Bio-identical Hormones and Optimising Adrenal Health with Dr Michael Platt

11:21AM Apr 7, 2023

Speakers:

Angela Foster

Michael Platt

Keywords:

adrenaline

progesterone

people

hormone

progesterone cream

called

realise

insulin

oral progesterone

women

conditions

sleep

glucose

high levels

body

produce

eating

ketones

excess

fuel

releasing adrenaline in danger is actually a very rare occurrence. What most people do not realise what the true function of adrenaline and most people do not realise that the brain actually has more sugar than any other tissue in the body.

Hi friends. In this week's episode, we're going to be talking all about hormonal imbalances and adrenal fatigue. I'm sitting down with Dr. Michael Platt who is board certified in internal medicine and he's the president of the Platt Wellness Centre. He's one of the most well known specialists in natural hormone replacement and has successfully treated 1000s of patients all over the world. He's also a renowned author, with multiple best selling books, including adrenal dominance and the miracle of bioidentical hormones. And in this interview, we talk about the benefits of progesterone in modulating things like adrenaline, and how it can help to alleviate many symptoms that people suffer with. So without further delay, let me introduce you now to Dr. Michael Platt. Dr. Dr. Platt, it's very good to have you here today. I'm really excited because this is a topic that we haven't really explored on the High Performance health podcast. Specifically, we're going to be talking about adrenaline today, and the interplay with other hormones. I know that you have a book all about adrenaline and the conditions that it's linked to is absolutely fascinating. And you're a real expert in this area. So first of all, let me welcome you to the show.

Glad to be here.

It's great to have you here. I think probably a good place to kick off is people think most people listening will think of adrenaline as something that's released, when we are excited. That would be the first place I'd jump, you know, think coaster or something like that. It seems that people have varying degrees of adrenaline. And it's pretty interesting the conditions you link it to, let's start with first of all what adrenaline is, and so that people can understand a bit better.

Adrenaline is a hormone. And it's also a neurotransmitter, it's both. And it's mostly known as you know, they call it the fight or flight hormone. So when people are in danger, the body just pours out adrenaline. And that's what it's mostly known for. But the interesting thing is, is that the releasing adrenaline in danger is actually a very rare occurrence. What most people do not realise what the true function of adrenaline is. And, and most people do not realise that the brain actually has more sugar than any other tissue in the body. And that's one of the two fuels that the brain has to have to function. So the body always wants to make sure that the brain has enough fuel in order to function. And that is a survival concern. And so anytime the body detects a drop in sugar in the brain, it puts out adrenaline to convert protein into glucose. It's called gluconeogenesis. So the primary function of adrenaline is just to make sure the brain has sugar.

And so in a kind of fight or flight situation, and I mean, adrenaline, I think is linked with cortisol as well, right? Presumably, this is a way of fueling the body to either fight or hide or flee. It's a

very powerful hormone, and very powerful neurotransmitter. So and when the body is in a fight or flight situation, it does have a lot of effect on the body. A very simple thing, you know, people can experience cold hands and cold feet. And that's almost always attributed to an underactive thyroid, but actually, that's adrenaline because adrenaline constricts blood vessel, it cuts off blood, it cuts off blood supply to areas of the body that are not needed for survival. Another example is irritable bowel syndrome. You know, it cuts off blood supply to the intestines because they're not needed for survival. And it cuts so what people should also realise is that adrenaline cuts off blood supply to the salivary glands, because they're not needed for survival either. So when people do hormone studies, and they do saliva test, I don't even look at saliva tests because because the adrenaline effects them and so, so when they do a saliva test, they get a low cortisol in, in the saliva, and based on that they diagnose adrenal fatigue, which is a condition that doesn't exist. If they did a blood test, they find the cortisol level is actually high, because adrenaline is the hormone that creates stress in the body. And the body responds to stress by putting out cortisol.

