Live Well M.D. Savannah

Live Well MD provides everything from hormone replacement therapy to Botox.

Featured week of  September 8, 2010.

BY TINA BROWN
For BiS
Medical Center Helps You Live Better

COVER STORY: Patients feel better when they are done because of a host of hormone-replacement treatments available for men and women.

Michele Davis is a patient of Live Well MD, a medical center that specializes in treating menopausal symptoms, providing hormone replacement therapies and performing cosmetic surgeries for men and women in Savannah. More

Some patients say the procedure actually “tickles” as it’s done

July, 2010 – A new body contouring procedure offered by Dr. Mary Kay Ross at Live Well M.D. Savannah is leaving patients with a sleeker look and a smile.

“Tickle Lipo” is a safer and quicker procedure than traditional and laser liposuction because it uses a small cannula and low frequency acoustic vibration that does not generate heat, which can damage the skin. Tickle Lipo is also an out-patient procedure that does not require anesthesia. Patients are awake during this procedure and the cannulas infiltrate the anesthetic solution as they melt and suck out the fat – it is quick and  virtually painless

Tickle Lipo employs a unique rotating moving cannula for the liposuction process.The vibration of the cannula interferes with the brain’s pain receptors in the same way that scratching relieves an itch. Results are realized almost immediately.

Benefits to the patient include less bruising, little or no pain during the procedure, quick recovery time, and precise body contouring.

Unlike other Liposuction techniques that utilize the heat of laser or ultrasound energy, the surgical cannula used in Tickle Lipo stays cool, eliminating the risk of heat injury to tissue. Tickle Lipo can be used to safely and more effectively perform “high-definition” sculpting. The physician can also harvest the patient’s fat which is removed during liposuction for use as a long lasting natural facial filler instead of using synthetic injectables.

The South Magazine, Winter 2010

Val Beaudreau was only 43 when her symptoms started. “I thought I was hav­ing anxiety attacks,” she remembers. “And I’d cry, just cry. I’d hear a sad song, I’d cry. I’d see a commercial, I’d cry.” She also started gaining weight, struggling with insomnia, having debilitating hot flashes and losing her interest in sex. “I was up, I was down, I was around and around,” says Beaudreau. “I’d tell my girlfriends, ‘Oh my God, I think I’m going nuts!’”
Her doctor prescribed her an antidepressant, but it didn’t relieve her symptoms. “I was on it for about eight months and then I thought, ‘No, I’m not doing this,’” recalls Beaudreau. “That’s when I started being my own health advocate.”

She hit the books, and in her research she came across a copy of Suzanne Somers’ bestseller Ageless. In the book, Somers describes symptoms similar to what Beaudreau was experiencing—symptoms related to the inevitable loss of hormones that goes along with aging. Somers also carefully documents her treatment through the contro­versial use of bioidentical hormones.

Beaudreau was intrigued, but first she needed to find someone who was trained in bioidentical hormone replacement therapy (BHRT) and willing to administer it. And this was harder than Be­audreau ever could have imagined.

Doctors have been prescribing synthetic hormone replacement therapy (HRT) to women for 75 years. Initially, physicians touted it as a preventative medicine and believed that every woman should use HRT when she turns 50 to prevent osteoporosis and heart disease, improve memory, and perk up overall well-being. Treating the symptoms of menopause was simply considered a bonus feature. However, in 2002 doctors significantly scaled back the use of the therapy after a study conducted by the Women’s Health Initiative linked HRT to an increased risk for blood clots, stroke, heart attack and breast cancer. More

By Jennifer Andrews,  WJCL Savannah

February 18, 2010      See the Video

“How are you feeling?”

“Tired.”

And tired of the runaround. Angela Lee wound up here at “Live Well MD” with peri-menopausal symptoms, after she’d had it with another doctor.

“Said you’re approaching 40, have 3 kids and a stressful life, job outside the house, so this is the way it’s going to be for you, and I said this is totally unacceptable to me.”

Following an overall health plan and consultations with Dr. Mary Kay Ross, Angela took bioidentical hormones.

I’m sleeping, I have a libido, I have my cycles regulated, my hair’s not falling out, and I’m happier.”

Bioidentical hormones are made from soy or yams that have the same chemical makeup as hormones made by a woman’s body. Plus, they’re custom made for each patient.

“If it’s structurally identical to what your body produced prior, then it’s going to have an affinity for the receptor and work much better, easier. It’ll take less of the hormones.”

After evaluating Angela’s hormone levels from a blood test, Dr. Ross prescribes the bioidentical hormones to meet her needs. And like any HRT treatment, there are risks.

“There have been questions if it’ll include the risk of breast cancer, stroke, however I believe the bioidentical hormones are safer.”

Dr. Shauna Zaren supports bioidenticals, yet says they come with concern.

“The compounded forms are not regulated as closely. While they have FDA ingredients in them, the products they mix them with vary from pharmacy to pharmacy,” said Dr. Shauna Zaren, MD.

Dr. Ross says that’s why she sticks with a pharmacy and approach that she trusts. As does Angela.

“It just seems to help people with quality of life. I think it makes them healthier in the long run,” said Dr. Ross.

And as for Angela, “My energy came back, I was back in the gym, I had my strength back, my knees and joints weren’t aching, and I tell people that was the best thing I’d done for myself in 10 years.”

Copyright 2010 The Coastal Source

Half of the patients at a local physician’s new anti-aging practice are men seeking relief from mid-life malaise

As Seen in the Savannah Morning News, December 15, 2009

Jerry Hawkins works out, eats healthy, takes all-natural vitamins and reads books and Web sites on the latest trends in maintaining good health. So, shortly after turning 40, the Savannah businessman sought ways to hold on to his peak years.

“There were no major issues,” Hawkins said. “I just knew I was at the age where I should take a look at things.”

Dr. Mary Kay Ross says she is seeing more proactive, health-minded men like Hawkins in her new practice in Savannah. Many are experiencing what some health care professionals call andropause, the male equivalent of menopause. Unlike the dramatic hot flashes, mood swings and discomfort characterized by menopause, men’s mid-life hormonal changes come more gradually with more subtle symptoms.

Testosterone levels tend to decline as men age, sometimes causing weight gain, fatigue, weakness, depression and sexual problems.
It’s not something most men talk about freely, she said.

“When you sit down with a man one-on-one and he’s filled out your form, he’s put down there that he’s lost his zest for life, that he doesn’t feel happy any longer, that he’s gained weight, that he’s lost his libido,” she said. “These are things that are important.” More