Hormone health is a major pillar of functional medicine. Without healthy hormones, your overall health will be compromised. Let’s take a look at hormones that should be monitored and how each contributes to overall well-being. The thyroid runs our overall "motor" and autoimmune hypothyroidism (Hashimoto’s) is the most common of all autoimmune diseases. I have had that since the age of 57. Thyroid replacement to healthy blood levels is the treatment of choice. Recently, red light and near-infrared light therapy have been shown to help reverse this problem. I will share more on this in my next article. Cortisol is produced by the adrenal glands and increases with stress. Managing stress is the key to healthy cortisol levels. Mental health therapists and/or integrative health practitioners can help by advising on stress-reduction practices and appropriate supplementation. More commonly referenced are the sex hormones: estrogen for women and testosterone for men. I recommend all women readEstrogen Matters: Why Taking Hormones in Menopause Can Improve and Lengthen Women's Lives - Without Raising the Risk of Breast Cancer by breast cancer oncologist Avrum Bluming, MD, and psychologist Carol Tavris, PhD. Originally published in 2018 and updated in 2024, this book addresses the important benefits of estrogen in aging women and new information for breast cancer survivors. Keep in mind, however, that the type of breast cancer may determine whether taking estrogen hormone after treatment is the best option for you. While the book presents an innovative change in thinking, hormone replacement therapy for estrogen receptorpositive breast cancer is not generally recommended, so explore your options with your doctors. A similar book for men is Testosterone for Life: Recharge Your Vitality, Sex Drive, Muscle Mass and Overall Health by Harvard urologist Abraham Morgentaler, MD (2008). Dr. Morgentaler believes that all men should have normal levels of testosterone for their age, even if they have had prostate cancer. Testosterone levels drop with age, from 650-800 in our 30s to 300-400 in our 70s and 80s. Below 300 is regarded as hypogonadism. About 25% of senior men fall into those low levels and should be offered replacement to normal levels for their age, not treated to higher (age 30) levels, as often happens with some hormone replacement therapies. Morgentaler has performed and cites research to support this claim. I know these two controversial books will generate a lot of questions and you should discuss them with your integrative health practitioner and or medical team. You are in charge of your overall health and have the power to make these decisions. There are a lot of nuances around maintaining hormone health. For example, excess body fat will cause your sex hormones to be off balance, and rebalancing them starts with reducing excess fat, especially in the trunk. I strongly encourage this before you start taking hormones, especially testosterone in men. If all your hormones are in balance, you should be well on your way to healthy longevity. Dr. Scherger is the founder of Restore Health Disease Reversal in Indian Wells, a clinic dedicated to weight loss and reversing chronic medical conditions. To schedule a consultation, call (760) 898.9663 or visit www.restorehealth.me. www.DesertHealthNews.com Integrative Medicine The Valley's Leading Resource for Health and Wellness 14 March/April 2026 www.circecares.com Holistic pproach to Patient-Centered Care t Circe Healthcare Solutions, our compassionate team takes the time to understand each patient, empo ering them to take control of their health journey through education and disease prevention. Integrative Primary Care Health Coaching Mindfulness Practices No accepting ne primary care patients ith most major insurances accepted. Edith Jones-Poland, M.D. Founder/Family and Integrative Care Physician Patricia Van Santen, D.A.O.M. Doctor of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine Patricia 760-773-4948 Palm Desert 73345 Hwy. 111, Ste. 101 Yucca Valley 57463 Twentynine Palms Hwy, Ste. 202 circecares.com Bachir Younes, MD, MPH 760.636.1336 36923 Cook St # 103, Palm Desert Roula Younes, DNP Hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) is recommended for treating a variety of medical conditions including expediting wound healing. Desert Hyperbaric Medicine is a part of Younes Medical offering comprehensive care for patients. The company encompasses aninfectious disease clinic, a state-of-the-art wound care center and the largest independent IV fusion therapy facility in the valley—Desert Infusion Center. Immerse yourself in healing 760.773.3899 Daily discussions about artificial intelligence seem to paint an image of both friend and foe. Given its tremendous power to reshape our world, it is important to understand this tool and its place within an overarching strategy for health and wellness. Artificial intelligence (AI), and the large language models (LLMs) such as Claude, Chat GPT and Google’s Gemini, are able to search, recognize, translate, summarize and generate text responses and images based on large data sets. Using a huge amount of known data, they can synthesize, summarize and generate information based on a user’s prompt. This ability to quickly search vast amounts of data makes the technology a potentially useful tool in the health care system and individuals seeking health-related information. According to a statement from the American Medical Association (AMA), “physicians should be encouraged to educate their patients about the benefits and risks of using AI-based tools, such as LLMs, for information about health care conditions, treatment options or the type of health care professionals who have the education, training and qualifications to treat a particular condition. Patients and physicians should be aware that chatbots powered by LLMs/generative AI could provide inaccurate, misleading or unreliable information and recommendations.”1 First, let’s discuss some of the limitations of the current AI LLMs: • LLMs capitalize on “known” (or available) information. This opens the potential for corruption based on the bias of information used to create the data set. This means, the model could be flooded with misinformation or turn to unreliable sources. • LLMs are prone to hallucinations. This means they can fabricate answers or sources that do not exist. These results will be returned to look legitimate, and the user is left to fact-check the AI tool.° •LLMs lack discernment. Without a specific prompt, they will (not by default) rely on highly trusted resources. Despite well designed research prompts, the LLM can return inaccurate information and provide different responses, even when repeating the same prompt. • LLMs are prone to the same bias and prejudice inherent in human society. According to the AMA, these technologies are largely unregulated and there is no current guidance to improve their accuracy or to strip their bias. The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has some authority to regulate activities considered to be unfair, deceptive or abusive business practices and can enforce laws for consumer protection. However, these authorities are not specific to AI and the agency is generally under-resourced in this area. While the FDA provides some regulation and guidance for AI tools used by physicians, LLMs used by the public are considered for “educational purposes” only and are not subject to FDA oversight. Without oversight and given the FTC's limited scope, there is a recognized gap that poses a threat to the public.± The goal to prevent disinformation requires more research to improve the accuracy of the LLM’s responses to prompts, and guidance on industry-related design that generates safer sources of information. My research did not produce precise guidance on improving public use of LLMs for medical information search. Using my own experience with these models and review of the literature, here are helpful guidelines to consider: Hormone Health for Life By Joseph E. Scherger, MD, MPH The Benefits and Limitations of “Dr. AI” By Edith Jones-Poland, MD Continued on page 18
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