Because cortisol itself is anti inflammatory in nature. Yeah. Yeah, and helps reduce pain. But then over time, right, it's quite catabolic if you get that sustained release. So with adrenaline, then we think of I think we just normally associate it with excitement. I just before we kind of come to that, and we were chatting offline about the link with things like creativity, you mentioned there about cold hands and feet. And this is something that a lot of people struggle with. A lot of people struggle with conditions like Raynaud's disease, where they don't know how to treat it, or conditions like that something that you have also linked with a drug. Okay, interesting. And that's what because the body is, is cutting off those using the blood supply to the non essential path,

right, like, this whole thing about adrenaline. You know, I, as you may know, I've written a book called adrenaline dominance. And it's the only book that has ever been written that actually talks about adrenaline, you know, why, why the body produces it, conditions associated with it, and how to how to prove it. So it's completely off the radar of the medical system. And there and as we, as we go on, we'll talk about a lot of the conditions that are associated with excess adrenaline better considered incurable, because the bottom line is, in order to fix something, you have to treat the cause of it. And unfortunately, we have a medical system where doctors are not trained to treat the cause of illness, they are trained to give out band aids. Basically, not always, basically. Yeah, so the Yeah, but medicine is a passion for me and getting people well, it's very rewarding. And unfortunately, doctors should be seeing more of this. You don't getting people well.

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Well, the thing about adrenaline, this is this is a genetic marker. In other words, if somebody has a lot of adrenaline that means that one or both parents also had a lot of adrenaline and the other thing is is that I have not observed that people that are creative. Have the most adrenaline you've heard the term add you know there's ADHD and a DD a DD these are A people that have trouble focusing, but they're not hyperactive. But they're actually hyperactive in the brain, but they're not hyperactive physically. And so these are the creative type people. And why an ag an excess adrenaline, it begins at a very early age, you know, even when the babies in the womb, those mothers that have a baby that does a lot of kicking, that extra kicking, that's adrenaline. And these are usually the babies that when they're born are the ones that they'll have colic. And colic is always caused by excess adrenaline. And it's the kind of thing you can get rid of in about three minutes. Just by putting some progesterone cream on the baby's belly.

That's very interesting. Very interesting. So what about then conditions that you talk about babies with colic or they can get reflux adults can also get that sort of gastric reflux and distress. Is that also linked with Adren?

Well, I know, I know. I know that colic is I think there are different reasons for the reflux, Pyloric stenosis, whatever. But and I don't see babies. So I can't be that cognizant of exactly what goes on with babies. But But I do know that that that colic is caused by excess adrenaline, and later on those children that are breadwinners. That's also only caused by excess adrenaline. And again, you only see that in creative type children, because again, they have the most adrenaline, but you can get rid of bedwetting and 24 hours, just by lowering adrenaline. And we'll talk about this.

Yeah, so let's talk about this. Because I think that, obviously, in terms of neurotransmitters, and performance, specifically, areas, you sometimes want to get close to the edge, right to enhance performance. So presumably, there's something like adrenaline, and things like dopamine, there is a sort of an equilibrium you want to reach or a certain amount that you need, at certain times, to feel motivated to be to tap into that creativity. How can we manage that and have the right levels so that we can explore what we want to do and achieve, you know, perform at the highest level, but not get the unwanted effects?

Well, actually, the creativity does not cause the excess adrenaline, the excess adrenaline actually enhances the creativity. And so being creative itself is not harmful. But if you are creative, and you realise that you are prone to increase adrenaline, that can be fixed. And it's see when people have a lot of adrenaline and, and they should realise that, you know, a lot of people experience anxiety, the only thing that causes anxiety is excess adrenaline. And look at all the millions of people with ADHD. My book is actually the only book that ever talks about the fact that ADHD is caused by excess adrenaline. And you can actually eliminate ADHD in 24 hours just by lowering adrenaline. So and, you know, to some people that, but you know, what's interesting is that I get a lot of information about different conditions from different parts of the world. And you know, you're in England, and they talk a lot about conditions like PMDD, and cyclical vomiting syndrome, and whatever. And they don't realise that these are conditions caused by excess adrenaline and are fixable, actually.

