Can you really feel better as you get older?

And one more thing—you must sleep in complete darkness. Even the smallest bit of light keeps your cortisol from lowering. Put tape over the computer lights, and the light on the phone, and the light from your digital clock. These tiny bits of light will all affect your sleep and keep your cortisol level high. There was a study done where they put people in a completely dark room except for one tiny pin light on the backs of their knees, and their cortisol stayed high as a result. In Lights Out, T. S. Wiley says that “an avalanche of peerreviewed scientific papers supports our conclusion that when we don’t sleep in sync with the seasonal variation in light exposure, we alter a balance of nature that has been programmed into our physiology since day one.” The National Institutes of Health confirms that it is a scientific “given” that light and dark cycles turn hormone production on and off and activate the immune system. According to T. S. Wiley, “If the lack of prolactin at night doesn’t get you, the lack of melatonin ultimately will. Melatonin is the most potent antioxidant known. Less melatonin and more free radicals mean faster aging even without chronic high insulin racking up a ‘clock time’ of four years for every one you live.”

Now here’s the problem: When you are losing hormones and cannot sleep, your doctor most likely will prescribe antidepressants and/or sleeping pills. If your hormones were balanced, believe me you would not have trouble going to sleep. Once you get on the antidepressant merry-go-round, you’ll have a hard time getting off. Why take an antidepressant when balanced hormones and a regimen of proper sleeping will do the same thing, but more effectively and naturally? Because it’s easier for the doctor to give you a pill, and you will feel better. You will sleep better with an antidepressant; you will stop complaining to your doctor. He can go on about his business without having to do the work of trying to get to the bottom of why you seem to need an antidepressant. In essence, you are allowing your doctor to give you a Band-Aid instead of fixing the problem. Then the problem will continue to get worse and worse. He will up your dose, then give you sleeping pills. Your emotions, which were originally calmed down by the antidepressants, will get harder and harder to control. Doesn’t this upset you? But you keep taking the pills because you are feeling so much better . . . for a while. Then you are going to be bothered by the fact that even though you are enjoying your drugged sleep, and your drug-induced daytime calmness, you will start asking yourself, Why am I gaining so much weight? And you will get fat on antidepressants. The reason is that you haven’t addressed the underlying cause of the problem, which is hormonal imbalance. It happens to everyone—all of us experience hormonal decline as we age. Shockingly, it is happening at earlier and earlier ages. It is not uncommon for women in their mid- to late thirties to start perimenopause because of the stressful lives they are living. Stress blunts hormone production.

Now the antidepressant scenario continues. Guess what—you will lose your sex drive, you will continue to get more and more depressed, and you will eventually get sick because the antidepressant has been a Band-Aid masking the underlying problem, which is hormone decline. Without hormones, the internal “you” starts to decline, then the diseases of aging begin, among them heart disease, cancer, and Alzheimer’s.

The good news is that bioidentical hormone replacement therapy can rectify this entire scenario, along with sleeping, eating right, and managing stress. It’s a little tricky and will need constant “tweaking” from your doctor because of your surging hormones. But a good qualified doctor will know how to handle this. Remember, sleeplessness and stress will change your hormone levels, and the fact that the surges come and go will change your hormone levels. This is the exciting part of this new medicine; when you are working with your doctor to balance during this tricky phase, you would call when you have even the smallest symptom, because every symptom is an indicator that things are not in balance . . . and balance is the goal.

From “Ageless: The Naked Truth about Bioidentical Hormones” by Suzanne Somers. Copyright © 2006 by Suzanne Somers. Published by Crown Publishers, a division of Random House, Inc.

MORE FROM

Over 50? Simple secrets to grow younger

Over 50? Simple secrets to grow younger How one mom learned to translate baby cries Quiz: Test your smarts about children’s health ‘Stand by Her’: A breast cancer guide for men Cesar Millan: How to help your pup learn Mom's guide to a happy work-home balance The birds and bees: Talking sex with your child One mother’s battle to save her son from OCD The worst meals for kids ‘Josie’s Story’ turns grief to patient-safety fight   Add headlines to your news reader: