Welcome to The Infinite Living Project with me, your host, Dr. Ryan Cleland from exercise, nutrition, functional and healing medicine, supplementation, testing and so much more. We bring you all things, health in a real, raw, no nonsense approach to getting and staying healthy. So let’s get started.
Hormone Replacement Therapy
Hey everybody out there. This is Dr. Ryan. Welcome to the Infinite Living Podcast. Today we are going to talk about hormones. I’m not going to talk about any specific hormone because that can get us down a rabbit hole and we can do that on other podcast.
But one thing that I’ve been doing on myself, and I maybe have said this in another podcast is I have been doing bioidentical hormone replacement therapy on myself. Main reason being was, I was watching my numbers and I just saw my numbers slowly decreasing. I was trying to do everything that I could do health wise that I can think of. I mean, I was working on diet, I was doing certain supplementation, et cetera, et cetera, and it just wasn’t keeping up. I don’t know if that was just because it was lowering due to age. It was lowering due to stress or whatever it was, doesn’t matter.
I mean it was getting lower. I can’t really say I was seeing a lot of side effects of it yet, but I didn’t want to get to a point where I was. So I got on some hormone replacement therapy. I started doing one injection a week. I was doing about 1 CC per week of testosterone cypionate and just after about, I’d say six to eight weeks, I felt a lot better. Not that I felt bad before, but I just felt like my energy was getting up there. It was starting to feel like I was getting through the day better, and also noticing the gym personally.
My workouts were getting a lot better. I was getting stronger. I was putting on some mass because one thing I had noticed, because I do a lot of CrossFit and stuff like that and some of that includes some heavy lifting. I was noticing that I wasn’t… It’s not that I was weak, but I noticed my shoulders were just getting a little thinner over time, and I was like, man, I’m lifting a lot of doing a lot of shoulders but my shoulder just muscle mass was going down.
Get A Routine for Testosterone
So that was something I didn’t really even put two and two together, but I did notice that was things that I was dealing with. So after doing it about six, eight weeks in, I really started noticing some strength levels increasing. Noticed my muscle mass definitely was increasing. I thought I was getting fat there for a little bit cause couldn’t even fit into some of the coats that I once bought when I was thinner, and so that sense has leveled off and I actually lean back out, but it just was retaining some extra water probably because of the added testosterone.
But I just started feeling better and then started learning and getting, digging into this stuff, and still notice signs when I was really having days where I was down, not completely down, but I wasn’t feeling awesome. So then I broke up my… I started learning more about it, started breaking up my injections into third. So I was doing a Monday, and that’s what I’m doing now is during the Monday, Wednesday, and Friday mornings, because I’m a little leaner, I can do it intramuscularly right into my shoulder so I can actually use a smaller needle, which is fantastic.
I use a little insulin needles. And so that has been huge for me. Huge. My energy levels are now much more sustained. I feel a lot better. My mood has definitely stabilized. Don’t have those… I almost quote them as like mini depression days or whatever, I don’t have those anymore. And like I said, I’m feeling great. My muscle mass is much better. My strength is increased, my mood, my energy, et cetera, et cetera. So I have become a huge proponent for this, for almost everybody.
And reason being is, I see a lot of us out there right now. We’re trying to figure out a way to do it naturally because we think that we’re giving in if we’re… I was Johnny natural, but you know what, if your body can’t keep up and ultimately our body’s ability to keep up hormonally decreases with time anyway. And ultimately if there’s not a major negative side effect, if we’re keeping an eye on things and making sure that we’re staying healthy, why in the world would I or not want to feel better? And that’s what I have to ask a lot of the men out there, unless if it’s a pride thing, why in the hell would you not want to feel better if it’s not going to affect you in a negative way?
Let Infinite Wellness Create A Plan
And so that’s why we do it in the office here at Infinite Wellness Integrative Medical Shameless plug. But that’s the reality, and we’re not putting going to dump a bunch of aromatase inhibitors on you and give you a bunch of HCG if you don’t need it and things like that, because aromatase inhibitors are used to stop basically the testosterone converting into estrogen. But what they’re actually finding is, is that, that’s not a bad thing because I mean, if you think about it as a young kid, when you had high testosterone, you never took an aromatase inhibitor. You let your body do what it was supposed to do.
