Thyroid, Adrenal, & Hormone Dysfunction

Let’s take a deep dive into the Stress, Mood, & Metabolism test, aka the thyroid adrenal hormone test.

This powerhouse lab test measures cortisol and anabolic hormones, like estradiol, progesterone, DHEA, and testosterone, several thyroid markers, insulin levels, hemoglobin A1C, and vitamin D.

Not only can imbalances with any of these hormones cause significant disruptions in our everyday functioning but they can also lead to cholesterol, blood pressure, metabolic issues, infertility, and autoimmune flare-ups.

This is a higher-cost lab test but well worth the information you can gain from it and I share it all in this episode.

Remember to share this episode if this helped you today and tag me on Instagram at @simplyhealthykacey!

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Transcript

[00:10] Kacey K: Welcome to the Simply Healthy You podcast, your place for overcoming overwhelm with your health to reach your fullest potential. I'm your host, Casey Kane, and I am so pumped to have you here. I am a recovering burnt out high achiever who is diagnosed with an autoimmune thyroid, a condition by my early thirty.

[00:26] Kacey K: S. I didn't realize that running myself.

[00:28] Kacey K: Ragged in the name of being superwoman and determined to achieve all the things in life was killing my body. I created this podcast so that you don't have to continue the struggle like I did for over a decade. I sat down, studied the data, and simplified what it means to prioritize your own health needs so that you can be the best for all the things on your to do.

[00:50] Kacey K: List.

[00:50] Kacey K: Everything you hear on this podcast, I have tested and implemented in my own super pact, Life with my family to bring you the tips, tools, and strategies that will keep your life simply healthy.

[01:06] Kacey K: Hello friend. Welcome to another episode of the simply healthy you podcast. I am so grateful to be infiltrating your brain with today's topic. My name is Casey Keane. I'm an integrative health practitioner and certified holistic nutritionist with a Master's in Psychology, and I am here to help you live a healthier and happier life and bring you science based conversations. I am trying video podcasting videoing while I'm podcasting for the first time while I'm doing this episode. And I'll be honest, I feel like I'm managing a lot right now. I have no idea if and when I will actually get this on YouTube, but I wanted to get into the habit of at least recording the video at the same time. I did an informal poll on my Instagram not too long ago to ask if people were interested in video and I know many are not necessarily podcast listeners, but might actually go on YouTube and watch the videos. And so if I can get my content out there in many different forms, I'm certainly going to try to now this becomes something else that needs to be edited, something else that needs to be tweaked and updated in order to get it on YouTube. It's certainly not going to be fancy if I do get these up there. I did at least try to make myself a little bit more presentable today. I'm not normally putting on makeup these days and things like that, especially with the gardening that we're doing in the afternoon. So, you know, I always have notes with me. If you're watching the video, I'm going to be looking at my notes and let's just dive into it. Today I want to talk deeper about one of the seven functional labs I can interpret for clients now, that I will recommend probably to every one of my clients, unless it seems by some miracle that your hormones are in perfect shape. Since hormones are such an issue for most women, these days. I thought this would be one of the best labs to dive into next. I quickly reviewed all of the lab tests on the last episode on my podcast, but I'm going to dive deeper into some of them because there is a lot you can gain from these tests. And I want you to understand exactly what you're getting by doing them on the Equal Life website. That's the company that I partner with to run these labs. It's called the Stress, Mood and Metabolism Test, and this is the thyroid adrenal hormone test. As I mentioned last time, this will give you all the info on your cortisol and anabolic. Hormones like estrogen or estradiol is what we actually measure. Progesterone, DHEA, testosterone, as well as several thyroid markers, insulin levels, hemoglobin, A one C and vitamin D. Yeah, it's a pretty packed test. This is a custom lab that you cannot find anywhere else in this combination of markers. It is very, very comprehensive and that is why the doctor that I learned from put this lab together in the first place. All of these markers really give us a great picture of where the imbalances are with your hormones and what stage of adrenal maladaptation you might be in. This is a saliva tube and blood spot card test. So you're going to get several saliva tubes because those are what we use to measure the cortisol levels throughout the day. And then you're also going to get the blood spot card where you do a little finger prick and you put the blood spots onto the card. And that is what's going to measure some of the thyroid markers, the insulin, the vitamin D, things like that. If you are suffering from tiredness and fatigue insomnia other sleep issues brain fog, difficulty concentrating dry skin and hair anxiety, depression, PTSD other mood related issues nervousness hyperactivity sensitive to cold or hot temperature frequent heavy periods or mist or light periods possible infertility joint and muscle pain high cholesterol, hoarseness of voice, weight gain or loss Issues low stamina and energy low libido, heavy sweating or none at all hair loss, acne, PMS Symptoms water retention, heart palpitations, poor workout recovery, frequent illness, difficulty gaining muscle, chronic inflammation and aging related Issues. This one is going to be for you. Yeah, that's everyone, right? That kind of covers everyone there. But, I mean, this is why I said this is going to be a lab that I recommend to every single one of my clients, because as women, we are just in an environment and in a world where struggling with hormones is an everyday thing, and it has been for a really long time. But we've been told that it is normal. Just because these symptoms are common does not mean that they are normal. This really runs the gamut because you could have hypothyroid issues, which is too little thyroid production going on, or you could have the opposite spectrum of hyperthyroid two, which is too much thyroid production. There are a whole host of things that can be going on with your estrogen, your progesterone, your testosterone. I'm going to talk a little bit more about that in a minute. I mostly see hypo when it comes to thyroid, but both are definitely possible. There is Hashimoto's on one end of the autoimmune diseases for thyroid, which is what I have or what I've been diagnosed with. And then there's also Grave disease on the other end, where there's too much going on with the thyroid. There's also a wide range of symptoms here because our hormones are the messengers of the body. So when one gets thrown off, it affects the communication system significantly. I mean, things start to get out of whack in a lot of different places. This is a big test and definitely one of the higher priced ones, but absolutely worth it if you can swing it. This can tell us so much. So why is it why is this so great? Why is it so important, especially for us as women? Let's start with your adrenal glands first. Your adrenal glands enable your body to cope with stress and survive. That's their job. Survive on a regular basis. They sit atop your kidneys and are shaped like two little pyramids. Unfortunately, your adrenals don't know the difference between real or imagined threats, so they are mobilizing your response to stress in the same way, regardless of if it's because you're worrying about something that hasn't even happened yet, or are undereating and starving your body, or are in a terrifying car crash, the same perceived threat has the same response. So all of those situations to your brain feel the same and to your body feel the same. So your adrenals are going to give the same response. Your adrenals kick up your hormones like adrenaline or epinephrine and cortisol to initiate the fight or flight response and tell the body exactly what it needs to do to survive. That's why you'll hear a lot of people talking about survival mode, even if many of them are discussing it incorrectly. There is such a thing as survival mode where your adrenals are kicking up these hormones in order to help you fight or flee. Whatever the danger is, whatever the perceived threat is, when your adrenals are in balance, they also provide DHEA, which with cortisol actually helps us power through our day and gives us the ability to take stress in stride. So we know that stress is unavoidable. Like, you can't avoid stress forever, it's just not possible. Some stress is beyond our control. The goal is really to become more resilient. And when your adrenals are in balance with DHEA and cortisol, it helps us take that stress in stride. DHEA is a precursor to testosterone and estrogen and is an important balancer to cortisol for aging and immunity. Together, these hormones are powerhouses to keep our body running smoothly. They impact energy production, immune activity, cellular maintenance and repair, regulate glucose, insulin and inflammation and contribute to bone and muscle building, mood and mental focus, stamina, sex drive and our sleep cycles. Can we say that these are important? Yes, I think we can, and this is why. This is definitely something that we see happening postmenopause, because the Adrenals are taking over for most of the hormone production at that point. This is why we see so many of these issues. And we also see issues with insulin and blood glucose and those kinds of things happening. When we are under chronic stress, when our Adrenals are constantly taxed and are overworked, they are unable to produce these hormones in the right balance to keep us functioning properly. This is why we see it reflected in so many areas of our life with so many signs and symptoms of Dysregulation. Initially, the adrenal glands will produce more Cortisol in response to chronic stress. And you might even feel like you're on top of the world and you've got energy to spare and you can do it all. This is the alarm stages of Adrenal maladaptation. But eventually Adrenal output is diminished if stress levels continue to remain high. And this is where we start to run out of steam or reach the exhaustion stages of things. We can't sleep anymore. We gain weight, especially around our midsection. We get sick easily and lots of other things start to go downhill. And that's just what the Cortisol and DHEA levels tell us on this lab test. Just by looking at those things, we can see all of this in which stage of Adrenal maladaptation you might be at. We also see estradiol on this test, which is the most common type of estrogen that we can measure. There are actually three main types in women of childbearing age. Estrogen can affect so many functions in the body, and in clinical cases we often see what many call estrogen dominance. This doesn't necessarily mean that you have an excess of estrogen in the body. Nine times out of ten we see normal levels of estrogen, but it's not in the correct ratio to progesterone. It's all about balance, all of these hormones. It's all about balance. It's not just about having adequate amounts. Many times if you look at estrogen and progesterone alone, you might see that they are both within the normal range. But if that ratio is still not optimal, you will have symptoms of imbalance. A big reason for this is the Cortisol overproduction that I mentioned with the chronic stress. Cortisol is prioritized over progesterone production in the body, because in a constant state of stress, your body knows this is not a good time to be reproducing. We should not be reproducing right now. This is a major factor when looking at cases of infertility, because this could very well be the reason why Ovulation isn't happening. Progesterone is not there to support a healthy pregnancy might be in the case of miscarriages. Not all. Not all for sure. But this could be a major factor. When we're looking at infertility, most often we see low progesterone under stress, and this is what contributes to PMS symptoms low mood or depression, anger, rage, irritability, weight gain, water retention, missed periods, hair loss, heavy menstrual cycles, and insomnia. Now, we also have testosterone on this test, which we often think is just a male hormone, but we have and need it too. Ladies. Testosterone peaks in our twenty s and decreases slowly each decade. Testosterone contributes to our sex drive, bone density, and muscle strength, so we definitely still need this to be within the optimal range. Most often we see low levels of testosterone, which might contribute to nervousness, lack of confidence, low libido, fatigue, brain fog, osteoporosis, decreased strength, decreased endurance, fat gain, and vaginal dryness. And these are definitely issues that we see increased more post menopause you can see pretty easily, I hope, with all of these things, how just that part of this test alone is so freaking valuable for hormone balance. Like so valuable, then we still have the thyroid piece and a few additional markers that go along with that. So your thyroid is the butterfly shaped gland in the base of the front of your neck. There's lobes on either side of your neck just in front of your trachea. You should never be able to feel your thyroid unless it's inflamed and swollen, which is called a goiter. Your thyroid produces two main hormones thyroxine, or T four, and triodytheronine. I'm not going to even pretend that I know how to pronounce these things, or T three. We're going to call it T three. So t four or t three? You have probably heard of these things if you've ever had a conversation or looked at anything about the thyroid. T four is the precursor to T three, and T three is your active form of thyroid hormone. T four and T three circulate in your bloodstream and help regulate your metabolic rate, including how fast fats or carbs are used for fuel your body weight, your muscle strength, your menstrual cycles, your body temperature, your heart rate, and the production of proteins. Pretty important, right? If you've ever suspected that you have a thyroid issue, or if you've been diagnosed with a thyroid issue, you can see how this has affected these areas of your life. I know that when I was struggling with my thyroid issue before I got diagnosed, these were definitely all an issue for me. The thyroid also produces a hormone called calcitonin, which helps to regulate the amount of calcium in the blood. It's quite an important little gland that we have there, the butterfly gland. As I mentioned last time, women are seven times more likely to develop thyroid disease than men, and one in eight women will develop thyroid disease. The American Thyroid Association estimates that 60% of people are unaware of their thyroid imbalances and that subclinical thyroid imbalances are more prevalent than the disease state. So this means that you are on your way to having a disease state in your thyroid. And because you're not at that disease state, at least in conventional Western medicine, they don't do anything about it. They wait for you to get to a full blown disease state before they're going to do anything about it, and then they're just going to prescribe you a pharmaceutical, probably levothyroxine, which is what I am on, very generic thyroid medication for hypothyroidism. And they're going to send you on your way. But we don't want to wait till that long. We don't want to wait until you're at the full blown disease state. That's what this test will pick up on for you. We are not waiting for you to be so far out of balance that you can get a clinical diagnosis. This test will show you your free T four, which is the unbound version that is actually usable by your body, your free T three, which again, is the active usable form of your T three, your thyroid stimulating hormone, or TSH, which is usually all that conventional doctors will look at. So if you've ever had a thyroid test, you probably got your TSH number and they probably said, oh, you're within the normal range, because that range is huge. That range goes down to, I think, 0.4 all the way up to like 4.5 if you're close to the upper range. And honestly, in functional medicine terms, if we look at someone who's at a two or a 2.5, you're usually starting to experience this is that subclinical thyroid imbalance. You're usually starting to experience symptoms by that point, and we need to start doing something about it before you get to that point. When I had my TSH tested for the first time, I was at a five and it was horrible. I do not want you to get to that point. So we are going to look at your TSH, but it's only one small piece of it. The reason why TSH doesn't tell us a ton is because that's basically your pituitary telling your thyroid to produce hormone. And if the number gets higher, it usually means that your thyroid is under functioning. It's a little confusing there kind of opposite. So the pituitary is basically screaming at the thyroid. That's why that TSH number is high, because it's sending out all this thyroid stimulating hormone and saying, hey, function, function. And somewhere in the process it's not functioning. But it doesn't tell us why. It doesn't tell us what's going on. And that's why we look at free T four. We look at free T three because we want to see what thyroid hormone is actually being produced by your thyroid. Where is the issue happening? Is your thyroid actually not producing enough hormone? Or is it that there's a conversion issue somewhere which actually has to do more with the liver than it has to do with the thyroid. Right. So that's why it's important that we look at all of these numbers when we're trying to look at a thyroid issue. We also look on this test at thyroid paradoxidase antibodies, which show up in the case of autoimmune diseases like Hashimoto's or Graves that I mentioned before. We also see this elevated sometimes with women who have postpartum thyroiditis, and this just helps us see exactly like how far the body has gone and how out of balance things are. The last pieces of this test that are so critical and helpful are vitamin D. You have probably gotten your vitamin D tested before, so you can certainly ask your doctor for that and it might be covered by your insurance. Insulin and hemoglobin, A one C, and all of these together are super, super important to look at as well in the context of hormones. You will get three markers of vitamin D on this test. It looks at your inactive form of D two, your active D three, and the total, which is really helpful to see what you have in stores, is not necessarily what the inactive form is not usable. Right. So if we're only looking at your total vitamin D, well, it might not be an accurate picture. If most of it is the inactive form of vitamin D, the D two, we want to see more of the D Three. And then with supplementation, we want to make sure that we are also choosing D Three, which is going to be more activated. Insulin, which is a hormone produced in the pancreas and regulates the amount of glucose in the blood. Right. We know this a lack of insulin is what causes type one diabetes, but type two is very different. So the way that insulin works is it helps our body use carbs or glucose as energy. If no energy or glucose is needed, excess sugar in the bloodstream will be stored with the help of insulin. In a healthy operating body, insulin actually helps keep your blood sugar level from getting too high when it's working properly. Your hemoglobin, A one C measures what percentage of your hemoglobin, which is a protein in red blood cells that carries oxygen. So it measures what percentage of your hemoglobin has been coated with sugar. The higher your A one C levels, the worse your blood sugar control, insulin resistance and your risk of diabetes or diabetic complications. So why do we look at all of these together on this test with hormones? Where is the connection here? What it comes down to is that stress impacts multiple endocrine systems and multiple organs. It's why our body becomes such a disaster and why it's so easy to start chasing symptoms and get nowhere with conventional medicine besides a long list of pharmaceutical and surgical procedures. Right. They're going to give you the blood sugar medication and the blood pressure medication and the cholesterol medication, and they're going to recommend different surgical procedures for your hormone imbalances. I have had so many clients who were given uterine ablations, have removed gallbladders, and some with full hysterectomies, when there were so many options to explore first. I will never know what was really going on with these clients at those times. But looking at their continued hormone imbalance, I can make a pretty darn good guess how it all started and how unnecessary those surgeries were in those procedures. And I have so many clients on blood pressure medication, so many on cholesterol medications, diabetes, and other such commonplace medications that do absolutely nothing to support the body in what it actually needs. We can see on this test what's going on, and we can support the body with what it needs to correct those imbalances itself. Our body is smart. It knows how to do these things. We don't need to intervene in this capacity. All of these imbalances in the body can lead to cholesterol issues, blood pressure issues, and metabolic issues. Low thyroid, high cortisol estrogen, dominance, low vitamin D, high insulin and high hemoglobin, a one C. And you may have already gotten some of these things tested, like your insulin, your hemoglobin, a one C, your vitamin D, you may have already seen some of these things come back at your doctor's office during your annual visit, and they're starting to get out of control. And I am sure that they are not asking about your hormones in that conversation. They're not wondering what your stress levels are or any of those kinds of things and having those conversations with you because, I mean, they don't know how to they are not trained, really with a total body systems approach. They are looking at, well, your cholesterol, that's one issue. Your blood pressure, that's a heart issue, right? And it's not necessarily the case in this test. We can look at all of these imbalances and support the body with the right protocol for correcting those imbalances. Reducing stress is also going to be a critical part of this protocol. But in some cases, like I mentioned before, that might not be entirely possible. So we need to focus on the ways we can help the body become more resilient. It is possible to be more resilient based on your markers from this lab, I can help you figure out exactly how to do that and how to support your individual body in the way that it needs. At this time, we focus on removing toxicities and replacing deficiencies. That's really what it boils down to, and that is the stress, mood and metabolism test or the thyroid adrenal hormone test. Again, a higher cost test, but definitely worth it. It is so freaking valuable. If you decide to work with me, I will tell you to run this lab. You should just know that up front. I'm going to tell you to run this lab, and I've already recommended it to every single client in Simply Healthy Academy, as well as the organic acids test that I'll go into on a future episode and the hair tissue mineral analysis that I will also go into on a future episode. I feel like those are probably going to be my three go to's because my focus is always gut and hormone health. When we get those two functioning optimally, you pretty much are set. When we can support the body and having those systems being optimal, everything else kind of just falls into place. So I'm going to go into those other tests on future episodes, but you can always go back to the last episode that I posted on my podcast with the summary and reach out to me anytime that you have questions. Thanks for listening and I'll catch you next time.

[22:12] Kacey K: Thank you so much for listening to the Simply Healthy You podcast. If these episodes are resonating with you, go ahead and click that subscribe button and leave a review with all the great nuggets that you're taking away from today's episode. I promise you I read every single one of them as your feedback is really valuable to me in creating future your episodes. As your host, I look forward to having you join me for the next episode. But in the meantime, remember, keep it simple and eat more plants.