Age Well Hormone Health

Age Well Hormone Health We are a wellness practice serving midlife women in Illinois.

We use integrative approach to health, focusing on disease prevention, weight loss, HRT, cognitive health and hormone healing.

09/11/2026

If your cholesterol jumped after menopause, you're not imagining it.

The SWAN study followed over 1,000 women through menopause.
LDL rose the most in the year around their final period.
That's more than aging alone would explain. It's the hormone shift.

So if your last lipid panel was drawn before menopause, that's not your number anymore.

Here's the part no one explains.
Most lab reports don't flag LDL as "high" until 160.
But in a dementia meta-analysis of more than a million people, LDL above about 116 was linked to higher dementia risk.

That's the woman who hears "borderline, let's watch it."
For years.

⚠️To be clear, 116 is a research cutoff, not a treatment target.
It's a reason to have a real conversation about your overall risk.

In 2024, the Lancet Commission added high midlife LDL to its list of 14 modifiable dementia risk factors.

Their advice is simple.
Check it from around age 40.
Treat it if it's high.

Your homework this week:
Find your last lipid panel.
Check the date.
Check your LDL.

Coming up in the Brain Health Series:
Day 11: The two labs that tell you more than LDL ever will
Day 12: "Will statins hurt my memory?" A dementia NP answers
Day 13: What food can and can't do for your cholesterol

Follow so you don't miss them.

➡️Do you know your LDL number? Comment YES or NOPE 👇

Annie August, NP, Menopause Society Certified Practitioner

Sources: SWAN study, JACC 2009 | Lancet Commission on Dementia, 2024

*This post is for education only and is not medical advice. Please talk with your own healthcare provider about your labs and treatment options.

09/10/2026

Today we talk about right now.
If you’ve been losing words mid sentence, rereading the same email, walking into rooms and forgetting why, and someone told you that’s just midlife, I want you to know that’s not an answer. That’s a shrug.

Your hormones, thyroid, blood sugar and sleep are all connected. When one goes quiet, the fog rolls in. It’s fixable. It’s just that nobody looked.

The Hormone Clarity Visit is 30 minutes with me, $39. going through what’s actually happening and what to do about it.
Also includes Styku 3D body scan and Midlife Mastery Guide.
Link in bio.
10 spots available before September 30.


1424 E Main Street
St Charles Illinois 60174

You walk into a room and forget why you came in. You slept eight hours and you're still exhausted. Your weight won't mov...
09/09/2026

You walk into a room and forget why you came in. You slept eight hours and you're still exhausted. Your weight won't move and you haven't changed a single thing you eat.
And somewhere along the way, someone told you that's just your age.

I hear this every week. Women who've been handed that answer for two, three, four years, and who've started to believe there's nothing to be done.

There usually is. Hormones, thyroid, blood sugar and sleep are all talking to each other, and when one of them goes quiet you feel it everywhere. The trick is knowing where to look.

That's what the Hormone Clarity Visit is. 30 minutes, just the two of us, going through what's changed and what you've already tried. You leave knowing what to look at next.

It's $39, and it comes off your Full Workup if you decide to go further.
I'm in St. Charles at 1424 E Main, and I see women by telehealth throughout Illinois.
Booking link is in the comments.

~Annie August
Nurse Practitioner

09/08/2026

Who would you want sitting across from you at 99? Who is your person?

Your brain needs conversation sometimes more than it needs a crossword.
Sometimes you’ll avoid that conversation because maybe you can’t hear it or your brain fog makes it too hard to keep up.

Two things you can do
-schedule a hearing test
-schedule a Clarity visit with us. Let’s talk about what’s maybe limiting your life, your friendships.

Day 8


AgeWellHormoneHealth.com
(224)490-0887

09/08/2026

If you are the daughter making these drives to visit mom. I want you to know that the questions you are asking me are the right ones. And I want you to hear the second half of what I just said. Whatever you learn about your mother's history is also information about YOUR own.

If you want to know where you actually stand, a Hormone Clarity Visit is where we start.

Day 7 of 30 Brain Health Series. Follow along

AgeWell Hormone Health, St Charles IL. Comment CLARITY or call 224-490-0887.

Your fasting glucose can sit at 92 for a decade while your insulin works harder and harder to hold it there.The number l...
09/07/2026

Your fasting glucose can sit at 92 for a decade while your insulin works harder and harder to hold it there.
The number looks fine. The system is straining. And nobody tells you.

Day 6 of the Brain Health Series.

Researchers have nicknamed Alzheimer's "type 3 diabetes." That is not an official diagnosis and I want to be clear about that. But the nickname stuck because brain imaging shows reduced glucose metabolism in the same regions Alzheimer's affects first.

The brain is still getting fuel. It is just not using it well.

Type 2 diabetes is one of the 14 modifiable dementia risk factors. But nobody wakes up diabetic one morning. Insulin resistance comes first, sometimes by ten or fifteen years, and it is nearly invisible on a standard lab panel.

Insulin sensitivity also declines during the menopause transition. Same window as the blood pressure. Same window as the cholesterol. Again.

This is why I keep saying muscle over scale. Muscle is where most of your glucose gets used. Losing weight without protecting muscle does not fix the metabolic picture, and it may make it worse.

So here is what to ask for:
Fasting insulin. Most panels leave it off unless someone requests it.
Hemoglobin A1c.
Your triglyceride to HDL ratio.
Normal is not the same as optimal. And it is definitely not the same as early.

