outside the mainstream. However, conventional medicine doctors do recognize the role it plays in a
If you follow the news, you know that patients with the most severe and long-lasting COVID-19 symptoms are those with underlying chronic medical conditions, such as high blood pressure, diabetes, obesity, heart disease, lung disease, and neurological disorders. The common denominator of all these conditions is inflammation, the result of immune system dysfunction that can often be traced to an underlying condition called increased intestinal permeability (aka leaky gut or leaky gut syndrome). Taking a step back for a moment, the quotation that, “all disease begins in the gut” is commonly attributed to Hippocrates, the ancient Greek physician commonly referred to as the Father of Medicine. And modern medicine mostly dismissed that claim — until recently. Today, most medical experts recognize the integral relationship between the gut and the immune system and the vital role that the gut plays in defending the body against infectious diseases. By several estimates, about