Embrace Your Beauty

Vitamin D has been shown to play a vital role in achieving optimal health. Vitamin D helps keep your bones strong, fight off infection, and some data indicates it may lower your cancer, diabetes, and heart disease risk. Many people feel that being out in the sun will give them adequate amounts of Vitamin D, but studies have shown that is not the case. It is very important to supplement your Vitamin D to maintain levels that keep you healthy. It is especially important as we age because it reduces the risk of osteoporosis and the fractures that come with it.

There is no universal agreement on what levels of Vitamin D are considered optimal. The studies have conflicting data. However, in the wellness community, it is generally accepted that levels over 80 and possibly even closer to 100 should be maintained for optimum body health. Different labs will post different normal ranges, but in general we believe you should maintain your levels on the higher end of the range.

Also, Vitamin D supplements must be absorbed correctly. Many times, people are taking supplements, but they are not properly absorbed, or the dose is far too low. It is important to choose quality supplements to ensure the supplements are manufactured for proper absorption. Monitoring lab values is the best way to ensure you have adequate levels of Vitamin D. At Genesis, monitoring Vitamin D is part of the full workup done when evaluating you for hormone replacement. If Vitamin D deficiency is a problem for you, we will address this in our wellness recommendations.

Our Wellness division is happy to help you begin the journey towards optimizing your health.

As women age and have children, somewhere along the line, we start to expect less and less from our love life or at least the sex part of it. We may be blessed with a loving partner and have every other aspect of our relationship going for us, but things just by nature tend to physically go downhill. It happens to men too, and you can’t watch TV without seeing some ad encouraging them to seek treatment and get more enjoyment! Where are these ads for women? Is there no option to help spice things up for us again? Or is it just not something that we should expect?

At Genesis, we say you can and should expect more from your love life. The treatment advancements for women are out there now! The problem is no one is talking about them. I also think we have been conditioned to accept less. Well, give yourself some loving this month and come in and learn about these life changing treatments. We offer three options for improving your sexual gratification.

Hormone Replacement Therapy
Sometimes our lack of desire is related to an imbalance in our hormones. We are tired and run down and this can dampen our interest in all things. This is for some the first step to change. We offer a full hormone balancing consultation to determine if hormone replacement therapy is a good option for you. This process will include drawing a lab panel, reviewing symptoms, and then creating a plan to address any hormone or vitamin deficiencies. You will leave with a customized plan to not only spice up your love life, but your health and mood, too!

Vaginal Rejuvenation
If loss of lubrication or sensation is a problem, vaginal rejuvenation is a great option. Many perimenopause or post menopause women suffer from this. Chemotherapy or a history of a hysterectomy may also contribute to lubrication issues. A simple in-office laser treatment can help with this. This treatment is also great for women who have lost tightness due to childbirth. And there is a bonus of helping with stress incontinence! Another treatment so many women don’t even know is out there for them.

O-SHOT
The name kind of speaks for itself but this treatment is all about increasing your sensation and satisfaction. We utilize PRP derived from your own blood to stimulate collagen and nerve regeneration in all the areas that make your sex life sizzle. This treatment also can have the added benefit of assisting with urinary incontinence.

All these treatments are available at Genesis and this month we are offering a complimentary appointment to come in and explore if any of them are right for you. You can choose to meet with Robert Ferris, MD OBGYN or Stephanie Pitts, NP. Enjoying your love life again is possible!

Has this been your experience? While lab values are a good starting point for a health assessment, they are not the end all determination of health. Relying solely on lab values to determine health completely leaves out the personal assessment component. This method especially places too much emphasis on what is considered “normal” by reference labs. What does this mean? Reference labs assign a range of values that they consider physiologically “normal”. However, frequently the values don't correlate to your symptoms. A better concept would be to optimize your labs to your symptoms within a safe range.

What do we mean by that? Let’s use thyroid hormone (free T3) as an example. Normal lab range is 2.2-4.5 depending on the lab that is used. If you are feeling tired and fatigued, and your T3 is 2.5, you may be told that this is normal and not the cause of your fatigue. An alternative option is to prescribe desiccated thyroid until your symptoms of fatigue are reduced. If you are already on desiccated thyroid, you would use this same principal and increase your dosage to maximize your results until you feel better. Many people will need values over 4.5 in order to feel well for a variety of reasons and there are rarely any side effects. Some doctors will “worry” about higher doses of T3, but there are no studies to prove serious side effects from desiccated thyroid supplementation.

Another aspect to look at is the medications being used to address your lab values. For example, Synthroid is a very common thyroid replacement drug. As its name implies, it is synthetic T4. Unfortunately, your body does not readily convert that to free T3, which is the bioactive form needed for your health. Synthroid does however reduce the TSH level, which can be used to judge adequate thyroid replacement. Thus the interaction: “your labs are normal”, “but doctor, I still feel bad.” If that is the case with you, don’t stop inquiring why the treatment you are receiving is not delivering the results you wish to achieve. Maybe it is your treatment option that needs to be changed.

Robert Ferris, MD and Stephanie Pitts, NP specialize in addressing your health concerns with a focus on optimizing your wellness through hormone replacement and supplement usage. If you are interested in learning more about how to stay well and optimize your health, come see us at Genesis Wellness. We can help you understand how you can help yourself live better!