So would somebody be aware that they have excesses of adrenaline, or is it only when they develop these symptoms? And obviously, most people are not aware, right? Because they're not aware of your research necessarily. But what would they How would somebody know that they have access to drugs? Well,

first of all, people with access to adrenaline have trouble sleeping, they may have trouble falling asleep, and they will certainly have trouble staying asleep. The they'll also may find they grind their teeth at night or keep the jaw clenched. The get up to at night to urinate because adrenaline gives people that urge to urinate even during the day, you know, they on television, they call it an overactive bladder, but you know those people, but adrenaline gives people that urge to urinate. And then people with excess adrenaline will find that quick to anger those short fused and they may have cold hands and cold feet. They'll almost all always carry a lot of tension in the back of your neck. And all the MS neck tension can cause ringing, tinnitus ringing in the ears. And it can cause headaches, severe headaches that are always mistaken for migraines. They're called migraines. But but the headache is actually something called occipital neuritis, which causes excruciating headaches. And, and the pain comes from the occipital nerve sheath that at the base of the skull, and, and the muscle tense muscles, squeeze that nerve sheath and cause the severe headaches. Very often the pain shoots right into the back of the eye. And at least headaches are very easy to get rid of, you know, just by lowering adrenaline. You know, every every condition that I talk about is easy to get rid of just ignoring adrenaline. And that's why it's probably important for people to understand that, that they can actually have a lot of control over their health that they can't get from their doctor sometimes.

The best way to lower adrenaline.

Well, you know, first of all, you have to realise where it's coming from. And like I mentioned that the body uses adrenaline to raise sugar levels for the brain. So people instead of having the body use adrenaline to provide fuel for the brain, they can provide fuel themselves by how they eat. Now the brain uses two different fuels. One, one is glucose sugar. And the best source of glucose for the brain comes from vegetables. And then the other fuel, which is even more important are ketones. And you know people hear about a ketogenic diet, which I don't recommend, because it's a very difficult diet to accomplish. But you can get ketones directly from coconut oil, which is a great fuel for cooking, or something called MCT oil, medium chain triglyceride oil, MCT oil, which comes from coconut oil. And both of these oils convert into ketones. So you can get ketones for the brain by eating, you know by using these two oils, and it only takes about 24 hours to lower adrenaline, we're not talking about a long term treatment programme. So So once people start providing the right fuel to the brain, there's a dramatic drop in the amount of adrenaline the body produces. And then the only other thing that needs to be added is a 5% progesterone cream. Now progesterone cream is a hormone. And most people including doctors think that progesterone is a woman's hormone. They don't realise that men and women had the identical hormones, different levels, but the same hormones. And as it is men stop making progress and around the age of 50. And, and after men stop making them Jerison certain things happen to their body, and we can talk about that. But But progesterone directly blocks adrenaline and very effectively and very quickly.

That's interesting because I had I have realised the link between progesterone production, oh sorry, progesterone and the production of GABA. And I was aware that you know, when you're producing GABA, right, we're engaging more parasympathetic state. And when we have too much glutamate, we are more in sympathetic drive. So you can't have kind of high levels of glutamate and GABA produced at the same time. What you're saying is progesterone is also affecting the production of adrenaline. Okay, which an adrenaline then in turn is affecting the production of cortisol. Yes. Okay. Just tracking back a little bit before we talk about progesterone in more detail. You mentioned there about glucose for the brain, and also for the ketones, right? And rather than following a ketogenic diet, getting your ketones from things like coconut or so are you saying here that actually the combination of ketones with some glucose from things like vegetables works well. So it's not that we're trying to get into a state of ketosis but taking exogenous ketones, or could you clarify how that would work?

Well, the the advantage of being in ketosis is that the body's already producing ketones. But if you're but if you're providing ketones, the coconut oil and MCT oil, you don't need to be in ketosis.

Just from having coconut oil could be helpful. And isn't there a specific time of day like is this something that you would recommend, for example, in the morning upon waking? What is this? Does this have a viral rhythm in terms of the production of adrenaline?

Well, you know, what it all comes down to is that the brain is using glucose and ketones for fuel. And the more active the brain is, the more quickly the body uses up these fuels. For example, a crate The brain uses up fuel in about three hours. So there's not a specific time of day, basically, throughout the day that you should be providing fuel to the brain, all depending on what you're doing. People that do a lot of exercise, you know, their muscles are burning up glucose. So again, another reason why they should be eating more vegetables just to provide glucose. The so, so everybody's different. There's no one size fits all, you know, people have to learn for themselves exactly what what they need to provide the brain to order to function without a lot of adrenaline.

