Balance Out Your Body’s Hormones Today!

How are Hormones Related to Weight Gain?

Attempting to lose weight without addressing the hormonal component is like going to the gym and then eating a big piece of chocolate cake. You will be hitting a wall. Focusing on whole foods, reducing refined sugars, exercising, and treating hormone imbalances will help you successfully lose weight and keep it off.

When you have exhausted everything you know how to do, but the weight won’t budge, it may be time for hormone testing. We think of hormone testing for women who are going through hot flashes, night sweats, mood swings, and low sex drive only. However, these days, many women are in pre-menopause earlier and younger. Many times, going to the doctor because something is wrong and not getting answers can be frustrating.

I want you to know that hormone testing is not just for women and weight loss! Men have hormones as well. This test is going to provide answers for both women and men alike.

Many of you have done all the blood testing you can think of, yet everything comes back normal. There is another way to test.

A picture of the nextgen saliva logo.

Some symptoms to be looking for if you are thinking about hormone testing:

  • Night Sweats, Hot Flashes, Irregular Periods, Breast Tenderness, Heavy Periods
  • Chronic Fatigue, Brain Fog, Mood Swings, Insomnia, Increased Irritability
  • Memory Loss, Brain Fog, Anxiety, Migraines, Depression, Tearful
  • Low Sex Drive
  • Cravings for sugar, carbs, caffeine, and salt

Testing and Supplementation

Hormone testing and follow-up monitoring are critical steps in being successful with all-around health. Testing will involve salivary hormones (aka spit testing). Due to the complexity of the endocrine system, issues rarely stem from a single hormone. Hormones can be measured in saliva.

The Comprehensive Hormone Panel will test the following hormones for you:

  • Estradiol
  • Estriol
  • Progesterone
  • Testosterone
  • Cortisol
  • DHEA
  • Melatonin

There are three things I am looking for when we do this hormone test:

  1. Sex Hormone Levels: When out of balance, they can lead to Estrogen Dominance, Low or High Testosterone, and Imbalances in levels which can be depleted or really high levels if you have been self-supplementing.
  2. Adrenal Levels: Adrenal Fatigue is one of the main causes that lead to your Cortisol and DHEA levels bottoming out. There are 3 stages of Adrenal Fatigue. The higher the stage, the deeper the fatigue and the more symptoms there are. This will tell me how you have been dealing with stress and if you have been demanding more of yourself than your body can handle.
  3. Sleep Hormone: Melatonin depletion is very common and closely related to your other hormones, which will rise and fall dependent on the ripple effect it creates. Melatonin is meant to be high at night and low during the day to create a restful, deep sleep.
    Your hormones are supposed to all work together to create an environment of balance and harmony.  An imbalance of one can affect them all, which in turn can leave you feeling not yourself. You can do all the right things but feel like something is still missing. Salivary (spit) hormone testing has been established as a great method for accurate analysis of your active hormone levels.

The advantages of saliva testing:

  • Measures active hormone levels
  • Easy and convenient collection that can be done at home
  • Exceptional specimen stability
  • Less expensive than blood testing
  • Four samples collected throughout the day give a more accurate picture of hormone levels overall
  • No needles

The cost of a hormone kit is a flat $300, which will cover the kit, the shipping of a kit, and a follow-up consultation to go over your results. We will talk about natural supplements that we can use to re‑balance you.

This cost is usually covered by your HSA or Flex Spending from your employer as a health expense.

FAQ’s

Unlike blood-based tests, saliva diagnostics can measure the amount of free, unbound hormone that is available to act on the target tissue.

About 95-99% of steroid hormones circulating in the bloodstream are bound to carrier proteins. Saliva contains unbound, bioavailable hormones. Therefore, salivary concentrations better represent circulating levels of free hormones, which are likely to affect the body and be responsible for symptoms related to excessive or deficient hormone levels.