The Expat magazine recently had a fascinating and informative discussion with a very inspiring woman, Dr Sangeet Kaur who specialises in bio-identical hormones, thyroid issues, wellness and aesthetic medicine. Dr Kaur is proof incarnate of the validity of her medical philosophies and practises. She is the mother to two wonderful children, wife to a management consultant; she’s on various high profile committees and a highly qualified medical doctor in great demand. At age 40 she looks a decade younger being abundantly blessed with glowing good health and energy.

Dr Sangeet meets and treats many expats at her two offices in Mont Kiara. Her goal is always to uncover the core problem or the reason for your symptoms and then to treat that. Just because you are not living in a western country does not mean you cannot access state of the art medical practices and procedures in Malaysia.

It is by no means an exaggeration to say that hormones are crucial to every single function of the human body. You can’t live without them. But in the environment we live in at the opening of this new millennium – and particularly as we ourselves age – rarely do our bodies have the optimum levels of hormones.

Dr Sangeet explains, “We don’t enjoy optimal health, whether that means arthritis or heart disease or flagging sex drive or gray hair and wrinkles or out-of-control weight gain. Hormones have the most powerful influence on your body and how you look and feel. They are a key component of your overall health. Hormone is a chemical substance produced in the body that controls and regulates the activity of certain cells or organ. All the hormones in your body interact with each other.

Hormones affect your mood, memory, clarity of thoughts, energy, and ability to cope with stress, metabolism, immune system, skin, and hair, literally everything that we do. Hormonal imbalance can occur at any age before, during or after menopause in women and andropause in men and not just in “old people”. Hormonal imbalance causes depression, irritability, anxiety, fatigue, headaches/ migraine, weight gain, insomnia, PMS, postpartum depression, fibroids or fibrocystic breast disease, bloating, breast tenderness, decrease sexual drive, vaginal dryness, hot flushes, recurrent infections, hair loss, dry skin, premature skin wrinkling, osteoporosis, degenerative diseases of aging like heart disease, diabetes , cancer and overall decrease in quality of life.”

Hormonal imbalance is brought about by stress, environmental exposure to drugs, increase amount of alcohol intake, poor nutrition, inadequate exercise as well as natural hormonal decline due to aging. Unfortunately many of us accept this as normal or inevitable as we age and the good news is that you do not need to accept illness and loss of function due to aging. The current model of medicine that is emerging focuses into the root cause of the problem and addressing it rather than just treating the symptoms of the disease.

“Hormones do not decline because we age; we age because our hormones decline. Many of the illnesses mentioned can actually be prevented or treated with Bio-Identical Hormone Replacement Therapy (BHRT), correct nutrition, exercise and generally healthy living. Optimal health and wellbeing for males and females can be maintained by ensuring an adequate and appropriate balance of hormone levels through BHRT.

Hormones used in Bio-identical hormone replacement therapy (BHRT) are identical in chemical structure to hormones produced by the human body. They come from a natural plant source (either wild yam or soy). These bio-identical hormones produce the same physiologic responses as those of endogenous hormones.

These plant-derived bio-identical hormones are almost entirely without side effects of synthetic HRT drugs commonly prescribed,” Dr. Sangeet explains.

These hormone replacement formulations are prepared by compounding pharmacies according to the doctor’s prescription with the purpose of correcting hormonal imbalances. BHRT can be tailored to meet the exact needs of individuals, both men & women. Therapy can be administered orally or through cream/gel applied on the skin.

We asked her specifically about who should consider taking bio-identical hormones.

She replies, “Bio – identical hormones are for anyone who feels tired all the time, forgets things, isn’t sleeping well, feels more depressed and anxious than usual, who is at risk for osteoporosis or cancer among many other things. We’ve accepted these things as inevitable, especially as we age. We didn’t like it, but we thought we had to live with it. But we’ve been wrong.

You probably know that some hormone levels decline with age. What’s less well known is that almost all hormone levels drop, across the board, in men as well as women. Your endocrine glands cannot maintain the same production of hormones they did in your younger days. And that loss is the most crucial – and eminently correctable – underlying process that causes the signs and symptoms of aging as well as a host of other health concerns. With the proper physiological doses of natural hormones in combination with a hormonally supportive diet and vitamin and mineral supplements, you can retain your health -and your youth – more fully and for a longer time.”

Dr Kaur concludes by emphasizing the five pillars of wellness and good health: Nutrition, optimum hormones, exercise, stress reduction and supplements/minerals.

Source: The Expat October 2011
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This article has been edited for ExpatGomalaysia.com