Would they when you're talking about vegetables that are these all types of vegetables? Well, she and non starchy or,

well, green vegetables are really good, because there's zero glycemic, they don't produce any insulin. You know, white potatoes, or, or starches actually produce a lot of sugar. However, they say a condition or something called resistant starches. I don't know if you're familiar with that. Yeah, and and so people are allowed to have cold white potatoes like potato salad. That's acceptable, but not hot white potatoes, but they can have sweet potatoes because they're lower glycemic and, and what I actually recommend is when it comes to sweet potatoes, and instead of baking them, to slice them up and fry them in coconut oil, and that way people get both fuels in one side dish. And I also recommend that people eat something before they go to sleep. And the reason for that is that adrenaline peaks at 230 in the morning, that's when the highest levels of adrenaline occur. And in fact, a lot of people wake up at that time to urinate. And, and some women get hot flashes at that time. The so, so by eating something before they go to sleep, the brain will have fuel so the facility can sleep throughout the night better. So and I recommend they're using progesterone right before they do eat. And, and progesterone for two reasons. Number one, it blocks adrenaline, but but progesterone also blocks insulin. And the problem with insulin is that when insulin goes up, blood sugar drops. When you get that drop in sugar, the body puts out more adrenaline to raise sugar levels. So another way of controlling adrenaline is to control insulin. And progesterone does both it controls insulin and adrenaline. Mostly, yeah.

Yeah, that's interesting. So actually, and also controlling that glycemic load as well, presumably, because if you're if you're spiking your blood sugar, with fast burning carbs, and you're getting that big insulin spike, that's gonna you're you get a bunch of blood sugar spike initially, but then insulin removes it. And then if you're not eating again, you're gonna produce more adrenaline right to create more glucans. Exactly, yeah. Okay, so you can kind of be on a roller coaster. So for people that struggle with this, having a high sugar diet is probably very dangerous. I mean, it is one but particularly if you have an adrenaline problem. You know,

I've seen a lot of patients throughout the years and it but one particularly stands out, he was a gentleman, he was about 47 years old. And the reason he came to see me is that every morning he would wake up and vomit. Now the only thing the only thing that will cause that kind of vomiting is adrenaline. You know, when you hear about women that vomit throughout their entire pregnancy, they call it hyperemesis gravidarum. That's also caused by adrenaline. You know, doctors don't realise that, but that that's the cause. So the reason he came into it was because he was vomiting every morning. And he also had severe fibromyalgia, which is not surprising, because that's another condition caused by excess adrenaline. And so I put some progesterone cream on his arm, and he rubbed his arms together and, and we started talking again, and after about five minutes, he sat back in the chair, and he looked at me, and he said, Doc, in my entire life, I've never felt this good. That's only after five minutes. So you know, progesterone is a it's a it's a miracle hormone that really should have more publicity, if you will. Now, unfortunately, you know, most doctors that are prescribing progesterone are giving women oral progesterone now, like prometrium. And the problem with oral progesterone is that it goes straight to the liver and converts into a different hormone called allopregnanolone 90% of oral progesterone is converted into a different hormone. It's not progesterone. So again, people should be aware that if they want the benefits of progesterone, they need to use a cream not a pill, nothing world No trial case, just the cream because the cream goes directly into the bloodstream at bypass to deliver.

Would you like a snapshot of where you are in your health journey right now with personalised advice from me on how to improve, go to your total health chat.com and take my 62nd biohacking quiz. And I will send you your free health score and personalised report with recommendations on each area of my shift protocol. For health optimization. Shift contains the five key pillars you need to focus on for optimal health, sleep, hormones, insights to track how to fuel your body with the right nutrition, light hydration and breath work and training for your body and mind. Go to your total health check.com To find out your score in each area and get personalised recommendations from me on how to improve takes less than 60 seconds. And you can take the quiz as many times as you want to and track your improvement by following my guidance. Simply go to your total health check.com To get started. Because I'd also seen that like depending on your pathway in the body, whether it's an alpha pathway or not the way you metabolise progesterone that you take orally can impact whether or not you do in fact see it better. So not everybody taking oral progesterone isn't necessarily going to see better.

