healthy hormones Archives | Linden and Arc

Most of us are not living in line with our natural biological rhythms. This is causing imbalances in our hormone levels. Hormone imbalances often affect our brain’s ability to function efficiently and can cause obesity, dementia, mental health disorders, and many other serious health issues. Keeping our sex hormones in check is critical to our overall well-being.

Signs your sex hormones are out of balance: 

Depression and anxiety
Exhaustion 
Trouble concentrating
Sleep issues

Being overweight or having excessive belly fat
Sugar and salt cravings
Menstrual pain and premenstrual syndrome (PMS)
Challenging menopause or andropause symptoms
Mood and energy swings

Low sex drive
Needing caffeine or alcohol to function

At Linden & Arc Vitality Institute, we are experts at addressing and treating hormone imbalances. Our goal is to support your body by restoring and improving your health and well-being.

What Are Hormones?

Hormones are produced and managed by our endocrine glands. They are chemical messengers in our bodies that are secreted directly into our bloodstream. They move to all parts of the body to help control how cells and organs work. Hormones help us manage our moods, sleep, growth, thyroid, sexual behaviours, stress responses, and blood sugar levels. 

Because the control centers of your endocrine glands are in your brain, even a slight imbalance of your hormones can alter your brain’s capacity to learn and function effectively. Meaning your hormones can affect all aspects of your life!

Your sex hormones affect your sexual development, reproduction, and many other aspects of your life. These hormones include testosterone, estrogen, pregnenolone, progesterone, and DHEA (dehydroepiandrosterone).

Testosterone

Testosterone is a brain-boosting sex hormone responsible for building muscle mass and improving all genders’ mood, memory, motivation, and cognitive function.   

Testosterone levels tend to drop with age due to weight gain, little exercise, chronic stress, and high sugar diets. Birth control, surgical menopause (surgical removal of the ovaries), and medications can also lower testosterone levels.  

Signs of low testosterone: 

Low sex drive 
Erectile dysfunction

Less sensitive clitoris 
Decreased sense of well-being 
Depression 
Decreased concentration and memory 
Fatigue

Mood changes 
Decreased muscle strength 
Increased cellulite or varicose veins 
Joint pain 
Hair loss

Those born males often experience symptoms of andropause as they reach their 40s. Andropause happens as testosterone levels decline with age. Symptoms include depression, fatigue, loss of mental clarity, and loss of sex drive and function. These symptoms are avoidable and are caused by hormone imbalance.  

Regular exercise and strength training, ensuring you are eating enough protein, fat, and whole carbohydrates, getting plenty of sleep, and reducing stress are great ways to help raise your testosterone levels.  

Many excellent delivery systems are available to easily keep your testosterone levels optimized and balanced, including Bio-Te pellets, creams, lozenges (troches), and injectables.

Estrogen

Everyone’s body makes and needs estrogen! Estrogen promotes the production of serotonin, making it one of nature’s natural antidepressants! Like all hormones having imbalanced estrogen levels can send your body into crisis. 

In the brain, estrogen has been shown to reduce the risks of dementia, while too much can cause breast, uterine, and cervical cancer, as well as breast growth in men. 

Adrenal glands, ovaries, and fat tissues produce estrogen. All genders have this hormone, but those born female create more of it. As we age, our adrenal glands start to make most of our sex hormones. Bad habits such as smoking, alcohol consumption, high sugar and refined carbohydrate diets, and chronic stress deplete our adrenal glands. 

Symptoms of premenstrual syndrome, brain fog, memory loss, mood swings, hot flashes, vaginal dryness, and sleepless nights due to menopause are not inevitable. They are treatable symptoms that are caused by hormonal imbalances.

Signs of estrogen imbalance:

Fatigue
Weight loss or gain
Irregular or no periods
Mood swings

PMS 
Hot flashes
Sore breasts
Headaches and migraines 
Decreased sex drive

Depression and anxiety
Infertility 
Increased hunger and thirst 
Sensitivity to hot or cold
Bowel movement changes

Frequent urination
Stretch marks
Blurred vision

Maintaining a moderate weight, regular exercise, reducing stress, consuming proper nutrients, and taking care of your gut health are great ways to help balance your estrogen levels. 

