Before hitting menopause, Yvonne enjoyed her work as well as her play.

She studied anatomy, physiology, physical education, psychology, teaching, structural integration, and movement therapy at the University of California at Santa Barbara, the California State University at Chico, the University of New Mexico, Arizona State University, and the Rolf Institute. Yvonne mastered bump skiing in the Colorado mountains, swam with her college and masters' teams, participated in triathlons like the Ironman in Hawaii, and traveled all over the world to teach health seminars, scuba dive, and compete in swimming events. Yvonne was healthy and happy, living her dream---studying, teaching, practicing structural integration, and helping others to improve their health. She even managed a busy family medicine practice in Boulder, Colorado while caring for her husband and four boys.

Suddenly the dream was over. Menopause struck her down.

It wasn’t just the hot flashes. Yvonne experienced a total collapse of her health at age 53. As her ovaries stopped producing vital hormones, every system in her body rebelled. She had every symptom of menopause-–including loss of sex drive, depression, weight gain, cataracts, breaking bones–you name it. She was even diagnosed with a serious heart condition and a deadly skin cancer.

It was scary. And it didn’t get any better. It only got worse.

After being stricken with the swine flu, Yvonne just couldn’t recover. Her immune system was too weak to fight off the virus. Yvonne became bedridden for months. She felt lost, confused, and angry about this complete reversal in her previously outstanding health.

Doctors offered her no acceptable solutions to this menopausal hell. Oh sure, they would be happy to write prescriptions for dangerous synthetic and horse hormones and anti-depressants that could be used for a short time. But they offered no permanent, safe solutions.

This was extremely frustrating. Yvonne knew that she had to pull herself out of this dilemma somehow without making herself sicker by taking prescription drugs that have been amply proven to kill women. Although her body was stricken, her spirit remained undaunted.

Yvonne crawled to her computer and began her quest to find some answers. It wasn’t easy. The answers were not there. Nor were the answers to be found in books. She had to look somewhere else.

Yvonne began to fly all over the country to attend conferences on anti-aging. She listened to thousands of lectures given by world-renowned experts in the field of hormone restoration. These cutting-edge anti-aging physicians and other experts in bioidentical hormones provided massive amounts of technical information. Yvonne vowed to make sense of it all and bring her revelations to you.

Fortunately, her medical background and training enabled her to pick out the jewels and translate the often difficult technical medical jargon. Yvonne used the experts’ advice to develop an effective program to recover her health using bioidentical hormones, supplements, cleansing, and lifestyle changes.

She followed the program. The program worked.

Yvonne was able to regain her robust health.

Grateful for her renewed health, Yvonne has been helping others do the same. Yvonne continues to find the most valuable information from the knowledgeable health experts and translates it into easy-to-understand language in order to help you to get a handle on your own health. Dr. Joe Swartz ensures the medical accuracy of everything and adds his own advice based on decades of clinical experience as a family practice medical doctor.

J.M. Swartz M.D. specializes in hormones and aging. Many hormone problems stem from aging. Dr. Joe addresses these hormones and aging issues with proper bioidentical hormone replacement for each individual, male or female.

Hormones and aging are faced by every one of us sooner or later. Dr. Joe reminds us that many people have also been harmed by the inherent stress of living in our society, as well as from environmental toxins and pollution. All of these stresses hurt our hormones.

Hormones and aging are a common reason that people seek medical intervention. Let’s take a brief look at how Dr. Joe helps people to return to health when they have issues with hormones and aging and hormones that have been affected by stress and toxicity.

The functioning of each endocrine gland must be assessed and then helped to return to optimal functioning. Of particular concern are the functioning of the adrenals, the thyroid, and the sex hormones.

Dr. Joe believes that everyone has the right to function at optimal hormone levels, not just for their age, but optimally as a human being. Restoring hormonal balance to optimal levels for each individual is crucial to happiness, well-being, sense of purpose, and belonging in the world.

First and foremost, he emphasizes the need to cleanse one’s tissues of toxicity. Helpful detoxification methods include homeopathic detoxification, cleansing diet, juice fasting if the individual’s health conditions will allow it, gall bladder and liver flushes, coffee enemas, elimination of ingestion of food allergens, far infrared saunas, heavy metal detox such as chelation, use of supplements that remove toxins, bodywork, and exercise.

The first endocrine organs that must be addressed are the adrenals. The adrenals must be functioning well before the other endocrine organs can be addressed. The individual must lower stress to an acceptable level, get plenty of uninterrupted sleep, and may need supplementation in the form of herbal and/or prescription medication to restore proper adrenal functioning.

The next system that must be working optimally for true health is the thyroid glandular system. Most doctors use a blood level TSH to determine thyroid problems. Unfortunately, many, many people have thyroid sluggishness long before their TSH levels rise. Dr. Joe looks for the underlying reasons for thyroid dysfunction. Dysfunction may be caused by inadequate pituitary stimulation, thyroid glandular problems, or faulty peripheral conversion. Causes for thyroid dysfunction often include traumatic brain injury, Hashimoto’s, or Wilson’s Temperature Syndrome.

The next system that may need to be addressed is the sex hormone system. Imbalances of sex hormones are rampant in our society in all ages, due not only to aging, but also due to the dietary and environmental toxins that we are all exposed to. Unfortunately, endocrine imbalances are rarely checked to see if this may be their problem.

Women, in particular, may have hormonal imbalances during their child-bearing years which may become so severe as to cause havoc with their relationships and even destroy their marriages. Hormonal balancing is so simple, yet so often neglected.

Even men, as they reach their 30’s and 40’s, could be helped to function better by adding hormones that are declining as they age. They could function better not only physically, but their mental acuity could be sharpened if they were to address hormonal imbalances and insufficiencies. Older men, especially, can benefit from hormone replacement. They need not be sentenced to losing their memories and their vitality.

And, of course, women who are perimenopausal, menopausal, and post-menopausal can receive assistance in returning to their former days of optimal hormonal functioning. The benefits of hormonal balancing in these women are far-reaching and can include weight loss, mood enhancement, and better mental and physical functioning.

Dr. Joe does not prescribe Premarin, which is a prescription drug derived from pregnant mare’s urine. Nor does he prescribe synthetic progestins or the combination, Prempro. These drugs have been improperly called “hormones.” These drugs have been implicated in heart disease and breast cancer.

Instead, he prescribes natural bioidentical hormone replacement. As bioidentical hormones are exactly identical to the hormones made by the human body, they do not have harmful side effects and are beneficial to the functioning of the body when replaced in optimal amounts and in proper balance and correct timing.

To learn more about hormones and your health, read and listen to all of the books in the “Bioidentical Hormones” series.