I've never seen anybody benefit from oral progesterone.

I'll be honest with you, they won't benefit from oral progesterone. Okay,

well, we have women. Yeah, they have women take it at night because that was the side effect of oral progesterone. It's that makes people sleeping. And but that's a side effect is not because but but. But when people use progesterone cream, they also can sleep better because it's blocking adrenaline, which is what you wanted to do.

Okay, that's interesting, because my understanding with the oral one and the side effect was more the way it was metabolised, depending on which pathway you prefer. And if it was that alpha pathway with the progesterone cream, how often would people be taking this? Because I think this will be interesting to a lot of women, particularly in perimenopause, when progesterone is low, how can they develop anxiety quite often, right? How long would they how often? And how much would they need to be taking or using?

I usually recommend that when women are first or men men also, you know, men also need progesterone. That people when they first start using progesterone, use it in accordance with how much adrenaline they have. So if they have a lot of symptoms of excess adrenaline, you know, the trouble sleeping, the anger issues. Trouble with tension to the back of the neck of the colon, they have a lot of adrenaline then I recommend that they use it four times a day and chill until their adrenaline levels come down. And then twice a day is fine. You What's nice about progesterone cream, you cannot overdose on it. You can use it 30 times. Why is that? You know, when when women are pregnant? You know, as you probably know, the placenta puts out progesterone, and they get incredibly high levels of progesterone, you know, I mean levels that cannot be duplicated. And so if if a woman and the foetus can tolerate that amount of progesterone, why shouldn't a normal person be able to tolerate a high dose of progesterone using it 30 times a day, which is obviously nobody that does that. But even using it 30 times a day will not duplicate the amount of progesterone that women produce when they're pregnant. So it's just it's just a very safe hormone.

And when women are pregnant, and they struggle with, you know, constant, nausea and vomiting, why are they getting that? I know you mentioned that they have high levels of adrenaline, but given that progesterone itself was so high in pregnancy, why would they be experiencing so much sickness as it should it not be already offsetting adrenaline?

Well, actually, well, first of all, the first trimester the first three months, the nausea and vomiting due to oestrogen not not not adrenaline. And progesterone also blocks oestrogen. So it's good for morning sickness in the first trimester. Now, if the morning sickness persist into the second and third trimester, then we're dealing with adrenaline. And you're right. The placenta should be pouring out enough progesterone to control that but in some women, they are producing so much adrenaline, that that even the amount of progesterone that the placenta is putting putting out is not enough to prevent that nausea and vomiting. But when people do hit when women have hyperemesis gravidarum not only do they need the cream, but I also recommend you know, progesterone suppositories and and eating obviously eating correctly.

is interesting because when I was pregnant my my first two pregnancies were with boys and the nausea continued, and morning sickness till for the first trimester. When I was pregnant a third time with my daughter, it continued right up until I gave

the but you only see this in creative type women I should mention what the plus? Well, it just graded women have a lot of adrenaline.

Okay, interesting. So I guess my concern as being someone who is who likes to be creative and enjoy that side, is if I see something like progesterone cream, which he definitely piqued my interest in giving it a go, would I then lose some of that creativity?

Do you say that you lose some of

the weight? Yeah, would I lose some of that creative? Let's assume that my creativity, like oh, you're creative, produce a lot of address. Sorry, creative people produce a lot more adrenaline, therefore. And one of the things that I enjoy is the creative side to my work. So if I was to begin to use progesterone, and offset, I mean, I don't know if I have offset some of that, would I then lose some of the creative slap?

In all the years I've been dealing with this, I've never had anybody who has lost their creativity. But at the same time, you realise when you lower the adrenaline levels, your your ability to focus improves. So maybe so there might be a slight decrease in the amount of creativity, but the amount, the ability to focus improves, which might sort of undo, undo that.

Okay, that's interesting. Yeah. And just take very day today, because for me, for example, I find that, you know, there are some days when I feel a lot more relaxed. There are other days when I wake up, but, you know, wired, sort of 430 I'm an early riser anyway at 430 in the morning, and it's kind of hard to take some meditation and exercise to really, like, create that laser focus does this very naturally from day to day?

