Man Power in Age Management Medicine

Eating for Anti-Inflammatory Benefit: The IF Tracker

Eating for Anti-Inflammatory Benefit: The IF Tracker

Medical Disclaimer: Nothing on this website is meant to diagnose, treat, or practice medicine. You must be seen in person by a physician for appropriate and individual medical treatment. If you have an emergency, call 9-1-1 in the USA.

Link Disclaimer: We are not responsible for any links that go outside of this website.

Full Disclosure: Margaret A. Ferrante, M.D. is an Institute Physician with Cenegenics Medical Institute. She receives no monetary compensation for hosting this website you are on, which is independent and not affiliated with Cenegenics. The information presented is for education and awareness. Dr. Ferrante currently sees patients out of the Cenegenics office in Beverly Hills, CA.

To book an appointment for a free Consultation, please email her at: mferrante@cenegenics.com

Monday, October 22, 2012

My! What Long Telomeres You Have!

by Margaret Aranda, M.D., Ph.D.

Have you heard of Telomeres?

In 2009, Anti-aging mogel Elizabeth Blackburn et al won the Nobel Prize for their work on telomeres.

A telomere is a molecular timepiece that resides on the end of a chromosome. It's like a tail. Some liken it to a plastic bit on the end of a shoelace. Studies show that each time a cell divides to replicate itself, the telomere shortens. It simply shortens and shortens until eventually, one day, it can no longer replicate because the telomere is too short. The cell then either becomes inactive, or it dies. Telomeres are linked to aging healthy.

Figure. The telomere. The end-portion of the chromosome replicates such that long telomere lengthmay act as a barometer to predict whether a person will or will not remain healthy.

In his quest for immortality, Bill Andrews, also known as The Man Who Would Stop Time, probed for twenty years to understand the mechanisms of aging. On his 57,648th try, he discovered the gene that turns on the telomerase enzyme that makes telomeres. And, he discovered that if normal cells are supplied with a continual source of telomerase, they will continue and continue to divide without dying. Telomerase consists of two key components: one is the RNA that stays there to serve as a continuing template for further synthesis, and the other is a protein that synthesizes the DNA needed to keep the genetic chromosome replicating over and over again.

Aging has to do with telomere shortening. If you have longer telomeres, then you are more likely to live healthy beyond 60 years old. Studies have shown that if you are 60 or older and have short telomeres, you are more likely to get diagnosed with the big killers: cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and cancer. You also are more likely to get diagnosed with Alzheimer's Disease.

Patients with aplastic anemia and shorter telomeres do not survive as well as their counterparts with longer telomeres. The possible links between telomere biology and the risk of various cancers have been described. Patients from lower socio-economic groups have been shown to have shorter telomeres than their twins.

The following items can increase telomere length, and it's good news that many of these are the same lifestyle, supplement, or healthy living choices that we promote at Cenegenics: diet, exercise, an appropriate body composition, vitamin D, antioxidants, multivitamins, fish oil, and others. Enter TA-65. And longer telomere profiles are associated with better lipid profiles, better cognition, a decreased risk of hypertension, type II diabetes, and metabolic syndrome.

TA-65 is in a class of drugs called telomerase activators. It is the first and only drug of its class, licensed to TA Sciences. Some believe that TA-65 will transform traditional medicine's practice of treating disease once it occurs, and instead focus on preventive medicine's focus of discovering disease susceptibility before it gets a chance to become realized.

Don't believe that you will gain the same benefits as the next person on this drug. The very nature of TA-65 is that you may have shortened telomeres in one organ system, and this may differ from the next person. So what TA-65 does is hone in on the shortest telomeres in a person's organ system, individualizing treatment because of the nature of this beast.

Effects of TA-65 include but are not limited to: increased energy, increased stamina, decreased hours of needed sleep, improved productivity, increased libido, increased joint flexibility, improved skin appearance, improved visual acuity. Laboratory findings may include increased bone density, improved T-cell count and improved immune function.

Side effects: none reported to date.

Drug interactions: none reported to date.

So, it may be appropriate to start with a new compliment:

"My! What long telomeres you have!"

