Hormone Balancing

HORMONES

WHAT ARE HORMONES?

Hormones are chemical messengers which are produced and secreted by numerous glands in the body.  Once a hormone is released into the blood stream as a result of a certain stimuli, it instructs target cells and/or glands to produce a particular substance such as other hormones.  These hormones stimulate or inhibit the actions of cells and glands everywhere, depending on the needs of the body.  Thus, although very different in their functions, different hormones are dependent on each other to produce a balanced chemical environment in the body.  For example, glands such as the ovaries, adrenals, pituitary and hypothalamus produce and regulate levels of estrogen, progesterone, and androgens. 

ESTROGEN

What is estrogen for?  What does it do?  Estrogen causes the growth of sexual organs, causes the lining of the uterus to thicken and endometrial glands to develop and nourish a fertilized egg.  It causes an increase in overall body fat which gives soft, fine-textured skin.  It causes fluid and salt retention in the tissues to plump and fill skin.  It helps retain calcium in the bones and has a direct effect on the endothelial lining of blood vessels; affects physiological functions of the body like blood sugar, emotional balance and memory.  It has stimulatory effects on the nervous system.  High levels can trigger anxiety, irritability and mood swings.  It is used by the body for cellular growth and repair; and it inhibits the osteoclast, the cells that tear down old bone.   It can cause weight gain and hot flashes when a shortage occurs.  The symptoms of menopause result mainly from a progesterone deficiency relative to estrogen.  It’s an anti-libido hormone. 

THYROID, THYROID HORMONES, PITUITARY GLAND and LIVER FUNCTION

Thyroid hormones perform several functions in your body. They help control the amount of oxygen each cell uses, the rate at which your body burns calories, your heart rate, overall growth, body temperature, fertility, digestion, memory, and mood.

 

Every cell in the body has receptor sites for thyroid hormones.  The thyroid hormones are responsible for the most basic and fundamental aspects of physiology and the basal metabolic rate.  The lack of ideal thyroid hormones leads to the overall decline in cellular function of all bodily systems.  Disorders for thyroid function are very prevalent in the United States population and continue to increase every year.

 

Thyroid hormones, especially Synthroid, have been on the top ten most prescribed medications for decades.  Hypothyroidism is the most common cause of thyroid dysfunction.  The thyroid gland is also very vulnerable to imbalances of the endocrine system.  Hormones such as estrogen, progesterone, cortisol and testosterone have major influences on thyroid peridoxate enzymes and thyroid binding globulins as well as thyroid receptor site sensitivities.  Many times other endocrine imbalances are the culprit in thyroid imbalances and restoring these imbalances has the greatest promise in supporting thyroid metabolism dysfunction. 

 

The thyroid gland is very vulnerable to environmental factors.  Many of these known environmental factors act as goitrogens and compete with iodine uptake.  Environmental factors in combination with iodine deficiency affect symptoms as well.  Thyroid physiology is very vulnerable to cross reactions with medications.  Hypothyroidism is a cause for a change in energy, mood swings, as well as weight gain.

 

Your pituitary gland creates thyroid stimulating hormone, TSH, to kick start the thyroid.  The thyroid proceeds to utilize iodine from your blood to synthesize multiple thyroid hormones.  T4, thyroxin, is converted to T3, a metabolizing boosting thyroid hormone.  This is also done through the liver.  70-80% of the conversion process of T4 to T3, is done through the liver.  This is if you have a healthy liver.  The liver is only as healthy as what you eat, because your liver is constantly processing digestion, and eliminating toxins.  So the more healthy your liver is, the better your transition of T4 to T3 will be.

When you’re not eating enough calories, the pituitary gland stops producing enough TSH.  The thyroid doesn’t produce T4.  Less T4 leads to less T3; and less T3 means a slower metabolism.  Therefore thyroid hormones get imbalanced, either too high or too low.  Chemical reactions all over the body get thrown off.  An underactive thyroid can lower energy and make you gain weight.  This is called hypothyroidism.  Candida is also a toxic side effect from the ethanol and acetaldehyde, which can affect how the thyroid hormones function.  By clearing up the Candida and eliminating yeast from your diet, thyroid function from T4 to T3 can have astounding recovery and effect.

