The Illusion of Health

I ran into an old friend recently.  Within the context of catching up on the past several years, I mentioned my work in developing nutritional assessments and restorative products.  I went on to share with him that my research with over 500 accomplished—yet nutritionally-deficient—athletes had led me to the conclusion that most people aren’t fundamentally healthy, even if they exercise, eat well, and take nutritional supplements. 

I then proceeded to ask him about his current level of health and well-being. He admitted to struggling with ongoing bouts of low energy; and to losing the fight against the 20 extra pounds he had been carrying—for quite some time.  While his small business was growing, he wasn’t deriving that much personal satisfaction from his success and he had completely lost interest in doing triathlons because he was performing so poorly. 

He said these concerns had recently prompted him to spend $2000 for an executive health evaluation. In addition to a through physical exam, he had extensive blood work, an EKG, and body fat analysis done.  And after completing his full-day work-up, he was happy to report that nothing was wrong—his doctor said that despite being a few pounds overweight, he was perfectly healthy.

The Male Hormone Balancing Act

Optimal hormone levels are the key to a full and long life.

You have probably heard this before. But do you really know what hormones are?  Or why they are so important? Let’s answer these questions, once and for all.

Hormones are a bit like a military defense system.  They reside or are created in specific glands (the barracks) like the testes, adrenals and thyroid.  There, they await messages from your brain (the general), who directs their transmission to your cells (the troops) where a specific function is carried out.  Since each messenger has a specific and unique message to transmit, (testosterone, for example, controls growth and repair; the adrenal glands control blood sugar and fat storage; the thyroid regulates energy and metabolism) it is easy to see that the battle can easily be lost when imbalances exist.