An estrogen has a lot of protective effects for bone health, cardiovascular, especially when it’s done correctly. That’s why even for females out there, you have to start looking at your hormones because a lot of you that I talk to, if you’re over the age of about 35 you don’t feel as good as you want to feel. And we all want to say, “Well, I’m just stressed out. I’m going to get an adrenal supplement,” which isn’t a bad thing, but if that adrenal supplement doesn’t get you back to where you need to be, and I’m sure a lot of us that are listening to things like this, we try to do things naturally, right?
We try to keep an eye on our sleep and make sure we’re sleeping right. I know Amanda, I mean we’ll go to bed at nine 30 and she still doesn’t feel super rested by the next day. So that’s why we actually… We don’t have her doing hormones right now because it didn’t really warrant it on her blood work. But we do have her doing some peptides, which is whole another conversation. Then I’m actually going to do a podcast on her right after this.
Test Your Thyroid
So nonetheless, why feel like crap to prove a point. You live one life, why not enjoy it especially if you’re not going to get negative side effects? And so you have to look at things like thyroid. So when you’re getting a panel on blood testing, the scary thing is a lot of guys are getting just their thyroid checked, which isn’t a bad thing, but they’re basing it off of just total fire or I’m sorry, your testosterone shit. And you’re basing a lot of their stuff just based on testosterone alone. But what you have to look at the symptoms for thyroid fatigue, depression, difficulty losing weight.
Those are some of the things that if you have a sluggish thyroid, so are you addressing that? Everybody wants to dump a bunch of testosterone into somebody. Of course, anybody that takes a bunch of testosterone is going to feel a heck of a lot better. But do you need to be supporting your thyroid or is it entirely your thyroid and it’s not really a testosterone issue. So these are things that you need to know and when you get your blood tests, these are things that you need to keep an eye out for.
Women, huge proponent or a huge portion of you have sluggish thyroids. The medical world, they want to put you straight up onto a Synthroid or something like that, which is T4. And we’ve talked about thyroid before, but if your body can’t convert T4 to T3, which T3 is the active form is the one that actually helps your metabolism, helps you… T4 is there for a reason, but T3 is the one that everybody increases energy, increase metabolism, et cetera.
Make sure that you’re looking at your free T4 and free T3. If they’re not, find somebody that will like us. Also, too DHEA is a precursor for your sex hormones and your stress hormones. And so you have to be keeping an eye on that. And again, it’s not all about the numbers, symptoms matter. Symptoms matter huge, because your numbers may be different than my numbers and we’re the same age, but maybe you run a lot higher testosterone versus me and normal for you as a thousand, whereas normal for me is 700. Well that’s a pretty big difference.
Look At Your Testosterone Levels
And also too, when you go to the medical doctor or you go to some doctors, they’re going to look at your testosterone. You’re going to be within a normal limit. Well, the scary part is normal limits can be over. I mean, you could triple your numbers and still be within normal limits. So they’re that. And what I mean by that is you could be at 300 and be normal, or we could triple that and you could be at 900 and still be normal. So if you’re normally 900 and you’re still in… Now you’re at 300 a lot of docs are going to say, “Well you’re within normal range, you’re fine.” And that’s complete BS. Complete BS.
Now the more I learned about this, the more I find out that there is no 100% specific range you want to be in. But if you want to be, in my opinion, if you got to be over like 700, 800 to feel really, really good. To feel I think the way that you ultimately should feel, that’s just me. That’s not necessarily how we treat every patient here, but that’s just in my head. Makes a lot of sense. So also too, you want to make sure you’re supporting your adrenals. You got to make sure you’re supporting your adrenals so you’re supporting thyroid, adrenals because the hormones, it’s not just a one size fix.
Everybody just takes testosterone. You get women in here, they listen to a podcast and they think well I need to be on testosterone. Meanwhile, their progesterone is in the tank or their estrogen is all messed up. And the thing is, the more that I’m realizing too is those women, those of you out there that are on birth control and stuff like that. Holy crap, you want to talk about it and complete nightmare and blood work when it comes to your hormones. My gosh, not to mention those are all synthetic. And so that’s another thing when you’re looking at hormone therapy. You can hear from some docs out there.
Bioidentical Hormone Replacement Therapy
Some uneducated folks out there that basically, “Oh, you know you can’t do hormones after this because you know it’s going to cause cancer. It’s going to…” That is completely false. That’s completely false if you’re doing it correctly, and that is the caveat, because there’s something called hormone replacement therapy where they use synthetic drugs to increase your hormones and by all means you need to stop that as soon as humanly possible because those are drugs. All drugs have side effects. That is a reality of the situation.
