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Hormones and Neurotransmitters both have profound effects on your mental, physical and emotional health. They also play a major role in controlling your appetite, weight, mood, sexual function and reproductive health.
Right now, more than any time in history, we are living completely out of harmony with our natural biological rhythms. We stay up late, over-commit, run from one thing to the next, stuff ourselves with sugary, processed foods, and are bombarded with chemicals and electromagnetic pollution.
Is it any wonder why your hormones and neurotransmitters may have gone berserk?
Hormones and neurotransmitters must be in balance in order to prevent disease, and to enjoy vibrant health. Understand how and why these systems get out of balance, and you will see why so many Americans walk around tired, depressed and overweight, and why no amount of pharmaceutical drugs will ever solve the problem.
All of our hormones and brain-messenger chemicals must work together in a finely orchestrated symphony to keep everything in balance. For example, the hypothalamus and pituitary glands in your brain are the command centers for all the endocrine (hormone) glands. They send signals to distant parts of the body to control everything from your stress response through your adrenal glands, to your blood-sugar, thyroid hormone, your sexual function through your reproductive organs, and they also control growth, sleep, mood and much more.
When our hormones become imbalanced, the health consequences can be severe. There are three big epidemics of hormonal problems in America today: too much insulin (from sugar), too much cortisol and adrenaline (from stress), and not enough thyroid hormone. These all interconnect with and affect the other major category of hormones: our sex hormones.
Imbalances in our hormones or neurotransmitters can influence the way our brains function and can lead to everything from depression, anxiety and ADD/ADHD, to heart disease, cancer and dementia.
Sadly, what I see all too often are patients who have been to doctors and have been put on hormones, without ever having proper lab testing. Nor are they told that regulating stress, inflammation and blood sugar are the keys to balancing hormones.
Once we have an accurate map of the territory (through proper lab testing), then we can begin creating a personalize Functional Medicine plan to address the root causes of any imbalances.
Before we give any hormones we first addressed all the things that can affect Production, Transport, Sensitivity and Detoxification of those specific hormones.
Stress plays an absolutely huge role in the regulation of your hormones. An alarming 75% of adults and teenagers report moderate to high levels of stress, which triggers the fight or flight response and the release of cortisol.
Prolonged stress can lead to significant imbalance in the HPA axis. The Hypothalamic – Pituitary –Adrenal (HPA) axis is our central stress response system, and it is a complex and dynamic feedback network between the central nervous system and the endocrine system.
Which is why we often start with evaluating ones stress response system, and work to balance the HPA-axis before moving on to the use of bio-identical hormones.
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