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Hormones
(If you haven't read Part 1, I recommend that you do so before you read this article.)
So you have done the work. You have given a wholehearted effort in up-leveling or improving your diet and lifestyle and you still feel that your hormone function is off. Truth be told, about 98 % of the women that come to me with hormone-related health issues don’t need these next steps once they put into action diet and lifestyle changes.
Is this you? Rome wasn’t built in a day…
You have taken 6-12 months and walked the path of restoration:
You have taken the time to address, remove and improve your stress function at 3 levels: Environmental, Emotional and Physical. You have discovered the foods that nourish your body and have removed foods that cause inflammation and blood sugar issues. You have attempted to restore your sleep with proper Sleep Hygiene. You have found a healthy, supportive community that allows you both to give support and receive it. You ditched toxic friends, activities, and environments. You have learned how to open up and possibly meditate and find quiet and focus on your life. You have vision and clarity. You have worked to repair your gut health, reduce inflammation and balance your blood sugar. You have implemented proper exercise and body movement appropriate for YOU!
But you still suffer from hormonal issues….you feel frustrated!
Now is the time to get the microscope out and really evaluate your hormones as a group. Just a reminder, it is futile or useless to address hormone dysfunction without first addressing diet and lifestyle, especially stress, gut health, and blood sugar.
The next step is to determine what is out of whack. We need to look at estrogen, progesterone, testosterone, cortisol and your thyroid hormones. Hormones all work together, there is a balance, a give and take. In some cases, one hormone can even STEAL from another! Any of the above-listed hormones can be in excess or in a state of deficiency.
It is not uncommon for us women to head to the doctor only to walk out with a prescription before a thorough investigation. I offer simple quizzes to my clients that help us figure out exactly what they need. It’s your body, let’s ask you!
After we use personal observation of symptoms from the quiz we go to supporting the endocrine system with foods, herbs and even nutriceuticals first. Then we wait and see how they react. It is a little trial and error, but we usually find significant improvements.
The key is first knowing what to address.
If the natural approach isn't enough (and believe it or not, for most it is) I encourage my clients to seek a Functional Medical Doctor to obtain specific lab work that is beyond my own scope of practice a Functional Nutritional Therapy Practitioner. Your FMD will be so grateful that you already ruled out the hard stuff. You won’t be starting on square one. If you haven’t addressed diet and lifestyle first…don’t worry, they will set you on that path too! We follow the same doctrine of health and wellness. Diet, Lifestyle and Gut health. It’s like a tree and everything else is a branch.
Your FMD will offer an array of comprehensive lab tests that most conventional medical doctors avoid. One reason is because of insurance. The other is because allopathic or conventional doctors are trained in medical school to fix a symptom, not find a root cause. This is why they specialize. The theory is that we are “The sum of all our parts.”
Functional medicine treats the WHOLE, body, mind, and spirit included. That is why I myself went back to school! I wasn’t getting anywhere with the compartmentalized approach. I didn't want a handful of prescriptions from a handful of doctors.
Your FMD will be extremely thorough as I stated before. I am going to discuss just ONE of the tests they will likely suggest for you.
Basic overall lab work will be done as well as a complete thyroid panel and hormone panel. My preferred hormone test is the DUTCH test. I recently had one myself.
Dried Urine Test for Comprehensive Hormones. It tests your sex and adrenal hormones along with their metabolites as well as a daily (diurnal) pattern of free cortisol including melatonin and organic acids. I recommend doing the DUTCH, saliva and serum testing to get the whole picture. It is not uncommon for an FMD to look into SIBO, heavy metals and even mold toxicity issues as well.
Conventional doctors often use serum, saliva or a 24-hour urine test. They usually only choose one test. These tests leave a lot of questions on the table, however. They just aren’t complete.
My youngest son had a gut infection a while back. His pediatrician called in a SIBO test for his gut bacteria and it was a one-shot, blow in a bag test at the hospital…not exactly the best test on the market.
When I was suspected of having SIBO I took a 3 hour, every 15 test!! FMD’s go with the best tests, not just the one your insurance covers because it’s cheap.
The saliva test is all about measuring the FREE cortisol but doesn’t give any information as to the metabolites. The story is also the same for serum alone. The 24-hour urine testing comes with a 40% collection error rate… This is why so many functional medical doctors prefer the DUTCH. Personally, my own functional medical doctor uses ALL of them together.
The DUTCH test runs about $400, a doctor must order it and then know what to do with the results.
Treatment and protocol: In an effort to not go too far afield here, for sex hormones the best route is to start low and slow.
Consider the many dietary changes and additions and lifestyle behaviors as well as herbs that influence hormones and then look at bio-identical hormones in low doses.
Depending on what your hormonal balance is will determine the best course of action to take.
For example, Sara Gottfried, M.D., recommends for Excess Estrogen in The Hormone Cure:
Step 1 Lower estrogen by:
Reducing alcohol
cutting caffeine
Avoiding Xenoestrogens as much as you can
Eating less meat and dairy from conventionally raised animals
Consume prunes (to reduce 16 hydroxy-esterone)
Get more overall fiber
Lose weight
Exercise regularly
Go to sleep by 10 pm
Take DIM (Di-indolemethane)
If that isn't enough…..
Step 2 Herbal/Botanical Therapies
Eat seaweed
Supplement reservatrol
Take Turmeric
Consume Hops
Step 3 Bioidentical Hormones
Melatonin
All of this information is wonderful assuming you KNOW that you have excess estrogen.
First, determine which hormones are out of balance and if they are too high or too low.
There is no short cut ladies. Please do not just skip to the protocol before you address your diet and lifestyle changes. I cannot stress this enough. There is a protocol for each over or under situation for our hormones. And all of it is a waste of time and effort and won’t deliver the results you are looking for if you are trashing your health with poor diet and lifestyle behavior and choices.
No amount of bioidentical hormones whether in pill or cream can compete with your daily choices in life. The hot flashes may go away, but the belly fat will remain, or the sleep may still suffer. Or your hair may still fall out or your anxiety still remains…This will only lead to more poor decisions down the line and probably more prescriptions. The average woman over 65 is on no less than 5 prescriptions. Each one comes with its own damage to the body.
What stage are you in?
Have you simply tried random diets and exercise plans? Have you on and off again tried meditating or journaling? Do you eat great all week and they go crazy on the weekend?
I suggest you give it a real go with the basic diet and lifestyle changes before you move on to testing and protocols. This is one of my strengths as a nutritionist. I help you with the very first moves before you need to spend that extra money and time on testing.
I hope this information puts a few things in perspective. I would love to help you if you are in need. Head to www.thepathforhealth.com for more information.
Don’t forget to follow me on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok and tune in to my podcast, The Path For Health.
Until then, I pray you have a happy and healthy hormone day!
~Brandi