What Is The Best Hormonal Imbalance Treatment
While synthetic hormone replacement therapy has long been used to treat hormonal imbalance symptoms, Dr. Christy prefers the more efficient and natural benefits of bioidentical hormone replacement therapy in the form of BioTE® pellets. Rather than using artificial hormone compounds, BHRT contains plant-based hormones that are structurally designed to mimic the bodys natural hormones. This allows for more efficient absorption and symptom control. Furthermore, the unique BioTE pellet delivery system offers a constant dose of hormones in order to avoid upswings and downswings in a patients symptoms.
Low Progesterone Can Lead To Weight Gain
A hormone imbalance, such as low progesterone, could potentially lead to weight gain as imbalances between estrogen and progesterone are one of the emerging causes of obesity.
Healthy levels of progesterone support the thyroid which produces hormones to regulate your metabolism, or how quickly food is used for energy. If the thyroid is not supported and therefore cannot produce sufficient levels of hormones, your metabolism will slow down, meaning less food is burned for energy. Eating more food than you burn leads to weight gain.
Sometimes, low progesterone can be a sign of estrogen dominance. This is because estrogen and progesterone must always stay balanced. So when estrogen levels abnormally high in comparison to progesterone levels, progesterone can appear low.
If estrogen dominance is the cause of low progesterone, you could be at a higher risk of weight gain. As we mentioned earlier, estrogen is responsible for depositing more fat onto different parts of your body. If you dont have enough progesterone present to balance out the effects of excess estrogen, you may retain more fat cells than normal.
If you dont have enough progesterone present to balance out the effects of excess estrogen, you may retain more fat cells than normal.
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How Does The Stress Hormone Cortisol Sabotage Weight Loss
How is this overproduction of cortisol related to weight gain? First of all, heightened cortisol is linked to overeating. Ever notice how you eat when youre stressed? A study published in the journal Psychoneuroendocrinology found that higher than normal cortisol levels were linked to overeating and weight gain. Another study links elevated cortisol levels to an increase in belly fat.
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What Are The Signs Of Hormone Imbalance
Hormone levels naturally change at various points during every persons life, including puberty, pregnancy, menopause, and more. Additionally, underlying conditions, certain medications, and other factors can impact hormone levels. Because the hormones play such a major role in the regulation of so many important physiologic processes, hormone imbalance can cause a number of frustrating and disruptive symptoms, including:
- Loss of bone and/or muscle mass
Problems With Insulin And Cancer
Ailments like insulin resistance and cancer can affect estrogen in men. Premenopausal women have enhanced insulin sensitivity and a lower prevalence of type 2 diabetes compared to men the same age. But, this insulin advantage disappears the moment they enter menopause. And the reduction in circulating estradiol has a lot to do with it.
If a patient doesnt regulate their increasing estrogen for a very long time, they might develop health issues. These include blood clots, blood pressure problems, a lower-than-average calcium level in the plasma, cervical, and breast cancer. So, its a good idea to manage the excess estrogen and weight gain.
Other imbalanced hormones can also lead to excess weight. Leptin is one of them. Leptin is a satiety hormone capable of reducing the appetite and making you feel full. But, leptin levels are four times higher in obese patients than those with average weight.
The problem is, in obesity, this hormone doesnt work like it is supposed to. People experience impaired leptin signaling, which pushes the brain to eat more.
Another hormone is ghrelin the hunger hormone. When you feel hungry, the stomach releases this hormone, which sends a message to the brain telling you to eat. In overweight patients, fasting ghrelin is typically lower. Without adequate hormonal balance, people are prone to overeating.
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What Is A Hormonal Belly
A variety of conditions can unbalance a person’s hormones. This disruption can lead to hormonal belly, which is excess weight gain around the stomach. Sometimes, excess fat around the belly is due to hormones. Hormones help regulate many bodily functions, including metabolism, stress, hunger, and sex drive.
