Archive for April, 2007

Some information about Allergies from Dr. Roby

Wednesday, April 18th, 2007

In my view, ALL allergy symptoms begin as reactions to airborne allergens. In almost every case I see, there is an initial history of the most common of all allergy symptoms… nose congestion and/or eye irritation. Pollen and mold are the two most common allergens in the air. Some people react to chemicals in the air, but these are a small minority compared to the vast number of people who react to pollen and mold.

The most common reactions to airborne allergens include stuffy nose, red or irritated eyes, throat irritation, and cough. These occur FIRST, and usually seasonally, when allergic reactions begin. Most people will realize what they are reacting to because there are clearly defined SEASONS when the most common and the most powerful pollens occur.

Fall, for example, is RAGWEED season. So, if you get a stuffy nose and a low-grade fever (up to 100 degrees) during August or September, you are probably having an allergy attack. If this occurs in December or January, you are getting “Cedar Fever” (at least in Central Texas you are). If your symptoms occur every spring, you are reacting to trees or early grasses. In summer, it’s the grass pollen. You can tell it’s allergies because viruses generally last FIVE DAYS, induce a fever MUCH higher than allergy fever, and the mucus from a cold (virus) explodes forward (think of boxes and boxes of Kleenex for a bright red, drippy nose). Allergy mucus drains down the throat, not out the front.
There is much throat clearing (harumph, harumph, etc.). It goes on FOREVER (several weeks or the length of the pollen season).

There is often a low-grade fever of up to 100 degrees. Symptoms are often worse at night and many will find themselves “soaking” their bedclothes or pillows during the night. The fever connected with allergy has been described for three centuries and has many popular names. The two most common are “Hay Fever” and “Cedar Fever.” Most people first experience allergy symptoms during one season. As the years go by, they experience symptoms in two seasons. Eventually the person will become so sensitive that they will react ALL year round. Then, they decide that it’s time to call the allergist!

Probably even more common than pollen allergy is mold allergy. While pollen affects people seasonally, mold affects us every night with little regard to seasons. Pollen is released during the hottest part of the day so that the thermals can carry the pollen far and wide. Mold goes off during the night. (A process called “sporulation” as opposed to pollen’s “pollenation.”) Mold cannot tolerate sunlight so the most efficient mold will sporulate at the darkest time of the night. The highest mold counts occur in our homes around 2:00 AM when spores begin to blow out of our air-conditioning systems and spread throughout the house. Like most of us, I first react with swelling in my mucus membrane (my nose stops up), followed by the release of my emergency allergy hormone… ADRENALIN. Many of us, who are sensitive to mold, will find ourselves waking up about 3:00 AM, wondering why we are awake. It’s the Adrenalin. I head to the bathroom. Then I realize that THAT wasn’t enough to wake me up. Then I realize that I cannot breathe out of one side of my nose. That is what mold typically does to us. The symptoms you get when you first go to bed, the symptoms you have during the night, and the symptoms that persist into the morning when you first get up, are caused by MOLDS.

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Did you know Hormone Imbalance can cause insomnia?

Tuesday, April 17th, 2007

We see a number of patients that don’t realize their hormones are affecting their quality of life not only when they are awake and active, but also when they are sleeping.  In a basic sense, a lack of the hormone cortisol leads to an excess of adrenaline.  When our bodies run on adrenaline all day instead of using cortisol, our muscles become fatigued more then they should.  Similarly, when we lay down to rest at night, the adrenaline still pulsing through our system makes it near impossible to get a good night’s rest.

Below, please find further information about why hormone imbalance may be leading you to not getting enough restful sleep.  The original article, from Savy Cafe, is published Here

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There are four categories of sleep disorders: insomnia, hypersomnia, sleeping disruptive disorders, and having trouble sticking to a normal sleep pattern.

Many factors may impact the ordinary sleep cycle for women. Changes in hormone levels, stress, illness, lifestyle and sleep environment, pregnancy and hormone fluctuations associated with menstrual cycles, premenstrual sleep disturbances, psychosocial stress, depression, and anxiety have all been named as causes. Pain, grief, and worry can disturb sleep, as can certain medical conditions, medications, and breathing disorders, in menopausal and postmenopausal women.

Menopause hits middle aged women and can cause anxiety and heart palpitations. A decrease in hormone levels can cause insomnia, frequent awakenings, and fragmented sleep. Some menopausal women experience hot flashes at night which are medically termed night sweats. Over 30% of women suffer from night sweats which can start several years before menopause sets in.

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Do you experience Menstrual Migraines?

Monday, April 16th, 2007

At Roby Institute, we regularly see women patients who experience severe headaches only at certain times of the month.  Without fail, these headaches are due to changes in hormone levels.  Thankfully, Menstrual Migraine and Premenstrual Migraine are very treatable symptoms.  Below you will find some interesting general information about Menstrual Migraine and Premenstrual Migraine.  Original article posted Here

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Women are indeed beautiful. However, womanhood is always accompanied by the woes of menstrual troubles. Monthly visits are oftentimes accompanied by discomfort that can sometimes affect the day-to-day activities of women. It’s not only about menstrual cramps; menstrual migraine could also be a nuisance.

Migraine headaches are more commonly experienced by women. These are severe headaches that are often accompanied by auras or visual disturbances. Auras can also mean disturbances in smell or hearing. Auras precede migraine pain and is usually the tell-tale sign that a full-blown headache is about to ensue.

Women who have reported migraines usually connect the experience with their menstrual period. The headaches are usually felt before, during or after menstruation. It is confirmed to be a menstrual migraine if the pain is felt regularly each month at the same time 2 days before menstruation up to the last day of bleeding.

What could cause this menstrual migraine? It has been found that what triggers the attack is falling estrogen during the end of the menstrual cycle. This shows that the treatment can include low doses of estrogen before the expected date of arrival of the menses.

The intake of birth control pills could also be the culprit. If this is observed to be the cause, treatment of low dose estrogen can be given during the seven days of rest after 21 days of pill intake.

It has been found that menstrual migraines are only more common among women as soon as puberty sets in and peaking at menarche or during the onset of menstruation.

Menstrual migraine may accompany other symptoms that embody premenstrual syndrome (PMS). It could come with other symptoms such as fatigue, irritability or depression, lability, appetite changes, bloating and breast tenderness. The most important accompaniment is that of dysmenorrhea. It is lower abdominal cramping pain that could also be so severe that it may affect the usual daily activities of the female.

The attack comes in three phases. During the first phase, prodrome, the female may feel fatigued, euphoric, depressed, hungry, photophobic, phonphobic or hyperosmic. This occurs 12 to 24 hours prior to the headache.

The second phase is the aural phase that is felt 5-20 minutes before the actual headache. Visual disturbances can be in the form of scintillating light or negative features. Often, it is accompanied by numbness of limbs, tingling and even weakness of muscles.

The worst and last phase is the migraine attack. The headache is usually felt as moderate or severe throbbing pain accompanied by vomiting or nausea, photophobia and/or phonophobia. The pain is usually aggravated when she moves. That is why bed rest is usually recommended during this stage.
Attacks like these can be prevented in short-term measures. One way is to stabilize the estrogen level by intake of low-dose estrogen as mentioned earlier or the use of NSAIDS. Being physically active improves the circulation, thus, lessening the tendencies to develop this type of headache.

There are some factors that can trigger the attack like alcohol consumption and food intake that contains tyramine, an ingredient found in cheeses or phenylethylamine, a content of chocolates. Missed meals and late nights could also be contributory, so are sudden weather changes. Therefore, it would be good to try to adjust when menstruation is about to come. Avoiding exacerbating factors such as these could save you the pain.
Thermal biofeedback is has been found to be an effective technique providing relief to the female experiencing these attacks. Learning to do deep breathing and relaxation exercises can be very helpful.

Good lifestyle habits are important factors to prevent attacks. Physical activity that is done regularly decreases the stress and the likelihood of getting a menstrual migraine attack.