Estrogen Detox

Your body naturally detoxes estrogen using a 3-part process.

Phase 1: Estrogen is turned into three types of metabolites including 2-OH, 4-OH, and 16-OH.

Phase 2: A process called methylation neutralizes 2-OH and 4-OH. This makes the metabolites water soluble so that they can be safely excreted from the body.  

Phase 3: Excretion – If your gut bacteria is agitated and you produce too many enzymes, this phase will not work, and recirculation will occur. This leads to inflammation and estrogen dominance.  

How to promote estrogen detox: 

Try a whole food plant-based diet (avoid soy). Plant foods support hormone balance and microbiome. 
Reduce plastic use. Plastic contains synthetic estrogens, even when it is BPA-free plastic.  
Reduce stress. 
Take care of your gut and ensure you have regular bowel movements. 
Exercise regularly. 
Limit alcohol intake.  
Ensure you are getting proper sleep.

Pregnenolone  

Some call this the “mother of hormones” because it is the steroid hormone used as a precursor to making all the other steroid hormones in a process called steroidogenesis. Pregnenolone is made from cholesterol in the adrenal glands, brain, ovaries in females, and testes in males. The synthesis of each class of hormones is dependent on various factors, including the location of where it is being made, the enzymes involved, and the other hormones present.  

There are five classes of steroid hormones synthesized from pregnenolone, including: 

Androgens (Ex. testosterone, dihydrotestosterone (DHT))  
Estrogens (Ex. estradiol) 
Glucocorticoids (Ex. cortisol, corticosterone)

Mineralocorticoids (Ex. aldosterone) 
Progestins (Ex. progesterone)

Pregnenolone also has other actions in the body. It has anti-inflammatory effects and is immune supporting. When pregnenolone is made in the nervous system, it is called a neurosteroid. Neurosteroids influence gene transcription and modulate neurotransmission. This results in various effects on brain function and supports neuroprotection.  If your pregnenolone production declines, the hormonal imbalance often results in struggles in your day-to-day life.

Low pregnenolone can show as: 

Poor memory & trouble concentrating 
Fatigue 
Decreased sex drive

Dry skin 
Muscle & joint stiffness

Progesterone  

Progesterone is what we like to call a magical unicorn hormone! It helps soothe and calm our nervous system and supports our capacity to manage stress. 

Progesterone is a sex hormone produced in both men and women and plays a significant role in testosterone production. It is produced in a woman’s second half of her menstrual cycle after ovulation. It plays a role in maintaining blood flow to the uterine lining, regular menstrual cycles, pregnancy, and normalizes periods (not too light and not too heavy).

Progesterone levels can drop due to nutrient depletion, stress, consuming too many saturated fats and refined sugars, certain medications (especially antidepressants), overexercising, and decreased thyroid functioning. When progesterone drops in relation to estrogen – either relatively or absolutely – PMS occurs. 

Low progesterone can show up as:  

Anxiety, nervousness, irritability, moodiness, and lethargic depression  
Insomnia – unable to get into that deep, restorative sleep and therefore restless sleeps and waking up tired  
Decreased libido – this symptom is also shared with low testosterone and DHEA  
Headaches (especially around your period)

Weight gain  
Lighter or skipped periods  
Spotting before your period 
PMS: acne, bloating, breast tenderness, water retention  
Estrogen dominance signs – heavy periods, painful periods, fibroids, endometriosis, cysts, and fibrocystic breasts.

If you identify with any of the listed symptoms above, know that there are many ways we can naturally support your sex hormones balance. Here are a few lifestyle tips to get you started:  

Get better sleep – prioritize your sleep and make it your non-negotiable! No matter who you are, 8 hours is still the recommended minimum amount of sleep per night.