Well, adrenal adrenal level do vary from day to day, but But basically, once you usually have to control it very well, just by eating correctly and using the progesterone cream. Your body will tell you what it needs. And like I say, you cannot hurt yourself with the progesterone cream.

And is there a specific strength that we should be looking for?

Absolutely. Absolutely. The what the amount required is a 5% progesterone cream that 5% means that each pump is 50 milligrammes and 50 milligrammes is the exact strength you need to block adrenaline. So, so the strength you want that you want to look for is a 5% progesterone cream.

Okay, this is interesting. Would you find that I'm sorry, you carry on and then I asked you the question.

Usually over the counter progesterone is like one or 2% say I just want

to it's a prescription green?

Well, the prescription cream you get from a compounding pharmacy and they can give you a 5% cream. If people need it, they can get a 5% cream off my website without a prescription.

Okay, let's get to know would you then anticipate for example, then if someone is having poor blood glucose control, obviously eating the vegetables, the coconut oil this is going to go quite a way to help him with that and the fibre in those foods helps with glucose. What about just using the progesterone cream? Would you expect to see better blood sugar balance

just using progesterone cream, they would get some Yeah, they would get somewhat of a balance but incorporating the meal plan which means vegetables and coconut oil and MCT oil will enhance that definitely enhance that. I don't know if I made that clear. Eating is probably more important than the cream eating correctly is probably more important than the cream is it

and so would you advise on people like this that are listening to this and they're thinking that they have high adrenaline levels that they don't leave long periods? You know how does intermittent fasting for example work in relation to people with high adrenaline?

I'm sorry that how does one work the

story so like for people that you were mentioning around how adrenaline If the brain doesn't have enough glucose, then the brain or the body will release adrenaline and to fuel the hungry brain effectively. I'm just curious whether people with higher levels of adrenaline should avoid long periods of fasting. I know you mentioned at night that they may benefit from, you know, having a meal before or not a meal, but having something to eat before they go to bed. What about for people that maybe are thinking that she liked to fast until midday? Would that be something you would advise against?

It is something I would advise against, you're right. You know, intermittent fasting does have some benefits, but not a lot of benefits for people with a lot of adrenaline. Because if they go too long without eating, they will be living on adrenaline. And what they have to realise is that the reason why the body is releasing adrenaline is to raise sugar levels for the brain. And now remember, I mentioned that adrenaline peaks at 230 in the morning. And this is when people are just lying in bed. And when the body releases adrenaline, which is a very powerful hormone, it creates stress to the body, and the body responds to stress by putting on cortisol. And the first thing cortisol does, it also raises glucose levels through a different process called glycogenolysis, where it converts glycogen into glucose. And so while people are lying in bed, they're producing two hormones that raise sugar. And what's interesting is that I am convinced that this is the number one cause of weight gain. And that people are actually gaining weight while they're sleeping. And they're not aware of it. You know, they exercise and diet during the day, but when they're sleeping, they're putting out all this adrenaline. So the Yeah, so people should be aware. So when they're fasting, again, the body, the brain is not getting fuel, so the body will be putting out adrenaline. So yeah, so the bottom line is, I don't recommend intermittent fasting, especially for people that are trying to lose weight. And that's why people you know, those are the number one kinds of people that use intermittent fasting for weight loss.

Yeah. It's interesting what you say there as well, because when you look at kind of some of the scientific research that's been done on lipid utilisation, for example, it seems that we don't, we don't sort of use fat as effectively as we get older. So it's not necessarily that we're gaining weight, because we're eating so much more all of a sudden, and we're just storing more fat but also really utilisation is going down. And so that that if you know if that's the case, and people then have high levels of adrenaline and cortisol, we know that then when that glucose is released into the blood, insulin is released, and insulin blocks the burning of fat, right, so you now you are storing more so actually, they could well be gaining weight. Why sleep, which is probably not an appealing thought to most people. You want to be burning fat, as you see.

Yeah, that's the way it is. But you're right. Fat is the only food that doesn't stimulate insulin production. So

yeah. What about men? Then you mentioned that men stopped producing progesterone at the age of 50.

