“Female hormone health care is in a state of confusion.  Text books on the subject are often outdated, and most of the current research is based on synthetic and horse hormones, which have been incorrectly assumed to behave and metabolize as human hormones.  What is the end result? Many females from puberty through menopause suffer with debilitating hormonal challenges from causes considered unknown.“    –Dr. Janet Lang

I spent last weekend taking in a very interesting continuing education class called “Balancing Female Hormones Naturally,” taught by Dr. Janet Lang.  Dr. Lang’s works in Restorative Endocrinology, and her focus is bringing endocrine imbalances (thyroid, adrenal, female hormone, male hormone to name a few) back into balance through natural means.  The seminar was great, and I thought I’d share a few of my major takeaways from the weekend.

1. “Cycling women cycle.” Although it’s a pretty simple idea, it is critical to remember in measuring hormone levels.  Although one-sample estrogen and progesterone blood tests are commonly done, this is not an adequate measure of what is truly going on in the body.  In order to drive the ebb and flow of the female cycle, hormone states are in a constant state of flux, and they must be measured as such throughout the month.  This gives the practitioner and patient a roadmap to see what is out of balance so that it can be returned to the state of optimal physiology.

2. Saliva Tests Work! In the past, there has been a lot of confusion over the type of lab test that should be ordered to determine hormone balance.

• Blood tests measure the protein-bound form of the hormone, which is the mostly inactive form of hormone (they don’t tell you much!)
• Serum “Free” or direct blood tests measure the active form of the hormone.
• Saliva tests measure the active form of the hormone, and are much less expensive than serum free tests (Dr. Lang also taught us which lab is best for saliva testing.)

3. Hormones are critical in metabolism. This really jumped out at me because I have we have so many women with the complaint that they are gaining weight despite eating healthier and working out more than they have before.  Hormone physiology WILL hijack metabolism and trump diet and exercise.

So what’s the treatment?  Well, it truly depends on the problem.  Dr. Lang has developed a variety of protocols for the variety of symptoms involved with endocrine imbalance, and we have access to all the tools here through ABC Family Chiropractic.  Please come to me with your questions!

More information is available through Dr. Janet Lang’s website at www.restorativeendocrinology.com.  Users of the website can podcast or listen to a sampling of Dr. Lang’s lectures.