Home > Weight Loss > Optimal Hormone Balancing
Optimal Hormone Balancing
When your hormones are not balanced optimally, your body stores fat because it is receiving distress signals. Fat storage is therefore a protective mechanism. In a effort to protect you, the body fires up a high efficiency fat storage process. Making fat loss extremely difficult.
If a person has a poor hormone balance, their body will distort very specifically to a certain look. One glandular imbalance will cause weight gain in the hips, another in the stomach, another one will cause weight all over the body or cause body odor.
We need to first find the problems, before a specific program can be recommended. For example, why would you waste your time with gruesome exercise if the cause of the weight gain is an part of a cortisol stress response. So the harder you try, the more cortisol released. You are making the problem worse!
Physician Supervised Weight Loss gives you the advantage of maximizing weight loss with minimal effort by determining where your imbalances are and naturally correcting them.
There are eight fat burning hormones that should be working for you and not against you. A hormonally-healthy, optimally balanced body will burn fat with very little effort on your part.
THYROID
Proper levels of thyroid hormone
Proper overall body function depends on thyroid hormone. Thyroid hormone is a metabolic hormone secreted by the thyroid gland. There are two types of thyroid hormones, thyroxine (T4), and triiodothyronine (T3). The thyroid gland uses iodine to produce these hormones, thus the importance of iodine in our diet. About 80% of the thyroid hormone we produce is T4, which is the inactive hormone and held in reserve, while T3 makes up 20% of the thyroid hormone and is about four times stronger than T4. T3 is the active hormone that the body uses to function.
The release of thyroid hormones is controlled by the thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH), which is produced in the pituitary gland. When there are high levels of TSH in the blood this means the pituitary is trying to stimulate the thyroid gland to produce thyroid hormones but the gland is not responding. Because thyroid hormones are bound to proteins while circulating in our bodies, it is the unbound, available, Free T4 and Free T3 that should be measured along with TSH.
Naturally derived thyroid, with the mixture of T4 and T3, is the ideal replacement because it mimics the natural thyroid hormone produced by the body. Unfortunately, it has become routine practice to prescribe synthetic T4 alone which is not adequate and may not be converted to the more biologically active form T3, for proper levels of thyroid hormone.
ESTROGEN
Estrogen is secreted by the ovaries and adrenal glands. There are three types of estrogen found in a woman's body: estrone, estradiol and estriol. Estrogen Replacement Therapy (ERT) has turned out to be a lifesaver for millions of postmenopausal women who benefit from its use. A survey examining the benefits of ERT on women found that overall mortality from all causes was reduced. In particular, deaths due to coronary artery disease and stroke were reduced.
Proper levels of estrogen
Estrogen deficiency leads to
All of these can be corrected by natural estrogen replacement.
DHEA
DHEA (Dehydroepiandrosterone) has been called the “mother of all steroids”. It is produced by the adrenal glands and is the most abundant steroid in the human body. It is involved in the production of testosterone, estrogen, progesterone and corticosterone.
The decline of DHEA mirrors that of HGH, so by age 65 your body makes 10 to 20% of what it did at age 20. Its benefits include but are not limited to the following:
MELATONIN
Melatonin is secreted by the pineal gland. It regulates the circadian rhythm and the deep stages of sleep. Melatonin maintains the body's balance, equilibrium and homeostasis.
Benefits of melatonin include:
DEFICIENCY CAUSES:
CORTISOL
Cortisol is a hormone secreted by the adrenal gland and is the body’s main gauge of how well we handle stress. High levels lead to high blood pressure, weight gain and other deleterious manifestations. It is important to have a healthy level of Cortisol. Low levels, on other hand, reflect chronic stress and cause adrenal fatigue, poor immunity, fatigue and depression.
|
|
INSULIN
Insulin is a critical hormone secreted by the pancreatic gland (pancreas). It functions to control our blood sugar or glucose which, if left unchecked, is inflammatory to all our cells, organs, and tissues leading to disease states such as insulin resisitance, metabolic syndrome, diabetes, coronary artery disease, high cholesterol, high triglycerides, obesity, and arthritis, among others.