This week I want to talk about one of the most important relationships I have at Performance Medicine, and that’s with compounding pharmacies.
It would be impossible for me to practice medicine the way that I do without compounding pharmacies.
The reason for this is simple. They help me offer patients personalized treatment.
As you know, one size doesn’t fit all. And with the help of compounding pharmacies I’m able to tailor everything to a particular patient based on their unique needs and wants.
This is important because if you practice cookbook medicine, or go to a practice that does, you are truly limiting yourself. In my opinion, it’s why many patients end up on a bunch of medications that they don’t actually need.
People don’t want to be on a bunch of medications that they don’t need!
Compounding Pharmacies and Hormone Replacement
I use compounding pharmacies a lot with hormones. In fact, compounding pharmacists know more about hormones than 99% of the physicians out there.
It’s not the doctors’ fault. You simply don’t learn anything about compounding pharmacies in medical school or residency.
When hormones first became a big deal, Premarin and Prempro were the two main options out there. They are synthetic hormones made from pregnant horse urine, and were the hormones used in the study I often refer to called the “Women’s Health Initiative”.
That one study turned a lot of patients and doctors off of hormone replacement, because 8 more women per 10,000 came down with breast cancer or heart disease.
What they didn’t tell you is that half the women in that study were smokers, and even with these synthetic hormones there were less hip fractures and colon cancer.
It was a very misleading study that unfortunately scared a lot of people away from hormone replacement therapy.
Compounding pharmacists knew this, and came to the rescue for millions of women by providing customized bioidentical hormones that are made from plants and are very safe.
Unfortunately many doctors are clueless about this, or just don’t want to fool with it, and end up putting these women on a birth control pill or an anti- depressant for their menopause symptoms. Which in my opinion is much more dangerous.
Natural bioidentical hormones come from plants, and are identical to what your body produces. And with the help of compounding pharmacists we can tailor the bioidentical hormones to your own weight, metabolism etc.
Menopause and Dementia
Menopause can last up to 15 years, and there’s just no need to suffer through that. I want to point out something that’s really important that I probably don’t talk about enough.
If you take bioidentical hormones when menopause starts, your risk of dementia is about half of what it would be if you didn’t take hormones.
Think about your brain!
I practiced medicine in a traditional setting for over 25 years, and no one ever came up and thanked me for putting them on a stain drug for their cholesterol or a blood pressure medicine.
Don’t get me wrong, sometimes these are necessary. But I feel they are overused.
Sometimes doctors load you up with medications to make your numbers look better, thinking it’s good for you when actually it’s not.
And remember, I’m a practicing medical doctor for over 34 years. But for the last 15 years I’ve been a functional medical doctor that’s looking at why you have a disease, and trying to get to the cause of it.
Weekly I get emails from you guys thanking me for the work we’ve done with bioidentical hormones.
That’s the difference. And that’s why I love this personalized type of medicine we’re doing.
As patients, I want you to know that compounding pharmacies are allies in this movement towards personalization.