Get Your Body Back On Track With These 5 Points of Wellness
Dr. Nathan Goodyear, Overseeing Physician at Seasons Wellness Clinic
“What is Seasons? And what do you do?”
These are questions I am often asked. In short, Seasons breaks free from the disease model of medicine. Our focus is wellness by optimizing your health. What does this mean? Just because you are free of disease does not mean you have great health. A wellness model of medicine is the only way to prevent disease and promote healthy living.
At Seasons, we work to achieve health and wellness with balance using our 5 Points of Wellness: Nutrition, Exercise, Hormones, Inflammation, and Detoxification.
NUTRITION
Are nutrition and health related? Absolutely. We are what we eat. Hippocrates said it best, “Let food be your medicine and medicine be your food.” Your diet must be individualized to meet your metabolic needs, limit inflammatory responses, and meet your lifestyle demands.
We offer personalized nutritional counseling to develop a plan for disease management, disease prevention, and overall good health. At Seasons, your nutritional plan is individualized to meet your needs in a way that fits your lifestyle.
EXERCISE
Exercise is an important part of any weight-loss or weight-maintenance program. Maintaining healthy weight is an excellent benefit of exercise, but it does so much more for your body. Exercise builds muscle, relieves stress, and helps to detoxify, just to name a few. However, too much exercise can severely harm the body.
At Seasons, we work to maximize your calorie expenditure, while reducing the damage to your body from excessive exercise. We do this in a way to match your lifestyle and your physical abilities.
Valerie Costanza, RD will develop a nutritional plan that is created to meet your individual needs in a way that fits your lifestyle.
HORMONES
Regardless of your age, your body needs hormones to function. Hormones are a means of communication with your body. And balance of those hormones is the key. Sure, it would be great if men were just a Testosterone sponge; or women just an Estrogen factory. But, that is not the case and the key is to create a balance. When your hormones are balanced, so are you. When your hormones are not balanced, your body will let you know.
Your hormone balance is unique and will change based on factors such as weight loss, weight gain, stress, and even nutrition. The only way to determine your imbalance is to share any symptoms you may be having with your healthcare team at Seasons. This gives us information on where to look for hormone imbalance issues. Only then can we identify your particular imbalance and formulate a plan to balance your hormones. Balanced hormones = better health.
INFLAMMATION
Inflammation is the greatest obstacle to good health and is a part of the body’s immune system signaling department. Pain, redness, swelling, heat, and loss of function are common manifestations of inflammation. Inflammation is not new. The first four classical signs were described by Celsus (30 BC – 38 AD).
The source of inflammation is unique to each person. It may be due to deficiencies, such as vitamin D, poor dietary intake of antioxidants, such as resveratrol and curcumin, or even a deficiency of fish (low Omega-3 intake leads to inflammation). Your gut could also be the source of inflammation! Did you know that up to 75% of your immune system lines your gut? In many ways, your health starts with your gut.
The source of inflammation is as different as the individual. The only way to identify your unique source of inflammation is through symptom evaluation and state-of-the-art testing. At Seasons we can identify the causes of inflammation and implement specific therapy to eliminate inflammation, which can be as diverse as parasite treatment to dietary changes.
DETOXIFICATION
We live in a toxic world today. There is no way around that! According to a recent study, detectable levels of toxins were found in up to 99% of pregnant women even though many of these chemicals have been banned since the early 1970’s. This number will only rise with the approximately 1,800 new chemicals approved annually. This tidal wave of toxins are overwhelming our detoxifications systems proven by the exponential rise in rates of autism spectrum disorder and neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and Multiple Sclerosis.
The ability to detoxify is critical to health. Every cell must detoxify. At Seasons, we evaluate your individual ability to detoxify with state-of-the-art testing and treat those areas that are dysfunctional. We focus on your major detox organs — liver, skin, kidneys, lymphatics, and GI tract — through which every cell in the body must detoxify. We provide a detoxification plan to meet your specific toxic load and to support your identified needs.
WHAT NEXT?
At Seasons, we offer individualized therapy to aggressively eliminate the obstacles to good health and maximize your body’s performance. We are not your disease doctor, we are your partners in health. We work to restore your health and then maintain that good health.
As Aristotle said, “The whole is more than the sum of its parts.” And at Seasons, our holistic approach encompasses all the body’s functions creating one plan giving you the tools you need to pursue wellness.
Questions? Spend some time on our website getting to know us and what we do. Then call 318.255.3223 and speak with one of our Patient Relations Specialists. Remember, good health is a choice. And at Seasons, we offer you that opportunity. Don’t miss your opportunity to choose a health and wellness lifestyle.
