Optimal Health Hickory

06/03/2026

06/03/2026

05/30/2026

Finally fresh produce season!!! 😍

05/29/2026

🎉Our new business cards!🎉

05/29/2026

Some of our fave slides that we just found in our camera reel from the Optimal Health & Wellness Wellness Symposium! Already excited for the next one!

05/27/2026

This is a sampling of the types of labs we perform to help identify root causes and imbalances. They are not always necessary, but when we run them, they always assist in making treatment decisions and recommendations.

05/24/2026

PERIMENOPAUSE:

This is a highly turbulent time in a woman's life. Hormones begin to decline and fluctuate. This can lead to various uncomfortable symptoms, and also increases the risk for several diseases.

Progesterone is the first hormone that really begins to decline and can lead to some pronounced symptoms. These often include increasing breast tenderness, mood swings, insomnia, fatigue, anxiety, irritability, depression, abdominal bloating, migraines, and irregular menstrual cycles.

Several of the symptoms frequently result in prescriptions for medications that are not addressing the problem, such as antidepressants or anxiety medication, migraine medications, NSAIDs, or sleep aids.

It is a commonly held belief that progesterone serves a single role in the body, which is protection of the uterus, and preparation of the uterus for implantation of an egg for pregnancy. Progesterone, however, has many more functions throughout the body.

Progesterone Functions:
Reproduction (implantation and maintaining the uterine lining).
Regulates the menstrual cycles.
Mood regulation.
Neuroprotective. Supports healthy cognitive function.
Brain production and regeneration, including production of myelin
Sedative effects (calms the brain).
Immune regulation (autoimmunity).
Maintenance of healthy bone (osteoblast proliferation).

If you have been unfortunate enough to have a hysterectomy, gynecology may tell you that progesterone is unnecessary because you no longer have a uterus. They may put you on estrogen replacement, but this will contribute to a state of estrogen dominance. That can result in many of the symptoms associated with perimenopause as progesterone would naturally decline but estrogen levels continue to fluctuate. When you review the functions of progesterone, you can see why this may not be a good idea.

We evaluate women in perimenopause or postmenopause and provide hormone support therapy for those that are interested. You do not need to struggle through this.

05/20/2026

Please please please do your research and/or come talk to you about hormones could help you!

Serious damage was inflicted approximately 23 years ago when a cardiologist decided to misinterpret the data from the women's health initiative and concluded that there was significantly increased risk for breast cancer associated with hormone replacement therapy, including estrogen and progesterone.

Millions of women had the 💩 scared out of them, their gynecologists and Primary Care Providers immediately stopped prescribing menopausal hormone therapy, and it has been an uphill fight ever since.

There were dozens of studies before it, and there have been dozens of studies since. Interestingly, a reinterpretation of the original study data did not reflect increased risk with estrogen therapy. This should have been one of the biggest medical scandals in recent history, yet it often goes overlooked.

We often spend upwards of 30 minutes of an appointment discounting this misinformation when communicating the potential benefits of hormone replacement therapy with a patient. The fear instilled is real.

I wonder if there are any other drugs or conditions that have been communicated in a similar way? 🧐

05/20/2026

✨We have openings for new functional medicine patients next Tuesday & Thursday (5/26 & 5/28)! These can be in the office in Hickory or virtual appointments.

☀️We would love to see you!