ABC of testing for hormonal balance - part 1: Hormonal foundation

Hormonal imbalance needs to be detected through clinical evaluation (symptoms) of the patient and the correct clinical testing.

The testing of female or male hormones is usually done through the blood panel and sometimes, in the case of suspicions of incorrect functioning of the adrenals and the cortisol, in the saliva.

It is important to understand how your hormones work to know what steps to take in their testing and in which order so you can fix your hormonal imbalance.

I have already mentioned in the article Identify the naughty hormone what is the difference between blood, saliva and dry urine testing and how to test your hormones accurately. In this article, I will mark which biomarkers are best to test through blood, dry urine (The Dutch Panel) and saliva swab.

This time I would like to dive in a bit more on the subject of the correct process of testing. So let's begin with the A.

Hormonal foundation

Your hormones are chemical messengers which are responsible for the machine called the human body to function smoothly and without hiccups. They need the right fuel, conditions and mutual harmony for that optimal working relationship. To see if those factors are correctly in a place, we need to first check the foundation. With the hormones, it´s like with a house. If you don´t look at the foundation and you don´t make sure that the foundation is strong and well built, you will find yourself suffering symptoms of imbalance and your hormones will not function to a desired optimal level. So, let us have a look at the foundation of hormonal balance. You should always check this foundation either before you move to any other testing or together with the specific hormonal tests. These biomarkers you will see from your blood panel.

The foundation is built on Biomarkers of:

• A. Inflammation

• B. Metabolism

• C. Nutrients

• D. Core Tests

A. INFLAMMATION

To see if you are suffering chronic inflammation in your body you need to check for:

• hs-CRP (High sensitivity CRP)

• Homocysteine

• Total CK (creatinine kinase)

• Uric acids

Inflammation is a process that helps us to heal but chronic inflammation is an indicator of some kind of problem in our body. It is normal to have your hs-CRP elevated if you just had an injury or if you are going through some infectious disease. So, make sure you check this biomarker at the moment when non of these mentioned conditions have a place.

Chronicle inflammation is the root cause of chronic disease. It also put you at higher risk of cognitive decline and diseases like Alzheimer or cardiovascular diseases.

How inflammation impacts your hormones?

• It prevents you to lose weight.

• It puts you at higher risk of autoimmune illnesses.

• It disrupts hormones production.

• It increases hot flashes.

• It desensitizes the hormone receptors which lead to incorrect communication.

• It is a sign of a bad liver which is so crucial in a process of detoxification of estrogens, for example.

What causes inflammation?

• Bad diet:

- High in sugar.

- Use of Trans and saturated fats.

- Use of too much omega 6 oils.

- Luck of fruit and vegetables.

- Consumption of dairy, gluten, coffee.

• Stress.

• Luck of sleep.

• Luck of physical activity.

• Ambient toxins (heavy metals, chemicals from cosmetics and cleaning products).

• Obesity, insulin resistance.

• Infections (for example dental, candidiasis o parasites).

B. METABOLISM

There is a saying “you are what you eat”. This saying is so true and once you understand it and you believe it, many of your hormonal problems will simply disappear. The way how your body breaks down the carbohydrates into glucose and how your insulin deals with it are crucial for the correct functioning of the whole hormonal system. That´s why it´s important to check for the biomarkers of your metabolism:

• Fasting glucose, the level of glucose without eating and measured on that day. If your fasting glucose is too high, you are at risk to develop cancer and you will be suffering inflammation in your body (indicated with high levels of hs-CRP).

There is a high genetic component of diabetes, but even without that genetic predisposition, you can develop diabetes if you are eating a diet high in sugars and complex carbohydrates (pasta, bread, potatoes, etc.) Here you have some indicators of values to help you guide yourself through your blood results:

- 70-85 mg/dl or less is optimal

- 100 mg/dl is normal if your insulin is ok

- 100-125 mg/dl pre-diabetes

- > 125 mg/dl diabetes

• Haemoglobin A1c, measurement of your glucose during 3 months.

- Conventional medicine range: < 7%

- Functional medicine range: 4.1- 5.7% normal (5,4 % optimal)

5.7- 6.4% prediabetes

> 6.5% diabetes

• Fasting insulin is the measurement of your insulin without eating.

- If it´s high, it is an indicator of insulin resistance.

- Insulin is a hormone that tells your cells to accept their delivery of glucose fuel.

- Insulin resistance is what you get when the delivery guy knocks and nobody answers the door. Insulin signals that fuel is coming, but your cells do not open up to receive glucose. So, the sugar stays in the bloodstream, and after a while, your body stores it as fat. Your body will keep trying to deliver that glucose to your cells by repeating the signal which in the end exhausts your pancreas and you start to luck insulin.

- High levels of fasting insulin disrupt your hormones coming from your brain which are sending signals to your ovaries to take the cholesterol and chop it off to estrogens, so they start to make testosterone instead, resulting in high levels of testosterone.

- The combination of high levels of fasting insulin (insulin resistance) and high levels of glucose leads to PCOS (Polycystic ovarian syndrome) in premenopausal women.

- It is also a fat fertilizer, so if you are suffering high levels you will have difficulties to lose weight.

- < 2 is optimal

- > 8 problems are on the horizon

- > 12 insulin resistance syndrome

Normally, before you get to prediabetes or diabetes you will suffer insulin resistance.