From The Doctor’s Desk: Hormone Imbalance A Contributing Factor In Breast Cancer
Dr. Nathan Goodyear
Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT) increases breast cancer. Have you read headlines like that? Or perhaps you were told that HRT caused someone’s breast cancer.
Do hormones really cause or lead to breast cancer? Think about this: every women continues to produce hormones, even after menopause. So, it cannot be that hormones in and of themselves cause cancer. Scientific evidence indicates that synthetic hormones and hormone imbalance do contribute to breast cancer.
The ABC’s of Estrogen.
Estrogen’s effects in the body are regulated through two different kinds of receptors: alpha and beta receptors. Estrogen-alpha receptors stimulate breast cell growth. Estrogen-beta receptors inhibit breast cell growth.
- Estradiol, the most potent estrogen, equally stimulates alpha and beta receptors = growth stable
- Estrone, the second most potent estrogen, stimulates alpha receptors 5:1 over beta receptors = pro growth
- Estriol, the weakest variety of estrogen, actually stimulates beta receptors 3:1 = growth inhibitory
The key element here is balance of hormones. Higher levels of estrone present in your body (produced by fat cells) result in more breast stimulation. Higher levels of estriol present in your body results in less breast cell stimulation and, therefore, breast protection. Estriol = Good. Estrone = Bad. If you have heard of someone developing breast cancer after starting Premarin, there’s a logical explanation for that. Guess what Premarin is loaded with? Premarin contains (48%) estrone (estrone = bad = breast cell stimulation).
Here are some more ugly facts about Premarin, also know as conjugated equine estrogen. Premarin actually decreases estrogen beta receptors. So, if you take Premarin, then you are taking high doses of estrone (estrone = bad) and decreasing your estrogen receptors that inhibit breast cell growth. In a nutshell: you are taking more of the bad estrogen and decreasing your amount of the good estrogen. This equates to a prime set up for breast cancer. Don’t take my word for it. See the wonderful article by Kent Holtorf.
Progesterone: The Growth-Inhibitor Hormone
The confusion out there about estrogen and breast cancer is bad enough, but the confusion is even greater on the subject of progesterone.
Pregesterone is the key hormone in the second half of a woman’s cycle. Estrogen is the dominant hormone in the first half of your cycle (estrogen = growth = growth of the uterine lining to support implantation of an egg). The counteractive hormone to this growth phase is progesterone (progesterone = no growth = sloughing off of the uterine lining). It’s the amazing and fascinating way that woman was created.
Synthetic progestins, often prescribed, are NOT the same as the progesterone your body produces. Just look at the structure and you see that they are not. The one thing they do have in common is they both protect the lining of the uterus against excessive estrogen growth. But, that is where the similarities end.
While there are many differences between the two, our focus here will be on the difference in breast cancer potential. Simply stated, synthetic progestins are pro-breast cancer and bioidentical progesterone is breast protective. The Women’s Health Initiative (link) revealed a 26% increase in breast cancer as a result of taking synthetic progestin. The Nurse’s Health Study (link) found that synthetic progestins tripled breast cancer risk over that of estrogen only. The use of Provera, a synthetic progestin and component of Prempro, has been shown to increase the risk of breast cancer by 800%!
The statistics for bioidentical progesterone are the opposite. Bioidentical progesterone has many positive breast benefits:
- Progesterone decreases estrogen production
- Progesterone moves estradiol to weaker estrone
- Progesterone moves estrone to inactive (sulfated) form
- Progesterone moves estrone to weakest/safest estriol
- Progesterone down-regulates estrogen receptors all together
- Progesterone activates the cancer protection gene, p53
The idea that progesterone is a safer alternative to synthetic progestins is not new at all. As early as the early 80’s, there has been a call for safer progesterone over synthetic progestin counterparts. In 1981, nearly 30 years ago, L.D. Cowan showed that just having low progesterone levels increases the risk of premenopausal breast cancer risk 5.4 times.
Unfortunately, progesterone-deficient states, (or estrogen dominance) are very common in women today as a result of many factors: being overweight, PCOS, environmental xenoestrogens, excessive estrogen therapy, and perimenopause. Another study, showed progesterone to have a 400% decreased breast growth rate.
The Scientific Evidence Is Clear.
The evidence in the scientific literature is clear with regards to estrogens, progesterone, and hormone balance.
You know, once we understand hormones and the balancing cycle between estrogen and progesterone, it makes perfect sense that imbalance would cause breast problems. And the scientific evidence indicates just that. In honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, it’s time make sure your hormones are balanced and protect yourself from breast cancer.
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