Saliva Hormone Testing-Mother's Day Special

Hormone Saliva Testing Vs. Blood Testing

Although blood testing can give some information about the status of your hormones, saliva testing may tell more.

When you test saliva, you are testing an “end product”, what hormones are left over after being active. Hormones that are circulating in the blood don’t tell us how well the cells are accepting hormonal influence. Each hormone in the body, including the female and male sex hormones, influence and lock on to individual cells all over the body.

How well those cells receive the hormones is an important part of the picture. Holistic doctors take this into consideration and know that the cells can be tweaked to be more responsive to hormones, without forcing the issue with drugs or synthetic hormones.

There are also vital nutrients needed for full function of the glands that produce the hormones. Iodine is a good example. I have seen iodine improve depression so dramatically that one patient told me she was thinking about suicide, but was afraid to tell anyone, until I put her on iodine supplementation.  Years later she told me that the iodine had saved her life.

Hormones are wrapped in protein envelopes so they can hitch a ride in the blood stream. The unbound proteins are more active, and this is what is measured in saliva.[i]

Saliva testing is easy, convenient, pain-less and less expensive. You do it yourself at home, first thing in the morning, and mail the saliva sample to the lab in a pre-paid envelope.  A basic test panel includes estrogen, progesterone, testosterone, DHEA and cortisol levels. Cortisol levels tell us much about weight, sleep and and stress issues.

Although I do use bio-identical hormone creams for some women, I always want to get the glands working optimally, even after menopause. Then any hormones added will only enhance a system that is already as balanced as possible.

The difference in mood, menopause symptoms, sleep, weight and general feeling of well-being can be quite dramatic. PMS, menopause and PCOS symptoms may be common, but they can be corrected.  The body was made to work correctly and women do not have to suffer.

I have also helped many couples achieve a healthy pregnancy, without resorting to costly and harsh drug and hormone treatments by balancing hormones.

Hormones rule the body. If you need help in understanding and balancing your hormones, we are happy to help. Take advantage of our Mother’s Day Special and come in for a full body analysis and Saliva Testing. The special price is $200, half off the usual price for Saliva testing and analysis/consultation. Call us if you have questions or would like to book. 818-562-1400.

[i] What Your Doctor May Not Tell You About Menopause, John R.Lee, M.D., Warner Books, 1966.

Signs and Symptoms that Your Stress is Caused by Exhausted Adrenals

When you are more tired than you should be, feeling overwhelmed or sick too often, does your partner tell you it is just stress? And you kind of know that is true, but you aren’t sure what to do about it.

You could say that everything is stress because that is the only thing that causes anything to go wrong in the body. It is how the stress hits us, and how the body responds, that makes the difference and creates the symptoms. If you are in perfect health, with very little demand of any kind on the body, you will have plenty of energy and feel fine. Except that you might be bored, and that can also produce stress!

But in today’s world hardly anyone is in perfect health. We have a very compromised food supply, so that even the organic vegetables don’t have the nutrition they had 50-75 years ago. We have staggering amounts of environmental toxins that over-burden our detoxification organs. We have to process too much information, and we sit in traffic too long trying to get somewhere we need to be, which takes up too much time, leaving us feeling that life is moving too fast.

The ability of the body to adapt to all that we experience in life is moderated, to a great extent, by those little glands on top of our kidneys called adrenals. The walnut sized adrenals produce four different hormones, but these have a powerful influence on the body. The adrenals get depleted when they run out of the materials needed to make hormones.

Because of our high-stress lives, the adrenals over produce cortisol. The circulating cortisol signals the body to eat more, to stay alert at night rather than sleep, and to store fat. Or you may be so sluggish that you can’t stay awake when you want to. And you are hungry, gaining weight, but you don’t seem to get the benefit of your food even when you eat well.

Let’s look at how the body views stress.  If you are standing at the top of a black diamond (very difficult) ski run, and you are an excellent skier, you are pumped and excited about the run. Your body gets primed because you know you are going to ski fast, and your knees are going to be pumping to keep you gliding over the bumps, and your heart is going to be working over-time to keep the blood circulating to your muscles. That is all physical stress on the body, as well as the emotional stress of the anticipation and exhilaration.

If you are a novice skier and you ended up at the top of the black diamond run by mistake, you look down the steep bumps with fear or even terror. You wonder if you will make it down in one piece, or if the ski patrol will have to bring you down on a stretcher. Your mouth goes dry, your arms and legs get stiff, and your heart pounds with anxiety. You may also be a bit embarrassed that you are going to have to slide and scrape down the hill, instead of gliding gracefully like the pros. (I can personally testify to this!)

Our bodies don’t really know the difference between the two experiences. Both create a demand that exceeds the norm, and that produces extra stress.

Here are the symptoms of weak and exhausted adrenals:

Gains weight easily or can’t lose weight. When severe, can’t gain weight.

