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ISSUE 3
Dr. Mark Rhodes Newsletter
3 May 2001
CONTENTS
Editorial - Pioneers In Mapping Female Hormones
Summary of Cases Dated 12 March Through 6 April 2001
Featured Supplement - Bos Welya Plus
Featured Test - Female Hormone Panel
Editorial - Pioneers In Mapping Female Hormones
ISSUE 3 — Dr. Mark Rhodes Newsletter, 3 May 2001
About six years ago I got a call from a stranger who ran a medical testing laboratory. He needed a programmer for a fairly complex report he wanted the lab to produce, and he had heard that I might be able to help him.
Elias Ilyia and I agreed to meet in Yakima, Washington, about half way between his lab near Seattle and my home in Northeastern Oregon. Having never met, we somehow identified each other in the hotel lobby. We met for a couple of hours and laid out a strategy to turn his notes into a computer program. The program needed to "map" a female cycle, analyze relative and absolute levels and shapes of each part of the hormonal curves, and identify deviations from normal. A few months later, Diagnos-Techs had a production version that worked.
I was fascinated to find out that hormones in saliva were highly correlated with the active hormone levels in blood. Measuring blood levels or urine levels from a single day did not make sense for cycling women, and taking multiple samples was too costly and impractical. That Elias had been measuring salivary levels of other hormones for years opened the door for what he was about to undertake.
It was clear that Elias had thoroughly explored the primary medical research literature on the subject of what healthy and abnormal female hormone cycles should look like. He knew how the female reproductive system should work. All I had to do was turn his English into variables and mathematical equations, have the program march through the data, and output meaningful reports that doctors could read and use to help their patients. Right. I really had to put on my thinking cap. Back then, I did not even have a "thinking couch" in my office like I do now!
I did not understand at the time what pioneering work we were doing. Diagnos-Techs was the first lab to produce a non-invasive and cost-effective way to map a complete female hormone cycle that any doctor could use as a diagnostic tool. I am very grateful to have been part of the team to accomplish that task.
Thousands of women have been helped since then. The sense of satisfaction I get from that is indescribable.
Summary of Cases Dated 12 March Through 6 April 2001
ISSUE 3 — Dr. Mark Rhodes Newsletter, 3 May 2001
In this four-week period I talked to 65 health care providers from 25 states and two provinces. We discussed 86 tests on 79 patients. Sixty-six of those patients were women (average age 45, range 10 to 72); thirteen were men (average age 49, range 14 to 74).
Of the 86 tests, we discussed 22 Short Post Menopause Hormone Panels, 19 Adrenal Stress Indices, 18 Female Hormone Panels, 11 Expanded Gastrointestinal Health Panels, five Male Hormone Panels, three Regular Gastrointestinal Health Panels, three Long Post Menopause Hormone Panels, and two Short Thyroid Panels. We discussed one each for the Food Intolerance Panel, the Testosterone Female Profile, and the Testosterone Male Profile.
Both children tested were experiencing gastrointestinal problems. The first had two parasites, reduced antibody levels, and low digestive enzymes. The second had inflammation of both the small intestine and the colon indicating possible food allergies. (Gastrointestinal tests will be the focus of one of the next issues of the "Dr. Mark Rhodes Newsletter.") The highest percentage of tests discussed were for women in menopause (or with no ovaries) or experiencing effects of stress.
This time, I would like to focus on two success stories for the case studies. Both involve fertility.
The first patient is a 41-year-old woman who desired to get pregnant. She and her doctor thought the Female Hormone Panel (FHP) might provide some helpful information. She mapped a full cycle that started in September and ended in October of 2000. We found her estradiol level was a little low but not too bad. Her progesterone surge was just a little sluggish in starting, the amount produced was a little low, and it dropped off a little too quickly.
We devised a day-by-day (days 22 through 29 of her cycle) sublingual progesterone dosing that would fill out the luteal phase of the cycle so that she would have more optimal levels of progesterone. That was on 24 October.
In March, she was a little late for her period when she suffered a knee injury. She thought it was bad enough to go the emergency room and have an x-ray. Because she was of child-bearing age, they performed a pregnancy test before the x-ray. She was pregnant!
The second patient is a 34-year-old woman who had tried to get pregnant for about a year. Using the FHP, she mapped her cycle that began in February and ended in early March 2001. She was low in DHEA, and her luteal-phase progesterone fell off too fast.
Again we discussed day-by-day (days 21 through 31 for her) dosing of sublingual progesterone that would "correct" the defect (dropping too quickly). By the end of that next cycle, she was pregnant!
I am thrilled. To me every child is a blessing from God. We used science and insight to help struggling couples succeed.
Actually, only a small percentage of women who take the FHP have fertility problems. Also, problems like low sperm count or blocked fallopian tubes are the realm of fertility clinics. Where we have a degree of success is in adjusting hormone levels to more closely resemble ideal curves.
I will present some case studies in another newsletter showing how doctors use the FHP to help women with other kinds of problems.
Featured Supplement - Bos Welya Plus
ISSUE 3 — Dr. Mark Rhodes Newsletter, 3 May 2001
I experience inflammation in my nasal passages resulting in both chronic and acute sinusitis. The problem stems from a car wreck where I got hit on the face just to the left of my nose. I had been to ENT specialists for six or seven years, used various medications, and spent quite a bit of money with really very little relief. However, with the help of Diagnos-Techs testing and an Interplexus supplement called Bos Welya Plus, I am about 80-90% symptom free.
Acute sinus infections that used to last two weeks or more now usually are gone in a day or two when I take my Bos Welya Plus.
The main ingredient in Bos Welya Plus is frankincense, a plant resin that has been used and valued for thousands of years.
Featured Test - Female Hormone Panel
ISSUE 3 — Dr. Mark Rhodes Newsletter, 3 May 2001
Although the case studies I presented above were related to fertility, most doctors use the Female Hormone Panel to address PMS, migraines, weight gain, hirsutism, or symptoms of perimenopause in their women patients. We use 11 saliva samples over the course of a female hormone cycle to map the two main hormones of interest: estradiol and progesterone. We also measure average levels of DHEA and testosterone.
After testing, we find that women with symptoms often have some defect in the shape or magnitude of their progesterone curve. As a result, therapy often involves using progesterone to augment or "reshape" the woman's own ovarian output. Not only does the progesterone help with deficiencies, but some retraining of the body occurs so that the patient's native ability to produce hormones at the right time improves.
Interactive Case Studies
ISSUE 3 — Dr. Mark Rhodes Newsletter, 3 May 2001
One of the compounding pharmacists that subscribes to the newsletter had an idea. How would you like to see interactive case studies on the web site? For example, perhaps I could present medical history and symptoms. You could help decide what tests to use. Then I could present the lab results. Then you could decide what to do for that hypothetical patient. Does this sound interesting? E-mail me.
Warm regards,
Dr. Mark Rhodes, Ph.D.
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