Anti-Aging FAQs
Q. What is Anti-Aging Medicine?
A. Anti-aging medicine, or Age Management, is an extension of preventive health care and the future model of health care for the new millennium. This medical specialty incorporates nutrition, exercise, aesthetic medicine, hormone modulation, lifestyle strategies, and more, to give patients vibrant health and beauty.
If you have had your cholesterol tested, taken a lipid-lowering drug, had a mammogram, or taken HRT with thyroid, testosterone, estrogen, melatonin, or DHEA, you have experienced anti-aging medicine. Age Management medicine is based on the very early detection, prevention, and prolonging of age-related disease. Almost 90% of all adult illness is due to the degenerative processes of aging. This includes heart disease, most cancers, adult-onset diabetes, stroke, high blood pressure, osteoporosis, osteoarthritis, autoimmune disease, glaucoma, and Alzheimer's. With early detection and appropriate intervention, most of these diseases can be prevented, cured, or have their downward course slowed.
Anti-aging medicine is the “optimum” of wellness and employs extensive therapies and treatment in the preventative health care field far beyond just cholesterol testing and mammograms. A profound paradigm shift in the way the medical establishment views aging and age-related disease is now underway and offered at Rejuvalife.
(Courtesy of The American Academy of Anti-Aging and Regenerative Medicine)
Q. What is preventative medicine?
A. Life keeps us so busy that we often neglect going to the doctor for prevention or taking care of ourselves; and only seek help when we are truly ill. The Rejuvalife philosophy is interventional and preventative promoting, attaining, and achieving optimal health and beauty, so that you can minimize the occurrence of chronic illness and age related disease, hospitalization, and the use of prescribed medications, now and in your future.
For instance, if you were a smoker and knew that your continued smoking would cause lung cancer, would you stop? If your cars brakes are squeaking or leaking oil, would you take the car in to be serviced? Each of these is a preventative measure—one that is also interventional. Reports are published frequently comparing the regularity of Californians providing preventive care service versus their own medical health services. You already know the answer. We ignore our own bodies and prefer to take care of our cars instead.
We strive for long-term, total wellness. What makes Rejuvalife truly unique, is our blending of cosmetic treatments with age management medicine (what we call 5-Star Wellness). Your experience becomes not one event, but a process and a partnership.
Q. What is Interventional Endocrinology?
A. Interventional Endocrinology is used to evaluate and monitor the levels of all hormones such as Thyroid, Testosterone, Estrogens, Progesterone, DHEA, DHT, Growth Hormone, IGF-1, and others to assure that they are all present and at healthy levels. Achieving and maintaining balanced hormones requires consistent effort, monitoring, and supervision to ensure safety and quality of care.
Q. How is an anti-aging / preventative medicine practice like Rejuvalife Vitality Institue different from traditional medical practices?
A. Rejuvalife brings a specific, customized approach to health, beauty, and well-being. We guide and direct you toward safe and effective solutions with all the proven medical, alternative, and cosmetic therapies available. We evaluate and consider all elements that contribute to your synergistic health such as hormone modulation, stress reduction, low glycemic index nutrition, appropriate nutrient supplementation, adequate sleep, physical exercise, cosmetic rejuvenation, and confident self esteem. Dr. Berger’s approach is to join these elements to extend the useful years of one’s life called “health-span” and enhance the quality of those years, “life-span”. His goal is two-fold: to add more years to your life and more life to your years.
Q. Do you follow accepted medical procedures?
A. Yes. At Rejuvalife Vitality Institute, we follow standard medical procedures for both testing and treatments. But we do more.
Q. What do hormones have to do with aging?
A. Biologically, all hormones are interrelated. They must be present in their proper amounts and work together harmoniously to postpone the aging process. One way to accomplish this is through Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT), which helps regain youthful levels of vital hormones. With HRT, we can restore muscle loss, reduce body fat, increase bone density, improve mental speed and clarity, improve your vitality, enhance sexual function, elevate mood and energy levels, increase aerobic capacity and immune function, boost skin thickness, tone and moisture, reduce wrinkles, and improve one’s outlook on life, without the aid of conventional hormones and aggressive medications. While we may or may not be able to increase longevity, we are able to prevent premature disability and increase your quality of life.
Q. What are Bio-Identical Hormones and Human Growth Hormone?
A. Bio-Identical Hormones, namely estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone, DHEA, cortisol, pregnenolone, and human growth hormone (HGH), have the same molecular structure as those made by our bodies, and are both safe and more effective than synthetic hormones. HGH is critical to maintaining youth and gives nearly every cell in the body the ability to grow and repair itself. By age 30, the amount of HGH is reduced by 50%; by the time a person ages to 50, HGH has diminished significantly. “The decline of hormones may cause critical consequences”, explains Dr. Berger. Among the most significant are increases in cardiovascular deaths, obesity, skin wrinkling and thinning, loss of libido, and osteoporosis.
