The System Nobody Talks About - And Why That’s a Problem

Some systems in your body seem to receive all the attention - and with good reason. If your respiratory system stops working, you’re days on this earth suddenly drop to zero. Same with your cardiovascular system.

Your reproductive system is the subject of most of the popular music out there, advertising, movies and pop culture. Young people think about this system all the time.

Even your urinary system will remind you if there’s a problem.

However, there’s a system that people don’t know much about. It operates in the background. And unless something is really wrong with it, you don’t hear much about it.

It’s your endocrine system. The endocrine system consists of the glands in your body that secrete hormones and regulate lots of body functions.

Your thyroid is a big part of the system. So is the pituitary gland, the parathyroid, adrenal glands, pancreas, ovaries (women) and testes (men).

When we’re younger we joke about our hormones going wild, or how someone is just being ‘hormonal’ when they become emotional.

As we age, however, we pay less and less attention to our hormones. And that is a problem.

We do a lot of testing of our assisted living residents to see what markers we can improve. In the vast majority of people, we see very low hormone levels.

Low hormone levels increase your risk for diseases such as Parkinson’s and Dementia.

So why not treat it? There’s lots of hormone replacement therapies out there.

Well the medical community often has a problem with that. Especially for women. The gender that really has hormone problems due to natural processes such as menopause or man-made processes such as hysterectomies.

When I have shown the lab results of my female patients to doctors, I’ve had them say they can’t prescribe hormone therapy.

It’s too risky.

The treatment may result in breast cancer. Especially if they’ve had breast cancer before.

This thinking comes from a ‘Women’s Health Initiative Study’ in 2002. It stated that hormone replacement therapy increased a woman’s chances of having breast cancer and strokes.

The study actually found no significant linkage.

However, the thinking persisted. I had the clinicians from A Mind for All Seasons (AMFAS - the company we use to help our residents with dementia) talk to the doctor.

The doctor’s response? They can’t prescribe hormone therapy. Their insurance won’t cover them if they do it.

It’s just one example of how doctors must follow the standard of care. Even if they standard of care is incorrect.

So we find doctors who understand hormones better. Doctor’s who either have better insurance or who know the risk is low.

Then we add hormones to our resident’s treatments if needed. And we see some great results.

Better moods.

Less anxiety.

Better sleep.

Better cognition? Sometimes. It’s hard to tell on that since we’re doing a lot of different therapies to help.

If you have a more senior woman in your life you may want to look into their hormones. Senior men as well. Heck everyone should check out their hormones if they’re not feeling right.

Want to learn more? Randy Vawdrey from AMFAS did a great presentation on it: