Blog — hormone test

By Dr Kate Placzek, ZRT Laboratory We love talking about the sun! We grumble about it being hidden away behind heavy rain clouds for months at a time in the winter; we delight in the first breakthrough rays in the spring, realizing our pagan longing for it, watching, as if for the first time, as everything around us wakes up from a deep slumber; we marvel at its delightful, almost intoxicating warmth in the early summer; and yes, we find it irritating when the temperature goes a dash over 80 degrees, or if stays too hot for too long into...

Environmental pollutants are in food we eat, in the air we breathe and water we drink and bathe in. In excess, they can have profound negative effects on the basic mechanisms of body chemistry and affect the synthesis and actions of hormones essential for maintaining our health. The thyroid, which is primarily responsible for regulating metabolism, is profoundly affected by natural and environmental pollutants. Iodine & Selenium Deficiencies Affect Thyroid Function Iodine and selenium are supplied in the food, water and nutrients we consume. Low levels in these sources can directly impact thyroid hormone synthesis and action. This may impact...

As Goldilocks said of her porridge, this one’s too cold, this one’s too hot, and this one’s just right. If your body isn’t making the right amount of the thyroid hormones thyroxine (T4) and triiodothyronine (T3), you’re likely to find yourself on either side of “just right”.   Is It Frank or Functional Hypothyroidism? Most people who suffer from thyroid issues fall into the “too cold” category of body temperature dysregulation and just don’t make enough thyroid hormones T4 and T3, referred to as hypothyroidism. T3 action in the mitochondria increases metabolism and is responsible for heat production. Mitochondria are...

Most hormones are produced by a group of glands known collectively as the endocrine system. Even though these glands are located in various parts of the body, they are considered one system because of their similar functions and relationship to each other. Hormones are secreted into the bloodstream by these glands. From there, they travel to all parts of the body playing the role of chemical messengers turning specific target tissues on or off. Because they can’t be stored in the cells, hormones do their work as they pass through and then they’re gone. As a result, hormones must be...

One of the primary objectives of the Women's Health Initiative was to see if postmenopausal hormone replacement therapy (HRT) improved long-term risk of coronary heart disease, among other chronic diseases. However, the combined estrogen/progestin (Prempro) arm was halted in 2002, citing that the participants’ risk of cardiovascular disease outweighed any potential benefit of HRT in the prevention of colorectal cancer and bone fracture [1]. The conjugated equine estrogen (CEE)-only arm was also halted in 2004 citing no improvement in heart disease risk but an increased incidence of stroke, and no benefit in terms of fractures, although there was a reduced breast...