If you want help knowing where you actually stand, that is what I do.
A Hormone Clarity Visit is where we start. Full history, medication review, and a body composition scan so we are looking at your muscle and not just a number on a scale.

Comment CLARITY or the link is in my bio.

What to actually do about the blood pressure:Measure it right. Upper arm cuff at home, not a wrist device. Sit five minu...
09/06/2026

What to actually do about the blood pressure:
Measure it right. Upper arm cuff at home, not a wrist device. Sit five minutes first, feet flat, arm at heart level. Two readings a minute apart, morning and evening, for a week. One number in an office is not your blood pressure.

Add potassium instead of just cutting salt. The 2025 guidelines now specifically recommend potassium-based salt substitutes, and the target is 3,500 to 5,000 mg of potassium a day from food. Beans, potatoes, avocado, leafy greens, yogurt, salmon. Adding is easier to stick to than subtracting. Check with your provider first if you have kidney disease or take an ACE inhibitor, ARB, or potassium-sparing diuretic.

Wall sits. Not a typo. Isometric exercise beat aerobic and resistance training for lowering systolic pressure in a large analysis, and the wall squat was the most effective version. Four holds of two minutes, three times a week.

The two hidden ones:
Alcohol raises it more than most midlife women expect.
And untreated sleep apnea drives blood pressure that won't come down no matter what you do. It's badly underdiagnosed in postmenopausal women because we were trained to look for it in men.

And about the salt. Estrogen was helping regulate how your vessels handle sodium. After menopause, many women get more salt sensitive. So it isn't that you started eating differently. Your body started responding differently, and nobody told you.

Day 5/30 Brain Health Series

Follow as we talk about the 14 modifiable risk factors for Alzheimer’s Awareness Month.

Annie August, NP
AgeWellHormoneHealth.com
(224)490-0887

09/04/2026

Day 3 of the brain series.

Four stages. Most women have no idea which one they're in.

And the one that gets missed is stage two, because you're still having periods. So everyone tells you you're fine while your cycle quietly slides seven days in either direction and the fog rolls in.

research found the earliest brain changes connected to Alzheimer's begin earlier than anyone thought. In the women who go on to develop them, during perimenopause. Not at 70.
Which sounds terrifying until you flip it. If it starts there, that's where you can do something about it.
Not a warning. A window.

So here's where to start today.
1. Write down the date your period started. That's it. Just the date, in your notes app, every month. You cannot tell which stage you're in from memory, and the difference between stage one and stage two is whether those dates are moving by a week. Three months of dates and you'll know.

2. Pick up something heavy twice a week. Muscle isn't about the mirror. It's where your body handles blood sugar, and steadier blood sugar is a better day for your brain. Two sessions. Twenty minutes. Start with your own body weight if that's what you've got.

3. Find out what your blood pressure actually is. Not the number from three years ago. Midlife blood pressure is one of the most consistently identified modifiable risk factors for dementia, and it is silent, and the machine at the pharmacy is free. Go stand at it this week.

Comment your stage. 1, 2, 3, or 4. I'll tell you what's worth paying attention to at yours.

Annie August
Nurse Practitioner

If you want someone to go through all of this with you, that's the Clarity Visit. 30 minutes, $39
Age Well Hormone Health
St. Charles, IL

09/02/2026

You walked into the kitchen and forgot why.
->here’s what’s actually going on.

Researchers scanned the brains of women in different phases of the menopause transition. we’re starting to see the brain starts using less fuel. Estrogen helps deliver energy to your brain, and when it drops, delivery gets less efficient.

menopause hormone therapy research has not proved that it prevents dementia. But knowing what’s going on, drives the discussion further

We have the same brain.
But less fuel getting through
2 out of 3 people with Alzheimer’s are women, and “women live longer “doesn’t fully explain that

Let’s stop treating night sweats like a comfort issue. Deep sleep is when your brain clears out the junk that builds up all day. Night sweats fragment your sleep.
What can you do?
-Try to lower the temperature in the room 65–68°. No w**e within three hours of bed. Cotton sheets, cotton pajamas.

Then stop tolerating the 3 AM wake up as something “normal”

Brain fog has a whole list of possible causes. Thyroid. B12. Iron. Blood sugar. Sleep. Your medication list. And yes, the hormone shift. Most women get told it’s just menopause without one of them being looked at. That’s not a diagnosis. That’s a shrug.

Comment BRAIN FOG and I’ll send you the symptom sheet I use with my patients

Annie August, FNP-BC
AgeWellHormoneHealth.com



* this is general education, not medical advice. It does not diagnose anything, does not create a patient relationship, and does not replace care from your own clinician. Some of these symptoms have a lot of possible causes, so talk to your provider who knows your history before changing anything.

09/02/2026

Day 1 of the September Brain Health Series.

I met a 65 year old woman today who could not tell me her daughter’s name. I turn 55 next month.

For ten years I’ve walked into memory care units. What I actually manage is not memory loss. It’s the depression, the anxiety, the insomnia, the agitation, the aggression. That’s the part nobody prepares families for.

55 million people worldwide. 7 million Americans. 2 out of 3 of them women.

All month we’re covering why, and what’s actually modifiable.

Save this and follow along.

Address

1424 E Main Street
Saint Charles, IL
60174

Opening Hours

Monday 8am - 6pm
Tuesday 8am - 6pm
Wednesday 5pm - 8pm
Friday 8am - 8pm
Saturday 7am - 12pm

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