References:

Cherkas, LF, et al. The effects of social status on biological aging as measured by white-blood-cell telomere length. Read Article Here. Issue

Aging Cell

Volume 5, Issue 5, pages 361–365, October 2006

Contie, Vickie. Telomere length linked to outcomes in aplastic anemia. NIH Research Matters. September 27, 2010. Read Article Here.

Genes that Protect the Chromosome Tips may Boost Longevity. NIH Research Matters. November 23, 2009. Read Article Here.

Hooper, Joseph. The Man Who Would Stop Time. August 2, 2011. Read Article Here

Telomere Biology and the Risk of Cancer. Read Article Here.

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Articles by Margaret Aranda, MD, Ph.D.:

Eating for Anti-Inflammatory Benefit: The IF Tracker

Eating for Anti-Inflammatory Benefit: The IF Tracker

Link Disclaimer: We are not responsible for any links that go outside of this website.

Full Disclosure: Margaret A. Ferrante, M.D. was an Institute Physician with Cenegenics Medical Institute.

Wednesday, October 17, 2012

Promoting the Concept of Having it All

by Dr Margaret Aranda

Medical Disclaimer: Not intended as medical advice. Talk to your doctor before changing any life plans that include diet, exercise, and/or medications.

I start with the premise that you can change your future.

You Can Have it All.

You already know this, because you have done it. Something prompted you to Click the button and view this page. Something about your health or age bothers you. Something is just not right. You already know what it is. You know how to apply the concepts of dedication, hard work, perseverance, commitment (and other salient points leading toward success) to a mindset of directed goals. You have already been goal-directed in your professional and personal lives.

You have, indeed, give up more than others to achieve the success you have earned. You know how to succeed. You are surrounded by luxuries that may include but are not limited to: good food, incredible wine, satiable desserts, fantastic cars with amazing engines, planes, property, vacations, clothing, shoes, toys, and well, more toys. If you are American, you already won the Lottery of life by being in the USA. If you are reading this on your computer and a wi-fi wireless connection, you already have more than 90% of the world has. So...

What about your health?

You must have some concern about the upcoming Election, the national medical insurance providers, "ObamaCare", and the future of medical care. That includes the issues of your medical provider, blood work, x-rays, scans, tests, diet, nutrition, hospitalization, prescription medications, co-payments, and hospitalizations. We must also consider Nursing Homes, Long-Term Disability, injury, accident, surgery, and rehabilitation. No one knows the answer to these issues, and do you know what? I think it is okay. Do you know why I think it is okay?

Because I think it is okay to depend on yourself for your own health.

Not on your insurance company.

There is a trend to look outside of your medical insurance company to provide Preventive Medicine and private approaches to your health care. It is the concept of Concierge Medicine. You pay a fee and get services, labs, and tests outside of your private medical insurance. Hey, maybe you find out that something is wrong with you...something that your private doctor would not have found until or unless you became sick with a full diagnosis.

For example, let us say that you are 55 years old. You eat oatmeal, coffee with sugar, and you drink a glass of orange juice for breakfast. You have a sandwich and a banana for lunch, together with a diet soda. You skip the gym. For dinner, you consume fried calamari, then lasagna with 2 glasses of wine; for dessert, you share a piece of chocolate cake with your wife or your date. After dinner, you sip on another cup of coffee with sugar in it. Hey, you work hard for a living and you deserve it all.

But wait. There are carbohydrates and sugar in every meal, and your blood glucose level increases. To cope with that, your blood insulin level rises. To cope with that, your body stores fat and uses carbohydrates. This leaves your body useless to burn fat. Look at your waistline. It's big, much too big. Your Waist-to-Hip Ratio is off; click there to read my article on the subject. You may benefit from the The Low-Glycemic Index Diet; click there to read my article on this subject, too. Your regular doctor tells you to diet and exercise and you say, "Yeah, doc." You eat another bite of cake. Because you deserve it.

Well, you decide to check out Cenegenics Medical Institute. You gave them my name, and if you live in California or not, you can book an appointment to come in my office. You get a panoramic set of blood work done, as well as a slew of tests and studies. Perhaps these are studies that your regular doctor never would have done on you today. It's okay, it's a different emphasis here now.

