Photo Credit: Lesly Juarez
Have you ever had a health issue but can’t figure out the cause? I often see patients in my office who don’t realize they have early or ongoing stages of hormone imbalance. Yet, this issue impacts their lives and gives them very real symptoms.
Hormone balance touches every single aspect of our health including immune support, digestive system, mood regulation, sleep quality, aging, weight balance and more.
It’s important to identify hormone imbalances (and know the early signs) so you can reverse the effects before it leads to disease (yes, it is possible to do this). When we are able to put a label on a health issue, we no longer feel helpless. We can follow a plan of action that empowers us to succeed.
In Part 1 of this two-part blog post, I’m going to be giving you signs that you may have hormone imbalance. In Part 2, we will dive deeper into what can be done to resolve it.
Is your symptom hormone imbalance?
This is a list of major symptoms that I see that often I see in my office with patients who might not know that they are related to imbalance of hormones. These are symptoms that conventional medical providers often say are “normal”:
· Headaches
· Mood swings—including anxiety or depression
· Sleep issues—falling asleep or staying asleep
· Lumps and bumps—if you are having a dense breast tissue, cysts on your ovaries/breasts/thyroid, that’s not normal
· PCOS
· Endometriosis
· Fibroids
· Thyroid disease-hypo/hyper
· Autoimmune issues/immune problems where you often get sick
· Dry skin/hair/nails
· Blood sugar imbalances/prediabetes/diabetes
· Adult onset of acne
· Infertility
· Symptoms that flare up around your ovulation/right before your period
· PMS-yes, it’s not normal
· Painful periods
· Irregular periods
· Nausea before your periods
· Growing hairs on your chin/places where hair shouldn’t be
· Skipping your periods
· Using birth control to regulate your periods—you’re not regulating your periods as much as simply putting a band aid over the bigger issues
· Circulation problems such as cold hands or feet
· Gaining weight around hips/abdomen
· Swollen achy joints
· Nodules on your thyroid
Have you ever gone to a medical doctor and they tell you your blood work looks fine, so you can check back in 6 months to a year? I have. I believe there is more we can do.
By identifying the root causes of all of these hormone imbalances we can reverse course and help to stabilize your hormones before they become “disease.” Unfortunately, you need to be experiencing about 60-70% of function loss for results to show up on blood work. So, if you have lost 50% of function and you are feeling really crappy, that’s a problem. I don’t personally think that’s good enough. And the unfortunate part is that I see people come in like this all the time.
In my practice, we look to solve the underlying issue. Fortunately, we have the tool of muscle testing which helps us identify any dysfunction at a level of 2%. That is a lot better than blood work that identifies a health problem at 60-70% function loss! I always focus on looking at the root cause of the health issue in order to identify and remove the blocks to healing, to allow your body to heal and get back into balance! If you simply do that, miracles can happen.
Today we talked about different signs to help identify hormone imbalances in your body. Stay tuned for next week where I’ll be talking about natural ways we can help bring the hormones back to balance, many of which don’t require you to leave your home and you can try out right away!
If you are interested in further addressing this topic, please feel free to reach out and schedule an appointment. Dr. V is a Chiropractor and Functional Medicine Doctor in Elmhurst, Illinois who evaluates patients from the inside out, focusing on areas including hormone imbalance, digestive health, anxiety/depression, autoimmune disease, and many others.