Hormones and Depression: It’s No Laughing Matter

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Feel Like You’re Losing It?

If you’re suffering from what seems like debilitating depression, whether you’re a man or women, it’s a good chance what you’ve lost is the hormonal balance that keeps your mood in balance. And there are many different hormones that effect your moods; thyroid, adrenaline, cortisol, and the sex hormones estrogen, testosterone and progesterone. The fluctuation of these hormones has been linked to a whole gamut of mental health symptoms and unfortunately there is still a stigma that make some people view depression as weakness. No matter what you do, you feel like you’re done in. The anxiety is overpowering. At times, you’re even paralyzed with panic. You’re in a dark hole and can’t drag yourself out. The World Health Organization claims that nearly 300 million people around the world also suffer from depression. So you’re not alone. And certainly not “crazy”.

Pregnant and Hormotional

Pregnancy is supposed to be a blissful time, filled with happy anticipation. But for some, it’s filled with just plain anxiety. Feeling blue, instead of rosy pink and positive. Some women have their first experience with significant depression during pregnancy, or after pregnancy (post-partum depression). In fact, anywhere from 14 to 23 percent of pregnant women experience depression (known as antepartum depression), while an estimated 5 to 25 percent experience depression after they give birth (known as postpartum depression). Tear flow in rivers, sometimes it’s hard to get out of bed. Often, the same hormonal fluctuations that wreak premenstrual emotional havoc can lead to prenatal depression. In fact, research has found that women who suffer from pronounced PMS are at greater risk for depression during pregnancy. 

Antidepressants–Band Aids for a Multitude of Symptoms   

You can’t tell someone suffering from depression, “just snap out of it”. General practitioners and even psychiatrists offer up another solution which can come with debilitating symptoms of their own; anti-depressants to the rescue. But often, the diagnoses are inaccurate. What accounts for the upsurge in these diagnoses?  It is unlikely that we can blame it all on our brains. Human physiology changes very slowly.  Fluctuating hormones can cause depression or extreme mood shifts that can resemble bipolar disorder. Quick…more meds. Meds that can actually cause more depression, anxiety, fatigue or even racing hearts. Maybe you should be anti-antidepressants, and get your hormones checked first.

Before You Panic…

Make an appointment to see the hormone specialists at Denver Hormone Health. Every one of the doctors at Denver Hormone Health is experienced in everything that has to do with hormones and the effect on your body when they are out of balance. Including depression. At Denver Hormone Health, it is their sole mission to see if your symptoms indicate a hormone imbalance. Which they can determine with simple tests. Instead of antidepressants, they are able to restore balance naturally, by getting to the real root of your depression. And get you back to feeling free of your funk. So call Denver Hormone Health today. You’ll not only get answers, you’ll feel fabulous.

MENOPAUSE: WOMENS’ HORMONAL TAILSPINS

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Menopause Treatments

What Hormones Have To Do With Menopause

Menopause? To put it simply, hormones (of which the human body has 50 or so which control every organ in your body) are chemical messengers that circulate throughout your bloodstream telling your cells what they are supposed to do. However, they don’t always do the job. Which can have a major effect on how you feel.

This Ought To Give You Pause

You’ve heard of (or are ridiculously ensnared in) Menopause. But many women aren’t really aware of what’s referred to as Peri-menopause. Menopause is defined as a: “lack of period for 12 months or more, in a woman who is over age 40.”  Peri-menopause entails the years leading up to menopause—a time of hormonal imbalance, when the production of sex hormones (estrogen, progesterone and testosterone) begin to decline.

Sweating Bullets Is A Real Killer

Peri-menopause varies greatly from one woman to the next. The average duration is three to four years, although it can last just a few months or extend as long as a decade. While most women associate the dreaded hot flashes with menopause, they are the most common symptom of peri-menopause. Hot flashes that make you feel like you’re being consumed internally by fire. Hot flashes that send you running to open the freezer door and stand there with your head in it trying to get some relief. Then there are the nasty night sweats that leave you wiped out, (and the sheets) wringing wet.

Here’s Another Hot Flash

Many women trudging through peri-menopause and menopause suffer from other symptoms. These include the potential of fibroids (benign tumors of the uterine wall) and endometriosis. About 40% of perimenopausal women have sleep problems. Estimates put the number of women who experience mood symptoms during peri-menopause at 10%–20%. The vagina may become dry and thin, and sex may be painful. It could also lead to the “blahs”, extra weight, chronic low energy and even osteoporosis.

Nothing Funny About It

Menopause jokes abound, but ask any woman woefully wading through it and they’ll tell you it’s no laughing matter. Hearing “chill out” in response to a hot flash, is never amusing. But you want to know what some people think is hilarious? Try a book called “How not to kill the woman you love: your guide to surviving her menopause”. And here’s a supposed hoot: The 7 Dwarfs of Menopause: Itchy, Bitchy, Sweaty, Sleepy, Bloated, Forgetful and Psycho. Is it any wonder women would like to be reincarnated as something that doesn’t go through menopause?

The Road Doesn’t Have To Be Rocky

Fortunately, it does NOT have to be a time when a woman feels like her body is fighting against her. There is a way to stop hormones from ruling you. The answer is Denver Hormone Health. Every one of their doctors has had extensive experience and training in balancing the hormones that wreak havoc on a woman during peri-menopause and menopause. (Actually, they are unmatched in correcting every type of hormone imbalance in the body). No other team meets their level of understanding, dedicated care and standards. Through state-of-the-art diagnostic testing they are able to create individualized treatment plans that will help you achieve optimal health. Call Denver Hormone Health for an appointment now.  There’s no better way to change “the change.

HORMONES AND HEALTH: FEELING AWFUL ALL OVER

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Hormones and Health

HYPER-HYPOCHONDRIAC?

“So, hey, how’re you doing?” you might hear.

So, how do you answer?

Uh, let’s see…queasy, jacked up, run-down, rotten, defective, debilitated, blah, bleh, broken, not so hot, woozy, wobbly, stricken, sick, ick, uck, yukky, ucky, a total mess, at a total loss, down and out, out of it, in the dumps…oh heck, get out the thesaurus. Point is, that at different times in our lives, we all go through feeling like dreck (there’s another apt word). Well, the good news is that it just might be that your hormones are unbalanced. Hormones? Oh groan, something else to worry about. (Hold on, hold on…keep reading…)

WHO KNOWS WHAT A HORMONE IS, ANYWAY? (HONESTY, HERE…NO WIKI WANDERING)

in the simplest of terms, hormones are powerful chemical messengers in your body that are constantly traveling around your bloodstream telling your tissues and organs what to do. (And their word is golden.) They control most bodily functions and are essential for every activity of life. The bummer is that you can’t control them on your own. They choose to play “mayhem and misery”, with every inch of your body, and it’s a game you can’t win.

GOLDILOCKS AND THE 50 OR SO HORMONES

There are about 50 different hormones in the body which effect trillions of our cells. Each hormone has a different effect on our body, and each and every one of those hormones can be out of balance at some point or another during our lives. Here’s how the story goes:

“This hormone is too much”, Goldie would say.

“This hormone is too little”, she might claim.

In both cases, with too much or too little of any hormone, even tiny changes can have serious effects throughout your body. From head to toe. To get to “this is just right”, takes fine tuning to get your hormones in a balance that gets you feeling your best. It can be a bear of a problem.

IT’S EVERYWHERE, IT’S EVERYWHERE

So, what causes all these hormone imbalances? To name a few (ok, more than a few) …maybe you should be sitting:

  • Chronic or extreme stress
  • Type 1 and type 2 diabetes
  • Hyperglycemia (overproduction of glucagon (more insulin produced than there is glucose in the blood)
  • Underactive thyroid (hypothyroidism)
  • Overactive thyroid (hyperthyroidism)
  • Poor diet and nutrition
  • Being overweight
  • Hormonal replacement or birth controlmedications
  • Abuse of anabolic steroids
  • Benign tumors and cysts(fluid-filled sacks) that affect the endocrine glands
  • Congenital adrenal hyperplasia (low levels of cortisol)
  • Endocrine gland injury
  • Severe allergic reactions or infections
  • Cancers that involve endocrine glands
  • Chemotherapy and radiation therapy
  • Iodine deficiency (goiters)
  • Hereditary pancreatitis
  • Turner syndrome (females with only one functioning x chromosome)
  • Prader-Willi syndrome- (what in the…?)
  • Anorexia
  • Exposure to toxins, pollutants, and endocrine disrupting chemicals, including pesticides and herbicides
  • Pituitary cancers

ENOUGH TO MAKE YOU SICK

So, what are some symptoms and signs you might be suffering from a hormone imbalance? Don’t leave now, and don’t fly into an apoplectic fit that you have not just one of the following symptoms, but all of them:

  • Tired all the time/no energy
  • Difficulty getting up in the morning
  • Poor sleep
  • Craving for salty or sugary foods
  • Taking more effort to perform everyday tasks and duties
  • Decreased sex drive
  • Decreased ability to handle stress
  • Increased time to recover from illness or injury
  • Light headed when standing up quickly
  • Depression
  • Lack of enjoyment or happiness
  • Weight gain/loss
  • Food intolerance
  • Sinus problems
  • Alcohol intolerance
  • Excessive allergies
  • Anxiety
  • Digestive disorders
  • Dry and thin skin
  • Excessive hunger
  • No hunger
  • Hair loss
  • Unexplained headaches
  • Immune deficiencies
  • Inability to concentrate
  • Infections
  • Liver disorders
  • Chronic pain
  • Inflammation
  • Blood pressure problems
  • Low body temperature
  • Hot flashes
  • Night sweats
  • Mood swings
  • Poor memory
  • PMS
  • Sleep disorders
  • Tender breasts
  • Weakness
  • Difficulty building muscle
  • Cramping
  • Fluid retention
  • Slow metabolism
  • Irritability
  • Chronic illness
  • Unexplained or excessive sweating
  • Changes in sensitivity to cold and heat
  • Very dry skin or skin rashes
  • Changes in blood pressure
  • Changes in heart rate
  • Brittle or weak bones
  • A bunch of different cancers and hard-to-even pronounce maladies

A DIAGNOSIS FOR FAILURE

Certainly, at this point, the biggest thing you’re suffering from is panic. The point is, there are times you don’t feel well, and well, can’t figure it out. So, you might ignore what’s gnawing at your health and try to go your merry way. No way that’s going to work. Finally, it gets to the point it starts to interfere with your life, so you start on a medical merry-go-round of supposed experts subjecting you to tests you couldn’t even attempt to pronounce. Which are followed by enough different diagnoses to puzzle Einstein. Maybe it’s this. Probably it’s that. Could be both. “Clueless” is the overwhelming diagnosis of all their efforts. Google any of it and you’ll be sure you’re going to die. Slowly. Painfully.

GET THOSE HORMONES HUMMING

Something else you probably don’t know, is that there are two types of hormones that can be used in hormone replacement therapy. There are natural bioidentical hormones that have the exact same chemical structure your body produces, so when used, the body doesn’t know the difference. Then there are synthetic hormones patented by Big Pharma. (Big nightmare.) It’s a little too close to one size fits all. And we know how productive that is. Additionally, because synthetic hormones are not created structurally the same as natural hormones, they often lead to uncomfortable side effects. That’s where Denver Hormone Health comes in. All their doctors are skilled and experienced in the ups and downs of hormone imbalances. They use bioidentical hormones, not what could be dangerous synthetic hormones. Instead of using the “hunt-and-peck” method for discovering what imbalances you might have, the doctors at Denver Hormone Health look at your body as a whole. With simple tests they are able to determine where the problems are, and based on the results, create a unique, tailored treatment plan to get you feeling like you’re ready to take on the world. Which is why going to Denver Hormone Health makes all the difference in the world. Make an appointment at Denver Hormone Health now. And get ready to discover balanced hormone heaven.