By Dr. Alyse M. Hamilton, MD
Menopause often means different things to different women, and even to the men who live with menopausal women. It is such a significant time in life that now it has its own musical, Menopause The Musical. Known for its most common symptoms — hot flashes, moodiness and weight gain — just what is menopause?
What is menopause?
Medically, menopause is a life-changing time when a woman has not had her menstrual cycle for 12 consecutive months. This signals that she has lost her ability to produce estrogen, the vital female hormone that physically makes a woman a woman. Menopause can also bring on any combination of 35 not so pleasant symptoms.
These symptoms may include hot flashes, mood swings, night sweats, lost sleep and lost libido, hearing and vision changes, and weight gain to name a few.
Back in the day, for most women, menopause often meant the beginning of the end of life. It was a time when she could no longer bear children. She often resigned herself to the kitchen and knew that she was most likely entering the final phase of her life.
But that was yesterday. And today is a new day.
More options than ever before
Today, women have more options than ever before. However, from synthetic hormones to supplements promising to reverse all menopausal symptoms, some options are clearly far better and safer than others.
The good news is that no longer is a woman expected to just “age gracefully” if you can call losing your energy, memory, sexual health, bone health, skin health and on top of that gaining weight “aging gracefully.”
A personal dilemma
Finally facing these major life changes myself, I knew I wasn’t prepared to simply accept the negative mental and physical changes from my aging process. I resolved that aging might be inevitable, but the effects of aging needn’t be.
As a well-trained physician, I thought, “I can handle this.” But, I quickly learned that even conventionally trained medical specialists were limited in their options to safely and effectively treat menopause. Not wanting to take synthetic hormonal drugs and knowing that advertised supplements that promised too much were in fact too good to be true, I searched for better solutions.
A colleague told me about the American Academy of Anti-Aging and Regenerative Medicine, A4M for short, a unique group of over 20,000 specially trained medical doctors and researchers dedicated to the education and practice of the growing medical specialty of aging healthfully. I studied long and hard to attain the title of Advanced Fellow.
In the process, I learned that after an in-depth and thorough health assessment of each patient, the proper use of bio-identical hormone therapy, which is molecularly identical to our own hormones and is made for just one patient at a time, can be a major part of safely and effectively restoring lost energy, memory and overall vitality.
Feeling 20 years younger
Before I could try these therapies with my own patients, I knew I had to try them on myself first. Combined with high quality nutrition therapies, in less than a year I was feeling re-energized and healthier than I had in years. When a friend asked how I now felt, without hesitation I proclaimed, “I feel 20 years younger.”
Today, I offer this and other unique therapies to my own patients. I also offer several different formulations of nutritional infusion therapy using FDA safe vitamins and minerals without any drugs to further boost energy, memory, and strengthen the immune system. One formulation even stops migraines.
To learn more…
To learn more about our unique specialty and how it might be of great value to you or a loved one — yes, there is treatment for men, too! — I invite you to attend our next monthly informational seminar. It’s free. Let me partner with you to restore your energy, memory and vitality.
Wishing you a blessed and full life.
Call 952-922-8005 to reserve your seminar seat, or check out our website, www.advancedhealthandvitality.com.
Dr. Alyse Hamilton is a highly trained and experienced physician with an extraordinary passion for providing her patients safe, proven and effective treatments for aging and age-related conditions. She successfully treats the underlying causes of menopause, andropause and fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue. Board certified in internal medicine, she is also an advanced fellow in anti-aging and regenerative medicine. Her emphasis is to partner with her patients to help them reclaim their energy, memory and sexual health through the use of a comprehensive medical assessment, bio-identical hormone therapy, micronutrient infusions and the highest grade nutritional supplementation. She is the founder and medical director of the Advanced Health and Vitality Center, Edina, Minnesota.
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