It is important to learn to recognize the pattern of your headache. If you have found that it is indeed a menstrual type of migraine, it would be good to consult an obstetrician who could give you options on how to maintain the stability of your estrogen levels.

Knowing the trigger factors can help you determine what to avoid to prevent the attacks from coming. Monitoring your symptoms and what triggers them is therefore an imperative action to prevent the discomfort. Don’t forget, you are going to be menstruating every month for a good many years to come. Therefore, you should do something about it early to maintain the good quality of living.

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Roby Institute to expand Austin and San Antonio Hormone and Allergy treatments

Friday, April 13th, 2007

As a result of continued growth, the Roby Institute will soon add a third physician to see patients in San Antonio and Austin for hormone imbalance, hormone allergy, and allergy.  With this addition, the Roby Institute will continue to work towards accommodating the scheduling needs of each patient.

Dr. Roby says, “When people are not feeling well, it is often difficult for them to get in to see a doctor in a timely manner.  I have always felt that my job was to serve my patients and not the other way around.  We will always do whatever is necessary to make sure our patients can be treated at a time that is convenient for them.  Part of that is making sure we have the resources in place to work with our growing number of
patients.”

“We are very excited about our expansion and our ability to provide fantastic patient care in a timely manner.”

Hormone Imbalance Austin

Hormone Imbalance San Antonio

Allergies Austin

Allergies San Antonio

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Dr. Schwartz talks about Hormone Imbalance

Wednesday, April 11th, 2007

Originally posted Here

Noted hormone doctor Erica Schwartz recently recently posted an excellent piece detailing the differences between different types of hormones. Originally titled, “An Unbiased Look at Hormones”, we have re-printed it here.

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The conversation about hormones is raging around the country, in households and in the healthcare fields. Conventional medicine addresses hormones in the setting of synthetic hormone replacement therapies and treatments for diseases like cancer, thyroid, diabetes, prostate cancer and pituitary abnormalities. Alternative doctors see hormones as the fountain of youth. Media trails behind unsuccessfully attempting to clarify the muddy waters of the world of hormones so few understand. As my column develops, I will try to help shed light into the overall issue of hormones, how they affect our lives, identifying symptoms of hormonal imbalance and safe methods of treatment with an eye for balance and honest, unbiased reporting.

Hormones are agents of change. Hormones are invisible to the naked eye, they are manufactured by specialized cells in specific organs in our bodies and they float throughout our blood stream affecting the action of every cell in our body and helping or ruining our lives depending on their balance, quantity, strength and body’s reaction. Hormones are made in the ovaries, testes, adrenals, pituitary, pancreas, brain, thyroid, parathyroid, hypothalamus and other areas still not known to science.

By hormones I mean: estrogen, progesterone, testosterone, insulin, thyroid, cortisol, adrenalin, dopamine, serotonin and others either labeled as hormones or neurotransmitters. They are all hormones. When our hormones are in balance we are young, healthy, radiant, fertile, wrinkle free and excited abut the possibilities life can offer. Young people with healthy hormone balance have low incidence of heart disease, cancer, arthritis or other chronic illnesses. Hormone levels that have declined or out of balance produce and contribute to chronically ill, dried up, sexually disinterested, overweight and fatigued people. In fact when you have no hormones, all you get is an old person. So if, hormones are great for you in your 20s and keep you beautiful and healthy, then why would anyone debate their usefulness and desirability as we age?

Of course we would all benefit from a little hormone support as we age and in fact those of us who do, find aging a lot more fun and certainly trouble free. So, why doesn’t every doctor in the country prescribe hormones that are safe to the aging or hormonally challenged throngs?

Why Are Natural, Bioidentical Hormones a Secret or a Threat to Conventional Medicine?

Well, to answer that question we need to look at the pharmaceutical industry:

While everyone in both conventional academia and alternative circles agrees that we all need hormones and hormones are crucial to youth and health, drug companies are reluctant to improve our health with natural methods of hormonal supplementation. Why would they be reluctant to give us a safe alternative to keeping us out of harm’s way?

