Hormones Affect Your Health

Excerpt from The Survival Guide for the Hormonally Challenged Woman

As the interface between the energy of the environment and the matter of your body, hormones affect everything ~ Your moods, your memory, your metabolism.

Your appearance, your aging, your appetite. Your sleep patterns, your stress response, your sex drive. Everything.

When I refer to hormones, I mean all the body’s messengers—the traditional hormones of the endocrine system, the neurotransmitters of the neurological system and the cytokines of the immune system. All of these act as hormones affecting everything we do, everything we feel, everything we think.

Living in today’s fast paced, high-stressed world of the interminable electric light and too many manmade carbohydrates create havoc with our hormones.

Think of the hormones as the software program of the human computer. Many of us are so Hormonally Challenged—sick, aging, tired, or just plain stressed out—that we need a software update.

From Puberty to the Pause

Your hormone story began when you were in your mother’s womb. As a growing fetus your hormones were higher than they will ever be again. All those hormones helped you grow from a tiny zygote to a newborn baby. At birth, you entered a hormonal slump. Although growth occurs, hormones are naturally low in childhood. But at puberty, your hormones entered a fantastic rollercoaster.

First your adrenals started pumping out high levels of DHEA—a hormone needed to metabolize protein and fat for you to grow rapidly. DHEA converted to testosterone and hair began sprouting on your body and you developed body odor. DHEA then converted to estrogen and your breasts budded. A couple years later, your ovaries woke up and you had your first period.

During this time your pancreas began pumping out glucagon to release stored baby fat and insulin to fuel your pubescent growth. A couple years after menarche, your growth hormone levels peaked and you reached your full adult height. Then your thyroid hormone levels reached a plateau to maintain your new young adult metabolism.

Perimenopause follows the same pattern as puberty, but in the opposite direction!

As we came in thus we go out….

First your adrenals falter. Stress greatly affects you and you get tired easily.

Then your ovaries slow down. Your periods become heavier, irregular, you begin skipping periods. You become moody, irritable, and forgetful. Then fat! Because your pancreas is producing more and more insulin to keep up with the Change and eventually you become insulin resistant.

Then your growth hormone levels drop and you just don’t heal as quickly. You do not recover from exercise or a late night out like you did when you were younger. Finally your thyroid slows way down. Why? Because you cannot have a high metabolism with low hormones….you would literally implode.

Hormones Also Affect Your Digestion and Detoxification

We are what we eat…literally. 

We all know that protein builds muscle and that carbohydrates are energy foods, but did you know that every chemical you make, every hormone, every neurotransmitter, every cytokine, all come from nutrients derived from the food you eat? 

If your diet does not provide all the nutrients necessary to run your system, then something has to go…Usually those parts of your body that are not crucial for life--your skin, your hair, your nails.  Your internal health is directly related to your external appearance.

Hormones are made up of protein and fat…specifically cholesterol. In fact, “steroid” hormones are derived from the “sterol” in cholesterol. When you reach middle age and your hormones begin to decline, your cholesterol naturally rises in response. Your liver is just trying to help out your failing ovaries!

Food is digested into protein, fat, and carbohydrates. These macronutrients provide calories and building blocks for new tissues and biochemicals like hormones. Micronutrients are the vitamins and minerals that help run the system. If you cannot digest your food properly, break it down into absorbable macronutrients and assimilate it into essential micronutrients, then you cannot produce adequate hormones to remain healthy.

Your liver and kidneys are organs that detoxify your body. They need energy from food (mostly carbohydrates) and essential amino acids (from protein) and essential fatty acids (from fats) to do their job. They also require micronutrients to run the detoxification pathways. It’s an incredibly complicated system -- One that most health care providers ignore.

Years ago I was attending a medical conference. The physician presenter was lecturing on the drug interactions between a blood thinner and Tylenol. After the lecture, I asked: where in the hepatic detoxification pathways were the interactions occurring? When he didn’t answer, I clarified by asking specifically about phase I enzyme interactions versus phase II conjugation issues. As if I was speaking a different language, he said very slowly and very loudly, “I am a lung doctor, not a liver doctor.”

I replied, “Doctor, don’t all your ‘lung’ patients have livers? So wouldn’t it behoove you and your patients to know what detoxification pathways are affected? That way you can advise your patients on what foods, herbs, and supplements to also avoid.”

He shook his head. “I just check their blood levels frequently.”

And his patients are dependent on him not to bleed to death!

Now I know that as a layperson, you probably do not have a clue about the hepatic detoxification pathways but I expected my esteemed colleague to understand. We learned this basic physiology in our undergraduate pre-med training. Yet so few of us utilize knowledge of biochemistry in our clinical practices. And it is SO VERY IMPORTANT!

That’s why as a patient you need to know how your body works so you can make the healthiest choices. Knowledge is power and very well may save your life. 