What Does A Serum Progesterone Test Involve
Your doctor may collect a sample of your blood in their office or send you to another site to have your blood drawn. The person drawing your blood will start by cleaning an area of your skin directly over a vein.
Next, they will insert a needle into your vein. They will draw blood through the needle into a vial or tube. Then they will send your blood sample to a laboratory for testing.
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Diagnosing And Testing Estrogen Levels
In females showing signs of estrogen dominance, diagnostic tests may not be necessary to prove that the estrogen ratio is out of balance. The reason for this is that many of the recommendations that doctors might make to reduce estrogen levels are generally beneficial to overall health and unlikely to cause harm.
However, if an underlying medical condition may be causing high estrogen levels, a doctor might run tests to determine whether there is an imbalance and confirm the root cause. Doctors also monitor estriol levels in high risk pregnancies.
In females, doctors can measure all three types of estrogen via blood testing. In males, they only measure estradiol and estrone.
The treatment for high estrogen depends on the underlying cause. For estrogen dominance that is not due to a specific medical condition, doctors may recommend lifestyle changes to reduce the levels. People can try:
- eating an anti-inflammatory or vegetarian diet
- eating more soy, flaxseed, and cruciferous vegetables, such as broccoli and kale
- getting more omega-3 fatty acids in the diet or taking a supplement
- maintaining a moderate weight
- limiting or stopping alcohol consumption
- avoiding xenoestrogens, such as BPA in plastics
- avoiding any natural or herbal remedies that may increase estrogen
How Does Estrogen Affect Weight
Estrogen levels that are too high or too low can cause weight gain. High levels of estrogen in the body can irritate the cells that produce insulin in your body, making you insulin resistant and blood sugar levels rise, leading to weight gain. Low levels of estrogen can also cause a very stubborn type of weight gain.
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How Does Estrogen Impact Weight Gain
Produced within the ovaries, estrogen is responsible for optimal functioning of all female reproductive organs. Estrogen promotes the storage of fat for healthy reproductive years. When estrogen is balanced, the right amount of fat helps carry out female reproductive functions. However, when theres too little or too much estrogen, weight gain often results.
Overweight women typically have high amounts of estrogen, as do women in the first half of pregnancy. Then theres perimenopause and menopause, which are characterized by a notable decrease in estrogen. Its during this time that some women opt for hormone replacement therapy to replace declining estrogen levels.
Signs And Symptoms Of High Estrogen
What is estrogen?
Your bodys hormones are like a seesaw. When theyre perfectly balanced, your body works as it should. But when theyre unbalanced, you may begin experiencing problems.
Estrogen is known as the female hormone. Testosterone is known as the male hormone. Although each hormone is identified with a specific sex, both are found in women and men. On average, women have higher levels of estrogen and men have more testosterone.
In women, estrogen helps initiate sexual development. Along with another female sex hormone known as progesterone, it also regulates a womans menstrual cycle and affects her entire reproductive system. In premenopausal women, estrogen and progesterone levels vary from one stage of the menstrual cycle to another.
In men, estrogen also plays an important role in sexual function.
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Understanding Hormonal Weight Gain
Hormonal weight gain is the increase in body weight, mainly body fat, in some parts of the body. Unlike typical weight gain, which occurs when the amount of energy gained by the body exceeds the amount of energy burned during metabolism and physical activity, hormonal weight gain occurs when there are imbalances of hormones or certain hormonal disorders.
Hormonal Imbalances In Women
Maintaining a healthy balance in your hormone is essential for almost every one of your bodys functions. And it can have a significant influence on a persons mood, growth and development.
That can include your eating habits, sleep, sexual desire, reproductive capabilities, and also how the body utilizes the food youre consuming. A hormonal imbalance that many women have is a condition called Estrogen Dominance.
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Estrogen And Its Effects On The Body
Estrogen is an important hormone for male and female health and sexual development.
Estrogen regulates cholesterol levels, maintains bone health, and affects mood. In females, this hormone also influences puberty, the menstrual cycle, pregnancy, and menopause.
