Madina Medicine: Omar Akhter, MD

03/20/2025

I did a talk on perimenopause last week for the Georgetown women’s networking group. Thank you to .montoto for inviting me. It’s always great to openly discuss these topics.

Perimenopause is something many women struggle with and unfortunately, are not able to get good treatment for.

While Perimenopause is not technically a medical diagnosis with certain diagnostic criteria, or labs that can precisely diagnosed it, it can present with a variety of symptoms that can indicate its presence.

Those symptoms include:
– Irregular cycles, change in cycles.
– Insomnia/poor sleep
– fatigue
– hot flashes/night sweats
– low libido
– poor mood/anxiety
– palpitations
– weight gain.
– dry skin.
– vaginal dryness
– poor oral hygiene
– ear itching

It’s important to try and identify the signs of Perimenopause as soon as possible.

While there isn’t one particular lab test that diagnoses perimenopause, it’s important to do thorough lab investigations to ensure there isn’t any other abnormality.

There’s always a dietary and lifestyle foundation that can be implemented first in order to improve symptoms.

Often times bioidentical hormones, especially progesterone are necessary and very effective for combating the symptoms of perimenopause. Estrogen, primarily in the form of estradiol should also be a strong consideration, especially in late perimenopause.

If you’re struggling with perimenopause symptoms, don’t hesitate to reach out!

11/19/2024

New Podcast Episode is out! This was a discussion with Dr. Erica Rivas Rodriguez on Multiple Sclerosis.

We discussed:
– Her medical background and why she went into Neurology.
– What is Multiple Sclerosis and how does she treat it differently from other practitioners?
– What are other autoimmune conditions that can affect the brain?
– Is there potential for more holistic treatment options for autoimmune brain diseases?
– How Hashimoto’s affects the brain.
– The Biggest challenges she faces with her patient population
– Some success stories of patients with her approach.

Please check it out! Link in bio.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ULBCqtynMZw&t=12s

11/12/2024

The Better Medicine Podcast is back!

In this episode, I discuss Nutrition foundations with Lauren Embree.

Nutrition can be one of the most complex topics in modern medicine with so much misinformation available on the Internet. In that type of climate, getting accurate and balanced information is very important.

Lauren discusses the foundations of good nutrition, building strong muscle mass, and losing body fat. She can speak with excellent expertise given that she is not only a Functional Nutritionist but also a former Professional Tennis player having been through various health challenges and still reaching the peak of her fitness goals.

We discuss:
– Her background in professional sports and journey into the world of Nutrition.
– The best overarching nutrition principles we can apply.
– Discussing a bit of the nuance with nutritional research.
– The best nutritional strategies to lose weight.
– Best tips for building healthy muscle mass.
– Best nutritional tips for an athlete.

Guest Intro:
Lauren Embree is the founder of Embree Wellness. She is a Functional Medicine Nutritionist and holds a B.S. in Sports Management. She is a graduate of The Academy of Functional Medicine and is board-certified through the Nutritional Therapy Association. As a former 2x National Champion and 5x All-American on the University of Florida Women’s Tennis Team, she finished her collegiate career ranked number 1 in the nation and went on to compete professionally on the WTA tour. In 2023, she was inducted into the Florida Hall of Fame. Her experience as a collegiate and professional athlete has greatly influenced her passion for helping others optimize their bodies to feel their best every day. Her own health journey, having battled autoimmune flareups, chronic fatigue, inflammation, and poor skin and gut health, inspired her passion for holistic nutrition. Through this experience, she developed a deep understanding of how simple dietary and lifestyle changes can transform your health.

Full episode is available on the YouTube channel. Link in bio.

10/17/2024

I will be doing a webinar on Thyroid and Mental health along with . Please attend if you’re interested. Link for zoom registration is in the bio.

09/24/2024

I will be doing a webinar on The Connection Between PCOS & Gut Health this Friday.

