Dear Doc,
Can your body get used to BHRT after being on it for a while and it not be as effective? Would you just increase the dose at that point?
You can develop a tolerance to almost any medication. If you feel yourself plateauing on hormones, don’t be afraid to take a break for a week. Just make sure you do NOT keep upping the doses when you plateau.
Check your hormone levels and talk to your Provider about the symptoms you are experiencing so they can either guide you on cycling your dosages or direct a short hormone break.
Dear Doc,
When checking your hormone levels, when is the most accurate time of day to do it?
For new male patients, I prefer to get the lab work done in the morning, because testosterone is usually higher in the morning than in the afternoon. It is a good time to check your baseline testosterone level. Also, it is best to do lab work 5-7 days after your last T-Shot. If you do labs one or two days after your shot, it is not going to tell me much.
For females, the morning is the best time. This is for the same reason: an accurate testosterone baseline check. If you are using creams, it is ideal to draw labs about 6 hours after you put the cream on.
Dear Doc,
Why do you think zinc is so effective for keeping your immune system strong? Is it more important than Vitamin C?
When you take zinc, a protein in your body allows it to enter immune cells (like t-cells and b-cells). This process helps the immune system to fight off infection. I recommend taking 50mg of zinc daily.
Zinc and Vitamin C are important to take. However, for COVID, zinc is more important.
Dear Doc,
I notice you wear an Oura Ring. What do you use yours most for?
The Oura Ring is probably the best tool I have found for monitoring vitals.
I use mine mostly for monitoring sleep patterns. Everyday I look at the report it creates for me.
It tells me:
- REM, light, and deep sleep
- Sleep latency (how long it took me to fall asleep)
- Times I woke up during the night
- Total sleep time
- General sleep quality
- Nighttime resting heart rate variability
I check it at the end of the day to see how much exercise I got, my average heart and breathing rate.
The Oura Ring incentivizes me to get a good night’s sleep and exercise every day.
Lastly, you only have to charge it once a week for 20 minutes!
Dear Doc,
How accurate do you think COVID-19 antibody testing is?
The antibody blood test is quite accurate for detecting antibodies in the body post COVID-19 infection and recovery. However, the length of time that the antibodies are present is yet to be known. It is good to have the antibody test done about a month after recovering from COVID.