I mentioned the Hotze Health and Wellness center in a previous post, pointing out they have great customer service.

I didn’t really discuss what they do at the time because I try to keep blog entries focused on one thing at a time. You can go to their website and get a detailed explanation or listen to their radio show in Houston at noon Monday through Thursday on KSEV 700 AM.

In a nut shell they attempt to return people’s hormone levels to the same level they were at their prime. They do this with bio-identical hormones, meaning hormones that are chemically identical to the ones your body produces.

As we age we naturally produce less of the important hormones that we produced when younger. For women the big one is progesterone and for men it is testosterone. For both you are generally too low in thyroid hormone as well.

The doctors at HHW look at your symptoms – which are listed on their site – and determine which hormones you need. Then they prescribe them for you and increase the dose until your symptoms go away. They take blood work, but use it more to track change than diagnose.

For me the big symptoms were a lack of drive, an inability to finish things, mood swings and “brain fog”. I finally decided it was worth the money – it ain’t cheap – and went in Monday morning.

I had the choice of giving myself a weekly shot of testosterone or taking pills. I knew was going to be taking a lot of supplements and I didn’t want another pill a day to have to take. So I opted for the shot.

They train you by letting you give yourself your first shot in their office. Since I was already taking a shot, they also added B-12 to the shot. So yesterday I gave myself my first shot, 1 ml of testosterone and 2 ml of b-12. Next week my testosterone is going down to .5 ml, this week’s being a boost to get you started.

Marcy, my nurse, told me if I squeezed a big piece of my thigh before giving myself the shot it wouldn’t hurt when I stuck the needle in. She was right. The only pain was a little soreness as the liquid when in if I did it too fast.

I’m also taking Armour thyroid (a thyroid replacement), Cortosal (for adrenal fatigue), and DHEA (a hormone precursor). Eventually I will take every one of these every day, but to start with they add one every three days. This gives them a chance to notice if you have any adverse reactions and know which thing it was. So today I started Armour. On Friday I add the Cortosal.

While looking for how to correctly spell Armour thyroid I found this article. The Case Of The Underactive Thyroid

So far I’m not feeling a lot of change, but I intend to keep this blog updated on my and my wife’s progress. If you decide to link to me, please use Hotze Health and Wellness as the link text. When I went looking for personal experiences with HHW I couldn’t find much. I’d like my google rank to #2 for HHW. If the program works or if it doesn’t, people will get a personal experience when they go looking for information. That’s what blogging is all about.

More on supplementation and diet in a future post.