Overview
Many of us are living life completely out of balance—and the type of imbalance that affects almost everyone in our society is hormonal imbalance. Men tend to have declining hormone levels as they age, and low testosterone can cause men to lose muscle and gain fat, leading to sexual dysfunction, low sex drive, fatigue, mental fogginess, and bone loss. However, making changes to your diet and lifestyle can have an incredible effect on rebalancing hormone levels and increasing testosterone. Additionally, testosterone replacement therapy can also be used to rebalance your hormones and increase happiness, vitality, and health.
In this episode, Dr. Hyman sits down with Dr. George Papanicolaou to discuss the functional medicine approach to treating low testosterone and how they determine when to use hormone replacement therapy. George Papanicolaou is a graduate of the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine and is Board Certified in Family Medicine from Abington Memorial Hospital. He is also an Institute for Functional Medicine Practitioner. Upon graduation from his residency he joined the Indian Health Service. He worked on the Navajo reservation for 4 years at the Chinle Comprehensive Medical Facility where he served as the Outpatient Department Coordinator.
In 2000, he founded Cornerstone Family Practice in Rowley, MA. He practiced with a philosophy centered on personal relationships and treating the whole person, not just not the disease. He called that philosophy “Whole Life Wellness”. Over time as the healthcare system made it harder for patients to receive this kind of personal care Dr. Papanicolaou decided a change was needed. He began training in Functional Medicine through the Institute of Functional Medicine. In 2015, he established Cornerstone Personal Health – a practice dedicated entirely to Functional Medicine. Dr. Papanicolaou to join The UltraWellness Center in 2017. For more information, please visit drhyman.com/uwc
In this conversation, Dr. Hyman and Dr. Papanicolaou discuss:
- The conventional vs functional medicine approach to treating hormone imbalances
- Symptoms and drivers of hormonal imbalance in men
- How statin drugs can affect testosterone levels
- The interconnectedness of all hormones
- Improving testosterone levels through exercise and meditation
- How Dr. Papanicolaou treated a patient for hormone imbalance
- Methods for testosterone replacement including topicals, injectables, and pellets
- Testosterone and prostate cancer
- Testosterone replacement for women