Dr. William Ferril

I met Dr. Ferril about five years ago at a conference that Dr. Jonathan V. Wright was hosting on the use of bioidentical hormones. The conference was a good mix of theory, clinical diagnostics and therapeutic recommendations – Dr. Wright was focusing on patient lab results, and after working through possible diagnoses, he made recommendations for treatment changes. In other words, the prescribing of hormones was based on the observed measurement of urinary hormone levels, as well as hormone metabolite excretion in the urine. Dr. Ferril spoke at the meeting from a slightly different perspective. Rather than focusing primarily on hormone levels, he was concerned about overall metabolic functioning and the interrelationship of the hormones and insulin on metabolism. From his perspective, it made little sense to prescribe hormones if the net result was an aggravation of the metabolic function. He talked of the example of the doctor’s prescribing estrogen for a menopausal woman who is obese – invariably, the estrogen will lead to a worsening of her obesity. Ferril thinks that such an estrogen prescription would be unjustified unless other hormone factors were addressing the metabolic dysfunctioning.

Ferril practiced medicine on an Indian reservation for more than 10 years in Montana. His demeanor reminded me a little of a different time, when doctors were general practitioners serving all the needs in a country practice. It was intriguing to see a doctor practicing out in the boonies thoroughly focused on assessing patient hormone status using 24-hour urine hormone measurements. Ferril believes that hormones and insulin are much more interconnected than what the textbooks tell us. He thinks that it is a great misunderstanding to consider a patient a thyroid patient, an estrogen/progesterone patient, or an adrenal patient. From Ferril’s perspective, these hormones are highly dynamic, interrelating in functioning, and deserving of examination and support concurrently. He thinks of growth hormone as essential to aging and metabolic functioning, not a spa treatment or an anti-aging elixir. Without growth hormone functioning in the older adult, the body is subject to “hunching, crunching, sagging, and shriveling.” The failure to have adequate growth hormone subjects the body to excess insulin activity and insulin resistance. Worse, excess insulin drives all the sugar and fat into the liver and leaves the cells of the body starving – what he terms “hungry cell syndrome.”

“Healing the Many Faces of Glandular Failure” by Ferril is a fascinating read (pg. 46) and deserves consideration when we prescribe hormones.

Jonathan Collin, MD