Fatigue, stress & weight gain:
Weight gain, “burn out,”poor energy, inability to tolerate stress, brain fog, frequent colds, anxiety & depression, food cravings and low libido can all be results of chronic stress.
Chronic stress affects the entire hormonal balance in your body, including cortisol, reproductive and thyroid hormones.
Testing: The best way to test your hormone balance is to use a 4-point died urine hormone test.
Treatment: Naturopathic treatment can involve diet and lifestyle coaching, stress management strategies, mindfulness therapies, nutritional supplementation, IV therapy and botanical medicine.
Thyroid
The thyroid gland sets the body’s temperature metabolic rate.
Hypothyroid
If the thyroid does not make enough thyroid hormones, symptoms of hypothyroidism occur. This means that the body’s metabolic rate will slow down and symptoms such as weight gain, hair loss, fatigue, constipation, dry skin, depression, feeling cold all the time, irregular or heavy menstruation, low libido, elevated cholesterol and poor memory may occur.
Hashimoto’s disease is a common cause of hypothyroidism that is often overlooked in the conventional medical system. Hashimoto’s is an autoimmune condition and may be related to inflammation from food allergies and dysbiosis, or environmental toxins. Naturopathic medicine can address the root cause of Hashimoto’s and help restore normal thyroid function.
Many patients also present with subclinical hypothyroidism, where they experience the signs and symptoms hypothyroidism, but their blood thyroid hormone levels are normal.
Testing:
I offer a full thyroid hormone panel which tests the blood levels of TSH (Thyroid stimulating hormone), T3, T4 and Anti-TPO antibodies (present in auto-immune hypothyroidism or Hashimoto’s). This screening can help catch patients with thyroid issues who have a normal TSH.
Treatment: Naturopathic treatment for thyroid disorders depends on the severity of the symptoms and can include dietary and lifestyle modifications, nutritional supplementation, botanical medicine or thyroid hormone replacement.
Sex Hormones
Sex hormone imbalance can cause:
- Irregular, heavy, or painful menses
- Endometriosis, PCOS, fibroids
- Low libido
- Loss of muscle mass
- Vaginal dryness
- Night sweats and hot flashes
- Trouble sleeping and fatigue
- Headaches and migraines
- Weight gain
- Fertility concerns
- Acne
- Difficult menopause
- Postpartum depression
- Mood changes & PMS
Testing: The sex hormones include: Testosterone, DHEA, the Estrogens and Progesterone. Sex hormones can be tested in blood, urine or saliva.
Blood testing measures the total amount of hormone available. Most of the hormones in the blood will be tightly bound to carrier proteins and so serum testing does not always give an accurate depiction of the ‘free’ hormone available to be used by your tissues.
Salivary testing is a better measure of unbound or ‘free’ hormone levels and can give a better indication of what is available for use by the tissues.
Urinary hormone testing is beneficial because it allows the measurement of hormone production over a 24-hour period, rather than at one point in time. Urine testing also makes it easy to measure the break-down products of sex hormones to see how they are being metabolized in the body.
I can help you choose the best option for you.