WHAT IS HOT?

HOT is an acronym that we use for Health Optimization Therapy. Dr. Morris helps in optimizing your hormone levels so that you can have many benefits including increased energy, strength, ability to lose fat, and libido. Hormone optimization therapy helps restore natural hormone balance. It does so by introducing natural hormones into the body. For women, that means estrogen, androgen, and progesterone that are identical to naturally-produced hormones.

For men, testosterone is the primary hormone that is optimized. Testosterone optimization can help increase muscle mass and strength, improve bone density, and improve libido.

Optimizing hormone levels, using a fast mimicking diet and exercising regularly can have a positive impact on your health and longevity. A fasting-mimicking diet (FMD) has been developed to confer similar benefits of prolonged fasting, without the burden of several days of starvation. FMD is a low-cal/low-protein diet, with plant-based foods that are high in healthy fats and complex carbohydrates. It has been shown to reduce cardiovascular disease risk factors, including blood pressure and signs of inflammation (measured by C-reactive protein levels), as well as fasting glucose and reduced levels of IGF-1, a hormone that affects metabolism.

Did you know?

Regular exercise can help increase testosterone levels in men and women. Exercise can also help increase growth hormone levels.

Many of our patients have received optimal results after enrolling in our HOT program.

Hormone levels fluctuate naturally throughout life. They rise when you hit puberty and drop during menopause. As you age, though, these imbalances can make you feel like you aren’t yourself. 

Hormone optimization therapy was designed to reverse the negative effects of hormonal imbalance. This treatment is also known as bioidentical hormone replacement therapy (BHRT) and it works to stabilize hormone levels. 

Are you wondering if you’re experiencing the symptoms of hormonal imbalance or deficiency? Then check out this article to learn which signs to watch out for and how hormone optimization therapy can help.  

Symptoms of Hormonal Imbalance

Your body naturally produces hormones through a group of nerves and organs called the endocrine system. Hormones travel through the bloodstream to certain bodily tissues to regulate certain bodily functions. These bodily functions include:

• Appetite
• Metabolism (fat burning)
• Heart rate
• Circadian rhythms (sleep cycling)
• Libido (sexual desire)
• Growth and development
• Mood
• Stress
• Internal body temperature

Any hormonal imbalance can throw these functions off balance. 

An imbalance affecting appetite and metabolism may influence weight gain or weight loss. Hormonal imbalances like those seen with menopause can affect internal body temperature, which is why hot flashes are common. 

Hormones regulate your sleep cycles, so an imbalance can also cause difficulty sleeping or unexplained tiredness.

These issues affect older adults more frequently, but they can occur in early life, too. This can lead to infertility, reduced sex drive, and changes in blood pressure. 

Other symptoms common in women with hormonal imbalances include:

• Night sweats
• PMS symptoms
• Menstrual irregularities
• Mood swings
• Anxiety and depression
• Fibrocystic breast tissue
• Osteoporosis (bone loss)
• Headache
• Fatigue
• Acne

The good news is hormone optimization therapy can help reverse some of these symptoms. 

Benefits of Hormone Optimization

Hormone optimization therapy helps restore natural hormone balance. It does so by introducing natural hormones into the body. For women, that means estrogen, androgen, and progesterone that are identical to naturally-produced hormones. 

Yet, one hormone optimization therapy does not fit all. Bioidentical hormone replacement therapy is personalized for your specific hormone imbalance or deficiency. 

Here are some of the incredible benefits you can expect from BHRT.  

Increase Your Energy

Hormone optimization therapy can make you feel younger and more energetic. That’s because it can support an over- or under-active thyroid. 

Hypothyroidism happens when you have an underactive thyroid. Your thyroid is responsible for metabolism, which is a process of breaking down food for your cells to use as energy. An underactive thyroid can make you feel lethargic or even depressed.

Meanwhile, hyperthyroidism indicates an overactive thyroid. That can lead to an overproduction of energy for your cells and you to feel anxious and restless. Many people with hyperthyroidism report problems sleeping, too.

Low estrogen, high progesterone, low testosterone, and low cortisol levels are associated with tiredness. Balancing the levels of these hormones in your body may help you get your old energy back.

Cause You to Lose (or Gain) Weight

Leptin and ghrelin are two little hormones that play a huge role in regulating your hunger cues. 

Leptin signals your brain when you’re full; ghrelin is the hormone that prompts you to eat by making you feel hungry. When these two hormones get off balance, though, your body may prompt you to eat when you don’t need to, leading to weight gain.

Yet, leptin and ghrelin aren’t the only two hormones that affect your weight.

Glucose is what your body uses as fuel. Yet, when glucose can’t enter cells because of insulin hormone insensitivity, your body may store it as fat instead. 

Testosterone, estrogen, cortisol, and other hormones are also involved in weight and appetite. 

Boost Your Sex Drive

About 30% to 40% of women suffer from low libido and, often, hormone deficiency is to blame. 

Studies show that women with a testosterone deficiency experience lower sex drive. Indeed, supplementing testosterone for these women has reversed that effect. 

Improve Your Cognitive Function

Brain fog is a condition where people report having trouble thinking, difficulty focusing, and forgetfulness. This can be a side effect of an underlying condition, but it may also be a sign of hormonal imbalance. 

Post-menopausal women, in particular, report declining cognitive function. This is due to the drop in hormone levels common after menopause. Increasing hormones to pre-menopausal levels may reverse these effects. 

Improve Your Mood

High levels of stress, irritability, anxiety, and even depression may be a result of hormone imbalances in the brain. That’s why hormone optimization therapy is such a promising way to find relief. 

This is particularly true in women. Think about it: hormones influence your menstrual cycle.

Rising levels in some hormones cause negative pre-menstrual symptoms known as PMS. Changing hormone levels are also involved in the heightened mood swings many pubescent young women report experiencing.

Recent research points to estrogen imbalances as primarily responsible for mood fluctuations. The good news is that increasing (or, sometimes, decreasing) estrogen levels with hormone optimization therapy may help you find relief and improve your mood. 

We offer Virtual Appointments

If you want to feel younger, have more energy, improve your sex drive, lose weight, or just feel more beautiful, hormone optimization therapy is for you. We can help you feel more yourself with a custom therapy plan to fit your unique hormone profile. 

Author

Medical Director Dr. Jerry W. Morris