This is a personal story of mine, an unusual topic for this blog. But, in this case, I thought it would illustrate what really motivates us here at Smart Publications.

According to recent tests, I have experienced a dramatic improvement in my hearing over the past 2 years! Back then, my doctor (Jonathan V. Wright, M.D.) ran a routine test to examine all my hormone levels and pointed out that I had low levels of a hormone called aldosterone, not to be confused with androstenedione aka “andro”. Jonathan V. Wright, M.D. is the well-known author of : Stay Young & Sexy with Bio-Identical Hormone Replacement (for women) and Maximize Your Vitality & Potency—For Men Over 40 (which is all about natural testosterone and is for men.)

Aldosterone plays an important role in fluid regulation and blood pressure and is a concern if it is high. Most doctors would have overlooked this seemingly insignificant lab test result, but Dr. Wright mentioned that sometimes low aldosterone is associated with hearing loss. I immediately thought of my father who had lost much of his hearing in his right ear. Now I have no idea if he also had low aldosterone, but this was enough to make me wake up and pay attention.

On Dr. Wright's suggestion, I got a hearing test and the results, although not terrible, did show some hearing loss in the mid range, especially in the right ear. (This was curious since that's the same ear my father lost hearing in.) Then, on Dr. Wright's prescription, I began taking aldosterone supplements every day. Honestly, I felt nothing at all from it. Disappointing indeed. But I kept taking it anyway, just on faith that it might help (however little) to slow down the progression of my age-related hearing loss.

Fast forward to this year.  I was doing some routine cutting back of personal expenses and almost decided to stop the aldosterone (which wasn't cheap.) I balked at the last minute though and decided to be a bit more scientifically disciplined, so I made an appointment for another hearing test and kept taking the aldosterone.

Now here is the shock … in a good way. The new hearing test (from the same clinic) reveals that my hearing has improved dramatically. That's unheard of. I am 52 years old and was showing gradual age-related hearing loss, and now my hearing is suddenly improving. In particular, the right ear, in the mid range, showed an improvement in my hearing threshold from 15-30 db up to 5-20 db. That puts me back well into the range of “nothing to worry about”.

I've got to tell you that on that day, with that news, I felt like I had the very best doctor in the world.

Scientific discipline is the key to improving your health

You won't necessarily feel anything when you start taking the right stuff. Most positive trends in your health are quite imperceptible. (Think of it this way: You don't feel yourself aging each day so why should you feel yourself anti-aging?)

You can't rely on subjective measures. Objective testing, careful note taking, and medical lab tests make all the difference in the world.  I do indeed have a good doctor, but also I did the lab tests, I followed through with the treatment, and then did follow up lab tests. The whole process is exactly the same as the scientific method. You form a hypothesis and then systematically, and objectively, test it. In this case my hypothesis was that aldosterone would improve my hearing.

I believe that this is the key to the practice of improving your health and extending your longevity.  I want to strongly emphasize this because I know that most health issues people have are treatable, if only given the proper attention in a systematic way. What I see instead, is most people practicing self-care as if they were playing darts blindfolded. Throwing treatments at their condition, hoping for the best but never bothering to really find out if the latest treatment is working for them. Or they claim to be following their intuition. And though intuition has its place, when it comes to your health, using the systematic process that led to my hearing improvement is the only surefire approach to success.

Do you have a health success story to share? I would love to hear it.

To your health,
John Morgenthaler

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