Most hormone problems in Creve Coeur aren’t contributed to having deficient hormone levels. You can have plenty of hormone problems without anything being wrong with the glands that produce them (like the ovaries and testicles). I strongly encourage you to consider these following items before taking birth control pills or testosterone to normalize your hormones:
Most hormone problems stem from not being able to break down all your hormones and/or being able to clear them out of your body after they’ve been used. This is why we look at how well your liver, your gall bladder, your gut environment, and your kidneys are functioning.
Hormones latch on to cell receptors for them to have any effect in your body. Chemicals can upset these receptors or clog them up so hormones can’t act on them. The more fat we have, the more hormone disruptors we store.
Your brain acts like the power switch to your glands to make hormones. Inflammation, certain medications, head injury, poor blood flow, and auto-immunity can all impact the communication between your brain and your glands that control the natural wave of hormone balance.
Pretty interesting that we can have a huge impact on our hormones without adding birth control pills or testosterone. If you are taking these things for instant relief, ask your functional medicine provider at De Geer Health & Wellness to investigate why your hormones are off.
WHAT DO WE DO IN CREVE COEUR? THERE ARE 5 PRIORITIES OF FUNCTIONAL ENDOCRINOLOGY:
- Create normal blood sugar levels (blood sugar kills our hormone system)
- Support our liver’s detox ability
- Create a healthy digestive bacteria environment
- Balance healthy and unhealthy fatty acids
- Improve oxygen delivery (without oxygen, tissues can’t function. We’d have no energy, no neurotransmitters, and no hormones)
We generally see great success with optimizing these things. If we’re analyzing hormones, as a chiropractor in Creve Coeur, I order 24-hour dry urine testing to see how your hormones are cycling throughout the day. There is also saliva and blood testing for this as well.
FEMALES
Young women not in menopause/perimenopause rarely have depleted hormones from your ovaries under-performing.
The most common causes of hormone imbalance in menstruating women are: Poor blood sugar control, chronic stress, birth control pills, poor fatty acid balance (too much inflammatory ones not enough anti-inflammatory ones), poor fatty acid metabolism (where you’re not breaking down fat and using its benefits), and poor hormone detoxing (from too many chemical toxins)
Some common symptoms:
- PMS pain
- Painful cramps
- Heavy bleeds
- Resorted to birth control (which also depletes your body of methyl donors)
- Aging Spots
- PCOS
- Hot flashes
- Mood swings
- Low Libido
- Thinning hair
- Carpal tunnel
Menopause/Perimenopause
Perimenopause is a window of time, if managed properly, that becomes a smooth transition to a full-functioning new phase of life. If NOT managed properly, it can lead to accelerated symptoms of virtually every system of your body (psychosis, depression, osteoporosis, etc)
In menopause, your body is transitioning from your ovaries producing hormones to now relying on your adrenal glands to produce the precursors to these hormones. The adrenal glands also make the stress hormone, cortisol. Are your adrenal glands overworked from having experienced too much stress for several years? Going into menopause without your adrenal glands’ ability to produce androstenedione, may lead to life-long issues or flares.
Inflammation increases with menopause because estrogen levels are declining, and hormone replacement therapy does not stop this. Menopausal females have lower antioxidant enzymes, which leads to more free radicals, which leads to tissue damage and accelerated aging. Therefore, there is a greater need for anti-inflammatory antioxidants.
Inflammatory chemicals affect chemical-tolerance (we may be more sensitive to smells and detergents), food-tolerance (we may experience new food sensitivities), and self-tolerance (developing auto-immunity). How inflamed you are going into menopause plays a role in the magnitude of this inflammatory response.
MALES
Are you experiencing low motivation, less enthusiasm, or low sex drive? We’re seeing signs of andropause (the male equivalent of menopause) at much earlier ages now: some in their late 20s or 30s.
Is testosterone replacement the best option?
- I would consider it only after other options fail. Too many times I’ve seen patients in Creve Coeur choose testosterone replacement without knowing other options or aware that this shuts down the ability to produce your own.
Some physiology glitches
- Once inflammation rises, testosterone drops
- Fat upregulates the enzyme, aromatase, which converts testosterone to estrogen
- Control blood sugar issues as insulin boosts the stress hormone, cortisol, and interferes with hormone production
- Is there anything disrupting the feedback loops that act as power circuits to make hormones?
- Are you able to break down hormones in your gut and liver after you’ve used them and then eliminate them from your body?
- Is there anything clogging or altering your hormone receptors?
- Are you making enough cholesterol to produce hormones, or are you on a statin drug?
Erectile dysfunction
Patients also come to De Geer Health & Wellness with ED concerns where they not able to sustain an erection. This is generally not a hormone problem, but rather a blood flow, neurologic, or psychological concern. With poor blood flow, it’s common to also experience cold hands, feet, and the tip of your nose. Some see fungal overgrowth in their nailbeds. If you have a blood flow problem we can work on boosting that naturally while decreasing inflammation and making some simple lifestyle changes.
Call our team at De Geer Health & Wellness in Creve Coeur today to schedule an appointment.