Yesterday I had a appointment with my doctor and we talked about my hormone test results. I did have to redo one spit vial for some reason so we don't have the full results but we do have most of them. Basically I have low progesterone and high cortisol. Progesterone is simply the hormone having to do with woman things like periods and pregnancy. I usually flare up around "that time of month" if you know what I mean and that is from low progesterone. Things that also come with low progesterone are mood swings and hot flashes which I have both of. Getting my progesterone up will also help with me being able to break down histamine better.
Cortisol is the body's main stress hormone. Cortisol is how you respond to things, the "fight or flight" response. As your body has stress, the adrenal glands, which are the glands that release your hormones, release cortisol into the bloodstream. Releasing this into your bloodstream causes your heart rate and blood pressure to increase. So since my cortisol is so high, when I get stressed out, I continue to stay stressed because I have a hard time calming myself down. Prolonged high cortisol can result in anxiety or worsened anxiety and interference with the body's ability to heal.
One of the other things that is out of whack is my melatonin. Melatonin is what lets your body know that it's time for bed. My body has enough melatonin but it isn't releasing it at the right times. Tart cherry juice is something I will start to drink a tiny bit of before I go to bed for my melatonin. Things like exposing yourself to to light when it's time for bed can also affect your melatonin. The way I am going to go about trying to get my body back in sync is to get on a consistent sleep schedule. That means lights out at the same time and wake up at the same time every day. Getting under the same schedule every night will help my body to know when it's time for bed so then it will start producing melatonin at the right time. I also have to expose myself to lots of light in the morning so I can fully wake up and make my room very dark at night.
There are many ways to balance hormones but my doctor wants to do it the most natural way. For my low progesterone, I am going to take a thing called a chaste tree berry or Vitex for its scientific name. This should help balance out my progesterone levels. We aren't going to do anything about my cortisol yet because my sleep schedule should help balance that out and we want to wait for the results of the last spit test.
Last but not least, I am going to start lengthening my time between my Dupixent shots soon. I think at the beginning of June, I am going to start doing 3 weeks in between my shot instead of two. This is actually a pretty big step in hopefully the right direction. It will take 10 to 12 weeks to notice a difference because Dupixent stays in the body for a long time. I have been doing really good lately and getting my hormones balance should help me with getting off Dupixent!
This blog post was a lot of information but I just want to say overall, GOD IS GOOD. I am so excited to see where all this information and progress leads me with my walk with God.
JATS