So what did the results show?

You are 40 pounds overweight, and you need to lose 5 inches from your waistline. You desire increased lean muscle mass, decreased fat, and you want to have more energy particularly in the evenings when you sometimes nod off. You don't sleep well, as you are up and down at night. You are competing with younger professionals and some improvement in cognitive function, memory, concentration, and focus would be helpful. You also desire improved erectile function, increased libido, and better sleep at night.

You are pre-diabetic, subclinically hypothyroid, and your hormones are out of order. There are deficiencies and excesses. Ten years down the line, you will be diabetic just like your mother, or next year, you will have a heart attack, just like your father. And your brother. You can click on my article.

What is a man to do?

One option is to wait until you are fully diabetic, as the insurance companies are happy to pay for you to get insulin, dialysis, and even a kidney transplantation. Or, you could

Tackle it like you have tackled those guys in High School. Gear yourself up! First, you could undergo a panoramic work-up that focuses on Age Management, Preventive Medicine, and considers your individual health goals. Your treatment plan needs to be individual, customized, and it must foster compliance.

If it means that you add quality of life to the last decades of your time here on earth, isn't that what it is all about? Correction of the male menopause, or andropause, can occur. You can click on my article there, too. Maybe you will don that uniform, stretch those muscles, hydrate and fuel up, and perhaps boost those deficient hormones! Wouldn't it be nice to sleep well at night, have energy for the day, and wake up refreshed?

Don't you deserve that, too?

There is hope that you can change your future once again, like you have done it before.

The average life expectancy for a man in the USA is 75.6 years.

Other countries can Look Here.

Hey, you have how many more years to live? 20? 30? 40?

Do the math for you now, today.

How many years do you have left?

____.

Are you surprised at how many years are still ahead of you?

Maybe you should consider that you need to find your Right Future today, before you forget how you feel this moment.

I'm not saying that I have the magic cure for you.
But I will say that there are others before you that have had incredible results,
myself included.
I am saying that you deserve the best chance of success at being the best 'you'.
On the inside.

You already know that inaction is a choice.
Maybe you have been inactive for long enough.

Full Disclosure: I was an Age Management Medicine physician with Cenegenics Medical Institute.

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Articles by Dr. Margaret A. Ferrante:

Eating for Anti-Inflammatory Benefit: The IF Tracker

Eating for Anti-Inflammatory Benefit: The IF Tracker

Link Disclaimer: We are not responsible for any links that go outside of this website.

Wednesday, October 3, 2012

Male Menopause: Andropause

by Margaret Aranda, MD., Ph.D.

Andropause is also known as male menopause, the male climacteric, "man-opause", androgen deficiency of the aging male (ADAM), partial androgen deficiency in aging males (PADAM), symptomatic late onset hypogonadism (SLOH), or hypogonadism. These are all terms used to describe the male equivalent to female menopause. Whereas in women, menopause is a certain event that officially happens once the ovaries stop producing hormones and there is no longer any menstruation for one year, the male does not have a 'cycle' that stops functioning.

But two hormones do decrease with time: testosterone and dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA). After age 30, testosterone levels decrease 1% per year, or 10% every 10 years. With the gradual decrease in testosterone comes an increase in sex hormone-binding globulin (SHBG) starting at age 35, which leads to further decreases in the free testosterone that is available.

Symptoms of andropause include: decrease in libido, decrease in quality of sexual experience, diminished morning erection, insomnia, hot flashes, fatigue, memory problems, decreased concentration, and sweating.

Andropause may lead to an increased risk of Alzheimer's Disease and depression. Therefore, the stress of having andropause deserves medical attention if symptoms are mild, moderate, or severe and affect quality of life.

Men at risk to get andropause include the following: men who work on incinerators, on farms with pesticides, as well as men working in the plastics and pharmaceutical industries. Medical diagnoses that are likely to have problems with testosterone levels are: diabetes and high blood pressure, as well as the genetic disorders Klinefelter's Syndrome, androgen insensitivity syndrome, and Wilson-Turner syndrome.

