Hormone Balance 101
Written by Andrea Maxim, Naturopathic Doctor
Let’s talk about the basics of Hormone Balance
Male or Female we have three major organ systems that need to function appropriately in order to achieve hormone balance. These organ systems are the ADRENAL GLANDS, the THYROID and the OVARIES (Testes for men). Now the diagram you see in the video above shows all three organ systems depending on each other for support equally. This is actually not the case. The way I describe it to my patients is to imagine that these systems form a biological tripod, each leg representing a different organ. When one leg becomes weak or collapses, then it throws the tripod off balance or maybe even causes it to fall over. Now imagine the legs of the tripod not being all the same size or weight. The ovaries are actually the smallest leg, the thyroid the next largest and the adrenals are really supporting the entire structure with the largest, thickest leg.
12 SIMPLE SNACKS RECIPES BELOW
Treating Hormone Balance:
From a naturopathic perspective, we treat hormones the following way:
#1 Nourish and Support the Adrenals
#2 Treat the thyroid
#3 Treat the reproductive organs
The adrenals play such a huge role in our overall hormone balance. Not only do they affect the thyroid, and almost all my female patients have underactive thyroid to some degree, but it also strongly affects our reproductive hormones. So regardless of your hormonal complaints, we need to get that triangle balancing out and the first organ system we must support, and continue to support, are the adrenal glands (or stress glands).
Testing for Hormone Balance:
Proper stress management and daily adrenal support is key to maintaining hormone balance. In office we do two major tests for assessing your adrenal function, one is a basic 5min urine test to see how hyper or under functioning your adrenals are or a more comprehensive look at your cortisol levels throughout the day using our Salivary Hormone Test. The reason we use saliva is because it reflects the ACTIVE hormone in the body, unlike blood tests that may show total hormone values, but not the amount of functioning hormone.
Want a complete panel of all your major hormones?? We can do that too! With you Male or Female Salivary Hormone panel which assesses first morning cortisol, estrogen, testosterone, progesterone and DHEA.
Curious about your hormone balance, book with me TODAY at either clinic!
Andrea Maxim, ND – Creator of the MAXIM MOVEMENT
www.facebook.com/andrea.maximnd
www.healingjourneynaturopathic.com (Caledonia Clinic)
Twitter: @AndreaMaximND
YouTube: NaturopathicHealing
P: (888) 375 3111
