I witnessed the prototype of the cardiac defibrillator in the early 1960’s at Jersey City Medical Center. It was as big as the wall of a room. Now they are hand-held portable ones, having transitioned through multiple evolutions because of our wonderful technology. Surgeries were performed through incisions then: now many through a small scope into a body cavity, and often there is a robot at the helm. We have, as many say, come a long way baby.
Taught deference as a nursing student, I was expected to stand when the physician entered the room, 99.9% being a male. Even attempting medical school at the age of 37, I was warned I was too old, and not a good enough student, having an A-B average. Fast forward to 1982, again that ageism thing, being told I was too old to withstand the rigors of an obstetrical residency. Well, here I am thirty long years later having achieved far more.
Though we have made awesome advances in the sciences in the practice of medicine, we are just now scratching the surface of the new kid on the block: epigenetics. What an incredible dimension it has added to the diagnosis, treatment and maintenance of disease. Change our DNA, our very cellular matrix with our thoughts, words, behavior?? Blasphemy, the vast majority of practitioners bellow.
Let me portray a scenario: you smoke, you imbibe more than what would be considered socially acceptable alcohol; you partake in drugs known to harm; you are a couch potato with the TV remote fused to your hand, the only exercise being to open the refrigerator or cabinet door for another diet soda, chips, or drive through fast-food fare for your favorite chemicalized treat.
You would have no issue with your physician warning that unless you change your habits, your inevitable lung disease, fatty liver, and overworked pancreas and blood vessels will gift you with the essentially preventable illnesses that plague millions of Americans.
Now the scenario more and more recognized by readers: you drink healthy ph alkaline water; you eat greater and greater amounts of organic foods, more vegetables, beans, grains and fruits than animal protein; you pride yourself on elegant daily elimination, and you present yourself regularly to the gym, your yoga classes, even my most recommended, meditation classes.
But, what you may not accept as vital for your ultimate health and peace is releasing your ‘stinkin’ thinkin;’ forgiving your ex-spouse for stopping the alimony, forgiving your mother for not making you chocolate chip cookies 40 years ago; even forgiving your sexual abuser those many painful decades ago. But this, my beloveds, is the key to vibrant health: forgiveness of self, then others; compassion for your unwise behavior, then that of others. The mind/body/spirit is indeed one energy- all one source, and the most magnificent thing of all—as well as the most frightening—is that we are the masters of our lives. Read more in my book: HARDWIRED FOR LOVE.
Helene B. Leonetti, MD, FACOG, DABIHM
www.helenebleonettimd.com
Meeting John R. Lee, MD in 1993, was nothing short of life-changing. And you know what is said: “Be careful what you ask for, as you well might receive it.” I had been seeking wisdom, true wisdom, from a medical colleague for probably the fifty years that I have been in the healing profession. Yet, sadly, my profession is and has been for decades one of disease maintenance. It is only since the Internet that the explosion of knowledge from different disciplines has emboldened us as patients to demand partnership and understanding of why something goes wrong with our physical/emotional body, and how, besides an RX for medicine or surgery we may proceed.
Dr. Lee had the wisdom –and temerity—that I was seeking, and our chance meeting in Allentown, PA during a lecture was auspicious and powerful, and I was ripe for change. For several years after my residency ended, I spent my time and energy learning how to help women feel balanced hormonally, because even though I was unaware then how powerfully our hormones respond to our emotions, intuitively I knew that balancing our physical body first, then tackling the emotional baggage that we tenaciously carry around like a ball and chain, and finally acknowledging soul pain, all is essential for vibrant health.
Dr. Lee’s 
serendipitous discovery of natural transdermal progesterone cream and how it balances our hormones was the starting point of my journey of discovery. Firstly, let me remind you that this magnificent hormone has been present on planet earth for 500 million years. So much technology and many eons later, we proudly present it to the world in the only way conventional medicine knows to do: as a patentable version, known as a ‘progestin,’ found in such well known preparations as birth control pills, depo-provera injections, or pills such as medroxyprogesterone acetate, given for hormone balance or to control fertility. After many years of observing success in treating women with natural hormones, which by virture of their appearing in nature, so not patentable by the pharmaceutical industry (we cannot patent a tree or butterfly, eh?) natural progesterone was put into a capsule with peanut oil, and the unique delivery system rendered it a pharmaceutical prescription-ready for physicians to use.
Not bad, certainly, but not the ideal delivery system. What I may have learned light years ago in medical school biochemistry and rapidly forgotten is that when we swallow natural progesterone, it must travel through and be metabolized by the liver. By this very fact, 80-90 percent of it is transformed into metabolic byproducts that make us sleepy, dizzy, occasionally faint. In a word, it is not efficient. On the other hand, used transdermally (through the skin) it is very efficient and delightfully takes advantage of the largest organ in our body: the skin—for excellent absorption, and requiring doses 5-10 times less than when given by mouth.
So what are a few of the many benefits of natural transdermal progesterone cream:
- Protects us from breast cancer
- Protects us from uterine cancer
- Assists thyroid health
- Prevents bone loss
- Protects us from heart disease
- Assists with hormone balance and revs up our sex drive (although remember what I am always teaching: our brain is our most important sex organ)
- Is a natural antidepressant
- Is a natural diuretic
- Neutralizes the stimulating, carcinogenic effects of estrogen
- Enhances fertility and can prevent miscarriage
- Most recently has been demonstrated to assist in treating strokes
You ask, how may I get this magic potion? Yes, it is sold in health food stores, and on the Internet, most of which are good sources, and by a compounding pharmacy, which prepares the doses ordered by a physician, and with my 22 years of experience, after testing all of the hormones: estrogen, progesterone, testosterone, DHEA, and cortisol (adrenal health) 4x in one day, through the saliva. This is a safe, non-invasive, and most accurate way to evaluate hormones. I have been using ZRT lab these long years, and have been successful in helping thousands of my beautiful goddesses achieve hormone balance.
Are there any side effects, you may wonder: the only one I have found is if too high a dose is used, and the cortisol levels are very low, implying adrenal fatigue, we may witness higher than desirable dosing which some fear is building in the fat cells causing imbalance. I have only witnessed this a handful of times, and it is with use of high doses (greater than 50mg transdermally daily) and when we forget how essential it is to heal the adrenals (diet, nutrients, herbs, healthy sleep, and vitally important- MEDITATION).
Remember, all healing is a function of the three parts of us: mind/body/spirit. When we shortchange one and focus on the easiest to correct: the physical –we forget the great power we have to achieve and maintain vibrant, delicious health.
Peace and love, Helene
For some lovely alternatives to soy, visit Irma Jennings at Food for Healthy Bones
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sfyI-cotKag