Consume good quality, healthy fats – our hormones use cholesterol as their backbones!

Try castor oil packs placed on the body over the liver (see link). The liver detoxifies all our hormones, and castor oil can help clear excess estrogen from the body that can contribute to progesterone deficiency. At Linden & Arc, we recommend the Queen of Thrones Castrol Oil Pack.

DHEA

Dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) is another one of your sex hormones. It is made by your adrenal glands, with a small amount also being made in your brain and skin. DHEA makes your estrogen and testosterone and has been shown to have protective effects against cancer, diabetes, obesity, high cholesterol, heart disease, and autoimmune disease.  

DHEA production declines with age, starting in your late twenties, and by the age of seventy, your body only makes one-fourth of the amount it made earlier. All too often, the focus is on estrogen, progesterone & testosterone as a first step. However, the doctors at Linden & Arc start balancing the hormones of Metabolic Triad 1: adrenal, thyroid, pancreas as an integral first step to wellness and reclaiming your energy.

DHEA helps to: 

Decrease allergic reactions 
Decrease cholesterol 
Deal with stress 
Increase brain function 
Increase sense of well-being 
Prevent blood clots 
Promote weight loss 
Reduce insulin resistance 
Support your immune system  
Reduce blood sugar spikes

DHEA deficiencies often occur due to aging, nicotine, menopause, or stress.

Symptoms of DHEA deficiencies include: 

Decreased energy 
Decreased muscle strength 
Difficulties with stress 
Irritability 
Joint soreness 
Weight gain

If your body has low DHEA levels, DHEA hormone replacement may be an excellent option for you.

How Linden & Arc Vitality Institute Can Help You Diagnose and Treat Hormone Imbalances

If you are experiencing symptoms of sex hormone imbalance, Linden & Arc Vitality Institute will take a thorough history of your hormone function. Our doctors will access your hormones using blood, urine, and saliva tests. 

We use some of the most advanced tests to access hormone levels accurately. Saliva testing measures cortisol, estrogens, progesterone, and androgens levels. Our blood tests allow us to measure insulin, thyroid, and other hormone levels accurately. Urine is used to evaluate estrogen metabolism ratios. Estrogen metabolism ratios are how we gauge the pathways through which estrogen and sex steroids are detoxified from your body. We can also measure cortisol, progesterone, testosterone, and other hormone levels with urine samples.

We recommend a hormone test for everyone around ages 35-40, so we can measure your baseline labs and ensure you continue to have a good quality of life.

Once we have defined your hormone imbalance and addressed the cause, we will help your body restore and replenish balance using bio-identical hormones. Bio-identical hormone therapy (BHRT or natural hormone therapy) uses hormones that are identical to those your body produces on a molecular level.

Benefits of Bio-Identical Hormone Therapy:

Mental clarity

Increased energy
Increased sex drive
Increased ability to lose fat and gain muscle
Decreased anxiety and depression symptoms 
Improved sleep quality

Improved well-being
Improved skin and hair health

At Linden & Arc Vitality Institute, we aim to break the cycle of unnecessary suffering with proactive treatments that will improve your quality of life.  Our Functional Medicine practice seeks to uncover and treat the root cause of your illness, healing you as a complete being, not just a collection of symptoms.

If you are experiencing symptoms of hormone imbalance, click HERE, call 1-587-390-0180, or email [email protected], and we will guide you through how Linden & Arc Vitality Institute can help you.

Author:

Dr. Ayla Lester, ND

Why are DHEA & Testosterone Important?

Testosterone is a male hormone, right? True, but females need it just as much as males do, just in smaller amounts. Not only is necessary for a healthy libido and sexual satisfaction, but it is also essential for bone health, brain health, muscle health, and heart health. It needs to be in balance with the other female hormones, estrogen, and progesterone (sex steroids), thyroid hormones, as well as our major stress hormone, cortisol, in order to function optimally. The Androgen DHEA is a feel-good hormone. It gives one a feeling of well being, libido, good sleep, muscle strength, and exercise tolerance.

