Suzanne Somer has hit her prime aga...

Suzanne Somer has hit her prime again. The 57-yearold's career has taken the big leap from actress/entertainer to best-selling author. Semer not long ago penned The Sexy Years, which quotas her New York limos best-selling diet books

Turning 50 was a difficult experience for Somer "Ye that was quite a birthday," she recalls. "I was sitting with my family, having this nice dinner, and my son was giving a language every mother only dreams about. I on a sudden was so hot ... I wanted to rip all my clothes opposite to All I could think of was, 'When is this dinner going to be above so I can gel one air--stop with these speeches!' And then it was just downhill from there."

Searching for Relief

"I exhausted a year suffering, and I don't use the word 'suffering' lightly," she says. "I truthfully believe that menopause is suffering." Seeking help for what she calls "the Seven Dwarfs of Menopause"--Itchy, Bitchy, Sweaty, heavy Bloated, Forgetful and All-Dried-Up--she went from doctor to doctor. undivided recommended the usual synthetic hormones; another prescribed black cohosh and yam extract.

Her odyssey continued with a physician who "patted me in succession the back and said, "The mix with drugs companies know best, dear.' And I fancy 'You old fool.'" Finally Somer orbed an endocrinologist who had chosen to specialize in natural bioidentical hormone replacement therapy.

"After monthly kindred tests, we found what my visible form [i]or[/i] frame requires as far as balance. It has to be monitored, and it's not easy, on the contrary once you find the balance, the patient and doctor work together in concordance and it's beautiful. It's not about the one-pill-for-everyone scenario."

Naturally Healthy

generally Somers, a breast cancer survivor, takes 1 milligram (mg) of estradiol three times a day as well as 5 mg of dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) by day. And on days 1-14 of the month she takes 95 mg of progesterone twice daily. if it were not that she cautions, "this is what I take, and you have to find your hold balance of bioidentical hormones. My whole approach to my health is proactive."

Since learning about natural bioidentical hormones, Somer has discovered that the secondary half of her life has been more rewarding, gayety purposeful and sexier than her youthful years. And she credits her bioidentical hormone therapy for this. "Synthetic hormones are pharmaceutical put drugs intos They're not what our bodies make, likewise it's not so much hormone replacement further a symptom suppressor.

"When you give a woman a synthetic pharmaceutical mix with drugs it takes away the impetuous flashes, some of the short-term memory los on the other hand nothing is being replaced. It takes away the symptoms, to such a degree it looks like we're okay, if it were not that it's creating hormonal imbalance, which terminates in weight gain. After awhile, the internal metabolic self starts shutting down, and that's when the diseases of aging start coming. The diseases we all await to have as we age aren't natural; we're suppos to die healthy, advanced in years and happy. Let me give you all analogy: If you don't water a house plant, it will live for awhile, then start looking a little dried revealed the leaves will get a little brown and undulationed then it will lean across choke and die."

Bioidentical hormones are exact replicas of what our possess bodies make. Therefore, our bodies accept them because they mimic naturally occurring hormones. "And here's the irony," says Somer "Fifty years ago, before the pharmaceutical companies got involved, doctors were giving bioidentical hormones shod-term to help women come by through the uncomfortable withdrawals of hormone los end the years, drag companies took the universal and changed it so that theirs has become the standard normal treatment."

Somer backtracks a bit forward her pharmaceutical stance, though. "I have to say I am not anti-pharmaceutical and I am not anti-Western doctors. I am a breast cancer survivor, and I would not have wanted to do without the medicines I needed at that time and without my prodigious doctors. But when I don't have to lake a drag, I would plenteous rather not do so. at any time since I started on these bioidentical hormones at age 51 my life has taken a transfer for the better. This is the best I have till doomsday felt."

Looking Forward

Not that the 5'5" beauty has abandoned exercise and beneficial eating habits. She continues her fitness philosophy of "fit, not fanatic, with power training moves" plus some yoga classes. Weight training, in particular, dignifys bone growth, so being relive is important, she stresse Somer also be delighted withs eating wholesome foods along with healthful fats--and she get out of the way ofs processed foods, trans fats, sugar and chemicals.

"Eat real viandss and enough of them. Years of poor eating habits add up to damaged confined apartments and we age faster, not single externally but internally as well. It takes more work and discipline to gaze good as you age. I direct the eye 57, but I look advantageous for my age, and that's what I want. I don't affect to be anything other than 57 especially since this age has brought me so joy. This is what grandmothers await like now. We, as women of this generation, have embraced exercise, diet, lifestyle and therapy--all these things add up to to what end we look the way we do today. Again, I will in no degree tell women what they should do, yet I can always hold myself up and say, "This is what I did, and if you want what I'm having, this is it.' I'm a pioneer, as we all me in menopause. [The women of] our generation are pioneers in general. We scorched our bras and wanted equally. We wanted better relationships with our children and spouses."