Right around that age, and you know, what's interesting is that after the age of 50, men start developing prostate cancer. And keep in mind that prostate cancer is another cancer caused by oestrogen and, and so now they have nothing to block. You know, progesterone also blocks oestrogen along with insulin and adrenaline. So now they had nothing to block oestrogen. So very, so men can develop prostate cancer. And the other thing is that men also start putting on weight around the middle, because now they have no progesterone, they had no hormone blocking insulin. So progesterone, it's an important hormone for men also, you know, just just as it's important for women. And, and, you know, I think I mentioned that, you know, progression is good for colic, and babies. You know, if you have a baby with colic, you just rub some progesterone cream on the baby's belly. It'll go away in anywhere for three to five minutes. It said that a few years ago, well, yeah, well, you know, women and men stay up all night with a crying baby, but they don't have to. incredibly well, it comes down to treating the cause of illness and, you know, unfortunately, there's very little training with regard to the cause of ailment.

And is there any other Interplay when we're looking at progesterone and you were mentioning there around creativity and focus and taking progesterone will help to sharpen that focus? Is there any other Interplay when you're using progesterone cream between obviously if it's blocking adrenaline, is it enhancing any of the other neurotransmitters that make may enhance things like focus and flow, like dopamine or an abdomen and anything like that.

You don't have to apologise. I'm not I'm not a scientist. Yeah.

Have you seen any research around?

I have not, you know, progression has been, for the most part, sort of like an ignored hormone. And it shouldn't be. But it all comes down to basically that whatever works. And, but the, but I think if more people were aware of how many conditions are related to excess adrenaline, you know, you know, I mentioned fibromyalgia, it's a condition that's considered incurable. And that, you know, and that takes anywhere from three days to three weeks to get rid of just by lowering your adrenaline. There's a condition called chronic interstitial cystitis, which is also caused by too much adrenaline. And that can go away in about two weeks, the PMDD, premenstrual dysphoric disorder considered incurable, always treated with antidepressants, which do nothing. The road rage goes away in 24 hours just by lowering adrenaline. So I'm just saying, you know, at least, and these are conditions that people get rid of at home without even going to see a doctor, you know, they can start eating correctly and using some progesterone cream.

What about people that are considered kind of adrenaline junkies, and they're looking for extreme sports to provide Well, stimulation?

Well, unfortunately, they live on adrenaline, and so they're utilising adrenaline to to enhance whatever it is the thrill that they're that they're looking for. I'm not recommending that, but but but you know, athletes have an incredible amount of excess adrenaline. But that that's what makes them good. And sports, people in the in the army, and people in law enforcement always have high levels of adrenaline. And, again, this is utilised in their in their work. But it also causes them to be quick to anger or need to get into drugs or alcohol just to relax or, you know, if you look at people involved with in the sports industry, there's a lot of wife beating, and I'm just saying adrenaline is a very powerful hormone. The, and while we're talking about sports and your injuries, you know, football, they get a lot of head injuries. And progesterone is actually the drug of choice for traumatic brain injury because it reduces swelling in the brain. And so again, this is unknown to you know, people that have sports team. I think we could do a lot better in terms of letting people know how to get, you know, and a lot of it, you know, people have to take responsibility for their own health. And unfortunately, you can't rely on a medical system that has no interest in their being healthy. So

and how did you come? How did you come to find this? Because it's, it's not something that's well known about how did you hit upon the fact that was so key and all these diseases.