What are the common symptoms of DHEA deficiency?

Common symptoms of DHEA deficiency include reduced sex drive, reduced sexual sensitivity, difficulty achieving orgasm, painful intercourse, low mood and excessive anxiety, poor coping ability, reduced muscle tone and strength, joint pain, back pain, dry skin, poor memory or concentration and urinary incontinence. The symptoms can overlap with hormonal and other medical conditions. Thus, androgen deficiency often goes under-diagnosed and is not often thought to be relevant in females.

Cortisol Steal

So where does it all go wrong and why are we seeing so many women, young and old, with deficiency these days? Cortisol steal. This is exactly what it sounds like. Cortisol is stealing the substrates that our sex steroids and DHEA need to be formed because it is being produced in excess. DHEA becomes depleted and because this is upstream from testosterone (and estrogen), these downstream hormones also become depleted. So it’s the stressed women that get more hormonal issues. It is not the hormones’ fault. They are just responding appropriately to other imbalances in the body. Why would you need to reproduce or have sex for that matter, if you are running away from a lion?

Stress and Hormones

The body interprets internal and external stress as the same thing. It doesn’t know the difference between having a fight with someone vs candida overgrowth in the gut, for example. It responds by releasing cortisol and other stress hormones and neurotransmitters from the adrenal glands. When cortisol is produced in excess, the hypothalamus in the brain perceives a threat. It switches off signals to the adrenals and cortisol is no longer produced. Alongside this, high cortisol triggers DHEA release, which tries to balance the high cortisol. With DHEA and cortisol levels low, the patient experiences stage 3 adrenal fatigue. The new term for this is HPA axis dysfunction/ dysregulation.

Replacing DHEA and Testosterone in Women

DHEA and testosterone can be replaced alone, or alongside each other in women. It should be ensured that the other female hormones are also optimal. In our practice, we prescribe bioidentical hormones, which are hormones that behave in an exact way as our own hormones. They are still laboratory-made but are chemically identical to our hormones. The bad rap that hormone replacement has is from synthetic hormones, which confuse our hormonal systems – like putting the wrong key into a lock. Testosterone is most often prescribed topically, or in certain cases intramuscularly/ subcutaneous. DHEA is most often prescribed sublingually or by mouth, but can also be given topically.

The key to safe hormone replacement is testing your levels (24 hour urine hormone is the best test for this, but blood levels can be used when resources are limited). Once on the treatment, levels should be monitored by an experienced health care professional in order to find the dose that is right for you. This can vary tremendously between women, depending on genetics, underlying factors that caused the hormone deficit and lifestyle (a very active woman requires more DHEA or testosterone, often). You can find your optimum dose by looking at your levels alongside your symptoms.

What else can you do to improve your levels besides taking hormones?

Hormone replacement is not the only answer but in every case, should be done alongside root cause treatment and lifestyle changes. Hormone replacement does not fix the adrenals and other hormones. It is just another patch if done alone. Some women even feel worse on hormones, which tells us we need to work on these root causes.

Other Lifestyle Improvements

So what can you do to help these hormones in your day to day life? Your overall aim is to decrease inflammation and stress on the HPA axis.

Diet

An anti-inflammatory diet is a good place to start. Many hormone disturbances start in the gut, because of a constant onslaught of foods that increase inflammation, upregulate our immune system, change our microbiome, and impact our gut-brain connection. Sugar, carbohydrates, and dairy are big contributors to poor hormone health.

Exercise

Make sure you are getting exercise that is appropriate for your condition. Don’t run a marathon when your adrenals are shot.

Sleep

Make sure you get at least 7-8 hours of sleep each night. Good sleep hygiene is essential and your health care professional may recommend supplements and medications for this.

Stress Management

Make sure you are identifying and managing stress – we cannot always change our stressful circumstances but we can change how we perceive them and what we do every day to find our calm.

