Optimal Bio CEO Tylar Brannon Helps Build a Foundation of Health
Photo Credit: Sarah Morrel Photography, LLC
By Meg Hale Brunton
CEO of Optimal Bio, who specializes in Bioidentical Hormone Replacement Therapy (BHRT), Tylar Brannon always aspired to go into medicine. As a kid she used to go with her father on his hospital rounds and even saw her first C-section at fifteen. Unsurprisingly, when it came time to choose a college track, Brannon went pre-med and remained there until her junior year when she decided to switch to law. “There’s so much you can do with it,” she explains of a law degree. “I knew I wanted to be on the business side of things, but I didn’t know exactly what that meant.”
After earning her JD/MBA from the University of South Carolina, Brannon moved to Washington D.C. and worked there for two years. In 2018, she returned to Raleigh,and began working at Optimal Bio. Brannon began in the role of patient coordinator. While she originally only planned to work for the business for a year, she found she really enjoyed creating a company, and was highly skilled in running the business, and working with the staff. “Being able to be part of building something is incredible,” she says. “It is crazy, wild, and exhausting, but it is so fun!” In just four years, the business grew from seeing twenty patients each month to over one thousand patients a month. The staff grew to 35 people, and continues to grow, and the business got additional locations in North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia. They will be opening another location in Austin, Texas in early 2024.
Since becoming CEO of Optimal Bio, Brannon has become the head of brand management, business development, training and team culture. She says her daily work life ranges from budgeting, generating spreadsheets, traveling among the offices, and hiring and training staff. She takes great pride in Optimal Bio’s 97% retention rate with their patients, and the fact that they are the only company in the country that specializes in hormones. “We’re not your average doctors’ office,” she says. “I know I’m biased, but we are the best with patient care. We have a great team and a great culture, and we work on that every single day because if you enjoy work, the patients are going to feel it.”
Brannon also learned everything about the hormone replacement process. “I think in order to get better, you have to do hard things and push yourself. I’m always learning more about the science of how our body works,” she says. At Optimal Bio, they start with a consultation, discussing how the patient is feeling and what symptoms they are having. Then, they run a blood panel to see the patient’s hormone levels. From there, they create a personalized treatment plan (based on blood work, age, height, weight, symptoms, etc.) to balance out the individual’s hormone levels. “It’s all natural. It’s the exact same molecule our body produces, so it knows how to metabolize it. So, there’s no negative side effects.”
Brannon explains that most people don’t realize how important testosterone is to women’s health. She says that testosterone has over 500 functions in the human body, including preventing fatigue, brain fog, anxiety, and depression, as well as protecting the heart, brain and bones. She goes on to say that, after menopause, women’s bodies stop producing testosterone, which may be part of the reason women develop dementia more often than men. “When you go through menopause, your hormones can literally drop overnight, and our bodies can’t compensate for that,” Brannon explains. “Estrogen is a vasodilator; it keeps your heart pumping. Testosterone helps build muscle and protein synthesis, which in turn helps protect your heart, your brain, and keep them functioning as they should. It really helps keep you healthy as you age.”
Brannon goes on to say that the environmental toxins that surround us in our daily lives have caused our hormone levels to drop quicker, and that we have dramatically lower levels of testosterone than our grandparents did. She herself has strived to remove as many toxins as possible from her daily life (including air fresheners, cleaning supplies, candles, fabric sprays, and other products with added scents or dyes) and advises Optimal Bio’s clients to do the same. “Because of environmental factors, our hormones are decreasing at a much quicker rate,” she says. “As a society, we’re getting sicker. We should be getting healthier from all of our advancements.” Brannon says that not only has a societal drop in hormone levels caused us to feel tired all the time, but also may have led to rising cancer rates, and increased onsets of autoimmune illnesses.
BHRT is used to treat fatigue, brain fog, trouble sleeping, anxiety, depression, osteoporosis, PTSD, migraines, and complications caused by menopause. For all of these reasons, Brannon (who is only 33) has already been on BHRT for over a year. Prior to starting the treatment, Brannon was tired all the time and suffered from regular bouts of nausea and migraines. “Because I know the preventative aspect of it, how could I not?” she says of starting the treatment. “The power of your hormones really impacts every single thing.”
“I could never imagine doing something different. I truly believe in what we do, and that keeps our standards high across the board. We are impacting people and we need to be the best that we can to help them.” Brannon says of Optimal Bio. She says that too often, people tell their doctors they aren’t feeling well, and have their symptoms dismissed as simply part of getting older, being stressed at work, or being a mom. At Optimal Bio, they vow to help their patients maintain a feeling of overall health as long as possible. “If you don’t have your health, other aspects of your life are going to suffer. We’re making that person be able to feel like them again. The fact that we can give a patient hope, or a solution to feel better is why I want to tell everyone about it.”
For more information on Optimal Bio, visit their website: https://optimalbio.com
