As was written in Elle Magazine: So in April 2009, I flew to Torrance, California, to investigate my alternatives, or rather, a practitioner of alternative medicine: Kent Holtorf, MD, a high-octane hormone guru, board-certified in anti-aging medicine, who can answer your medical questions by instantly offering an informative handout or medical study as if pulling a rabbit from a hat. After a gamut of tests, Holtorf determined that I was not metabolizing the synthetic thyroid hormones and that I was suffering from a deficiency of iodine, an element essential to thyroid production. And my estrogen level was zero. Was I having hot flashes? No, but I was enduring other discomforts, like dry eyeballs and a desperate case of arid female nether regions. Holtorf plied me with dietary supplements and bioidentical products— estrogen gel, progesterone pills, and thyroid hormone. All that was missing was a wheatgrass chaser.\r
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Five months later, I flew off to Florida for the Life Extension conference. I arrived on Friday night at Fort Lauderdale’s Westin Hotel on the aptly named Corporate Drive, and despite being a night owl, I made the 8 a.m. start time of the two-day program. But as the hours rolled by, my eyes glazed over, not merely from exhaustion but from sheer boredom. I wasn’t hearing anything new. That was when I knew that a lot had happened to me in the two and a half months since I had registered for this snoozefest. For starters, Holtorf’s hormonal goody bag was delivering on its promises. Having shed 10 pounds, I was feeling brighter and lighter.\r
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