Enter Natural, Bioidentical Hormones

Natural hormones or bioidentical hormones are molecularly identical to the chemical formula of hormones that our bodies make when we were young and healthy. Anything that occurs “naturally,” made by Mother Nature and not tweaked by human hands, cannot be patented. In business terms that translates into no dominion or ownership over the product, because everyone can use it without paying a fee to the owner.

To drug companies, who are only interested in making a profit, having no patent means not making enough money. So natural, bioidentical hormones are undesirable to the drug companies. Forget about the fact that they have been around since Adam and Eve and have been safely used by millions of people:

“While the medical experts have been at each other’s throats, another battle over hormones for women, this one akin to a high-intensity guerrilla war, is being waged on the Internet and in doctors’ offices and small pharmacies around the country. This one pits Wyeth, with nearly $19 billion annual sales, against small pharmacies around the country, and also pits conventional medicine against alternative therapies.

“The conflict came out of the shadows last October when Wyeth, the largest single maker of prescription hormones, filed a complaint with the federal Food & Drug Administration asking it to take action against small pharmacies that make what it and doctors refer to as bioidentical hormones from soy and other plant materials. It has expanded into hand-to-hand combat between the competing interests.” (From Hormone Battle: Big Pharma vs. Small Biz)

Enter Synthetic Hormones

Synthetic hormones are hormone impostors. Odd shaped molecules, which have been tweaked to look totally different from Mother Nature made hormones, become the desirable option for drug companies because they can own a patent on them.

Billions are spent on marketing them, supporting academic research and eliminating the bioidentical hormone distinction in the physician and public consciousness. End result: a patented product with no competition, a billion dollar industry and many sick people who need more and more drugs and procedures. Synthetic hormones have made their way into treatments for a myriad of conditions, including thyroid disease, despite the fact that many patients have simply encountered more health issues upon taking them:

Thyroid disease can be treated. First you need to stop stressing your body, and start eating healthy foods. Diet, exercise and reducing your stress level will start your recovery. Some people have stressed their body for too long and require a thyroid hormone. There are synthetic hormones and natural hormones. Natural is always better. In fact, synthetic hormones can cause more problems than they solve.” (From Symptom Thyroid)

Back to Natural, Bioidentical Hormones

Supplementation of natural, bioidentical hormones have been used as an effective method of treatment for more than 30 years and there have been no reports of cancer or other side-effects. The fact that our bodies recognize bioidentical hormones as their own and do not react to them negatively is significant to you and me since all we care about is to be able to stay health and well for as long as possible.

To summarize the facts:

1. Hormones in balance are good for us. They keep us healthy, young and free of disease.

2. Only bioidentical hormones can help achieve the above goal due to their similarity to our own hormone structure.

3. Synthetic hormones are created to provide financial profit for big drug companies, not to help us feel healthy and well.

4. As we age and our hormone levels decline or become imbalanced, we can help boost our hormone levels safely and naturally by supplementing with natural, bioidentical hormones.

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Autoimmune Disorder and Hormones

Wednesday, April 11th, 2007

QUESTION: I am a twenty- two year old white female. I have always been considered energetic ( to say the least) by others.  However, they don’t see the other side of that.

I experience significant fatigue and have trouble concentrating. When I was about 17 years old I developed a chronic case of hives that the doctors could only treat successfully with prednisone steroids. The hives lasted for about eight months off and on, sometimes becoming so bad I had to have shots to keep my throat from swelling. The tests found a few food allergies and some mold and tree allergies. I also have seasonal allergies and have struggled with asthma symtoms.
About three months ago I started getting hives again and have had to take steroids. Along with the allergy issues I also struggle with heavy, long, unpredictable periods. I get depression and have major mood swings. I’ve been told I have ovarian cysts and recently was told that I probably don’t ovulate at all and that I may have a very difficult time becoming pregnant due to some of these symptoms.

Does Dr. Roby treat patients with symptoms like mine?