Thin and wispy hair, dry, falls out easily, may become straighter or straw-like

Exhausted or easily fatigued

Chronic fatigue

Wakes between 3-4 pm and cannot return to sleep

Gets sick easily and stays weak afterwards

Racing heart or palpitations

Panic and anxiety

Asthma or allergies, seasonal or food

Pain and inflammation

Dizziness, or gets dizzy when standing suddenly

Constipation, diarrhea, IBS or other bowel disorders

Auto-immune disease such as Lupus, Hashimoto’s, Celiac

Hot flashes

Mental sluggishness

Headaches

Sparse hair on legs and arms

Dry skin

Eyes sunken

Poor circulation

Swollen ankles

Craves salt

High blood pressure

Pallor-very pale skin that is not natural looking

Frequent urination, especially at night

“Double jointed” or lax ligaments

Can’t hold Chiropractic adjustments

Vitiligo or white patches on skin

You may be asking yourself why your medical doctor does not recognize these symptoms and have you tested. Pharmaceutical does not have any answers for adrenal issues, except psychiatric medication when the anxiety and panic are a problem. They have inhalers and allergy medication, and sleep drugs.

These drugs may treat the symptoms, but they do not heal and repair the adrenal glands themselves. So, millions of people are trying to operate their bodies with depleted adrenals and suffering the effects, or they are suffering the side-effects of drugs that never get to the underlying issue.

Once you understand that all of life is basically an adrenal challenge, you can plan to keep your adrenals up to the job. That means getting enough sleep, avoiding sugar, eating whole foods regularly and avoiding processed chemical foods. The adrenals need and store large quantities of Vitamin C, so they need fresh fruits and vegetables to operate well. And there are many adrenal supplements, both herbal and nutritional, that can restore burnt out adrenals quickly. If you have any kind of physical, emotional or psychological stress, you may need supplements and lifestyle changes to keep your adrenals strong.

“Adrenal glands produce hormones such as estrogen, progesterone, steroids, cortisol, and cortisone, and chemicals such as adrenalin (epinephrine), norepinephrine, and dopamine. When the glands produce more or less hormones than required by the body, disease conditions may occur.” Medline Plus[i]

At Well Body Clinic, we find the exact adrenal support that is right for your body. And we can address the other symptoms, such as anxiety, allergies, sleep, hair and skin issues, with a complete natural medicine approach. You don’t have to be sick and tired and, worse, wondering what is wrong with you. Functional medicine means finding out what part of your body needs support to function correctly, and removing any barriers that are preventing you from feeling good and being well. For real. Long term.

Call us to book your adrenal consultation. It usually only takes a few days to start noticing the difference in your symptoms. Life is a challenge, and you can make sure that your adrenals are helping you to keep up.

[i] http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/imagepages/8719.htm

Signs and Symptoms of Low Thyroid

Have you wondered if your thyroid was functioning correctly? Perhaps you are having trouble losing weight or you are tired. But, after blood work, your doctor says that your thyroid is “normal” or “fine”.

Your doctor is looking for a diagnosable disease on lab work. Your thyroid may be in the low normal range. This is not a disease state, yet the thyroid is still not functioning correctly, or the thyroid hormones are not able to do their job. TSH is the blood test used. TSH is a pituitary hormone called Thyroid Stimulating Hormone. The assumption is that your pituitary is shouting at your thyroid to make more thyroid hormone and the louder it shouts the more your thyroid is sleeping on the job. Thyroid function governs metabolism, so weight gain and fatigue are common symptoms when the thyroid is less active.

But your thyroid may be trying to work, and even producing enough thyroid hormone. Every cell in your body has receptor sites for hormones of all kinds. The thyroid hormone that is utilized by the cells must be converted, mostly by the liver, to the active form that the cells respond to.  So liver health is also a key to your getting the full benefit of your thyroid function. This is just one more example of how much the health of one organ affects the health of the entire body. http://www.liverdoctor.com/thyroid-health-depends-on-your-liver/

You can see that the problem may be one of distribution and delivery to the cells that rely on thyroid hormone signals, and not of the production of thyroid hormone.

Here are some of the other symptoms of low thyroid function:

Weight gain and hard to lose                      Full and puffy around the eyes

Coarse hair, possibly thinning                     Thick nails

Poor flexibility                                               Cold hands and feet                                    

Depression                                                     Low energy-fatigue

Slowed thinking                                            Poor concentration

Thinned eyebrows                                        Brain fog

Insomnia, restless sleep                               Waking up exhausted

Slow heart rate                                              Low blood pressure

Thinned eyebrows                                        Pale, pasty skin

Decreased body hair                                                Vertigo

Hoarse voice                                                  Thickened tongue

Muscle pain                                                   Recurrent headaches

Fibrocystic breasts                                        Infertility, miscarriages

Elevated cholesterol                                     Edema (swelling of ankles)

Thyroid function is one of the vital elements of cancer protection, so thyroid health goes beyond issues of weight and fatigue. Supplementing with iodine, which is vital to thyroid hormone production, may help.

At Well Body Clinic, we get your thyroid functioning correctly, and make sure that your entire hormonal system is working together, with each gland working well. We call this Total Hormone Balancing If you are already on thyroid medication, we can make sure that your medication is working well.

We are all exposed to multiple chemicals and pesticides every day, in our offices, homes and through our food and air. These toxins interrupt the function of the glands by binding with the hormone receptor sites. Cleanses and detox programs can remove the toxic burden, so that you have better hormone function.

When you are on the right program for you, you can start to notice the difference quickly, If you suspect you suffer from low thyroid function, book an appointment and see how much better you can feel and that you really can lose the weight that has been so hard to budge.