A variety of hormones control our everyday lives, both physically and mentally.
The balance of these hormones can be derailed by what we eat, our stress, toxins we're exposed to and medications we're taking.
How do we ensure we're in balance so we feel great, lose weight and enjoy life?
Keep reading to find out how to control hormones naturally.
Table of Contents
What Does Hormone Imbalance Look Like?
For Women
For women, signs of hormone imbalance include:
Irregular or excessively heavy menstrual bleeding
Poor sleep, fatigue, poor memory
Fibrocystic breasts
Family history of breast, uterine, or ovarian cancer
Low libido or sex drive
PMS, or peri- and post-menopause with symptoms
Difficulty losing weight or excessive water weight
For Men
For men, signs of hormone imbalance include:
Low energy
Poor sleep, poor memory
Low libido or sex drive, erectile dysfunction
Family history of breast cancer
Cardiovascular disease
Loss of lean body mass, muscle mass
Difficulty losing weight
Which Hormones Can Become Unbalanced in the Body?
The most common hormones we're referring to here include:
Thyroid hormone
Cortisol
Adrenaline
Norepinephrine
Estrogen
Progesterone; and
Testosterone
We commonly think of estrogen as a female hormone and testosterone as a male hormone, but both are important in either sex and need to be balanced to function normally and feel great.
In fact, having hormones out of balance can put us at a higher risk of chronic conditions such as cancer and heart disease down the road.
How Is Hormone Imbalance Diagnosed?
If you read our article on Adrenal Dysfunction, you already know that adrenal function and cortisol levels are best evaluated through saliva testing. But, so are the sex hormones - estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone. This way, we get a better idea of "free: or "bioavailable" hormone levels.
Saliva measures the "unbound" biologically active or free hormone levels in the body:
When blood is filtered through the salivary glands, the bound hormone components are too large to pass through the cell membranes of the salivary glands. This leaves only the unbound (free) hormones in the saliva. This "free", or bioavailable hormone, is what will be delivered to the receptors in the tissues of the body and have a direct action on how we think and how we feel.
Female Saliva Test Results Sample
This is an example of a common pattern I see on salivary testing. Estrogen is in 3 main forms, Estrone (E1), Estradiol (E2), and Estriol (E3).
This female patient has too low estriol (E3), which is a protective form of estrogen. It helps to balance out the effects of the much stronger estradiol and estrone (E2, E1). From this, we can calculate the estrogen quotient, which helps determine where the patient is in terms of risk from excessive estrogen.
Excessive estrogen is responsible for many symptoms including:
Weight gain
Difficulty losing weight
Heavy or prolonged menstrual bleeding
Breast tenderness/pain/swelling or cysts; and
Low libido
Over time, higher estrogen levels can increase your risk of breast and uterine cancers. Having plenty of E3 and progesterone around can help mitigate this "Estrogen Dominance".
Male Saliva Test Results Sample
Here's a male salivary hormone panel that shows progesterone relative to estrogen, low/normal testosterone, and low DHEA.
When men have estrogen dominance, this puts them at a much higher risk of prostate problems later in life (cancer and BPH, benign prostatic hyperplasia).
DHEA is an adrenal precursor to testosterone, which the low DHEA may explain why his free testosterone is on the low end of normal.
Stress is likely playing a large factor in his symptoms from low testosterone and low progesterone, which adrenal support ended up being what he needed.
You have to be careful with testosterone supplementation, however, as it easily converts to estrogen and can make matters worse.
Natural Remedies for Hormonal Imbalance
Hormones are complicated, but they are easy to correct.
Many different nutrients or glandular supportive products exist which can be powerfully helpful in getting the system back to normal again.
Topical and oral hormone support is also easily accessible through prescription when needed, and can be tailored to you and your individual needs.
Hormone Imbalance Natural Treatment Is Available at Pacific Clinic of Natural Medicine
If you're interested in learning more, we love to educate our patients about their hormones and how they can affect their health!
Call and schedule a complimentary consultation and we can assess if hormone testing is right for you.
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