FAQ’s
1. I know that I have a hormonal imbalance, but since my doctor has me on a hormone cream,
I have felt better. Why would I need to see Dr. Ilya?
Answer
Hormones are incredibly powerful chemical messengers that affect every part of the body including the brain, hair, skin, glands, organs, blood pressure, etc. There are two main groups of hormones used by the American population: synthetic hormones and bio-identical hormones. The differences between these two groups of hormones are like night and day! Bio-identical hormones are real hormones derived from plants that are identical to human hormones. Synthetic hormones are chemicals made in a laboratory that may do things similar to what hormones do or they might cause certain levels of hormones in the body to rise, but nobody really knows for sure. What is known is that every single one of these fake hormones is toxic and needs to be detoxified from the body by the liver. Because the liver is already busy detoxifying real hormones, synthetic hormones always create a tremendous burden on the liver and cause lots of problems.
Hormone Replacement Therapy can be done safely, but it is never recommended that a person use a cream because the levels of hormones that enter the body with a cream cannot be measured, and hormone overdose is common with this method. (There are rare exceptions to this rule. For example, women who have vaginal dryness may use a topical estrogen vaginally while under the close supervision of a well-trained health care provider. Additionally, some health care providers have their patients use hormone creams for only one or two months and then stop – while it is questionable that this is an appropriate methodology, their approach deserves respect. When someone is using a topical cream, the hormones penetrate the skin and fatty tissue underneath the skin (subdermal adipose tissue) and then saturate that fatty tissue. When this person sweats and burns fat, she releases even more hormones into her blood and lymphatic system. There is no way to measure how much hormone is released from the fatty tissue or how much a person will sweat or not sweat. So, taking estrogen cream can, and often does, create low estrogen levels. Using a progesterone cream will often cause dangerously low progesterone levels.
Hormones act upon receptors of cells that they reach in different specific glands and organs and other tissue in the body. These receptors are also called receptor sites. When receptor sites of cells are constantly bombarded with a hormone (because there is a lot of the hormone in the blood), then the hormone is “down regulated.” Down regulated means that the body will stop making that hormone, or make less of it, because there is a negative feedback loop to the brain telling the body that there is already enough of that hormone in the body because of the high levels in the blood.
Most hormones are also toxins, and the body is designed to eliminate them. However, with Hormone Replacement Therapy that is not done properly, the burden of hormones over a period of time can be too much for the body to handle.
How a person feels while taking a hormone cream is irrelevant. People on hormones will often feel good at first, but then they will feel terrible months later when they inevitably become deficient in that hormone (have low levels). Women usually feel great on progesterone. Men usually feel great on testosterone. But, these powerful chemical messengers must be used very carefully, otherwise the results can be devastating. Hormone overdose is a common cause of cancer and other tumors. In fact, a large number of tumors in women are estrogenic. This means that the tumor was partly caused by estrogen levels being too high.
So, the moral of this story is: if you are using a hormone cream, then you should set an appointment to see Dr. Ilya as soon as possible, otherwise you may soon be in a lot of trouble. A trained Functional Endocrinologist such as Dr. Ilya has a complete understanding of the human body and its inter-relationships (functional physiology) and will give you the proper care you need.
“We put drugs of which we know little, into our bodies of which we know less, to cure diseases of which we know nothing at all.” –Voltaire
Consider the following by Dr. Janet Lang:
“No one in their right mind would think of taking a sophisticated jet aircraft in flight and entering alien commands into its computer control system. Yet conventional hormone replacement therapy (HRT) does the equivalent of this when given to a woman. Alien (and therefore unpredictable and unknown) commands are entered into the endocrine or main ‘computer control system’ of her body through the drugs inaccurately called ‘hormones’ used in conventional HRT.”
For more information on this subject, please go to Patient Services and then refer to Dr. Janet Lang
Public Lecture Series Part 1, 2 and 3.
2. How do I know that Dr. Ilya’s therapies will work for me?
Answer
Good question. Well, if you never come in to see Dr. Ilya, his therapies will never work for you. However, since most people do find that their health improves dramatically and quickly, you are liable to benefit as well. Since nearly every patient who has seen Dr. Ilya for more than a month has had improvements in their lab work and how they feel, you are highly likely to experience similar improvements.
3. Do you do laboratory work?
Answer
Yes. For those patients requiring lab work, laboratory work is done. Whatever lab work is indicated is performed. A variety of different laboratory analysis may be performed such as biopsies of soft tissue, hair, blood, saliva, urine, etc.
Blood labs of hormones are nearly useless as the majority of hormones are not active in the blood, but, rather, they are active in the lymph system. Therefore, hormone labs are conducted using saliva only. For some reason the medical profession insists on continually looking at levels of bound inactive hormones in the blood as though they are some type of indicators of function of the glands and/or organs that these hormones come from. They are not indicators. Lab tests that measure free hormone levels in the blood tend to cost more than those that measure free hormone levels in saliva. Thus, overall, it makes far more sense to check for hormone levels in saliva whenever possible.
4. How often do patients need to schedule appointments?
Answer
After their first two or three visits, the average patient comes in once every six weeks to two months. Of course, every patient is different, and, like the therapies that Dr. Ilya does which are incredibly specific, the need for patient care is also incredibly specific. It is because of the specificity and effectiveness of Dr. Ilya’s therapies that most patients need to be seen only every couple of months. However, when patients do not properly integrate the lifestyle recommendations that Dr. Ilya prescribes or do not follow up on any necessary referrals, then patients often need to be treated more often.
For more information on hormones and hormone testing, please refer to Janet Lang’s public lecture series.
5. How many nutrients will I need once I get treated?
Answer
Every patient is different. Many patients do not need any nutrients; other patients need a variety of nutrients. The answer to this question is different for each patient. The less healthy a patient is, the more nutrients they require. The healthier a patient is, the fewer nutrients they require. Additionally, patients who do not properly integrate the lifestyle recommendations they are given or do not pursue healthcare provider referrals they receive will often need more nutrients than those patients who carefully adhere to lifestyle change recommendations and follow through on referrals given.
6. I just got treated last week and Dr. Ilya did not give me any nutrients like he did in my previous treatment. Why did he not give me any nutrients?
Answer
The more effective Dr. Ilya’s therapies are, then the fewer nutrients patients will need. People who are less healthy have more nutritional deficiencies and need more nutrition in order to rid their bodies of these nutritional deficiencies. Likewise, a person who is properly digesting and absorbing nutrients in their foods and metabolizing these nutrients at a cellular level will need fewer nutrients than a person who is unable to properly digest and absorb their foods. Dr. Ilya’s structural, emotional, and chemical therapies are extremely effective at helping patients to better digest, absorb and metabolize their food. Fortunately, in many cases this often prevents the need for lots of costly nutrients (with some exceptions).
More FAQ’s… Questions 7-20. Follow this link