There are three main types of estrogen:
- Estradiol: This is the most potent form of estrogen, and its concentration is highest in females of childbearing age. Doctors use this form of estrogen as a marker for ovary health.
- Estrone: This is the primary type of estrogen in males. It is also the primary form of estrogen in females after menopause. The ovaries, placenta, testicles, and fat tissue produce estrone from androstenedione or androgens.
- Estriol: The placenta produces this type of estrogen, which reaches peak levels during pregnancy. The amount of estriol increases as the fetus grows.
When estrogen levels rise or fall, this can affect many areas of the body, including the reproductive system, skin, hair, bones, muscles, brain, and breast tissue. Fluctuations can also have these effects in males, as everyone has some breast tissue.
There are several reasons why estrogen levels can become high. They may rise as a result of:
- an overproduction of estrogen
- changes in how the body breaks estrogen down
- changes in how the body excretes estrogen
Many factors may contribute to estrogen dominance, including:
- hypocalcemia, which is low calcium
Signs Of Excess Estrogen
The primary and most potent estrogen is called Estradiol . Normal estradiol levels in men are 10 pg/ml to 50 pg/ml. Estrogens can mediate effects through many pathways. Estradiol levels under 5 ng dl are associated with poor libido.
Estrogen has a key role in the human system. The estrogen is there to keep the bone health, mood, and cholesterol under wraps. When the levels of this hormone are thrown out of sync, they can lead to numerous health issues.
In men, we can recognize the signs of high estrogen with problems such as depression, erectile dysfunction, and infertility. High estrogen can also provoke symptoms like delayed puberty, big or swollen breast tissue, and short stature.
Other signs in men include:
- Some amount of hair loss
- Drop in muscle mass
- Having difficulties staying focused
This spike in estrogen hormone could be a red flag for diabetes, testicle tumor, adrenal gland tumor, overactive thyroid, or cirrhosis. In contrast, significantly lower estrogen levels can trigger symptoms such as bone loss, osteoporosis, extra belly fat, and plummeting sex drive.
Data suggest that male patients with heart disease, more precisely progressive coronary artery disease, struggled with low estrogen and testosterone. Hypogonadism can force estrogen levels to drop.
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Estrogen Regulates Adiposity Through Estrogen Receptors
Estrogen regulates body adiposity and fat distribution through its receptors, ER alpha and beta . However, only ER has been reported to have a major influence on energy homeostasis . ER is necessary for estradiols genomic actions on body weight regulation while ER functions more as a modulator of estrogen actions . Rapid, non-genomic actions of estradiol also have been described and some of them appear to involve ER .
Heine et al. reported that male and female mice with total body deletion of ER, ER-knock-out mice, have increased adiposity in both male and female mice, suggesting an important role for this estrogen receptor in the regulation of body weight and adiposity. Recently, site-specific knockdown of ER expression in the VMH, a brain region critical for body weight regulation, demonstrates the role of VMH ER activity in the regulation of body weight homeostasis . Knockdown of VMH ER results in obesity due to an anabolic process, with changes in energy expenditure primarily mediating the weight gain . These data are consistent to previous finding in the ERKO mice where it has been demonstrated that the obesity is primarily due to changes in energy expenditure rather than changes in food intake and those mice have increased visceral adiposity . These data suggest that estrogen signaling with critical hypothalamic nuclei is responsible for the regulation of body weight via modulating energy expenditure.
Stress Is A Risk Factor For Weight Changes
Dr. Albert and her colleagues believe that their results indicate that traumatic or stressful events may raise the risk of obesity, and that such events should be taken into consideration when it comes to embarking on weight management interventions.
Our findings suggest that psychological stress in the form of negative and traumatic life events might represent an important risk factor for weight changes and, therefore, we should consider including assessment and treatment of psychosocial stress in approaches to weight management.
Dr. Michelle A. Albert
The team notes that its study was only able to assess how traumatic and negative life events were associated with weight at one point in time. They say that future studies should how such events impact weight gain over time.