We recommend 2 books to find out more: The Hormone Handbook by Dr. Thierry Hertoghe; and, What You Must Know About Women’s Hormones: Your Guide to Natural Hormone Treatments for PMS, Menopause, Osteoporis, PCOS, and More by Dr. Pamela Wartian Smith.

About the author:

One of Dr. Michelle’s greatest passions in life is to help people help themselves. She understands that your current health tells a story and that when you have symptoms of disease, your body is already out of balance. She believes that we should not have to settle for anything other than our most vital self and that her job is to figure out how to put you back on track. To book an appointment with Dr. Michelle, contact [email protected]

What are Bioidentical Hormones and how can they help menopause symptoms? Millions of Canadian women experience troublesome and debilitating menopause symptoms. The inevitable hot flashes, fatigue, night sweats, vaginal dryness, and mood changes that come with the diagnosis. The World Health Organization has released estimates stating that by 2030, 1.2 billion women worldwide will be postmenopausal, as 25 million women go through menopause every year. For several years, hormone replacement therapy (HRT) was a great help to many suffering from menopause symptoms. HRT can increase the risk of serious health events, like breast cancer, and strokes. Fortunately, today bioidentical hormones are available. Let’s delve into some frequently asked questions about bioidentical hormone therapy, or BHT.

Bioidentical Hormone Therapy Can Help Menopause Symptoms

Frequently Asked Questions about Bioidentical Hormones for Menopause

What are Bioidentical Hormones?

Bioidentical hormones are sex hormones that come in the form of estrogens and progesterone. Your body produces hormones structured exactly the same on a molecular level. Bioidentical hormones come from soy and yam plants where Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT) uses traditional hormones, usually isolated from animals, which is much riskier health-wise.

Are Bioidentical Hormones Effective?

Bioidentical hormones are highly effective and have helped millions of women. A 2016 study provided evidence that Bioidentical Hormone Therapy reduces hot flashes, and two separate studies in 2014 and 2011 showed that BHT helped with mood swings, night sweats, and irritability. An Australian study showed that 15 percent of Australian women in their fifties and sixties had taken or took bioidentical hormones.

How Do I Take Bioidentical Hormones?

You can take Bioidentical Hormone Therapy in a few different ways. It is available in pill form that you swallow or dissolve under your tongue or administered as a cream, patch, spray, or vaginal ring. Name-brand bioidentical prescriptions are available at pharmacies (Prometrium, Vagifem, Vivelle Dot, etc.). You may require the services of a compounding pharmacy for some of your bioidentical hormones.

Are Bioidentical Hormones An Absolute Necessity?

Bioidentical hormones are not absolutely necessary and only yourself and a knowledgeable doctor experienced in the use of BHT can decide if they’re right for you. Your decision should be based on an educated assessment of the risks versus the benefits. Under the guidance of our physicians, you may choose to use herbs and supplements, traditional HRT, or nothing at all to help with menopausal symptoms and transition.

Can You Stop Bioidentical Hormone Therapy?

Adverse events from BHT are rare. One study in 2013 found zero adverse events in a group of 75 women undergoing BHT. If you do have an adverse event, or simply decide to go completely natural with your menopause plan, you’ll be happy to know that it is possible to stop BHT at any time. It is always advisable to do this under our physicians’ guidance who will monitor with exams and blood tests and gradually wean you off BHT.

Functional Medicine & Menopause

At Linden & Arc Vitality Institute, our Functional Medicine physicians will guide you to find the right fit. Remember, most therapies are more effective with lifestyle changes. These include factors like increased activity level, a good diet, and nutritional support in the form of supplements. Our clinic provides counseling and support to help you maintain and strengthen your health, transition through menopause with minimal symptoms, and thoroughly enjoy these happy years of your life.

References:

1 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23627249
2 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27008039
3 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27479272
4 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24881343
5 http://www.health.harvard.edu/womens-health/what-are-bioidentical-hormones
6 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21651797