Q. Does Insurance cover anti-aging medicine?
A. No. Anti-aging medicine is considered preventative. Health insurance is actually disease insurance and will not cover this form of preventive medicine. We are able to focus our program entirely on you without considerations of third parties and time constraints. We are able to maintain complete confidentiality and are not constrained by limits set to maximize insurance company profits. We are working for you, not them.
Q. Can we delay the onset of degenerative disease?
A. We have the knowledge, the technology and the expertise to delay the onset of degenerative disease and the signs and symptoms associated with aging. The starting point is a comprehensive evaluation to understand each person’s metabolism, endocrine system, and overall physiology. The answers to aging do not lie in “magic” pills or products, but rather by understanding each person’s unique needs and deficiencies and addressing them in tune with each unique person’s needs. We then create a comprehensive corrective action plan that will allow performance at the highest possible level.
Hormone FAQs
Hormones are chemicals that send messages to your body. They are produced in the endocrine glands, which are located in the pituitary, pineal, thymus, thyroid, adrenal glands, and pancreas. Men also produce hormones in their testes; and women produce hormones in their ovaries. Hormones travel in your bloodstream to tissues and organs. Having too much or too little of a certain hormone can affect the body’s growth and development, metabolism, sexual function, reproduction, and mood.
At Rejuvalife, Dr. Berger and his professional staff may prescribe hormone replacement therapy to maintain proper hormone balance. Here are answers to some of the most frequently asked questions about hormones. For more information, please call our Beverly Hills office at 310.276.4494.
Q. What are Bio-Identical Hormones?
A. We recommend natural and bio-identical hormones when applicable. Bio-identical hormones are custom-mixed formulas containing various hormones that are chemically identical to those naturally made by your body. These hormones are able to follow normal metabolic pathways so that essential active metabolites are formed in response to hormone replacement therapy.
Q. Are Bio-Identical Hormones Safe?
A. No two women are alike, and the value of bio-identical hormone replacement therapy is that it can be adapted to fit your individual body and hormone levels. In fact, hormones can be made in a variety of strengths and dosage forms including capsules, topical creams and gels, suppositories, and sublingual torches or lozenges. Now, using natural bio-identical hormones, a woman can start and maintain a natural hormone replacement regimen that closely mimics what her body has been doing naturally for years.
Q. What is Human Growth Hormone (HGH)?
A. The decline of human growth hormone (HGH) that often comes with the aging process may cause consequences. Among the most significant is an increase in cardiovascular deaths, obesity, osteoporosis, mental confusion, and a decrease in immune system function. The good news is that in patients with a diagnosis of Adult Human Growth Hormone Deficiency, human growth hormone replacement therapy may improve these conditions significantly.
Q. Traditional vs. Natural Hormones?
A. Hormones are powerful chemical messengers that circulate throughout the bloodstream to specific target cells where they generate biological responses. The interdependent relationship between adrenal function and sex hormones has a profound effect on many organ systems. Women have traditionally used "synthetic" estrogens and progestins (traditional HRT) to protect against osteoporosis and heart disease. These "synthetic" hormones offer some protection against heart disease and osteoporosis but have many unwanted side effects. Because of these side effects many women abandon traditional HRT very soon after starting. This has led to a strong interest in the use of bio-identical hormone replacement therapy (BHRT).
Q. What is Compounding?
A. Compounding is the preparation of medicine by a pharmacist for an individual patient according to a doctor’s prescription. As every woman is unique, our approach is for the patient, pharmacist, and doctor to work together to customize hormone replacement therapy.
Q. What is Menopause?
A. Menopause refers to that time in every woman’s life when menstruation ceases completely, usually by the time she reaches her early 50s. Leading up to menopause, a woman’s ovaries slowly decrease their output of estrogen and progesterone. A woman has reached menopause when she has not had a period for 12 months in a row.
In addition to diminished levels of estrogen and progesterone, testosterone and growth hormone are also reduced during menopause. As the levels of all of these key hormones diminish, profound changes begin occurring with growth and metabolism that affect the breasts, vagina, bones, blood vessels, gastrointestinal tract, urinary tract, cardiovascular system, skin, brain, and energy levels.
Q. What Symptoms can I expect during menopause?
A. In addition to signifying the end of a woman’s ability to have children, declines in these female hormones affect the entire endocrine system. Every woman is an individual, but there are a number of side effects that can generally be anticipated. Though some side effects may be considered temporary nuisances to be “toughed out”, the reality is that the decline of a woman’s hormonal levels results in changes that can seriously affect her health.
Common symptoms of menopause include:
- • Hot flashes
- • Vaginal/urinary tract changes
- • Loss of libido
- • Emotional changes
- • Osteoporosis
- • Cardiovascular disease
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