Sp ecial Rep or t Feeling Sexy! How to Increase Your Libido It’s hard to feel sexy when your sex drive is low or nonexistent, when you’re not easily aroused, experiencing vaginal dryness or pain during sex, when you’re unable to experience pleasure or reach orgasm. If you’re nodding your head in agreement, you’re not alone! Forty-three percent of all women suffer from these unpleasant symptoms of sexual dysfunction.1,2 Life Extension Foundation® For more than 32 years, the Life Extension Foundation has sought to help people like you live healthier longer. To that end, we’ve spent over $100 million on innovative anti-aging research, and made it our business to provide our members with products, services, and information to help them make better health decisions. Based on the research we fund and the information we report, we’ve formulated some 350 different premium-quality, science-based nutritional supplements to help you achieve and maintain optimal health … and assembled an integrative team of Health Advisors to help you in customizing personal regimens of diet, exercise, and nutritional supplements. With our help you can feel younger, stay healthier, and live longer. So call a Life Extension® Health Advisor at 1-800-226-2370 to get started today. Now, these symptoms may be triggered by physiological changes … from premenstrual syndrome, to pregnancy, postpartum or menopause.1 But more often than not, they’re the result of reduced hormone levels (estrogen, testosterone, progesterone, serotonin), or low levels of antioxidants and nitric oxide; or increased levels of either inflammation or monoamine oxidase (the enzyme that destroys the dopamine pleasure chemical in the brain).3 What with hot flashes, night sweats, fatigue, anxiety, memory loss, depression, vaginal dryness, and loss of libido … menopause is often considered the most difficult time to feel sexy. And until a decade ago, conventional medicine only treated menopausal symptoms with synthetic hormones like Premarin® that are not natural to the human body. The reality is that female sexual dysfunction involves the disruption of multiple physiological mechanisms for which modern medicine has no consistently safe and effective treatment. So, women have been left with little help in treating female sexual dysfunction, menopause or both — until now. Get a little help from Mother Nature. It turns out that scientists have discovered certain botanical extracts that are quite effective in helping many women feel sexy again. They include: Cordyceps: This medicinal mushroom has been used in Chinese medicine for thousands of years … and no wonder. Its extract works to: • Balance levels of estrogen and testosterone.4 • Optimize adrenal function to promote the downstream flow of sex hormones.4,5 •Support mitochondrial function and increasing cellular production of ATP (adenosine triphosphate), energy levels, and sexual interest.4,6,7 • Boost antioxidant action to inhibit the destruction of nitric oxide and allow normal vaginal lubrication and sexual function.4,8,9 •Moderate inflammation, blocking its negative effect on sexual desire, and activity.10,11 In fact, in a clinical study of 189 men and women with decreased sex drive, 66% of the participants who took cordyceps extract experienced significant improvement in just 40 days!4 Sp ecial Rep or t Peruvian Mac Maca: This high-altitude plant is native to the Andes Mountain areas of Bolivia and Peru, where it’s been used as a medicinal herb for over two thousand years. An extract of maca root has been shown to regulate several key physiological pathways of female sexual dysfunction by providing the optimum balance of nutrients used by the neuroendocrine system.12 Scientists believe that this extract: • Regulates adrenal gland function.13,14 • Optimizes levels of brain neurotransmitters to reduce the risk of decreased libido, depression, and sexual dysfunction.13,15 Testosterone replacement promotes bone development and muscular strength while improving libido and fighting cancer. In a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, crossover study of 14 postmenopausal women receiving the equivalent of 583 mg to 875 mg of powdered maca or a placebo each day … participants taking maca scored more than 34% lower than the placebo subjects on a standard sexual dysfunction scale in just six weeks! Also, the maca subjects tested 30% lower on the psychological subscale of anxiety and depression symptoms in just six weeks!13 And in a double-blind, randomized, pilot study of 20 subjects whose sexual dysfunction was caused by taking antidepressants, that dysfunction was reduced by 25.8%, and 29.4%, in the group receiving maca (based on two standard sexual dysfunction scales) and libido was improved with no adverse side effects.15 EstroG-100®: This multi-compound extract combines Phlomis umbrosa, Cynanchum wilfordii, and Angelica gigas Nakai (Korean Angelica). Each of these three has been used for over 400 years in Korean-Chinese folk