I keep my Hormones in Harmony™ and optimize my digestion, detoxification and metabolism by taking Genesis Gold®. So even the Pause is just another Joyous Transformation!

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Copyright 2013 DMaragopoulos

For permission to reprint this article please contact Deborah@lovedance.com

What is Optimal Health?

Health is harmony of body, mind and soul. Dis-ease is an imbalance within this triad. Since humans do not exist in a solitary microcosm, the environment influences health both physically and energetically.

Imagine that health is a line stretching from optimal wellbeing to death. Symptoms of dis-ease represent movement away from optimal wellness and towards death. Most health care providers treat the symptoms either with conventional or alternative therapies. Few seek the root cause of dis-ease. Fewer still seek to help the patient return to optimal wellness.

All dis-ease processes are instigated by imbalances in the being, albeit biological or energetic. While most health providers recognize imbalances as dis-ease, few use a foundational model to assess and treat the whole patient. Without a holistic foundation, therapies are Band-Aids at best. Modern health care delivers chemical therapies that change symptoms but do not address the root issues. The imbalances must be assessed with a framework in mind to then deliver the appropriate therapies.

A decade ago while attempting to treat a myriad of dis-ease states, I began to notice similar patterns in the biochemical imbalances. Genetic expression favors homeostasis, so what made the body fall out of tune? Miscommunication. The complex messenger chemicals produced by the neuro-immune-endocrine system (NIE) tell the DNA what is needed by the body. To keep the hormones in harmony the body needs to take in micronutrients and get out toxins. As a triangular relationship formed between the function of the NIE system, the In and the Out cornerstones, I discovered the importance of a neuro-endocrine gland located deep in the brain at the sixth chakra level—the hypothalamus.

So I formulated a holistic model that addresses all aspects of wellbeing necessary to revolutionize health care.

DMAR Pyramid of Health™ is that model. DMAR Pyramid of Health™ refers to “the sea”—the source of all life—and assesses wellbeing through a pyramid of health. The four faces of the DMAR Pyramid of Health™ are the physiological, the psycho-spiritual, the anatomical and the environmental. The base of the pyramid encompasses the energetic vibration that represents life force. The energy within the system communicates itself via the biochemicals that make up the neuro-immune-endocrine system. These hormones under hypothalamic orchestration sing to the genetic encodement. The DNA then dances accordingly. If the music is out of tune, the genetic expression is one of dis-ease. If the music is harmonious, physical embodiment is perfectly healthy. Rather than tuning each of the hormones, I began focusing on the hypothalamus. The hypothalamus is truly the maestro of the body’s biochemical orchestra.

In clinical practice, I have found using the DMAR Pyramid of Health™ approach to dis-ease to be highly successful. I investigate imbalances in the neruo-immune-endocrine system, as well as perform functional testing of the assimilation and detoxification pathways, to uncover the root biochemical issues. Working with the other facets of the pyramid of wellbeing including the psycho-spiritual belief systems, the social and physical environment, and the anatomical structure of the physical body, provides a foundation in which to treat the patient. Being a biochemical specialist, I find that most patients need nutritional support. Feeding the brain holistically requires supplementation.

Tuning each biochemical pathway separately with nutritional and vibrational therapeutics is temporarily effective. Supporting the neuro-immune-endocrine system, as well as the assimilation and detoxification pathways, simultaneously creates harmonious communication with the DNA. Focusing on the hypothalamus which orchestrates the biochemistry is key to optimal genetic expression. A synergistic nutritional supplement to support all the biochemical pathways would create balance and harmony in our health and lives.

Hippocrates said, “Let food be your medicine”. In a world of fast food, gathering all the nutrients necessary to support the complex biochemical pathways can be difficult. After spending years sending patients out my clinic door with lists of supplements to balance their systems, I wondered if I could do what I was asking of them. The perpetual tuning and retuning of their supplementation programs required dependency on me. Parents of learning disabled and autistic children begged me to simplify the process. My research led to the development of the DMAR philosophy, but my dreams were the path to my greatest creation.

For three months at the end of 1999, I had a recurrent dream. My worse case patients came to drink from a golden chalice I held. We never spoke, but intuitively, I knew they were healed. I awoke asking what was in the cup. A formula unveiled itself. I spent the following year doing clinical research on the nutritional supplement that came in my dreams. In the summer of 2003, Creation in a Bottle was born. Genesis Gold® is designed to support the hypothalamus as well as the assimilation and detoxification pathways while keeping hormones in harmony.

For most of my patients, Genesis Gold® has replaced six to ten bottles of supplements. For many, they are no longer dependent on medications, hormone replacement, or natural remedies as their systems have come into harmony. Health is encoded into our DNA. Isn’t it time we tap into our highest potential?