Progress Your Health Podcast

You know you have heavy periods when . When you have tampons everywhere. In every single purse, the glove box of your car. In the glove box of your friend's and spouse's car. In the kitchen drawers, all bathrooms, in your jacket pockets, even your grocery bags. You never wear white. You don't own white underwear because at some point they will no longer be white. You know exactly when and how much ibuprofen you can take. You have a whole bunch of the light tampons because you never use them from the box. You laugh at the purple Tampax lites.  Because seriously, what magical woman actually uses them? And we hate her. You time everything around your period. How long can I stay in the meeting? How long is that exercise class? How long is that road trip and what are the stops on the way? You always get your period right before or during vacation. You devote an entire bathroom cabinet to super-heavy-plus tampons and those huge, bulky overnight pads. If you have heavy periods, aka menorrhagia, then

With all of the recent changes in health insurance, blood testing is more expensive than ever.  Below are few questions and situations we get from our patients and thought it would be good to discuss.  Do any of the following sound familiar? My Doctor Won’t Order Thyroid Function Test, What Should I Do? We see […]

Which thyroid medication is best?  This is a question we get from patients quite often.  Conventionally for hypothyroidism, there is one medication prescribed. Regardless of your gender, family/personal history, symptoms, goals. If you need thyroid replacement, you will get Synthroid. If you have had your thyroid gland radiated, now it is hypothyroid. If you have […]

Hashimoto Thyroiditis is an autoimmune process where your immune system will attack your thyroid gland. This attack will eventually cause the thyroid function to drop. Inevitably, Hashimoto’s disease causes hypothyroid. There are two primary blood antibodies to test for Hashimoto’s disease. Thyroid Peroxidase Antibody (TPO) Thyroglobulin Antibody (TgAb). If you have one or both of these […]

The most common test for thyroid is the TSH, which stands for Thyroid Stimulating Hormone. Unfortunately, this is also the only test most conventional doctors use to screen for thyroid disease.   If the TSH is elevated (above 4.5 mIU/L), you are hypothyroid, and if the number is low (below 0.45 ng/dL), you are hyperthyroid. […]

“My doctor will only test my TSH level for my thyroid. He/She says my thyroid is normal based on my TSH level, but I feel I have a thyroid problem! I hear this all the time with my new patients. They have been to their internist, their primary care, and even endocrinologists, but they get […]

First off, who gets hot flashes and night sweats? There are medical conditions, medications that can cause hot flashes and night sweats. But commonly, hot flashes and night sweats are a female thing. I know… us ladies are so complicated. But so worth it! Why do women get hot flashes and men do not? Why […]

Do you have trouble falling asleep? There are many reasons that people have trouble falling asleep. Reasons for poor sleep quality vary from medications, menopause, chronic pain to travel. For this episode, we want to talk about stress and its effect on your sleep. Stress can come in many forms from physical to mental. Stress […]

As I mentioned, we recently moved to Washington state. It was a quick move to find a place to live, get an office and deal with some family drama. As well, we had to maintain our Las Vegas and California offices in the meantime. For me, it has been pretty stressful. I am certainly not […]

First, an apology is necessary because we have been away for so long.  Even though we have been away for some time,  we are glad to be back. The Progress Your Health Podcast and all our listeners are very important to us.  We enjoy providing you with hormone related information.   As our loyal followers, […]

What is Leptin Resistance?   The body has an elaborate hormonal mechanism to regulate appetite and hunger. One of the major hormones is leptin, which is a satiety hormone produced by our fat cells in response to a meal.   Once released, leptin signals an area of the brain called the hypothalamus. This signaling turns […]

Generally speaking, hormones control how the body either loses or gains weight. Stress has a major effect on hormones, which also contributes to weight gain. Thus, cortisol, which is often referred to as the ‘stress hormone,’ plays a major role in this process.  Cortisol is a glucocorticoid,’ because its effect on blood glucose. For example, […]

The body spends a great deal of energy to balance blood sugar with a very specific hormonal mechanism.  The two main hormones are insulin and glucagon. Insulin an incredibly important hormone in our bodies. It is released in response to glucose in the body and allows the glucose to enter the cell to supply energy. […]

Familial Adenomatous Polyposis Familial Adenomatous Polyposis, which is abbreviated to FAP, is a genetic condition resulting in a mutation to the Adenomatous Polyposis Coli (APC) gene. The APC is a tumor suppressor gene located on the 5th chromosome. Mutations to this gene result in an increased risk of developing colon and other types of cancers […]

For women, testosterone is not a reproductive hormone.  Obviously, estrogen and progesterone are the main reproductive hormones.  Testosterone is an androgen produced by the ovaries, adrenal glands and peripheral tissues.  However, testosterone acts as more of an adrenal hormone, similar to DHEA, so the symptoms of low testosterone in women can mimic that of adrenal […]

Over the past few years, testosterone has become very popular.  There have been countless ads for prescriptions, herbal products and clinics all over TV and the internet.  This begs the question, does testosterone really live up to all the hype?  Is testosterone the panacea as it has been claimed?  The answer to this question is […]

One of the big challenges when trying to lose weight is our brain.  We may experience an exaggerated appetite or cravings, which can sabotage any weight loss goal. Most weight loss programs are focused on caloric restriction and providing medications, one being  phentermine for appetite suppression.  A safer, more effective alternative is Amino Acid Therapy […]

Up until fairly recently, a popular dietary approach for weight loss was to consume several small frequent meals throughout the day.  The rationale behind this strategy is that eating every 2-3 hours would increase metabolism and the pounds would drop off. A popular new dietary strategy called Intermittent Fasting is questioning this previous approach.  We […]

Why do we have so much trouble losing weight and keeping the weight off over time?  This is an important question that millions of people are struggling with everyday.   For decades, doctors, fitness professionals and even the government have promoted  the idea that weight loss is simply a calorie problem.  To have success, all […]

A very common and obvious indication of a hormone imbalance is Premenstrual Syndrome.  PMS is not actually a disease, but instead a collection of several physical and emotional type of symptoms that a woman can experience prior to the start of her period. For many women, the symptoms of PMS can begin 7 to 14 […]