Phytotherapeutic Management of Endocrine Dysfunctions

Current perceptions of endocrine dysfunctions often place great weight on serum or salivary levels of hormones as the most accurate indication of hormone function. This becomes troubling when clinicians observe an increasing percentage of patients who have hormone levels in the “normal range”, but still have significant symptoms of hormone dysfunction. Increased understandings of insulin resistance has raised awareness that while measuring hormone levels is important, just as important is the physiological response to those hormones, or in many cases, the lack of physiological response. To the clinician managing menopause, andropause, PMS/PMDD and PCOS patients the incongruence between objective data (lab tests) and subjective data (patient symptoms), can best be explained to patients by introducing the concepts of cellular resistance and sensitivity as well as hormone agonists and antagonists. When explaining “hormone function” to patients, an effective educational phrase is “It’s not just the levels, it’s the listening.” Collectively, essential fatty acids and targeted phytotherapeutics increase cellular ability to “listen” to hormone messages.