Hormone Balance and Imbalance

To share with all my girlfriends some information adapted from an article I took from my family clinic:

Hormones are the chemical messengers that tell the body how it is to function.  Glands in the body produce these hormones, including the hypothalamus (下丘腦), pituitary (大腦垂體), thyroid (甲狀腺), adrenals (腎上腺) and ovaries (卵巢).  When the hormone (endocrine) system becomes imbalanced, various symptoms may become apparent.  These can include fatigue, mood changes, weight gain, pre-mature aging, PMS, insomnia, hot flashes, night sweats, and many others.  Conditions that can be caused by these hormone changes include diabetes, heart disease, breast cancer, obesity, osteoporosis and dementia.

Today the environment is filled with chemicals that act as hormone-like substances.  For example, hormones are often added to our dairy, poultry and meat sources to increase production or growth.  Many women have issues due to the use of synthetic hormones such as birth control pills or hormone replacement.  These chemicals are not exactly the same as the hormones found in nature, and thus have been proven to cause a variety of hormone-related issues including infertility, acne, endometriosis (子宮內膜異位), fibroids　（纖維瘤）, heightened menopausal symptoms and cancer.

Hormones can become imbalanced at any time in a woman’s life, but it is often most prominent at significant changes of life such as puberty, post childbirth, and peri-menopause.  After periods of extreme stress or illness, hormone levels often fluctuate and can also cause symptoms of hormone imbalance.  The hormones most often disrupted are thyroid, cortisol　（皮質醇）, estrogens　（雌激素）, progesterone　（黃體酮）, testosterone　（睪丸素） and DHEA.  The correct treatment for each individual is based on their symptoms and the results of tests that measure these hormones in the blood, saliva and/or urine.

Every woman has a different hormone balance or imbalance, and her hormonal dance changes several times throughout her life.

(By Dr. Karen Parmar – Naturopathic Physician, Integrated Health Clinic)