The Roby Institute

A hormonal imbalance may help explain why the pounds dieters work so hard to lose come back so easily.

A new study suggests that our bodies have a hard time adjusting to weight loss and may activate internal systems to restore lost fat.

Body weight is regulated by a complex network of hormonal and metabolic systems. After weight loss, researchers say the body may interpret a newly svelte physique as deficient in the hormone leptin and jump-start processes to restore the body to its previous weight.

Leptin is a hormone commonly associated with obesity that plays a role in regulating weight and appetite.

Leptin May Keep Pounds From Coming Back

In the study, published in The Journal of Clinical Investigation, researchers examined the effects of leptin injections in people who recently lost weight and were trying to maintain their weight loss.

The results showed that most of the metabolic and hormonal changes that normally work against keeping the pounds off were reversed once leptin levels were restored to the levels before weight loss.

Researchers say those internal changes may help explain why more than 85 percent of obese people who lose weight eventually gain it back.

If further studies confirm these effects, researchers say the results suggest that targeting leptin may help people who have lost weight keep it off.

Question: I am a 29 year old female, and have been exeriencing some changes to my body in the past 9 months. It all pretty much started when I got a birth control shot (Depo Provera). About a month and a half later I started experiencing a strange rash on my body.

It came in different forms in many different areas. Sometimes it looked like a small bug bite, and some looked like hives. Sometimes if something rubbed against my body it became red and protruded. I noticed the hive looking rash on my thighs, at first, when I woke in the morning.  I thought it was just from sweating. It would go away after a few hours after waking.  After a couple of weeks the hives were not going away, and were getting bigger in size and spread throughout my body. The rash seemed to come and go around the same time each month.

Of course I stopped taking the shot. However, my rash came back, but is not going away again, and my hair is falling out more. I have also had a slight weight gain. It all seemed to lead towards the shot. I figured some kind of hormonal imbalace. 

I hope I have explained my problem enough for you to possibly give me some insight. I am desperate for some kind of answer.

 Dr. Roby Answers…

We have a number of patients that find their treatment plan working so well that they simply stay with what works and go about their day.  While we find a great deal of satisfaction in helping patients deal with their symptoms so effectively that those symptoms become a distant memory, we like to remind all of our patients that it is important to come in once a year to have their hormone levels checked so we can make any adjustments that might lead to a more optimal level of health.  Furthermore, we always love having a chance to hear how each person is doing.

If you haven’t visited the Roby Institute in some time, we invite you to call us at 512-ALLERGY (255-3749) to schedule an appointment today.  And if you haven’t visited the Roby Institute before yet suffer from hormone imbalance or hormone allergy, we invite you to come in and see if we might be able to help.

Even the slightest hormone imbalance can lead to the body relying too much on its “emergency hormone” - adrenaline.  As a result, your body may be using adrenaline during the day to the point that you are completely exhausted when you finally crawl in to bed.  So why aren’t you able to fall asleep?  Simple: the adrenaline that’s been fueling you during the day is still present in your body.  It would seem near impossible to fall asleep with so much energy racing through your body.

This adrenaline can often be reduced or eliminated by incorporating an hour of LONG, SLOW, DISTANCE exercise in to your daily routine before going to bed.  Long, slow movement reduces the excess adrenaline that your body is carrying around allowing you to fitfully sleep through the night.

In addition to the benefits of long, slow exercise, we recommend having your hormone levels evaluated so that we can determine if your hormones might be out of balance.  If so, the Roby Institute offers a number of treatment methods that can help get you back to optimal health and feeling your best.

Dr. Roby is pleased to announce that a number of new episodes of “Meet Dr. Roby” are currently in production.  These new episodes will premiere in the early part of the summer on network television and will be available for download here on the Roby Institute website.  The new episodes will focus on patient experiences, exercise and hormone imbalance, and patient instruction on Dr. Roby’s treatment methods.

Watch for these new episodes in the coming weeks!

Albany, New York: I have read what you had to say online about hormone imbalances and fybromyalgia.
As I grow older, my symptoms increase including the severe bodily pain that can only be likened to rheumatoid
arthritis.

I have gained so much weight that I am in fear of heart attack or worse I had a full hysterectomy last April due to historical problems with cysts, pain and abnormal bleeding.  All of the readings on your website sound very familiar to my own hystory.  I would like to know if your therapy for these conditions is actually something I can afford to look into and how much improvement could I expect.

