The Hormone System

You know you have imbalanced hormones is you suffer from: fatigue, depression, inability to lose weight, sweet cravings, decreased sex drive, insomnia, poor memory, anxiety, PMS, weakened immune response, recurrent infections, unexplained nervousness or irritability and joint or muscle pain.

What Are Hormones?

Hormones are the body’s chemical messengers. They are molecules that circulate round the body and attach to cells and move inside cells, telling them what to do. If they are not working in balance, many health complaints and symptoms may result.

Most people have heard of at least one or two hormones. The ones that are talked about most commonly are the sex hormones oestrogen, progesterone and testosterone, the stress hormones adrenalin, cortisol and DHEA, thyroid hormone and the main storage hormone, insulin.

The Importance of Stress Hormones

The first step in assessing your hormonal system's condition is to measure the functioning of your adrenal glands and stress hormones. Through a simple saliva test it is possible to determine how much stress your body is under and how this is affecting your hormones.

Causes of Stress

Stress is caused by lifestyle issues such as financial & relationship issues, working long hours, poor eating habits, lack of exercise or lack of rest, medical & recreational drugs, pollution, not getting enough sleep, etc. Adrenal stress can also be caused by internal organ dysfunction such as poor digestion or inadequate detoxification ability. When the sum total of all your stresses reaches a critical threshold, the adrenals react in a predicable pattern.

The adrenal glands sit like little hats on top of the kidneys. As stress accumulates on your body, the adrenal glands may become overworked or weakened, leading to three stages of adrenal dysfunction.

Three Stages of Burnout

Stage 1 - Stress Overload

Whatever the source of stress, your body's initial reaction is the same: the adrenal glands make more of the stress hormones cortisol and DHEA. This first stage of imbalance is over activity of the adrenal glands. Normally, when the stress dissipates, the glands have time to recondition and prepare for the next stressful event. However, if your stress levels remain high, your body will remain locked in this first stage of adrenal over activity. If your stress hormone levels remain elevated for extended periods of time, your body's ability to recover can be reduced and the ability of your adrenals to make cortisol and DHEA can be compromised.

Another way to look at this is to think of your adrenal reserve as a savings account. If you continually withdraw money from savings and don't replace it, you are eventually unable to recover financially. Fatigue and other adrenal symptoms are signs that your body's reserve has been overdrawn and your adrenals are becoming exhausted.

Stage 2 – Fatigue

Some people have genetically strong adrenal glands and can maintain health under high levels of stress for many years. Others may enter into stage two more quickly. Eventually, if you continue to experience excess stress, you enter into stage two of adrenal exhaustion. This transition period usually lasts between six and eighteen months during which the stress response of the adrenal glands is gradually compromised.

Under chronic stress conditions the adrenals eventually "burn out." At this point the glands become fatigued and can no longer sustain an adequate response to stress. DHEA levels tend to be low relative to cortisol and cortisol itself may also be too low at certain times of the day, most notably in the morning and mid afternoon. In these situations, people struggle to wake up in the morning and may have energy slumps in the afternoon.

Stage 3 - Exhaustion

In stage three of adrenal imbalance the glands have been depleted of their ability to produce cortisol and DHEA in sufficient amounts and now it becomes more and more difficult for the body to recover. Constant fatigue and low-level depression can appear in otherwise emotionally healthy people because cortisol and DHEA help maintain mood, emotional stability and energy levels. As cortisol and DHEA levels are depressed, people experience depressed mental function. Brain function suffers as these hormones are depleted. Both poor memory and mental confusion can be a direct result of adrenal hormone depletion.

Stress and Sex Hormone Production and Sex Drive

Cortisol and DHEA depletion impacts the female hormones progesterone and estrogen, as well as the predominant male hormone, testosterone. In both men and women hormonal symptoms such as mood swings, irritability, sweet cravings and headaches can be related to the failure of the adrenals to adapt to stress. Female hormone symptoms such as menstrual cramping, infertility, night sweats and hot flashes can also be adrenal related.

The reason this happens is that all the hormones we are talking about are made from cholesterol. The cholesterol is converted in the adrenal glands to pregnenolone. The pregnenolone can then either be converted into the sex hormones or the stress hormones. If the body is under stress, more of the pregnenolone is converted through the stress hormone pathway at the expense of the sex hormones, leading to more imbalances.

