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Suzanne Somers Is Enjoying Wellness at 62And Promoting the Medication-Free LifeBy Ramon McLeod, Editor-in-Chief She's an actress, highly successful businesswoman, prolific author, and devoted wife, married to the same man for more than 40 years. And now, at the age of 62, Suzanne Somers has a new passion: life without pharmaceuticals. Though she portrayed an airhead in her most famous role as Chrissy Snow in "Three's Company," Somers is no lightweight in matters involving healthy living. In her most recent book, Breakthrough: Eight Steps to Wellness, Somers explains the damaging impact hormonal imbalances have on both women and men while arguing strongly that there are natural alternatives to hormone-replacement drugs like Premarin, which she claims should only be used as a last resort. The Seven Dwarves
"And they said, well, you're depressed, so we can give you Prozac. You are having trouble sleeping, so we can give you Ambien. Your joints are aching, so we can give you joint and painkillers. And you're having anxiety attacks, so we can give you Valium, and your blood pressure is a little high, so we can put you on blood pressure medicine. That is the first five of what I call the menopausal cocktail. "I refused them all. And there was no real sleep for me. I'd go to bed, sleep 15 minutes, [and then] the racing thoughts would start. No sleep. That's suffering, and it's dangerous." Somers says she has spent thousands of hours researching the effects of hormonal decline and the capabilities of biologically-identical hormones, natural products that can, it is claimed, do what patented synthetic pharmaceuticals are designed to do: restore hormonal balance. "Hormones are the juice of youth for all of us, men and women," Somers says." And we're draining out younger and younger. It is now common for women to start perimenopause in their mid-to-late 30s. It is now common for men to start draining out of testosterone at 45 to 50." The Hormonal Teeter-Totter In interviews and a recent, well-received speech to chiropractors at Parker Seminar in Las Vegas, Somers described what she calls the hormonal teeter-totter. On one side are what she describes as the "minor" sex hormones, i.e., estrogen, progesterone, testosterone and DHEA. On the other side are the "major" hormones produced by the thyroid gland, the pancreas (insulin) and the adrenal gland (adrenaline, cortisol). "When you're draining out of minor hormones, cortisol, insulin, and thyroid go high," she says. "So when people say I'm eating less, I'm exercising more but I'm still gaining weight and I'm fatigued all the time, here's your culprit: the minor hormones are out of balance. ... You've got to get that estrogen, progesterone, testosterone back to normal levels." Premarin, which is typically prescribed to women experiencing menopause, is designed to replace low levels of estrogen. But Somers, who used birth control pills containing Premarin for decades, was unwilling to return to the medication.
According to Somers, she finally heard about an endocrinologist who knew about bioidentical hormones (chemically identical to those made by the human body) and began a course of treatment about eight years ago. Today, she takes no pharmaceuticals. "If we can all find out how good we can feel on biologically identical hormones, which are non-patentable and an exact replicate of what we make in our bodies, we won't need the [pharmaceutical companies] drugs anymore ... and they make so much money off of us." The Power of Real Food Somers' interest in natural health goes well beyond her crusade in favor of biologically identical hormones. She also believes her Baby Boomer generation is going to pay dearly for the changes in diet that began in the early 1960s in American homes. "When we were kids, we grew up on real food," she says. "But then we were introduced to chemicals in our diets. Processed foods, fruits and vegetables sprayed with pesticides and fertilized with chemicals. But at least we had real food when we were kids. "But look at young people, eating food out of bags; I worry greatly about them. You have to eat real food, organic if you can afford it, and eat anti-oxidants, turmeric, cayenne, thyme, basil, rosemary ... nature's antioxidants. These are all delicious, but we've become so accustomed to chemicals we prefer [unhealthy foods]." Key Hormones: What They Do and What Happens When They're Unbalanced Estrogen Progesterone Testosterone Thyroid
Adrenaline Cortisol Ramon (Bud) McLeod, editor in chief of To Your Health, is the former editor of PCWorld.com and has more than 25 years experience in journalism as an editor and reporter for major newspapers such as the San Francisco Chronicle and the Cincinnati Post. |
