Hormones for a Healthy Heart

By Gregory Pippert, M.D. 

Improving Your Heart Health with Bioidentical Hormones

You probably don’t have to be told that your heart health is important. But what exactly can you do to reduce your risk of heart disease — or even take steps to improve your cardiovascular health? And what effect do hormones have on your heart?

Hormones have potentially beneficial effects on the heart for both men and for women. For men, low testosterone has been found to be an independent predictor of increased risk of heart disease. That means that, for men, if you have a low testosterone level, then your risk of developing heart disease is greater than men who fall within a normal range. And that’s regardless of any other risk factors you may have. So, that alone — having a balanced testosterone level — is certainly an advantage towards cardiovascular health.

Testosterone has other, indirect advantages for heart disease in men, as well. If a man has an adequate testosterone level, he is likely to have more energy and improved lean muscle mass. He’s also more likely to exercise, more likely to maintain a healthy weight and lose that mid-abdominal fat, which, in turn, decreases the risk of cardiovascular disease. So, there seems to be both direct and indirect effects of hormones on the heart for men. But it’s not just for men. There are now studies which have shown that both men and women with congestive heart failure can benefit from testosterone therapy.

Hormones also have direct effects on heart health for women, as well. Bioidentical estrogen seems to decrease the risk of plaque formation in the coronary arteries — a leading cause of atherosclerosis. Estrogen and progesterone also increase cardiovascular health by decreasing cardiovascular ischemia, which is basically heart straining. Several studies have shown that when women use bioidentical estrogen and have symptoms of heart disease, their ability to exercise without creating that heart straining is increased. And that means they can exercise longer without causing the heart to strain. That effect is increased even further when you add bioidentical progesterone, as well.

Cholesterol and hormones
Hormones also have an effect on cholesterol, especially in women. What we’ve seen is that, with women, bioidentical estrogen has shown beneficial effects on both the good cholesterol and bad cholesterol. That means that when you use bioidentical estrogen, your bad cholesterol (LDL) tends to decrease, and your good cholesterol (HDL) tends to increase. And that effect is also shown with bioidentical progesterone.

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Read the full article, and others like it at: http://edgemagazine.net/2012/04/hormones-for-a-healthy-heart/