Did you know that your hormone levels directly affect your allergy sensitivity?  It’s true.  If your hormones are imbalanced, then your ability to handle stress, get a good night’s rest, and feel energetic are severely impacted.  Similarly, a hormone imbalance means your body is less able to handle its sensitivity to certain stimulus.  For example, as a young person, you might have had a “light” sensitivity to mountain cedar.  Perhaps a stuffy nose or itchy eyes a few days each year.  But as you age and your hormone levels naturally change and fall out of balance, your symptoms increase to the point of mind-splitting headaches and severe asthma.

Everyday at the Roby Institute we help patients who find that their allergies are impairing their ability to lead normal, happy, healthy lives.  Contact us at 512-ALLERGY (255-3749) to learn more about the treatments we offer.

For women, hormone imbalace is not “just part of it,” says Amanda Thornton, women’s health nurse practitioner.

Thornton was speaking to women about bioidentical hormone-replacement therapy during a recent Lunch and Learn program sponsored by the Women’s Health and Education Center of Baxter Regional Medical Center.

She said after so much bad publicity, hormone replacement surprisingly is on the rise again.

“Not sure why, but it’s big again and growing.” Thornton said.

Hormones — chemical messengers that carry signals from one cell to another — are important for emotional, mental and body health, she says.

Thornton noted that treatment for hormone imbalance varies.

“Everyone is different,” she said.

She added that the newest treatments can be customized according to symptoms and tests.

Symptoms often include imbalance of estrogen, progesterone, DHEA or testostrone.

Analysis of blood, urine or saliva generally reveals the imbalance, and Thornton says she utilizes the saliva test most often.

“Primarily because some levels of hormone in the blood may not be the same as the hormone in tissues,” she said.

She noted that insurance reimbursements also have been well recieved for saliva tests. “These tests are normally less expensive than blood tests,” she said.

Once identified, therapy can be customized to a woman’s individual needs.

Among treatments for hormone imbalances are bioidentical hormone-replacement therapy. Bioidentical hormones, sometimes referred to as natural hormones, molecularly are identical to the hormones we produce naturally in our bodies, she said.

Treatment is given through estrogen creams, hormone oral supplements (capsules), suppositories, drops or lozenges.

These are supplied by a compounding pharmacy. A compounding pharmacy is one that specializes in custom-mixed medications and attends continuing education seminars to keep up-to-date on compounding drugs.

Pregnancy affects the entire body, including hair, skin and nails. So Hair loss during and after pregnancy can be due to hormonal problems. An overactive or under active thyroid can cause hair to fall out. If this is the case, your physician can treat the hair loss by treating the hormone imbalance.  Hormonal changes that cause hair loss during pregnancy will often resolve themselves as the body returns to pre-pregnancy hormone levels and the normal cycle of hair growth and loss starts again. Hair loss during pregnancy may also be a sign of a vitamin or mineral deficiency. Hair loss is especially common just after pregnancy.

Causes

A number of things can cause excessive hair loss. For example, about 3 or 4 months after an illness or a major surgery, you may suddenly lose a large amount of hair. This hair loss is related to the stress of the illness and is temporary.

Hormonal Problems may cause hair loss. If your thyroid gland is overactive or under active, your hair may fall out. This hair loss usually can be helped by treatment thyroid disease. Hair loss may occur if male or female hormones, known as androgens and estrogens, are out of balance. Correcting the hormone imbalance may stop your hair loss.

Some Medicines can cause hair loss. This type of hair loss improves when you stop taking the medicine. Medicines that can cause hair loss include blood thinners (also called anticoagulants), medicines used for gout, medicines used in chemotherapy to treat cancer, vitamin A (if too much is taken), birth control pills and antidepressants.

Stress is another factor linked to hair loss. While it has not been proved definitively, emotional trauma has been loosely associated with hair loss, but milder strains and worries probably do the same thing. Stresses placed on the body may also cause a woman’s hair to jump ship. For example, crash dieting, in which a woman loses a large amount of weight rapidly, may also cause her to lose her tresses, too. Since stress is often transient, if its cause clears up, the resultant hair loss should disappear as well.