About us

The Center for Metabolic Health, LLC is an internationally-recognized treatment and research facility based in Boulder, Colorado. Patients come to us from many countries across the world for metabolic evaluation and treatment. We specialize in the diagnosis and treatment of people suffering from an impaired metabolism, also known as hypometabolism. Fibromyalgia, hypothyroidism, thyroid hormone resistance, and chronic fatigue syndrome are all examples of dysfunction due to hypometabolism. People who are struggling with their health and well-being but have not yet been diagnosed with one of these disorders also come to the Center for evaluation. If you even suspect that you have a problem with your thyroid, fibromyalgia, hypometabolism, trust yourself and contact us for more information.

Dr. Honeyman is currently researching neuroendocrine disruption (NED) due to environmental toxicities like PCB’s and dioxins. This is one of the causes of thyroid problems which result in hypometabolism. The global impact of these environmental toxins is distressing, but fortunately there is effective treatment when the thyroid system is involved.

Philosophy of health care

The mission of Dr. Honeyman and the Center for Metabolic Health is to help you find the cause of your health problems and find a solution so you can recover your health. Dr. Honeyman was instrumental in developing the new standard of care known as “metabolic rehabilitation” for the treatment of people with hypometabolism. Metabolic rehab is an integrative treatment protocol with specific components which are tailored to the individual’s needs. Anyone, including children, can use it to get well regardless of their preferences or abilities. You and Dr. Honeyman will form a partnership to work together toward your recovery. Dr. Honeyman spends much of her time with patients teaching them what they need to do to get well and stay well.

Metabolic rehab is based on scientifically-tested concepts and has been successful for 85% of her patients. This statistic was generated when her patients were tracking their responses to the protocol with standardized monitoring forms. By using these standardized forms to collect consistent types of data, Dr. Honeyman could easily calculate the percentage of people who fully participated and actually got well. And, as long as these patients continued to use the protocol, they stayed well over the test of time.

People often have associated health problems like suboptimal adrenal gland function or sex hormone imbalances as a result of a slow metabolism. Dr. Honeyman uses functional medicine testing to help you detect any such problems. These types of tests can find suboptimal function of various tissues or systems in the body before the problem develops into a disease process. Most of the necessary treatments can be accomplished with over-the-counter supplements rather than with prescription medications.

History of Dr. Honeyman’s work with metabolic rehab

Research has shown that fibromyalgia symptoms are consistent with those of hypothyroidism or thyroid hormone resistance. Primary and central hypothyroidism were easily determined with blood tests, but thyroid hormone resistance was harder to diagnose. Before Dr. Honeyman had access to indirect calorimetry to measure resting metabolic rates, she had to make a clinical judgement about the diagnosis of thyroid hormone resistance. If the patient had normal thyroid-related blood tests, but had the symptoms of hypothyroidism, logic followed that she must have thyroid hormone resistance. Nearly 50% of Dr. Honeyman’s patients had lab tests and symptoms that were consistent with thyroid hormone resistance. The cotreating doctors who prescribed thyroid hormone, typically Cytomel (T3), for these patients would get nervous at a certain point during treatment. Their Cytomel dosages were gradually increased into the supraphysiological range, meaning that the doses were much higher than one would expect for usual replacement doses. Safety testing would find no signs or symptoms of thyrotoxicity (overstimulation from excess thyroid medication) and the patients got well with the same treatment protocol that hypothyroid patients followed. There was no other explanation for this phenomenon besides thyroid hormone resistance.

Metabolic rate testing

In 2004 the Center obtained an indirect calorimeter, a device to actually measure resting metabolic rates (RMR). This technology is well-established in the medical and research communities. Now we could prove whether or not a patient had an impaired metabolic rate. We could decide if a patient was using enough thyroid hormone medication - or too much of it. We could determine if the diagnosis of fibromyalgia meant the same thing as an impaired metabolic rate. We also could prove whether or not there was any correlation between the TSH and thyroid hormone levels and the actual tissue metabolic rate. (Remember, the purpose of thyroid hormone is to regulate the metabolic rate and function of nearly all of our tissues, not to maintain a midrange TSH level!!) Dr. Honeyman participated in two published studies about some of these topics, and you can find them at these links:

Medical Science Monitor:

http://www.medscimonit.com/medscimonit/modules.php?name=Current_Issue&
d_op=summary&id=8851

Thyroid Science (online journal): http://www.thyroidscience.com/experiments.htm

Advances in testing

Dr. Honeyman recently acquired a more sophisticated indirect calorimeter, a SensorMedics VMax229, which is the hospital physiology laboratory standard of testing equipment. While the other indirect calorimeters accurately measure the resting metabolic rate (RMR), you have to work a bit to gather the information. The benefit of this new device over Korr’s ReeVue or the MedGem that the Center has used in the past is that you don’t have to exert any effort at all during testing. A clear plastic canopy, like a bubble, is placed over your head during testing and your exhaled air is automatically siphoned into the calorimeter. You don’t have to wear uncomfortably tight nose clips and hold your lips tightly around a mouthpiece or hold a mask firmly against your face to perform the test. These activities of testing can increase your resting metabolic rate slightly, so the true resting state during testing is beneficial for the most accurate test. Dr. Honeyman’s patients who have returned to the Center for retesting have been pleased with the ease and comfort of measuring RMR with the canopy.

Another significant benefit of the canopy system is that we can easily measure RMR in children of any age. Small children aren’t able to work well with the mask or mouthpiece but can rest comfortably inside the canopy for the measurements. Testing is non-invasive and safe so there is no risk to your child. Several of my patients with children have voiced the concern that their children may have signs or symptoms of hypometabolism and want to measure their RMR’s for early detection of poor thyroid regulation. A deficiency of thyroid hormone during the time of rapid growth and development can have lifelong negative effects on the brains and bodies of children. Dr. Honeyman is investigating a possible link between poor thyroid hormone regulation and the diagnoses of autism and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

Please feel free to contact the Center at 303.413.9100 for further information about RMR measurements for you and your children as well as our other services.