C. NUTRIENTS

If your body doesn´t receive the right nutrients the functioning of chemical processes and organs are going to be compromise. Hormones are chemical messengers which depend on those nutrients. They are few very important minerals and vitamins which are absolutely crucial for keeping your hormones in balance. In the ideal world you should be able to get those minerals and vitamins through your balanced diet but unfortunately, these days it is not easy to achieve due to the luck of nutrients in the soil and therefore in fruit and vegetable and due to the highly contaminated source of our protein. This is the reason you should check regularly the levels of those important nutrients and take supplements if the levels are low.

The nutrients which you should be monitoring through blood test and which are directly affecting your hormones are the following:

• Vitamin D

- Protects against cancer.

- Protects against autoimmune disease.

- Protects against neurological problems.

- Helps in the process of conversion of T4 to T3 (important for optimal thyroid functioning).

- Improves insulin resistance.

- Balances blood sugar levels/ lowers blood pressure.

- Builds bone (need it in the process of absorption of calcium).

- Lowers Hashimoto’s antibodies.

- Reverses estrogen dominance.

- It is great antidepressant.

- Reverses and prevents anemia.

- Conventional medicine range: 30 to 100 ng/ml optimal levels

< 10 ng/ml deficiency of vitamin D

- Functional medicine range: 60 to 80 ng/ml optimal levels

< 60 ng/ml deficiency of vitamin D

• Ferritin/iron

- Ferritin is a blood protein which stores iron and is a good indicator of how much iron is present in the body.

- You can have normal levels of iron but low levels of ferritin and suffer anemia.

- It is important for utilization of T3 in your cells.

- If it´s too low you will have difficulty to convert T4 to more active T3 which will compromise the optimal functioning of your Thyroids (Hypothyroidism).

- If it´s too high, it will damage the organs responsible for the production of hormones.

- Low <12 µg/L

- Borderline low 12-13 µg/L

- Optimal according to functional medicine > 80 µg/L

- Normal according to conventional medicine 13-150 µg/L (< 50 hair loss)

- Borderline high 150-154 µg/L

- High >154 µg/L

• RBC Magnesium

- Reduces adrenaline and cortisol.

- Helps improve estrogen dominance.

- Improves and help to maintain optimal thyroid function.

- Increases DHEA.

- Increases Serotonin.

- Produces testosterone.

- Lowers blood sugar.

• Zink

• Selenium

• Vitamin B12

- It is necessary for methylation, a process your liver uses to break down cellular waste products and excess hormones. If you have low B12, you may not be methylating properly (homocysteine can build up in your blood, throwing your estrogen levels out of balance and contributing to fatigue, mood swings, inflammation, and poor cardiovascular health).

- Important for thyroid hormone production.

- Is essential for making serotonin (a neurotransmitter that controls your mood), dopamine (a neurotransmitter which controls motivation and feelings of enjoyment) and melatonin (a hormone that helps you to sleep).

• Serum Folate (B9)

• Omega 3:6 Index

- Omega 3 is anti-inflammatory and omega 6, in excess, produces inflammation.

- Your ratio between omega 3 and omega 6 should be 1:1 to prevent inflammation in your body.

- Omega 3 is having many beneficial effects on your body:

Suppress inflammation.

Increase our good HDL cholesterol.

It can decrease triglycerides.

Supports brain function.

Helps reduce autoimmune conditions.

May lower homocysteine.

Protects you from Osteoporosis.

D. CORE TESTS

These tests are going to show the biomarkers which indicate the functioning of some of your important organs.

• CMP- Comprehensive metabolic panel

- Measures your liver, kidney, electrolytes and protein stores.

- Liver detoxifies your body and estrogens.

- Kidney excrete hormone´s disrupting toxins.

- Measures inflammation of your liver (shows if you have elevated enzymes).

• CBC

- Measures your blood counts and platelets.

- Screens for anemia.

- Screens for white blood cell count (cancer detection).

- Shows the health of your bone marrow.

• Advanced Lipid Panel

Cholesterol is precursor for your sex hormones, it´s the raw material for making your sex hormones. You need cholesterol to have your hormones in balance but if your cholesterol is not in order you are at risk of many serious health issues. It has been badly demonized, misunderstood and also incorrectly tested, so we have a pandemic of drug depending population which are taking statins to lower their cholesterol which is affecting negatively their hormonal production. That is why is so important to understand how is cholesterol functioning in your body and that total high cholesterol doesn´t necessary mean that you need to take a medication to lower it. You should do comprehensive cholesterol screening.

Advanced cholesterol screening:

- Triglycerides

- Total cholesterol

- Total cholesterol- HDL ratio

- High- density lipoprotein (HDL)

- HDL large

- Low- density lipoprotein (LDL)

- LDL particular number

- LDL small and medium

- LDL peak size

- LDL pattern

Lipoprotein (Lp-a), goes up when your estrogens decline. You can have normal levels of cholesterol but if your lipoprotein Lp-a is high you have very high chance to suffer heart attack. It´s genetical modified LDL cholesterol molecular present at 20% of the American population. You should check it at least once in your life to cut down the risk of premature heart attack, especially if you are in pre-menopause, menopause and post-menopause.

Today we have been diving into the foundation of hormonal balance but it doesn´t end here. Like I have said at the start, now you need to check for the specific hormones to be able to identify the type of hormonal imbalance and which hormones converted themselves into naughty ones. To find out more click on ABC of testing for hormonal balance- part 2: Specific testing.