Figure. A male with Klinefelter's Syndrome.

Treatment options include optimization of diet, exercise, stress reduction, sleep at night, and hormone replacement therapy.

It is important for men to know that there is help available to assist in improving quality of life when there are seemingly dramatic changes due to aging. If these changes affect you, it may be that you can talk to your doctor or health care professional about checking your testosterone level and treating you with testosterone if you seem to be in andropause. It's a start.

We are all about Quality of Life, and this is a Quality of Life issue. You deserve the right attention.

References:

Diamond J. Surviving Male Menopause: A Guide for Women and Men. 2000, Maperville, ILL: Sourcebooks. ISBN: 0-471-40262-1.

Fuller SJ, et al. Androgens in the etiology of Alzheimer's disease in aging men and possible therapeutic interventions. J Alzheimers Dis 12(2)129-42.

Tancredi A, et al. No major month to month variation in free testosterone levels in aging males. Minor impact on the biological diagnosis of 'andropause'. Psychoneuroendocrinology 30(7):638-46.

Tan, RS et al. Role of androgens in mild cognitive impairment and possible interventions during menopause. Med Hypotheses 60(3):448-52.

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Articles by Dr. Margaret A. Ferrante:

Eating for Anti-Inflammatory Benefit: The IF Tracker

Eating for Anti-Inflammatory Benefit: The IF Tracker

Link Disclaimer: We are not responsible for any links that go outside of this website.

Full Disclosure: Margaret A. Ferrante, M.D. was an Institute Physician with Cenegenics Medical Institute.

Monday, October 1, 2012

The Waist-to-Hip Ratio: To Save or to Kill

You should know that weighing yourself on the scale and counting calories is no longer the end-all of weight loss or optimal body composition goals. And P.S. 'Aerobic exercise' is no longer the Sports Medicine way to cardiovascular fitness. Are you sitting at the gym on a LifeCycle while reading the stocks or checking your email? That's for another conversation, but hey, let's get to talking about the Waist-to-Hip Ratio.

You should know that the old way of measuring height:weight and calculating Body Mass Index (BMI) is not the sexy or current way to look at things (don't age yourself). Check out the Waist-to-Hip Ratio (WHR). Do you know how much you weigh? I'm sure you do. But do you know your Waist-to-Hip Ratio?

The average American man has a waistline that is 2" too big for health.

You can calculate your own ratio here: Instructions for WHR. What does your ratio mean?

"Risk" is the risk of dying from cardiovascular disease and diabetes. The higher your ratio, the higher your risk of cardiovascular disease and death from a heart attack.

Try to get yourself into the Green Zone.

Don't pass Go without calculating your Ratio, ok? And if Heart Disease isn't enough for you to get a jump on things, note that for you men, adding inches to the waistline also leads to an increased risk of:

Metabolic Disorder

Type II Diabetes

High Blood Pressure

High Cholesterol

Urinary Frequency

Sexual Dysfunction

Ejaculation Difficulties

(And, if you didn't guess it, cultural and historical studies show that men are more attracted to WHR in women than to the bust-to-waist ratio in women; that's true even for blind men).

So get a move! Today is the new day to start moving Onward & Forward for yourself.

Possible treatments needed? The possibilities include diet, exercise, nutrition, supplements, and hormones (e.g., testosterone, estrogen blockers, DHEA). It all depends.

Medical Disclaimer: This is not for medical advice, treatment, or instruction. Please talk to your doctor for advice on how to decrease your WHR, or to make any changes to your diet or exercise.
Full Disclaimer: Dr. Margaret Aranda Ferrante was a Certified Physician at Cenegenics.

References:

1. Wider waistlines put damper on men's sex lives: Study. MSN healthy living, Aug 1, 2012. VIew Article Here

2. What your waist to hip ratio tells men. squidoo, View Article Here

3. Karremans JC, et al. Blind men prefer a low waist to hip ratio. Evolution and Human Behavior, 31(2010):182-186. View Article Here

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Articles by Dr. Margaret A. Ferrante:

Eating for Anti-Inflammatory Benefit: The IF Tracker