There ought to be an Autonomic Nervous System (ANS) Appreciation Day. After all, our ANS works around the clock to keep us alive. It regulates body temperature, blood pressure, heart rate, breathing, digestion and metabolism, blood glucose and acidity levels, and water and electrolytes, as well as swallowing, coughing, sneezing, and bladder control. And it does all this without requiring any conscious effort on our part. Oh, and it’s also responsible for the body’s fight-or-flight response to perceived dangers. We owe our lives to our ANS. Yet, it’s one of the most ignored and neglected systems in the human body. Whenever we suffer from low or high blood pressure, an irregular heartbeat, breathing difficulties, blood glucose dysregulation, poor digestion, or a bladder control issue, the last thing we consider is the possibility that ANS dysfunction could be the cause. This is especially true of digestive dysfunctions. The medical community has […]
If you’re searching for a hormone therapy clinic in Tampa and you’re interested in working with a practice that takes a functional medicine approach to healthcare, then this post is for you. Here at BioDesign Wellness Center, we’ve spent years studying, training, and writing about hormone replacement therapy, and since we’re focused on the root causes of chronic illness, our approach to treatment tends to be more comprehensive than that offered at a traditional doctor’s office. First, we’d like to offer some background about hormone replacement therapy (HRT) or simply hormone therapy (HT), which doctors have been prescribing to women since the early 1940s. HRT is prescribed to relieve menopausal symptoms, including menstrual cramps, hot flashes, night sweats, and mood swings. It also protects against age-related health conditions, such as heart disease, certain types of cancer, and osteoporosis. In fact, by 1992, Premarin became the top-prescribed drug in the U.S.,
If you have thyroid gland issues and your legs are swollen, you may be searching online for answers to some or all of the following questions: Why do my legs feel heavy? Why are my legs restless at night? Why do I have leg cramps all the time? Why do my legs feel weak when I walk? Why are my legs always swollen at the end of the day? Why, when I wake up in the morning, do my legs take time to get moving, hurt, and feel tingly? If these questions are familiar to you, you may be relieved to know that they sound familiar to us, too, because we hear them all the time from patients struggling with hypothyroidism — a disorder of the endocrine system in which the thyroid gland doesn’t produce enough thyroid hormone. Unfortunately, doctors who practice conventional medicine often miss the connection between swollen,
Good fat, bad fat, low fat, no fat. Cut the carbs but eat some more fat. What sounds like the opening lines of a Dr. Seuss book are actually more reflective of the confusing dietary advice we’ve been getting from the government, medical community, and health “experts” over the past several decades. As a result, we have been subjecting ourselves to a variety of extreme diets and unnatural foods that have done more to reduce our pleasure than our waistlines. Women tend to suffer most from this confusion over dietary fat because fat plays a key role in women’s health. Without the right balance of healthy fats and oils, women may be more prone to distinctly female health issues. These include premenstrual syndrome, menstrual cramps, abnormal menstrual bleeding, osteoporosis, cardiovascular disease, and breast disease. Then there are pregnancy-related problems, which may also impact the health of a fetus during pregnancy.
Everyone needs magnesium in order to stay healthy. That’s because magnesium — the ninth most abundant element in the universe — is also one of the most plentiful chemical elements in the human body. In fact, magnesium is involved in more than 300 different chemical reactions that support, among other things: Blood sugar and blood pressure control Bone health Detoxification Energy metabolism Healthy muscle and nerve function Hormone balance Immune system function Protein and DNA production Steady heart rate While the amount of magnesium we need depends on our sex and age, generally speaking, women have a lower threshold for health issues related to magnesium deficiency. Common and painful health conditions like hormonal migraines, premenstrual syndrome, and even anxiety and depression are common in women suffering from magnesium deficiency. So how exactly do women ensure that magnesium — which our bodies do not naturally produce — is plentiful? Further, what
When it comes to female libido, sex drive, and performance, the prevalence of advertisements for products addressing erectile dysfunction and low testosterone lead many to believe that these issues belong exclusively to males. Unfortunately, females are just as susceptible to sex drive and performance issues. Not all females are as oversexed as the lead characters in Sex and the City or Cosmo contributors who freely share stories about their sexual exploits and sizzling romances. Many women and others with female physiology suddenly realize that sex is no longer pleasurable, or they just aren’t as interested in it as they once were. Is that a problem? Well, it could be. Not only does this issue have the potential to significantly lower your quality of life, but it can also be symptomatic of an underlying hormonal imbalance. And it can actually cause or worsen such an imbalance. Believe it or not, orgasms