Hormone Imbalance. What should you know?

What are hormonal imbalances?

Hormones are chemicals that the body creates to regulate various functions, such as blood sugar control, growth, and temperature just to name a few. So an imbalance would mean that there is too much or too little of a particular hormone floating around the bloodstream, causing a problem.

Can we see hormones?

You really can’t see hormones and no one is walking around with a gauge on their body that says “currently experiencing too much insulin or estrogen or testosterone.” They are not visible or are they? Hormones are manufactured by glands of the Endocrine System, so an Endocrinologist is a specialist that studies these hormones and knows how to recognize signs of imbalance. So you can’t see the actual hormone, but you can see the signs they leave behind.

What are the signs of the Endocrine system / hormonal imbalance?

Here is an example of a common diagnosis. Signs of hormonal imbalance include excessive thirst, excessive urination, rapid, unexplained weight loss, headaches, unexplained fatigue, and general irritability. Now those are a lot of signs! But think about it. If the person is not looking for anything specific, such as hormonal imbalance, they may not experience them all at once and they may not put two and two together and get four until they visit their doctor who looks at all the symptoms as a whole and says gee, we better send you for a blood test. Upon discovery that the blood sugar is too high, the general practitioner then sends the person on to the Endocrinologist who will attempt to use a variety of options to rebalance the Diabetic’s blood sugar. For Type 2 diabetes, where the pancreas still manufactures insulin, the doctor may use pills that are designed to work in conjunction with the hormone insulin. In the case of Type 1 diabetes, they may use the actual hormone, insulin via shots or an insulin pump to regulate the out of whack blood sugar. Both are an attempt to rebalance the presence of the hormone insulin in the body. Insulin is manufactured by the pancreas, a gland in the Endocrine System.

Another common ailment of the Endocrine System is Acromegaly. Th