ADRENAL GLANDS

The adrenal glands are located in the abdominal area, above the kidneys.  This is where norepinephrine, epinephrine, and cortisol are produced.  Cortisol, also called hydrocortisone, is produced in the adrenal cortex, the outer part of each adrenal gland.  The inner part of the adrenal gland, the adrenal medulla, produces the other primary stress hormones, including norepinephrine, which restricts blood vessels and increases blood pressure; and epinephrine, which increases heart rate and blood flow to muscles.

 

Each of these stress hormones is released in different ratios based on the challenges you face in your life.  If you’re looking at a challenge that you think you can handle, your adrenals release norepinephrine.  After you succeed, after you handle the challenge, you release more testosterone, which has a positive effect on the body.  If you face a challenge that seems more difficult, something you’re not sure you can handle or master, then you release more epinephrine.  This is also called an anxiety hormone.  When you’re overwhelmed, totally discouraged and you’re convinced that you cannot handle this, you release more cortisol. 

 

Epinephrine and cortisol impact metabolism.  When you first become stressed, norepinephrine will tell your body to stop producing insulin so that you can have plenty of fast acting blood glucose ready.  Epinephrine will relax the muscles of the stomach and intestines and decrease blood flow to these organs.  There is a change in what’s called sympathetic to the parasympathetic nervous system.  Sympathetic is fight or flight.  You’re ready to go.  Parasympathetic is you’re just sitting there after a big meal and your digestive tract is working to digest your food.

 

These two actions cause some of the high blood sugar and stomach problems associated with stress.  Once the stressor has passed, cortisol tells the body to stop producing these hormones and to resume digestion.  Cortisol continues to have a huge impact on your blood sugar, particularly on how your body uses fuel. 

Cortisol is a catabolic hormone--which is a tearing down hormone, not a building up hormone--cortisol tells your body when fat, protein and carbohydrates are present to burn and when to burn them, depending on what kind of challenge you face. If you haven’t released the excess cortisol in your blood by exercising, cortisol will increase your cravings for high fat, high carb foods.  Once you eat, your body releases a cascade of rewarding brain chemicals that can set up an addictive relationship with food.  You feel stressed.  You eat.  You feel better.

If you don’t consciously avoid this pattern you can become physically and psychologically dependent on that release to manage stress.  It’s no coincidence that stress eating is on the rise.  When stress continues for a long time and cortisol levels remain high, the body actually resists weight loss.  Cortisol turns adipose sites, young fat cells, into mature fat cells.  So when you have stress on your body, chronic overstimulation of our adrenals becomes an epidemic.  We are victims of, and addicted to, stress and our bodies pay the price.  Long term activation of the stress system has a lethal effect on the body.  When you abuse your adrenals as much as we do, you set yourself up for heart disease, diabetes, strokes, and other potentially fatal conditions.  Adrenal fatigue can also create insomnia, weight gain, depression, hair loss and carb cravings.

The Hormone Balancing Program at Club Reduce will show you how increased adrenal stress will increase blood sugar levels in your body, which increases insulin response and fat retention.  When you fill out the symptom assessment from Club Reduce we will be able to determine how significant your adrenal stress is.  We have supplementation for the thyroid as well as the adrenal gland.

GROWTH HORMONE

Growth Hormone, sometimes called Human Growth Hormone (HGH), is one of those hormones that we all want more of.  It seems to make things better in our bodies.  It helps build muscles, burn fat, helps with heart disease, protects your bones, increases overall health, and some say even make you happier. According to studies, people with higher levels of growth hormone also tend to live longer.

One of the primary goals of our program is to increase your natural production of growth hormone; which is entirely possible.  Growth hormone is produced in the pituitary gland underneath the hypothalamus and it is one of the most influential anabolic hormones.  Anabolic hormones are the hormones that produce muscle, playing a huge role in the growth of bone and other body tissue. 