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A Daily Battle With The Bathroom Scale Can Cause Shame Judgment Suffering And Obsession With Weightcontributing Further To Weight Loss Resistance
Even worse, the drill-sergeant approach of restricted eating and harsh exercise can escalate hormonal and emotional problems. A daily battle with the bathroom scale can cause shame, judgment, suffering, and obsession with weightcontributing further to weight loss resistance. When meals are accompanied by guilt, suffering, or anxiety about our food or our bodies a physiologic stress response is activated, triggering a fight-or-flight reaction and raising cortisol.
How do you reset your hormones, or jump-start your metabolism? Can you do it through diet alone?
The best way to get your hormones back on track and reinstate a healthy weight is to correct hormonal misfires with changes to the way you eat, move, think, and supplement. Start with diet: In my experience, 80 percent of weight loss is determined by the hormone/food interaction, so you want to eat in a way that optimizes your hormones. Heres my priority list:
CHANGE THE WAY YOU EAT AND DRINK. Remove processed foods, refined carbohydrates, sugars and sugar substitutes from your diet. Eliminate alcohol for 21 days .
TAKE SUPPLEMENTS TO IMPROVE YOUR HORMONE LEVELS. Here are a few of my favorites:
What causes hormones to go haywire? Is it the natural aging process, stress, having babiesis there a primary culprit?
The main culprits of haywire hormones are:
How To Test And Track Estrogen Levels
To best way to understand how your estrogen levels are responding to any recent treatments or lifestyle changes is through hormone testing and tracking.
Currently, there are three different ways that you can test your estrogen levels. This includes blood testing, urine testing, and saliva testing. Each method comes with its own pros and cons in terms of the medical support required and the type of information that you will receive in your results.
For example, a blood test at your doctors office or through an at-home testing service like Lets Get Checked will only give you a one-time snapshot of your estrogen levels at the time that you take your test. If you want to know how your levels change over time, you will need to continue testing on a weekly or monthly basis. The downside of this approach is that it can become expensive and time-consuming.
Urine testing with a system like Mira is another option that may be a bit less expensive depending on your situation and insurance. Testing with Mira is as easy as taking a pregnancy test, and the best part is that you will receive your results in real-time. While Mira cannot test for all types of estrogen, it can test for the urine metabolite of Estradiol , which is the most dominant form of estrogen in individuals of reproductive age.
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Is My Weight Gain Hormonal
Estrogen levels that are too high or too low can cause weight gain. High levels of estrogen in the body can irritate the cells that produce insulin in your body, making you insulin resistant and blood sugar levels rise, leading to weight gain. Low levels of estrogen can also cause a very stubborn type of weight gain.
How To Treat Increased Estrogen Levels
This problem can be corrected quite easily. Sometimes, high estrogen levels can be treated with testosterone replacement therapy.
Elevated estrogen levels can also be counteracted with proper nutrition and regular exercise. This is especially true when you add supplements to your routine.
Additionally, its recommended that people with elevated estrogen levels decrease the amount of alcohol consumed and increase the intake of flaxseed and vitamin B.
There are also estrogen blockers available, which help decrease the uptake of the hormone. Both natural and pharmaceutical estrogen blockers exist.
Depending on the severity of the condition, it might be helpful to try the natural remedies first. Though, you should always consult your doctor before making any drastic changes to your diet and exercise plan.
Natural estrogen blockers include:
Wild nettle root
Prostate medication is sometimes made using this ingredient, and its supplements can help regulate estrogen levels.
Grape seed extract
This has been shown to work as an inhibitor to the process that converts testosterone into estrogen.
Chrysin
Found in honey and passionflower, this plant matter supposedly inhibits the uptake of estrogen while promoting testosterone production.
Maca
This vegetable is packed with vitamins and other beneficial nutrients, but theres little evidence to suggest it aids in the regulation of hormones. Yet, proponents claim it benefits fertility in women and estrogen regulation in men.
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