Many women feel they are on an emotional roller coaster with their female hormones, yet rarely is the role the adrenals play in female hormones explored. Testosterone levels in men also suffer as a result of weak adrenal output. Since sex hormone levels drop as cortisol and DHEA levels drop, sex drive diminishes in both men and women.

Bone Loss, Pain and Inflammation

Many people experience increased neck, back and joint pain from imbalances in cortisol.

When cortisol levels are abnormal due to chronic stress, bone loss can occur. This is because excessive cortisol blocks mineral absorption. If you are taking calcium supplements to help protect you from bone loss and your cortisol is elevated, you will be unable to absorb the calcium. Calcium can then accumulate in the body and deposit in joints causing arthritis or deposit in the blood vessels increasing your risk for hardening of the arteries.

The Immune System

Two major aspects of healthy immune function are mucosal and blood immunity. The mucosal immune system consists of the lining tissues of the body that defends us against infectious organisms such as bacteria, virus, yeast and parasites. The mucosal immune system also protects us from the entry of harmful toxins from chemicals and toxic metals such as mercury, lead and aluminium. Our blood immunity represents the ability of immune cells in the blood to fight and neutralize harmful agents.

These two basic functions of the immune system can be easily measured using lab tests.

Symptoms of suppressed mucosal immunity include chronic sinus infections or sinus congestion, susceptibility to colds and flus, intestinal upset, food allergies and environmental allergies to pollens and animals. Suppressed humoral immunity is a more advanced condition and is common in people with chronic health problems such as chronic fatigue, fibromyalgia, depression and food reactions.

Food reactions are the most frequent hidden cause of immune system problems. Genetic, autoimmune conditions such as gluten intolerance affect millions of people worldwide. Lactose intolerance and cow's milk dairy allergies are a leading cause of sinus problems and excessive mucous production. Corn and soy allergies are also increasingly common.

Lab testing also detects the level of secretory immunoglobin A, referred to as 'SIgA', a vital component of the immune system.

In a healthy body, SIgA protects us from infections (e.g., parasites, bacteria, yeast, viruses) and reactions to foods. SIgA defence is found in the lining of the digestive tract, respiratory tract, sinus passages, throat, mouth, vaginal tract and urogenital system. When SIgA is depressed we become susceptible to a wide range of infections.

Stress and Immune Function

If cortisol levels are abnormal the ability of immune cells to produce adequate SigA is compromised. This is one reason we get sick so easily when we are stressed. Simply put, prolonged stress results in adrenal exhaustion and depressed first line immune defence opening the door for opportunistic infections from bacteria, viruses and parasites.

Repair (Anabolic)

Depending on our physical and emotional health we are at all times shifting between a repair (anabolic) or breakdown (catabolic) state. Being in an anabolic state means you are rebuilding, repairing and literally re-constructing your body's tissues. Being in a repair state is like renovating a house by painting, landscaping and replacing a leaky roof. Anabolic refers to your immune system's rebuilding processes. When you are anabolic your body is in a state of constant regeneration, repairing blood vessels and heart tissue, rebuilding old bone and even destroying cancerous cells.

Breakdown (Catabolic)

The opposite process, a breakdown state, is referred to as a catabolic state. The word catabolic is from the same Greek root as the word cataclysm, meaning disaster. It is a well-chosen term since too much time spent in a catabolic state has disastrous effects on your health. This breakdown or destruction phase occurs when your body is operating under stressful conditions and isn't able to repair itself adequately. Under catabolic conditions we breakdown our own muscle, our own organs and our own bone. This breakdown ultimately leads to degenerative diseases.

We maintain a strong immune system when our bodies spend more time in repairing than breaking down. A healthy immune system prevents the development of many chronic degenerative diseases. For example, we have cancer cells that grow in us each day and it's our immune system's job to destroy those cells so that tumours don't develop. Our blood vessels and heart require constant renewal to prevent the plaques that cause cardiovascular disease. Our bodies are constantly breaking down and repairing bone and joint tissue; if this breakdown process is blocked, osteoporosis and arthritis occur. Prolonged immune system stress can lead the body to attack itself resulting in autoimmune diseases such as lupus, multiple sclerosis and rheumatoid arthritis.

If you would like to order an adrenal stress test, please contact me or schedule a complimentary 15min consultation.