 

Growth hormone increases your muscle mass in several ways--by absorbing amino acids, synthesizing them into the muscle, and preventing the muscle from breaking down.  All of this can raise your resting metabolic rate and give you more power for your exercise and workouts. 

Growth hormone is an amazing thing to tap into if you’re overweight, especially if you have extra fat stores.  Fat cells have growth hormone receptors that trigger your cells to break down and bring triglycerides.  Growth hormone also discourages your fat cells from absorbing and holding onto any fat floating around in your blood stream.  Growth hormone actually counters the insulin’s ability to shuttle glucose into the cells and this can also be found by taking the symptom assessment to determine if Candida is present.  If Candida is present, it can affect glucose and how glucose is introduced into the cells.

Growth hormone can literally be the most amazing thing available to help you with weight loss.  Although growth hormone is released a few times throughout the day, the most abundant release of growth hormone is during sleep, usually about one to two hours after falling sleep--around midnight to two o’clock in the morning when you are in deep REM sleep, stage four of sleep.  This is when growth hormone is released in the largest abundance.

Another way we suppress our growth hormone levels is when we eat too many low quality, refined or processed carbs.  This keeps your blood sugar and insulin levels high.  Protein, on the other hand, can help with growth hormone production.  New evidence is also starting to show that hormones from other animal products with pesticides and other contaminants in our environment and diet can affect and negatively impact your growth hormone levels.

One way to increase your growth hormone is with intense exercise.  During intense exercise and interval training, your body will use fat as fuel.  People who exercise, but aren’t seeing the results they want, are not incorporating interval training.  They are not stressing the body out enough to release any of this growth hormone. 

 

Again, when you exercise it keeps your blood glucose level stable so that you have the energy to keep exercising.  When you don’t exercise and your muscles become insulin resistant, you increase your level of circulating insulin and you suppress growth hormone even further.  When you have circulating insulin, your body goes into fat storing mode, not fat burning mode.

 

Our office recommends a supplement from Solutions4 for adrenal support and stress.  This supplement is also used and taken after exercise.  The shakes available from Solutions4, in chocolate, vanilla, orange cream and strawberry, are excellent post-workout drinks due to the fact they have the amino acids, enzymes, minerals and twenty grams of protein to help repair the muscles and joints that were just stressed. 

Hormone regulation and balance are very important for optimal body function and weight loss.  In most instances hormones can be regulated with a healthy diet, exercise and natural supplementation.  

DHEA

DHEA stands for dehydroepiandrosterone. DHEA is a steroid hormone produced in the body by the adrenal glands.  It is the single most abundant steroid in the human blood stream.  It is the mother or precursor hormone because the body readily converts it on demand into active hormones such as estrogen, testosterone, cortisone and progesterone.  DHEA seems to be the only hormone that declines with age in both men and women and its decline triggers age related disease.  

Why is DHEA important? 

According to scientists, the decline of DHEA in the body is the most reliable indicator of aging and susceptibility to disease.  Most researchers agree that to slow aging and prevent disease, the DHEA blood levels must be maintained at levels found in people in their 20s.  Controlled scientific studies of the effects of DHEA conducted nearly 55 years ago exhibited some of the most profound age retarding, healing and disease preventing benefits ever seen in a single compound.  Recent studies have demonstrated that of 5000 women monitored, those who developed breast cancer had less than 10% the average DHEA levels for their age group. Those with above average DHEA levels remained cancer free.

In testing, DHEA levels were dramatically lower in males with premature heart disease than in healthy males.  Two hundred and forty two men, ages 50-79, followed for 12 years, all experienced declining DHEA levels.  Those with the lowest levels showed the highest history of heart disease. Postmenopausal women with rheumatoid arthritis have significantly low DHEA levels.  Women with bone density loss have declining levels of DHEA.  People suffering from Alzheimer’s disease had a 48% less DHEA level in their body than the control group of the same age. 