Maybe mother died at the age of 61 in breast cancer. And right after she died, I realised that I had inherited her hormones, you know, I can remember I said men and women had the same hormones. And this is back many, many years ago. And in those days, every time I was driving, I just had to slap my face trying to keep my eyes open. So I knew I was getting low blood sugars, and the only thing that will cause low blood sugars to too much insulin. And, and the thing about insulin, you know, insulin puts on weight around the middle and my mother had some excess weight around the middle. And so and she had breast cancer, so she and I knew she was low on progesterone. So I started using progesterone. And from that day, I have never ever had an episode of sleepiness while driving. So I knew that progressed and controlled insulin. And, but what happened was, it got me intrigued about hormones, you know, by identical hormones. So I learned, you know, I tried to learn as much as I could about these by identical hormones. And and I devoted my practice to treating people with hormones. But I had the advantage of being able to sit down for about two hours with every patient and talk to Then, and I learned how the body operated and learn how the body responds to hormones. And so, and this is called the observational based medicine. Unfortunately, we have a system, which is called Evidence based medicine. That's what doctors, their golden thing is evidence based medicine. But that's drug companies, you know, they do evidence based medicine because they can afford to. So, but medicine always developed based on observation, over 1000 years, you know, people doctors observed what, what happened. So, so, I was able to observe how people responded to hormones, and which is, which is helpful. My first book was called the Miracle of bioidentical hormones. And it literally brought 1000s of patients in the office from all over the country, and all over the world came in because of this book, and it's gotten an 11 literary literary awards. Of course, the medical board in California cut the IDs for dangerous, but anyway. So yeah, but hormones control everything in the body. Everything is controlled by hormones. And unfortunately, doctors get no training hormones.

And I think you also mentioned other kind of conditions you mentioned add earlier, but also, autism. You mentioned in the book, have you found progesterone therapy useful for

exceptionally useful? Children with autism have incredibly high levels of adrenaline. And, and so they respond very well to eating correctly and using progesterone cream. Kids that do not talk, they start verbalising. And usually they have a lot to say. So the Yeah, and you know, those children with autism that can who have temper tantrums, the temper tantrums go away. Anyway, you they respond very positively to lowering adrenaline.

So it seems like it's suitable for everyone from babies right up. It

gets what's nice about it, you can't hurt anybody would have you?

Because I guess that was going to be my question is what about teenagers? You know, their hormones are changing. teenage boys are getting more testosterone. Is there any downside to them using something like a progesterone?

No, it doesn't really affect other hormones. Because there's no such thing is progesterone stimulating hormone, so you're not suppressing that. But you know, there are conditions, you know, women get like fibroids and endometriosis and fibres. polycystic ovaries all caused by too much oestrogen. And women have put on birth control pills. And so they stop ovulating, which means they stopped making progesterone. So they take away the most important hormone in their body, which is progesterone, when, and doctors and so every woman I'm on birth control goes should be on progesterone, but they're not.

And it would offset this oestrogen dominance.

You know, frankly, women get abused by our medical system. I'm just saying it's weighted.

I think a lot of women don't feel listened to. Interesting. Thank you very much. Are there any last tips you'd like to share before we link to your book and where people can find more about you and your work?

Well, I do have a website. And there's a lot of information on there. And I'm always available, actually, you know, I would assume that most of your listeners are in England,

about 30% or more listeners actually are in North America.

But let me tell you something, you know, there's a doctor in England that actually did the most for getting progesterone on the map. I think doughton Talk to us and yeah, she was now I don't think she was well taken care of. But I but but she's the one that used to recommend really high dosages of progesterone for women with PMS and and what she would she didn't call it that. But they then had PMDD, premenstrual dysphoric disorder,

which is from many women. Yeah.

So anyway. Yeah, they I have a website. It's www Platt. wellness.com. And, and there's a place where they can send in questions. And you know, and I do respond to the question,

and that's on the website is on the website, and the website, brilliant, and they can also find your book on Amazon.

Well, you know, me, you know, somebody put another book with the same time titled quote, adrenaline dominance, which is 55 pages long and completely and undecipherable. Anyway, they took my book off and left and put that book on and so they can get the book on my website. And you know, dealing with Amazon is very tough.

I think your book is available on Amazon UK. Really? Yeah. Okay, we will link we will link to all of that in the show notes. Thank you so much for coming on the show and sharing your time today and enlightening us on on progesterone specifically and also on on the impacts of adrenaline seemed to be very far reaching. Thank you so much.

It's been a pleasure.

Thank you for listening to today's show and for your interest in health optimization for high performance. If you're new to my podcast, you may be interested to know that you can get a free health score and report complete with personalised recommendations on how to optimise your sleep, nutrition, fitness and resilience in the top link in the show notes below. I hope you enjoyed this episode. Links to everything we talked about are also in the show notes and if you enjoyed today's show, please subscribe for more