Doctor Available to Address the Tom Cruise/Brooke Shields Controversy

In an interview this past week, Tom Cruise condemned Brooke Shields for taking antidepressants during her postpartum depression. Dr. Steven Hotze, author of "Hormones, Health and Happiness," says that in almost all cases, postpartum depression can be treated by balancing a new mother's hormones and without drug intervention.

(PREWB) June 2, 2005 -- In an interview this past week, Tom Cruise condemned Brooke Shields for taking the antidepressant Paxil during her postpartum depression. Dr. Steven Hotze, author of "Hormones, Health and Happiness," says that in almost all cases, postpartum depression can be treated by balancing a new mother's hormones and without drug intervention.

At the renowned Hotze Health and Wellness Center in Houston, Dr. Hotze and his staff of physicians have found that doing thorough checks of their patients' hormone levels and stabilizing them is much more effective and doesn't put the patient in a dazed drug state.

During pregnancy, the placenta produces massive quantities of progesterone-ten to twenty times the normal amount produced in a woman's body. After the baby is born, the woman's progesterone levels fall precipitously, leading to a state of estrogen dominance and functional hypothyroidism. Postpartum depression in most cases, says Dr. Hotze, can be treated by taking natural bioidentical progesterone.

"You don't have to go to the measure of taking anti-depressants in most cases, there are natural safe alternatives," said Hotze.

He is available for interviews this week and will be in New York on Friday/Saturday.