Saliva hormone testing – Brisbane

Is a hormone imbalance causing your health problems? Let’s chat about saliva hormone testing.

As Naturopaths, we frequently find that hormonal imbalance is the underlying cause of common symptoms such as fatigue, menstrual and fertility issues, weight gain and mood disorders. The key to improving your hormonal symptoms is to test and identify which hormones are “out of whack.” Then with expert Naturopathic treatment, we work on returning your hormones to balance. The change in your symptoms, your health and vitality can be amazing.

So what are hormones and why do we recommend saliva testing for the stress and sex hormones?

Hormones are chemicals produced by your body that relay important messages to target tissues. These messages can be ‘stop’, ‘start’, ‘speed up’ or ‘slow down’ and ultimately every cell in your body responds to one or more hormones. When the hormone message is strong and clear then all is well. When the message is too low, too high or somewhat blurred then the health impact can range to mild to severe.

What’s interesting is that the key hormones not only communicate to the cells but also with each other. Over time hormones compensate for each other’s imbalance and, in turn, can create further imbalance thereby leading to a more complex state of dis-ease.

So how do you know if there’s an imbalance and what should you do about it?

More often than not the Naturopathic consultation will be the first port of call. Your state-of-health can provide some hints that register with us and with a through one hour initial consultation, we assess all the factors which could be affecting your hormonal health. Rather than guess, however, we recommend hormone testing to ensure that we have a baseline understanding of the imbalance, create the most appropriate treatment plan to address it, then retest again to ensure that things are working and hormonal balance is rectified.

Some hormones, such as thyroid and insulin, are best tested via the blood (serum) and we use this method to test and monitor them. Others hormones, such as the ‘anti-stress’ hormone cortisol and its counterpart DHEA plus the sex hormones which are vital for healthy menstrual cycle and pregnancy – oestrogen, progesterone and testosterone – are best tested via the saliva.

Salivary hormone testing has been used in research for over 50 years and is considered a highly sensitive technique. The major advantage of salivary hormone testing is that is detects free / active hormones in the time period in which they are tested thereby giving an accurate indication of what is happening ‘now’. This is preferred with the stress and sex hormones as there is an expected rise and fall during the day with stress hormones or month with sex hormones. The free / active hormone profile better correlates with the symptom picture and helps identify issues as they play out. Better still the salivary tests are painless, non-invasive and can be performed in the privacy of your own home.

We use the best-of-breed pathology laboratories to ensure accuracy and reliability of the results. We recommend taking the guesswork out of your health, investing in the right tests for the your condition so you know the way forward and can monitor your progress.

Would you like to book an appointment to test your hormones?

The Naturopaths at Vibe Natural Health offer appointments at our clinic at 210 Days Rd, Grange in Brisbane, or via skype or phone to those who can’t make it into our clinic.

Visit our appointment diary on the top right of screen to book now.

If you have questions, please email us rather than commenting on the blog at info@vibenaturalhealth.com.au

Or phone us on (07) 3366 7970. We would love to help you!