Bioidentical hormone replacement therapy on the other hand is still manufacturing and pharmaceutical compounding pharmacies, things like that, but they mimic the body’s own production of hormone, so they’re much more protective and much it’s a much healthier option than the synthetic options. Now, a lot of times these are not covered by insurance and so people freak out. Well, I’ll tell you honestly spend the money. I tell people every day, like if it was between me and taking a acetylcarnitine or testosterone, I’m taking testosterone, because if I feel freaking awesome on it.
Being Testosterone Dependent
I notice a difference if I don’t take my testosterone. And how much you take is also dependent. That’s why you need to have somebody that’s gauging this thing every once in a while. Make sure you’re not pumping yourself over 2000 and you’re in some like bodybuilder range in your roid raging because also too, when you’re doing physiological doses and not super physiological doses, you’re just getting to a point where you feel better, not where you’re hulking out or anything like that. So this is a very, very important part of medicine that is being overlooked. Now you’ve got a lot of these HRT clinics, et cetera, et cetera.
And not that all of them are bad, but a lot of them are going off of basically a cookie cutter approach. They’re putting you on a Clomid or a nasty result, which is, or ACG or, they just put you on this like rigamorole of hormones. And the reason that I don’t agree with that is because you may not dump over a lot of estrogen. And again, I personally from the information and the research that I’ve done, you don’t really want to screw with estrogen anyway. So putting you on an AI isn’t even a good idea and aromatase inhibitor, which inhibits estrogen. Most of us don’t even want to be on that.
And so in a lot of times they say, well, gynecomastia, that’s where basically a guy gets, and they call them bitch tits in the war in the weightlifting world. But that’s genetic. That’s not even… That some guys get that from taking cholesterol medication, which is something I would never take no matter what. But that’s just me. But these are the things that we should be thinking about as we get older and we become, or just noticing symptoms and we’re like, I feel like crap. I know first and foremost, obviously you got to eat right, you got to stay hydrated. You got to exercise, you got to get adjusted, you got to get to sleep.
Check Your Hormone Levels
Assuming you’re doing all those pretty good, nobody’s perfect, but assuming you’re doing those pretty good next, I’d say, look at your freaking hormones. Look at your hormones, see what’s going on. Also too, look at your nutritional status. Look at your toxicities, things like that. Those are all things that if you’re not doing and want to be functioning optimally, then you need to start doing, like I said, I can’t tell you how many women, 35 to 45 need to be on some sort of HRT or BHRT, Bioidentical Hormone Replacement Therapy because they’re starting to feel sluggish having a kid.
And usually it will zap your body to some extent. And so why feel like crap to prove a point? You can be prideful all day long, but why do that and feel like crap? Just use the smart stuff, the smart science that medicine and science has brought to us, like bioidentical hormones and use them to your advantage. Be healthy, live a great life, just enjoy it because you only get one. So I have an awesome day that’s just something that was really weighing on me. I’ve been getting a lot of people like, “Man, I’m going to try to do it on my own, blah, blah, blah.” Screw that.
If you feel like crap or you want to feel better, look into it. Maybe you’re not a candidate, but maybe you are so, and just find somebody that’s going to do you right. Make sure you’re there. That they’re doing the right recipe for you because every person is a little bit different, and everybody’s going to respond potentially a little bit differently. But if somebody is keeping an eye on you and that takes a little while to tweak it to get it right, that’s what you want.
So God bless you all. Have a great day and stay tuned. This episode of The Infinite Living Project is ended, but be sure to subscribe to hear the latest and greatest health and wellness information on the face of the earth and please don’t forget to rate and review so we can continue to bring you and your family the best health content available. And one last request, please if you know other people out there that are eager to learn and eager to hear just great quality health information, please share this podcast with the people that you love and care about. God bless and have a great day.
The products and services and the claims made about specific products and services on or through the site have not been evaluated by the United States Food and Drug Administration and are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent disease. The information provided on this podcast, website or any other media of Dr. Ryan Cleland is for informational purposes only and is not intended as a substitute for advice from your physician or other healthcare professional or any information contained on or in any product label or packaging.
You should not use this information on this podcast or any other media of Dr. Ryan Cleland for diagnosis or treatment or any health problem or for prescription or any medication or other treatment. You should consult with a healthcare professional before starting any diet, exercise, or supplementation program, before taking any medication or if you have or suspect, you may have a health problem. Statements regarding dietary supplements, lab testing, medications and or medical procedures have not been evaluated by the FDA and are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease or health condition.
