Why use Saliva Testing?

Saliva testing is an easy and noninvasive way of assessing your hormone status and balancing needs. It is proving to be the most reliable medium for measuring hormone levels.

   The complete mail-in saliva kit.

Appreciating the reliability of saliva testing is based on understanding the difference between steroid hormones in saliva and in serum. This difference is based on whether or not the hormones are bound to proteins in the medium used for testing. The majority of hormones exist in one of two forms: free (5%) or protein bound (95%). It is only the free hormones that are biologically active, or bio-available, and available for delivery to receptors in the body. Those which are protein bound do not fit the receptors and are considered non-bioavailable. When blood is filtered through the salivary glands, the bound hormone components are too large to pass through the cell membranes. Only the unbound hormones pass through and into the saliva. What is measured in the saliva is the bioavailable hormone, the clinically relevant portion which will be delivered to the receptors in the tissues of the body.

Salivary hormone levels are expected to be much lower than serum levels, as only the unbound hormones are being measured. When healthcare providers measure serum hormone levels and prescribe hormone replacement therapy based on those results, patients are often overdosed. If the patients are then tested using saliva, the results are extraordinarily high, and confusion results from a lack of correlation between the two methods.

This discrepancy becomes especially important when monitoring topical, or transdermal, hormone therapy. Studies show that this method of delivery results in increased tissue hormone levels (thus measurable in saliva), but no parallel increase in serum levels. Therefore, serum testing cannot be used to monitor topical hormone therapy.

For more information click here: Saliva test for Hormone Balancing 

        

As reported by UCLA:

"Researchers have known that the brain sends signals to your gut, which is why stress and other emotions can contribute to gastrointestinal symptoms. This study shows what has been suspected but until now had been proved only in animal studies: that signals travel the opposite way as well.

The Gut-Brain Connection

'Time and time again, we hear from patients that they never felt depressed or anxious until they started experiencing problems with their gut,' [Dr. Kirsten] Tillisch said. 'Our study shows that the gut-brain connection is a two-way street.'"

The study, published in the peer-reviewed journal Gastroenterology, claims the discovery "carries significant implications for future research that could point the way toward dietary or drug interventions to improve brain function." Naturally, I urge you to embrace dietary changes here, opposed to waiting for some "miracle drug" to do the work for you as gut health can easily be improved by eliminating inflammatory foods, eating whole foods, and incorporating fermented foods into your diet.

For more information about the study and what you can do-check out Dr. Mercola:

Gut-Brain Connection