Dr. Roby answers

Did you know that your hormone levels directly affect your allergy sensitivity?  It’s true.  If your hormones are imbalanced, then your ability to handle stress, get a good night’s rest, and feel energetic are severely impacted.  Similarly, a hormone imbalance means your body is less able to handle its sensitivity to certain stimulus.  For example, as a young person, you might have had a “light” sensitivity to mountain cedar.  Perhaps a stuffy nose or itchy eyes a few days each year.  But as you age and your hormone levels naturally change and fall out of balance, your symptoms increase to the point of mind-splitting headaches and severe asthma.

Everyday at the Roby Institute we help patients who find that their allergies are impairing their ability to lead normal, happy, healthy lives.  Contact us at 512-ALLERGY (255-3749) to learn more about the treatments we offer.

For women, hormone imbalace is not “just part of it,” says Amanda Thornton, women’s health nurse practitioner.

Thornton was speaking to women about bioidentical hormone-replacement therapy during a recent Lunch and Learn program sponsored by the Women’s Health and Education Center of Baxter Regional Medical Center.

She said after so much bad publicity, hormone replacement surprisingly is on the rise again.

“Not sure why, but it’s big again and growing.” Thornton said.

Hormones — chemical messengers that carry signals from one cell to another — are important for emotional, mental and body health, she says.

Thornton noted that treatment for hormone imbalance varies.

“Everyone is different,” she said.

She added that the newest treatments can be customized according to symptoms and tests.

Symptoms often include imbalance of estrogen, progesterone, DHEA or testostrone.

Analysis of blood, urine or saliva generally reveals the imbalance, and Thornton says she utilizes the saliva test most often.

“Primarily because some levels of hormone in the blood may not be the same as the hormone in tissues,” she said.

She noted that insurance reimbursements also have been well recieved for saliva tests. “These tests are normally less expensive than blood tests,” she said.

Once identified, therapy can be customized to a woman’s individual needs.

Among treatments for hormone imbalances are bioidentical hormone-replacement therapy. Bioidentical hormones, sometimes referred to as natural hormones, molecularly are identical to the hormones we produce naturally in our bodies, she said.

Treatment is given through estrogen creams, hormone oral supplements (capsules), suppositories, drops or lozenges.

These are supplied by a compounding pharmacy. A compounding pharmacy is one that specializes in custom-mixed medications and attends continuing education seminars to keep up-to-date on compounding drugs.

Pregnancy affects the entire body, including hair, skin and nails. So Hair loss during and after pregnancy can be due to hormonal problems. An overactive or under active thyroid can cause hair to fall out. If this is the case, your physician can treat the hair loss by treating the hormone imbalance.  Hormonal changes that cause hair loss during pregnancy will often resolve themselves as the body returns to pre-pregnancy hormone levels and the normal cycle of hair growth and loss starts again. Hair loss during pregnancy may also be a sign of a vitamin or mineral deficiency. Hair loss is especially common just after pregnancy.

Causes

A number of things can cause excessive hair loss. For example, about 3 or 4 months after an illness or a major surgery, you may suddenly lose a large amount of hair. This hair loss is related to the stress of the illness and is temporary.

Hormonal Problems may cause hair loss. If your thyroid gland is overactive or under active, your hair may fall out. This hair loss usually can be helped by treatment thyroid disease. Hair loss may occur if male or female hormones, known as androgens and estrogens, are out of balance. Correcting the hormone imbalance may stop your hair loss.

Some Medicines can cause hair loss. This type of hair loss improves when you stop taking the medicine. Medicines that can cause hair loss include blood thinners (also called anticoagulants), medicines used for gout, medicines used in chemotherapy to treat cancer, vitamin A (if too much is taken), birth control pills and antidepressants.

Stress is another factor linked to hair loss. While it has not been proved definitively, emotional trauma has been loosely associated with hair loss, but milder strains and worries probably do the same thing. Stresses placed on the body may also cause a woman’s hair to jump ship. For example, crash dieting, in which a woman loses a large amount of weight rapidly, may also cause her to lose her tresses, too. Since stress is often transient, if its cause clears up, the resultant hair loss should disappear as well.

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