12 Oct Find out if you suffer from a hormone imbalance
The Innisfil Scope October 12, 2011 Page 12
By Dr. Michael Yarish, ND
The Lakeside Clinic Centre for Integrated Medicine
Hormones are chemical messengers produced by different glands and organs that travel through our bloodstream, enter our tissues and deliver their messages to millions of cells. Each hormone has a specific function in keeping the body healthy. Most hormones interact with one another and when one hormone is out of balance then others will be as well.
Today, imbalances in hormones are very common and occur due to high levels of stress, toxic load from chemicals in our food and external environment, poor lifestyle choices, food sensitivities, poor diet, poor sleep, certain pharmaceutical drugs, emotional trauma or abuse and exposure to strong electromagnetic fields.
For women, estrogen imbalance, specifically estrogen dominance, is at the core of many health conditions including cysts, breast and ovarian cancer, uterine fibroids, PMS, endometriosis, PCOS and hypothyroidism. But an estrogen imbalance is not the only hormone disruption that causes illness. Progesterone, cortisol, testosterone, insulin, insulin-like growth factor, DHEA, thyroid and parathyroid hormones, prolactin, melatonin, aldosterone and growth hormone all play very important roles in maintaining your health.
For men, low libido, loss in strength and muscle mass, loss of energy and low libido are symptoms of low testosterone and/or excess estrogen caused by stress, poor diet and environmental exposure.
Before any effective therapy begins, understanding where the imbalance exists and why it has occurred is absolutely necessary. At The Lakeside Clinic, we use comprehensive saliva hormone testing to determine exactly where the imbalances exist. Saliva testing measures hormone that has been delivered to tissues: the bioavailable hormone. Without this test and other blood tests, it becomes very challenging to guess where the problem lies. Along with test results and thorough history taking, an effective treatment plan is delivered, which incorporates detoxification, nutritional and botanical supplementation, diet and lifestyle counselling to ensure a safe, non-toxic rebalancing of your healthy hormones.