Dr. Roby Answers: We have found that women who have the group of symptoms that you are presenting; EPISODIC HIVES, MULTIPLE SEASONAL ALLERGIES, UNPREDICTABLE MENSTRUAL CYCLES, OVARIAN CYSTS, and FAILURE TO OVULATE, have usually have been unsuccessfully treated with steroids for years without total relief. Because the symptoms do not seem, at first glance, to be related, conventional medicine is at a complete loss in trying to find a treatment that will work. They look at the symptoms and see them as an autoimmune disorder. We look at the same symptoms and see them as the symptoms of hormone imbalance, and very often, a true allergic response to one or more of our own hormones.

When our hormones are out of balance, it is usually because we were born deficient in cortisol.  Cortisol is one of the adrenal hormones that the body uses to help cope with life’s small emergencies. Cortisol takes care of things such as minor allergic reactions, scary moments in traffic, etc.  When we don’t have enough of it, we are forced to use the other adrenal hormone: adrenaline.

Because adrenaline is the “heavy duty, big emergency” hormone, and we have a lot of it, we use it for everything This is why you have always been so energetic. Allergic people are addicted to adrenaline.  We like the excitement of working under pressure and making things happen. Unfortunately, it does catch up with us, and it is with the exact symptoms that you have listed.

We have been conducting research on hormone allergy and imbalance for many years, as have others. There are numerous papers and studies reported in the medical literature, going back decades.

If you will go to the website: www.drroby.com, and read the section on Hormone Imbalance/Allergy, it will give you a good idea about what is going on in your body, why it is happening, and what we can do to help you back to feeling good and healthy again. You can continue on with the section on Food Allergy, and then, on to Airborne Allergy. They all are interrelated, and either work well together, or they do not and we like to treat all of the problem areas at one time. It is the quickest path to optimum wellness.

After you have read those sections, we have articles on infertility, depression, etc. You may find that you have a whole new set of questions to ask. Just email them to me, and I will go over them with you. You might also interest your local doctor in participating, should you opt to come here. We really like to involve other physicians in their patients treatments.

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Premenstrual Migraines – Can Dr. Roby help?

Monday, April 2nd, 2007

Premenstrual Migraines (Ohio):

Hello Dr. Roby,

Two weeks before the start of my period I begin to have symptoms with the worst being the week leading up to my period. Irritability, water retention (or swelling?) all over my body, sore breasts, aches and pains, cramps, SEVERE backpain, and SEVERE migraines lasting 3-7 days many of which I must remain is bed – non functional. These headaches are accompanied by earaches, vision disturbances and sensitivity, jaw pain, throat swelling/pain, nasal congestion, shortness of breath and terrible head and neck pain. Basically, it feels like there is a war going on inside my body and I’ve often wondered if my body is producing too much or too little of something that is causing all of this suffering. I have uterine fibroids and have been told I should consider removal of the uterus.

Have you ever heard of these symptoms? Is this what you treat at Roby Institute?

Dr. Roby:

Your symptoms are exactly in line with what we treat everyday here at Roby Institute.

PREMENSTRUAL MIGRAINES, UTERINE FIBROIDS, and other symptoms of HORMONE ALLERGY,have been studied, researched, and reported for decades in medical journals. Unfortunately, conventional medicine has been unable (or unwilling) to connect the dots, thus far. They are still trying to find a cure, even though they don’t yet know the cause. We know from our success that we can help the patients who come to us from all over the world. Most of the people who work in our office started as patients with these same symptoms. We know exactly what our patients are going through and just as importantly, we know how to help them get back to their optimal health level.

You have presented such a classic picture of SEVERE HORMONE IMBALANCE and HORMONE ALLERGY. Every symptom that you have listed indicates hormone allergy as well as imbalance. When the symptoms are worse before the period begins, the indication is that progesterone is the cause. We can be, and frequently are, allergic to more than one of our very own hormones. The good news is that you aren’t sick, and these symptoms can be easily treated. We use dilutions of the offending substances to block the allergic response while you are being desensitized to the allergens. This is called neutralization. While it is a relatively new concept in the United States, it has been used almost exclusively in Europe and most other industrialized nations for over forty years.

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