Thyroid, Adrenal, & Sex Hormone Issues Archives - Page 4 of 4

Belly Fat! New Research Reveals…

Between the print and TV ads and the pop-ups scuttling like mice from the four borders of your computer screen, belly fat seems to have surpassed global warming as our next great anxiety.

It’s clear these ads are aimed at women, some of whom fall for the hucksterism of what is for many little more than an annoying physiologic change occurring during a perfect storm of dietary indiscretion, genetic predisposition, and stress. As one patient laconically remarked, “My divorce from hell took a solid year. I finally got rid of him, but in the process…” (patting her tummy with both hands) “I got myself…this!”

Hormones and Breast Cancer

By noon on the day the story hit the news, I’d received a dozen emails from (sensibly) concerned patients asking what the study meant for them. First appearing in JAMA (the Journal of the American Medical Association) and then picked up by the wire services and spread around the world, the article addressed phase two of the Women’s Health Initiative (WHI) Study that was originally published in 2002.

Stop the Thyroid Madness

I went to medical school for awhile in London and, it being the late 1960s (and London), I really don’t remember much about it. The school, that is.

However, two lessons from a certain professor have always remained with me:
1. If you listen to your patient carefully enough, and use your diagnostic skills, she’ll tell you her diagnosis. You won’t need anything else. Just listen! (By the way, this idea is widely attributed to the early 20th century physician Sir William Osler, but I was an impressionable med student in the classroom of a speaker who sounded and looked like Winston Churchill…in a white coat.)

Posted in Blog, Knowledge Base, T, Thyroid, Adrenal, & Sex Hormone IssuesTagged hypothyroidism, T3, T4, thyroid, thyroxine, TSH

Male Menopause–Is It Real?

Short answer: Yes, but don’t hope for any quick fixes—that’s so-o-o pharmaceutical industry think.

Another way to view male menopause: Sure, a ball will bounce, only less and less.

I get asked about male menopause all the time, almost always by women (admittedly they represent the majority of my patients), but only rarely by my male patients who, for the most part, don’t seem to sense much of a problem. Could men be viewing male menopause the way they view weight gain? While women buy diet books and serially starve themselves/gain everything back, men buy larger pants with elastic belts.

If You Take Thyroid Hormones

As the tens of thousands of patients who use Armour thyroid tablets have discovered, the product has simply vanished from pharmacy shelves across America. Without getting into details of why this occurred, let me say first that the product allegedly will be back sometime in mid-2010. Here’s a bit of investigative reporting on the subject. Used to treat underactive thyroid gland, Armour thyroid is often called “natural thyroid.”

Iodine and You

You don’t see many people with goiters anymore. I remember seeing them as a kid, pointing out some poor person’s huge neck to my mother while asking, “Hey, what’s growing on that woman’s neck?” before getting an educational jab in the ribs. To see a mild goiter click here.

Bioidentical Hormones

If you’re miserable from menopause symptoms, give serious thought to hormone replacement therapy (HRT). You may not realize it, but a diabetic using insulin is using hormone replacement therapy, with the hormone is insulin. Taking Synthroid for an underactive thyroid is hormone replacement, too. Is there a problem with replacing your sex hormones, estrogen and progesterone, when you’re suffering because their levels have gone into the free-fall of menopause?

April 30, 2009 by WholeHealth Chicago

Your Brain: Is Low Thyroid a Factor?

We continue this month with our series on why your brain might not be functioning the way you feel it should.

Hypothyroidism, or an underfunctioning thyroid gland (commonly called low thyroid), is often overlooked by doctors as a cause of poor memory. It’s neglected because many physicians rely solely on a not-very-good blood test to confirm or reject a diagnosis of low thyroid.

June 22, 2008 by WholeHealth Chicago

Posted in B, Blog, Knowledge Base, T, Thyroid, Adrenal, & Sex Hormone Issues, YTagged hypothyrodism, thyroid, your brain

Low Thyroid and Taking Your Body Temperature

If your basal temperature (armpit temperature, taken when you awaken in the morning) is below 97.6, you might benefit from a small dose of natural thyroid replacement, usually in the range of one half grain to 1 grain daily, available by prescription, to improve your energy.

October 28, 2007 by WholeHealth Chicago

Posted in B, Blog, Knowledge Base, T, Thyroid, Adrenal, & Sex Hormone IssuesTagged basal body temperature, thyroid, TSH

Solving Adrenal Imbalance

They’re about the size of walnuts, your two adrenal glands. Picture them there, resting comfortably, one on top of each kidney. If you reach around your back with your hands open, your thumbs will be about where your adrenal glands are perched.

Measuring Hormone Levels

First let’s discuss a strategy to get your health insurance to pay for as much of this testing as your policy allows. Good hormone testing is pricey.

(Those $30 kits that test all your hormones are only moderately accurate, especially when it comes to estrogen and progesterone. If you’re having periods, levels of these hormones change virtually every day, and trying to get an accurate picture with a single day’s result is a waste of your money.)

August 22, 2007 by WholeHealth Chicago

Symptoms of Hormone Imbalance

There are two ways to find out if your symptoms are being caused by an imbalance in your sex hormones (estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone).

August 20, 2007 by WholeHealth Chicago

“My hormones are out of whack!”

That’s the single most common sentence I hear from my patients.

It can come from a 25-year-old with irregular periods and industrial-strength PMS whose energy has gone down the tubes. Or from a 45-year-old (on the threshold of pre-menopause) who continues to gain weight even though she’s eating less and exercising more, and who adds that her brain feels like mush and her sex drive is a distant memory.

August 15, 2007 by WholeHealth Chicago

Menopause and Bioidentical Hormones

Right now, thousands of women are having their first menopause-related hot flash. If you’re one of them you’re not alone: about 40 million US women will go through the menopause transition over the next 20 years, and virtually every one will experience a symptom of shifting hormones.

July 16, 2007 by WholeHealth Chicago

Testing Your Adrenal Glands

Readers of The Triple Whammy Cure know if they’re low on the stress-buffering brain chemical serotonin, they’re more vulnerable to stress. Normally our adrenals, two walnut-sized glands perched one each atop the two kidneys, response to a “stress message” by deliberately placing our bodies into temporary overdrive to help us cope. That’s all well and […]

August 9, 2006 by WholeHealth Chicago

Posted in A, Blog, Knowledge Base, Thyroid, Adrenal, & Sex Hormone Issues

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Category: Thyroid, Adrenal, & Sex Hormone Issues

Belly Fat! New Research Reveals…

Hormones and Breast Cancer

Stop the Thyroid Madness

Male Menopause–Is It Real?

If You Take Thyroid Hormones

Iodine and You

Bioidentical Hormones

Your Brain: Is Low Thyroid a Factor?

Low Thyroid and Taking Your Body Temperature

Solving Adrenal Imbalance

Measuring Hormone Levels

Symptoms of Hormone Imbalance

“My hormones are out of whack!”

Menopause and Bioidentical Hormones

Testing Your Adrenal Glands