Register here: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZYoceCgqjwoE9QvzfyjvyTOGIpvIT1TvixN #/registration

09/07/2024

I will be at .aesthetics this upcoming Thursday Sept 12th at 6pm doing a talk on Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS). Join us!

08/28/2024

Join me for this introduction on functional medicine and hormones, especially pertaining to mental health.

Register here:
https://forms.gle/12CU4CGmR6fQxtMC9

02/12/2024

New Podcast Episode!

Title: Monitoring Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT) - Best Practices with Mark Newman, M.S.

Hormone replacement therapy continues to be one of the most confusing topics in medicine.

There is so much misinformation around the use of Estrogen, Progesterone, and Testosterone from false claims about its safety profile to dosing and route of administration to best practices for its monitoring.

In this episode, I get to discuss all of that with Mark Newman who has a wealth of knowledge in this area having created the Dutch test with Precision Analytical.

He very skillfully breaks down very complex Information into an easy to understand way and is really pioneering the best approaches to monitoring hormones.

We discuss:
- History of the DUTCH test and why he created it?
- Why Hormones are so misunderstood?
- The data is so overwhelming, how should we approach it?
- How conventional medicine, especially various academies like ACOG and NAMS, doesn't recommend testing.
- Urine or serum testing, which is better? Is Saliva valid?
- Estrogen dosing or monitoring.
- Progesterone dosing or monitoring.
- Testosterone dosing or monitoring.

Link to full Episode:

Hormone replacement therapy continues to be one of the most confusing topics in medicine. There is so much misinformation around the use of Estrogen, Progest...

02/10/2024

Thank you to .montoto for inviting me to speak again at the Georgetown Women’s Networking group! It was a great chance to discuss Hypothyroidism and Hashimoto’s again. Full talk is on my YouTube page. Link in bio.

02/09/2024

Great to meet Representative Harris , Republican congresswoman from Williamson County. We discussed matters related to healthcare locally and I’m hopeful we can work together to improve the health of our community!

02/06/2024

New Podcast Episode!

On Today's Episode of The Better Medicine Podcast, I speak with Dr. Tara Scott, MD who is triple Board Certified in OBGYN, Functional Medicine and Integrative Medicine. We talk about all things Estrogen.

We discuss:
- How a Traditionally trained OBGYN went down an Integrative Path
- Overview of the Menstrual Cycle
- Main purposes of S*x Hormones in the Body
- Importance of Estrogen Metabolism
- Mechanism of Breast Cancer Development
- The ‘Good Estrogens’ and The ‘Bad Estrogens’
- Estrogen Replacement in Menopause
- Best Method to Use Estrogen Replacement
- Estrogen as Breast Cancer TREATMENT or Estrogen use in Breast Cancer Survivors.

Link to Full Episode:

Estrogen has a very bad reputation ever since the initial findings of the women’s health initiative in 2002 came out. Since then there is a major concern tha...

01/30/2024

Estrogen is one of the most vilified hormones there is.

Ever since the women’s health initiative, initial results came out in July 2002, Estrogen has received a bad reputation as a hormone that promotes breast cancer and that should be avoided in most women.

Recent research, looking at a reanalysis of the women’s health initiative data have painted a very different picture however, indeed vindicating estrogen as a hormone that does not drive breast cancer.

Despite overwhelming evidence indicating this there remains an unwanted fear of estrogen in many patient and physician circles.

Today I talk with Dr. Lindsey Berkson, who is a brilliant mind on hormones, especially Estrogen.

She has sat on both sides of the table as a clinician as well as a breast cancer survivor and has a unique story to tell.

We discuss:
– what we got wrong about the women’s health initiative data?
– Why our fear around estrogen doesn’t go away despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary?
– What are some of the mechanisms of breast cancer development and how do we understand Estrogen in light of these?
– How to effectively replace estrogen so women can feel better, healthier, stronger and avoid many chronic illnesses.

Full Episode available here: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=KXZSOf4_zmE