Stress & Hormone Balance

Dr. Gary Baker is certified in natural hormone replacement. Hormone replacement testing is easy and affordable. Hormone imbalances, like most other imbalances, are probably best understood by understanding normal hormone function. Hormones are made in the body from amino acid precursors that we get from proteins in our diet. Sometimes the process of producing these hormones is adversely affected by a diet deficient in the raw materials necessary to make these hormones, such as amino acids from a poor protein intake or a lack of co-factor vitamins and minerals which are required to make the amino acid convert to the hormone.

Thyroid Problems

An example of this might be in the case of hypothyroidism. You can have a decrease in metabolic activity virtually anywhere in the body just from the lack of the body's ability to produce enough thyroxin, which is the thyroid hormone. Thyroxin is made up of iodine and the amino acid tyrosene. If the diet is deficient in either of these nutrients, the body won't have the raw materials to make the thyroid hormone, resulting in the symptoms of low thyroid, including soft and peeling nails, dry and lifeless skin, fatigue, and mental fogginess, chronic infections, weight gain, difficulty losing weight in spite of exercising, depression and PMS mood swings. Someone with lowered immune function, who catches every cold and flu going around, may also be experiencing low thyroid function.

 
Pre-Menstrual Syndrome

PMS symptoms such as breast tenderness are usually a result, in my clinical experience, of estrogen excess relative to the progesterone level. Sometimes this is a function of poor estrogen clearance in the liver. A lot of people may not be aware of this, but the estrogen is usually broken down relatively quickly after it's secreted. If the liver is sluggish in it's ability to do this, the estrogen levels can rise higher than they should be and you will feel their effects longer than intended. One of the effects of this is that the water-loving estrogen will be retained in the breasts and extremities, causing edema pressure and pain.

Menopause

Menopause should be a time in a woman's life when she grows her creative side and uses the energy she had been using for motherhood into a process of opening up and blossoming in her creativity. Unfortunately, too many women in America have difficulties during this time due to deferred maintenance of hormonal balance during the previous decades. When the adrenal glands or the ovaries have been dysfunctional for some time, it's unlikely that they will improve function spontaneously when stress demands or functional demands increase. This is the kind of change that occurs with menopause when the adrenal glands are supposed to take up the slack when the ovaries go into "retirement". If the adrenal glands have become depleted during a woman's life, these glands won't be able to pick up the baton and run with it, so to speak, and hot flashes and other symptoms results.

Common stressors of adrenals include chemical stresses from fake food diets, taking synthetic drugs and vitamins, caffeine, alcohol, pesticides and herbicides, antibiotic residues, and hormonal residues in meat products and poultry. Mental stress includes such things as finances, job, family, etc. Thermal stress can occur if you frequently move in and out of warm/cold buildings. Physical stress can be overworking at the gym, or attempting a high level of activity when you're not in shape.

ADRENAL STRESS

Adrenal Stress index blood testing assists physicians in making a proper diagnosis of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome & Fibromyalgia Syndrome. Even more useful than a diagnosis, this blood test is able to tell physicians the exact Selye phase and DHEA, or Cortisol "key" of the patient, which allows them to institute the correct treatment for that specific phase. By using these ongoing testing procedures, physicians are able to ascertain which therapy is effective for their patients.

Adrenal Stress Conditioning and Training
Adrenaline release is not a voluntary body function. It's elicited into one's bloodstream and brain not so much by what one may "think," but by what their body "perceives." It's one reason that certain adrenal stress training methods work so consistently and well with patients.

In RMCAT conditioning, for example, your body will not know the difference no matter what you may be "thinking" in your "self aware" mind; hence, you will experience the adrenal response. This process is essentially the key to adrenal stress training methodology as well. In this training, one minimizes the dysfunctional adrenal effects, learning to make use of the very powerful and beneficial effects of this inescapable biochemistry.

HORMONE BALANCE
 
Hormones exert a powerful influence over all physical, intellectual and emotional behavior. Problems with weight, memory, sleep, digestion, blood pressure, high cholesterol, cravings, addictions, sexual dysfunctions, and problems associated with the immune system, are all influenced by the endocrine system. Endocrine problems lead to a wide spectrum of symptoms that in most cases can be reversed using natural methods.

A primary marker of the aging process in both men and women is a reduction in normal hormone levels which is responsible in large part for infertility, decreased energy and muscle strength, loss of libido, depression, mood swings, inability to cope, and an increase in the symptoms of PMS and menopause.

Research has shown that the use of natural hormone replacement can provide benefits for both men and women.