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I believe that, in order to live a good life, it’s important to help people.  As a doctor, I’ve made helping people the primary focus of my waking hours.  Now, as a mid-career Endocrinologist, I’ve taken stock of my accomplishments in this realm, and I’ve found my contribution to society woefully inadequate.
Not because I’m a bad doctor (I’ve been recognized by patients and peers for some of those “Top Doctor” awards out there); rather, because I can only help one person at a time in the exam room.  While it’s gratifying to see the “a-ha!” look of comprehension dawn on a patient’s face as I take the time to explain something in great detail, I only get that look a few times per day, if I’m lucky.
Increasing my difficulty factor is that many patients who see me have “researched” their conditions on the internet, what they’ve read is utter nonsense, and now I have to convince them to unlearn what they believe to be true.
 
What if I could get to these people before they become invested in the quackery they’ve read on the internet?  Wouldn’t that be a worthy endeavor — one that would potentially help people at least one (hopefully more) order of magnitude greater than the number of people I treat in a single day at the office?  What if, ultimately, this site becomes so trusted that people come into my office quoting…me?  Then I could finally feel like I’ve done the job I was meant to do.
 
And that’s why I’ve created this blog.  Not looking for fame.  Not trolling for new patients (the wait to get an appointment is too long as it is).  Not trying to sell you anything (yet – until I pen “Hormones Demystified,” the book).  Just here to help and to scratch my creative itch.
 
This site is not designed to provide the type of basic, background information that you could easily find on Mayo Clinic’s web site or at any number of reliable medical-o-pedia sites.  Rather, Hormones Demystified is intended to help you sort through a lot of the chaff out there, from the perspective of someone who lives this stuff every day.
 
You’ll find that the posts on this site lean a bit towards irreverence.  The reason?  I write for an audience of one – me.  On the surface, that may seem counterintuitive to my stated objective of wanting to help patients.  Shouldn’t I be writing for the people I want to assist?  Well, if I tried to do that, this blog wouldn’t exist.  Recreating what I do in the exam room each day would be, frankly, boring for me.  If I’m not engaged, then my writing isn’t compelling, and nobody wins.   The only way I can motivate to put fingers to keyboard is to make myself laugh.  And if I’m laughing, then I assume I’ve got some colleagues out there who are also cracking a smile.  And that makes me happy.
 
That being said, we come to the second facet of my mission: I aim to provide a place where both clinicians and patients can come to be educated and to have a few laughs.  The way I see it, if medical students, doctors, nurse practitioners, physicians assistants, and the myriad other health care providers out there can learn more about what Endocrinologists do in the exam room, then patients are bound to win in the end.  And if you’re an open-minded patient who has discovered this blog, you’re even one step closer to the win.  Here’s to your health.  Cheers!