Welcome to Dr. Hotze.com!
Thank you for joining me for the inaugural edition of the new Dr. Hotze.com website.
My purpose for renovating this site is to provide you with information and to educate you on how you can obtain and maintain health and wellness naturally, so that you may enjoy a better quality of life.
To this end I have invited two dynamic individuals to contribute their muses to this website, Erika Schwarz, M.D. and Mary Shomon. Dr. Schwarz practices medicine in New York City and is a strong advocate and spokeswoman for bio-identical hormone therapy.
Erika has authored several best selling books including The Hormone Solution, The 30 Day Natural Hormone Plan, Dr. Erika’s Hormone Solution for your Daughter, and Natural Energy. It has been my pleasure to spend several days with Dr. Schwarz. She is charismatic, bright, articulate and attractive.
She is passionate about advancing The Wellness Revolution so that she can help millions of women and men enjoy healthier lives naturally.
Mary Shomon will also be a weekly contributor to this website. She has demonstrated indomitable courage in advocating on behalf of individuals with thyroid problems. Mary has taken on conventional medicine and endocrinologists in her numerous books in which she offers hope and solutions to those who have hypothyroidism but remain undiagnosed by their physicians. She is a prolific author, having written Living Well With Hypothyroidism, Living Well With Grave’s Disease and Hyperthyroidism, Living Well With Autoimmune Disease, Living Well With Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Fibromyalgia, The Thyroid Diet, Thyroid Guide to Fertility, Pregnancy and Breast Feeding.
There will also be other leaders in The Wellness Revolution who will be guest contributors. Included in each week’s edition will be information on vitamins, minerals, nutrients and healthy eating suggestions. There will also be success stories from individuals who have gotten their lives back, naturally.
You will be introduced to a host of health issues, natural treatments and controversies in medicine and in politics that may affect your ability to pursue natural solutions to health. You will learn about bio-identical hormone therapy for women and men, thyroid disorders and natural bio-identical thyroid preparations, adrenal fatigue, yeast problems, airborne and food allergies, as well as genetically modified food, dental health, pharmaceutical industry deception, the collusion between the FDA and Big Pharma, the complaint to the FDA, filed by Wyeth, the maker of Premarin and Prempro, which would restrict the use of bio-identical hormones, and much more.
If you answer “yes” to any of the following questions, then Dr.Hotze.com is for you.
Are you sick and tired of being sick and tired?
Are you weary of doctors who won’t listen to you, don’t understand you, and offer only prescription drugs as the solution to your health problems?
Are you frustrated with being told that your blood tests are “normal” and there is nothing wrong with you?
Are you fed up with drug company commercials that bombard you every day, trying to convince you that the way to a happy, healthy life is through drugs?
Are you angry at your physician for making you feel like a hypochondriac, a neurotic or a hysteric?
Are you disillusioned that antidepressants, anti-inflammatory medications and sleep medications are passed out like candy?
Are you shocked by the incestuous relationship between the FDA and the pharmaceutical industry?
Are you appalled by the enormous political influence of the drug companies?
Are you dismayed that the health insurance industry has interfered with your relationship with your doctor?
Are you looking for safe, effective and natural solutions for your health problems?
As a physician, I had these very feelings and, in 1989, decided to make a change in the way I practiced medicine. No longer did I believe in the disease and drug model of conventional medicine.
I had come to realize that the lack of drugs in people was not the cause of their poor health. In fact, the treatment with drugs routinely caused additional adverse side effects in my patients for which they needed another drug.
At that time, I concluded that the primary function of a physician should be to help people get well and stay well using natural solutions so that they could enjoy a better quality of life. This new direction in my approach to medicine resonated with my patients. Daily at the Hotze Health & Wellness Center, we see women who have sought care from several physicians for their fatigue, weight gain, mood swings, menstrual irregularities, infertility, “brain fog,” headaches, joint and muscle pain, loss of libido, and numerous other problems.
They have had their blood drawn and their hormone levels measured, only to be told that no physical cause of their symptoms could be found. A woman who is repeatedly told by her doctor that everything is “normal” even though she does not feel well is not likely to get the personal attention and compassionate treatment that she deserves.
Sometimes they will be prescribed an antidepressant or referred to a psychiatrist. Initially, she may reject the idea of using antidepressants because she is still convinced that something within her body is not functioning correctly. But eventually, as her condition persists, she will comply with her doctor’s wishes and take the drugs. When these drugs provide no relief, she may begin to consider that the doctor is right and that her problems are “all in her head.”
Even worse, she may conclude, as some women have confided to me, that she is being punished by God for her past sins. If this is the way you feel, then please take note. Your health problems are not “all in your head.” Your symptoms are very real and have a physical cause. You are not being punished by God.
There is hope. The problems experienced by women during midlife often are a result of an imbalance in the female hormones and an overall decline in hormone production. The negative effects of this hormonal imbalance are not limited to the reproductive system.
The female hormones play important roles throughout the body, in the heart, brain, muscles, bones, and other major organs and tissues. Hormonal imbalance and decline is a commonly overlooked cause of infertility. The female hormones also interact with hormones produced by other glands, and an imbalance in levels of estrogen and progesterone adversely affects the production and use of these hormones.
One common result of female hormone imbalance is hypothyroidism, or low thyroid function, which weakens the immune system and can cause allergies, chemical sensitivities and recurrent infections during midlife. Adrenal insufficiency often accompanies low thyroid function, worsening the problems of low energy, impaired immunity, and allergies. Fatigue, weight gain, mood and memory problems, insomnia, headaches and menstrual disorders can all be traced back to hormonal imbalance and deficiencies.
Blood testing, which is a standard diagnostic tool of conventional medicine, is not the best way to diagnose hormonal problems or to assess whether the treatment of these problems is working. The most reliable indication of a hormonal problem is how a woman feels physically, mentally, and emotionally. Likewise, the most important criteria for evaluation the benefits of treatment are the resolution of symptoms and the overall improvement in a woman’s wellbeing.
This approach, which entails listening to the patient’s description of her problems and making a diagnosis based upon this description, is a lost art in current medical practice. Today’s physicians rely almost exclusively upon high tech tests and laboratory values in making diagnoses.
While this may be necessary for certain diseases, it is not an effective or appropriate way to evaluate and treat the problems caused by hormonal imbalances and deficiencies that occur in midlife. If you like what you have read so far, you can be sure that you will enjoy our other authors and articles as much or more than this one.
Thank you again for visiting our website and allowing us the opportunity to serve you in your quest to place yourself on a path of health and wellness.
