Have you ever visited your general doctor for a routine exam, only to leave with a list of blood tests? But when you get your tests do you ever feel like you don’t have a clear path to improve your health? If so, you’re not alone!
Many women I talk to and work with in my functional medicine and health coaching practice try to live healthy lives, getting annual exams, eating well, exercising regularly, and managing stress. Yet, despite your best efforts, you might still struggle with energy levels, sleep issues, weight management, mood swings, and gut health problems.
This is where understanding what your lab tests reveal about your hormones and inflammation can make a world of difference.
Cortisol: The Stress Hormone
- Cortisol, is your “stress hormone,” and plays a crucial role regulating metabolism, reducing inflammation, helps with energy and sleep, and also affects your weight. Most importantly, it helps your body respond to stress.
- This test is best done by saliva, and also urine, is done in one day at home, and will show your cortisol rhythm throughout the day. The one I use most is saliva, but I do both. Blood testing not as effective, and most MD’s don’t order this test.
Why Test Cortisol Levels?
Chronic stress can lead to consistently high or low cortisol levels, which can wreak havoc on your health. Symptoms of high or low cortisol include
- Tiredness and fatigue: Despite a good night’s sleep, you wake up tired and lack energy throughout the day.
- Weight gain: That pesky belly fat and “muffin top”, as high or low cortisol levels increase appetite and cravings for unhealthy foods.
- Mood swings and anxiety: Elevated cortisol can affect your mood, leading to feelings of anxiety or depression, and then stress eating.
- Sleep disturbances: Trouble falling asleep or staying asleep can be a sign of cortisol imbalances, and poor sleep affects your weight too.
- Hot flashes: Low cortisol levels can trigger this by “stealing” from your female hormones.
Blood Sugar: The Energy Regulator
Blood sugar levels are a direct reflection of how well your body manages glucose from the food you eat, which is crucial for energy production. Insulin, a hormone produced by the pancreas, plays a key role in regulating blood sugar levels.
Why Test Blood Sugar Levels?
Imbalances in blood sugar levels can lead to various health issues:
- Hypoglycemia (Low Blood Sugar): Symptoms include shakiness, dizziness, sweating, and confusion. It’s often a result of skipping meals, excessive exercise, or certain medications.
- Hyperglycemia (High Blood Sugar): It can be a sign of insulin resistance and pre-diabetes, which is a precursor to type 2 diabetes.
- High blood sugar is also high insulin, and insulin is your “fat storing hormone”, which can make you stuck with your weight.
- Regularly testing your blood sugar levels can help you understand how your diet and lifestyle are affecting your energy levels and overall health. This is typically done through a fasting blood glucose test or an A1C test, which provides an average blood glucose level over the past 2-3 months.
- In Functional Medicine we do comprehensive testing to get the full picture to get to the root cause, including A1C, and I often have women come to work with me, and even though their doctor did blood tests, they don’t always do this one!
Inflammation: The Silent Contributor
Inflammation is a natural response by your immune system to protect your body from harm. However, chronic inflammation can contribute to a range of health problems, including heart disease, diabetes, cancer and autoimmune disorders. It also can be present in JOINT PAIN.
This is how powerful and damaging inflammation can be to your body!
Why Test for Inflammation?
Markers of inflammation in your blood can provide insight into your overall health:
- C-reactive protein (CRP): Elevated CRP levels indicate inflammation in the body and can be a marker for conditions such as heart disease and arthritis. There is NO safe level of inflammation!
- Erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR): This test measures how quickly red blood cells settle at the bottom of a test tube, with faster rates indicating inflammation.
- Ferritin: This is part of an Iron Panel (which I always run) and when it’s high it indicates inflammation. A whole iron panel is very important to be tested. Most women only think about low iron, but HIGH iron and ferritin is very harmful to your health and can build up in your tissues and cause disease.
- In my practice, again when women bring in testing from their GP, these tests are usually missing.
Chronic inflammation can be linked to lifestyle factors such as poor diet, lack of exercise, and chronic stress. Identifying and addressing inflammation early can help prevent more serious health issues down the line.
Functional Medicine: A Comprehensive Approach
As I talked about above, Functional medicine takes a more comprehensive and personalized approach to testing and treatment, aiming to get to the root cause of health issues rather than just addressing symptoms.
It’s also about PREVENTING diseases from starting and taking hold in the body. Your GP’s lab ranges are very wide, looking for the absence of disease.
In Functional Medicine our lab testing ranges are more narrow, we are looking for OPTIMAL HEALTH! This is so you can know when a disease process like inflammation is just beginning, and you can get a handle on treating it.
My biggest pet peeve is that women like you are FALLING THROUGH THE CRACKS at your doctors offices. Not getting the right testing, enough testing or just being told “everything is fine”.
As women we deserve better than this, and that’s why I do what I do!
Here’s the thing, my PASSION is ordering the RIGHT tests for you and reading these tests, then figuring out what’s going on in your body! There is SO MUCH you can do naturally, with nutrition, supplements, lifestyle, habits that you CAN turn around early issues that show up on your tests. Don’t WAIT for disease process like diabetes, heart disease or cancer to show up.
And it’s not an EITHER/OR situation. I recommend my patients and clients see their GP doctors for the annual exams. Get your annual women’s wellness exam, your pap smear, and mammograms!
What I bring to the table is not a screening, it’s a much deeper and personalized look into your health as it is NOW. If you’re tired of guesswork and want personalized guidance to optimize your health, schedule a Free Healthy Hormone Callwith me today.
Let’s see what ideas I may have for you to take a step towards your desired health!
And, here’s a free gift for you, on “5 Steps for Women to Have More Energy” download your guide HERE
