Cortisol and Thyroid Hormones: Detecting Imbalance
We live in a time where we have endless amounts of information at our fingertips, and I like to take full advantage. One of the things I’ve been learning more about recently is: cortisol, thyroid dysfunction, and interpreting lab results.
Before we get into each topic, it’s important to understand that hormones within our body are the communicators that tell our cells what to do. As a result, if one hormone is off-balance there is a trickledown effect which can throw off, or cause imbalance with, all the others.
Our hormones affect: our sleep-wake cycle, cognitive function, energy levels, immune system, libido, menstrual cycle, weight, and more. This is why a wide variety of symptoms can often be tied back to a hormonal issue.
This was on my brain thanks for my most recent podcast pick: What the Func? Season 1 Episode 30 HORMONES, featuring Dr. Kyrin Dunston, MD
Cortisol (AKA Our Stress Hormone), Is it too high?
Your cortisol level should be at its highest first thing in the morning, slowly come down throughout the day, and then drop to a minimum at night which allows our body to produce melatonin and us to fall asleep.
High cortisol levels can be caused by life stressors, dietary stressors, or internal stressors. Life stressors are pretty self-explanatory: work, children, relationships. When possible, make lifestyle changes to reduce stress when possible – aka take things off your “plate”. But since we both know it’s impossible to eliminate all of life’s stressors…being mindful of how you react in stressful situations and working to find new methods of stress relief that work best for you, is the best way you can support healthy cortisol levels.
Dietary stressors come from spikes and crashes in blood sugar levels. Limiting sugars and simple carbohydrates can reduce blood sugar spikes and keep your blood sugar levels in a steadier range.
Internal stressors can be from hidden infections, heavy metals, and biologic toxins that accumulate from processed foods we eat or products we use on our skin and in our household.
Hidden infections are commonly identified in the gut or mouth and can also be from undiagnosed parasites in the gut. If you commonly struggle with GI symptoms like constipation, gas, nausea, heartburn, or diarrhea investing in a GI Map test may help you get the direction and answers you need to heal your gut and reduce that stress source for your body.
When considering the amount of environmental toxin exposure you get, I encourage my clients to be mindful, but not over stress themselves out about this. My advice has always been: when you are about to run out of a product in your home like skin care, body wash, lotion, detergent, soap, cleaners, etc. begin researching what could be a cleaner choice for you to purchase and try. The goal is not to find the perfect product, but at least an improvement from the toxin level of your current products. I find that taking this approach helps the process feel not-so-overwhelming and more cost effective.
If you feel that you may be experiencing high or imbalanced cortisol levels, a DUTCH (dried urine comprehensive hormone test) is a great tool to get a thorough evaluation of your cortisol pattern throughout a 24-hour period of time, as well as test many other important hormone levels.
Thyroid Dysfunction - Symptoms to Watch For & Labs to request
Our thyroid is our metabolic regulator. Hypothyroidism is more common than hyperthyroidism and unfortunately often goes undiagnosed.
Common symptoms of a low functioning thyroid are feeling cold, constipation, hair loss, brittle or dry nails, dry skin, frequently feeling tired or sluggish, depression, anxiety, and poor cognitive function. If you are struggling with some of many of those symptoms, getting a full thyroid panel from your doctor may be helpful.
For a full thyroid panel, you’re going to want to request that they check more than just a TSH (thyroid stimulating hormone). Ideally, they would run: TSH, Free T4, Free T3, and TPO.
It’s important that you understand even if your thyroid lab work comes back normal per your primary care provider, there is still possibly dysfunction related to your thyroid that is occurring. I would highly recommend working with a functional practitioner like me to have your lab work reviewed and compared to optimal ranges, rather than just the normal ranges used in conventional medicine (see Interpreting Lab Results section below for further explanation).
If a review of your labs comparing them to optimal ranges still does not reveal answers for you, it’s possible you are experiencing cellular hypothyroidism, which you can be tested for using a HTMA (hair tissue mineral analysis) test.
Interpreting Your Lab Results, Why "Normal" is not the goal
I want to take a moment to further explain why I recommend comparing your results to optimal ranges instead of just the normal ranges your primary care provider is using.
When lab work is performed, there is always a normal reference range used to determine if your results are abnormal or not. This normal range is where 95% of the population’s results would fall, which does not take into account their state of health or diagnoses health conditions.
So, this does not mean the normal range is ideal for optimal health. Optimal ranges are the results that a person with perfectly functioning systems would exhibit.
This is one of the reasons someone can feel like something is wrong, exhibit symptoms of an imbalance, but be told their labs all look normal.
An example of this would-be fasting blood sugar. Normal is 100 mg/dL or less, but for optimal health fasting glucose should be 80-95 mg/dL.
Feel Like You Could Use A Workup?
Then I am your girl! I work with clients in a variety of capacities to get blood work, HTMA testing, and DUTCH testing, when necessary. Following a client’s work-up I interpret all of their test results for them, of course taking optimal ranges into consideration, and explain what their results are telling us in plain English so it’s easy for them to understand. When interpretation is complete, I create a completely customized care plan for the client to follow that specifically addresses exactly what we’ve uncovered their unique body needs with the testing.
If you are interested in this type of custom, thorough support for your hormones & health, apply to work with me and we can chat about what type of workup you may need!