A study at Temple University School of Medicine found that elevated levels of DHEA caused weight loss without a change in appetite.  This is not weight loss due to a breakdown of lean muscle or fluid loss.  DHEA appears to create a stabilizing effect on all body systems.  It has been found to help overweight people to lose fat and underweight people to gain weight.  Calories convert to heat rather than stored as fat.  DHEA helps the body to build lean muscle tissue.  DHEA may be the most significant natural weight stabilization supplement ever to be introduced in holistic health.

 

Current research and studies show that DHEA may be beneficial in preventing and treating diabetes, heart disease, obesity, cancer, auto immune disease, AIDS, Fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome, aging, osteoporosis, rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s Disease, PMS, menopausal symptoms and the elimination of many age related disease.  Most patients studied in a double blind study noticed enhanced wellbeing and more energy as well as better clarity of thought, also common was an increase in libido.

  

NATURAL PROGESTERONE

Synthetic progestin is chemically formulated from natural progesterone, but they are not its chemical equivalent.  Your body can normally convert a hormone into other hormones when needed.  Synthetics cannot be converted by the body and they also produce many side effects.  Natural progesterone and precursors are considered bioidentical, meaning chemically identical to those naturally produced by the body.  When these two are combined, they are converted by the adrenal gland into corticosteroids and aldosterone, endrogen, estrogen, cortisol, DHEA, pregnenolone and adrenaline. 

Functions of Progesterone:

* Stimulates secretory activity in the body

* Acts as a sedative with a calming effect

* Normalizes blood sugar levels

* Pressures all other steroid hormones including estrogen and cortisol

* Causes regression of tumors induced by estrogen

* Stimulates osteoblasts, the cells that make new bone formation

* Regulates metabolism, making it more efficient, utilization of fat for energy

* Opposes the effects of stress

* Causes weight loss by improving the body’s efficiency in burning fuel for energy and eliminating fluids.

* Is a natural diuretic

* Prevents stress induced coronary

* Is linked to delayed aging and longer life span

* Balances estrogen to relieve hot flashes

* Is a pro libido hormone

* Protects against cancer

* Enhances thyroid hormone

* Increases antidepressant activity

* Blocks estrogen side effects 

  

Androgens, the Male Testosterone Hormone

* Maintains sex drive

* Maintains muscle strength

* Maintains lean muscle mass

* Maintains body weight

* Regulates hair growth

If you think you may have a hormonal imbalance and would like to see how we can help, call our clinic a request to take a Health Assessment that will help Dr. Tuft to see what is going on with your body. 435-752-0800

Ultimately someone that is experiencing a hormonal imbalance should go through a complete 12-Hormone Balance Program in our office. If that is not a feasible option, the following 4 products can be of great help.

 HORMONE BALANCE

A safe and natural way to stabilize the hormones of the body for both women and men. This formula is an alternative to synthetic hormones, as it allows the body to produce and regulate its own hormonal balance.

DHEA

DHEA (Dehydroepiandrosterone), in the adrenal glands, is the single-most abundant steroid in the human bloodstream.  It is often called the “mother” or precursor hormone, because the body readily converts it on demand into active hormones such as estrogen, testosterone, cortisone and progesterone.  DHEA declines with age more rapidly in both men and women beginning at the age of 40.  This decline triggers age-related issues and increased susceptibility to disease.

THYROID/ADRENAL SUPPORT

This product stimulates healthy glandular function and contains a synergistic blend of herbs including kelp and bladderwrack, two potent sources of natural iodine which support your body’s natural ability to produce thyroid hormones. It also helps to restore the body’s optimal thyroid hormone level and alleviate the symptoms of thyroid disorders such as weight gain, low energy, fatigue and depression.

External Supplements

WILD YAM CREAM

A transdermal cream formulated with natural ingredients and hormone precursors to help maintain a balance of estrogen and testosterone in the body.  When an imbalance is experienced, especially during menopause, it is often treated with synthetic hormones that have been shown to increase the risk of many serious health issues. The body has the ability to achieve its own balance when supplied with precursors and nutritional support. Progesterone combined with Wild Yam Extract assist in the ultimate formation and balance of progesterone in the body.