medicine. In combination they work synergistically to support balanced estrogenic activity, which inhibits many symptoms of menopause — including female sexual dysfunction. Researchers found that EstroG-100® enhances hormonal function possibly by optimizing estrogenic activity in some target tissues related to menopausal symptoms.15 A randomized, doubleblind, placebo-control study showed that EstroG100® substantially diminished menopausal symptoms (including vaginal dryness) and risk of female sexual dysfunction in just 12 weeks, with no weight gain and no ill effects.16 Hormone balancing can also help. Women need DHEA and testosterone. Research shows that slightly increasing testosterone levels (which tend to decrease with age) in women with sexual dysfunction restores libido, arousal response, and the relative frequency of sexual fantasy. In fact, Sp ecial Rep or t ca Youthful levels of DHEA can decline as much as 95% by age 85. low testosterone levels can be viewed as a contributing cause for female sexual dysfunction.17 DHEA: This master hormone is released into the bloodstream by the adrenal glands … and is a precursor to both testosterone and estrogen. Levels of DHEA peak when a woman is in her twenties. After that it begins to decline, increasing the risk of numerous age-related conditions … from heart disease, cancer, osteoporosis and female sexual dysfunction to chronic inflammation, immune dysfunction, depression, rheumatoid arthritis, excess body fat, cognitive decline, osteoporosis, and even some complications of type II diabetes. Studies show that increasing levels of DHEA results in an increase in testosterone levels in females (not males).Yet, the benefits of DHEA replacement therapy are still not recognized by mainstream medicine, which prefers to steer women to estrogen-related prescription drugs. Nevertheless, given that youthful levels of DHEA can decline as much as 95% by age 85, the case for bio-identical hormone supplementation is clear. But blood testing is essential to determine the appropriate supplementation dosage. In a six-month trial at the University of California at San Diego, female participants who received 50mg of DHEA daily experienced an 84% increase in physical and psychological well-being.18 TESTOSTERONE: Yes! Women do have testosterone, produced in the ovaries and adrenal glands at about one-tenth the level found in men. Testosterone is important to help you maintain sexual interest and function … and it provides many other health-enhancing benefits. Testosterone concentrations in women begin to decline around age 30. By menopause, some women have very low levels of testosterone. Testosterone replacement promotes bone development and muscular strength while improving libido and fighting cancer. Women with congestive heart failure have also found that this hormone increases cardiac strength. A study published in the New England Journal of Medicine found that a transdermal testosterone patch containing only 300 mcg provided significant improvement in sexual function, mood, and general well-being in women who had their ovaries removed.19 Additional research by Dr. Susan Davis at the Jean Hailes Foundation in Australia has shown that testosterone supplementation improves sex drive, arousal, and frequency of sexual fantasies in pre- and post-menopausal women.20 Her investigations also show that testosterone is important in maintaining a woman’s energy level and sense of well-being regardless of age.21 Sp ecial Rep or t References: 1. J Sex Med. 2010;7(4):1598-607. 2. JAMA. 1999;281(6):537-44. 3. Postgrad Med. 2010 Nov;122(6):128-36. 4. J Alt Complement Med. 1998;4(3):289-303. 5. Biol Reprod. 2004 May;70(5):1358-64. 6. Jiangxi Zhongyiyao. 1985;5:46-7. 7. Am J Chin Med. 2010;38(6):1093-106. 8. Chinese Trad Pat Med. 1988;9:29-31. 9. Am J Chin Med. 2009;37(5):977-89. 10. Inflammation. 2011 Dec;34(6):639-44. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. China J Chin Materia Medica. 1996;21:367-9. J Agricul Food Chem. 2002;50(20):5621–5. Menopause. 2008 Nov-Dec;15(6):1157-62. Evid Based Complement Alternat Med. 2012;2012:193496. CNS Neurosci Ther. 2008 Fall;14(3):182-91. Phtyother Res. 2011;doi:10.1002/ptr.3597. J Med Invest. 2012;59(1-2):12-27. J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 1994 Jun;78(6):1360-7. N Engl J Med. 2000 Sep 7;343(10):682-8. J Gend Specif Med. 2000 Jan;3(1):36-40. Trends Endocrinol Metab. 2001 Jan;12(1):33-7. Note: Women with estrogen receptor-positive breast cancer should not use any form of estrogen. Some doctors are still concerned that even bioidentical estrogen and testosterone could induce breast and other cancers by stimulating excess cellular proliferation. Women taking bioidentical hormones are advised to get regular blood tests and work with a physician experienced in hormone modulation therapy. So take the next step. Call a Life Extension Health Advisor now at 1-800-226-2370 toll-free. Find out what you need to be doing! www.LifeExtension.com