If you come by ZRT on Halloween you’re likely to be greeted by a witch, vampire, zombie or other nightcrawler. We take our decorations and dressing up seriously around here, and finding people in costume processing your labs or taking your calls is par for the course. Laughing aside (and let me tell you, some costumes are hilarious) those who live their lives by night – on the graveyard shift – can…
Tags: Sleep, Adrenal and Cortisol
O sleep, O gentle sleep, Nature's soft nurse, how have I frighted thee, That thou no more wilt weigh my eyelids down and steep my senses in forgetfulness? William Shakespeare, Henry IVA good night's sleep is important to health. During sleep the body is in an anabolic state when energy conservation, tissue repair and growth take over. The body temperature drops, growth hormone is secreted and…
Stress has become a synonymous, integral even, accompaniment of life in our fast-paced world. Generally regarded as "distress," our bodies struggle to re-establish physiological integrity at certain times, such as after working long hours, or when we have insufficient exercise, sleep and nutrition. Driven by persistent exposure to stressors, the body begins to lose its dynamic resilience and fails…
Tags: Neurotransmitters, Sleep, Stress, HPA Axis
As we roll into 2016 what is it that YOU hope to change, reinvent, reconsider, move towards or away from in the coming year? New Year’s resolutions are often among the most noble of ideas, centered on self-improvement, education, health, lifestyle and relationships. Yet statistics show that only eight percent of us successfully reach our aspirations. Experts tell us that the more specific the goal,…
Tags: Hormone Balance, Weight Management, Sleep, Stress, Patient Education
Last week, I discussed Melatonin's Role in Sleep. By focusing on MT6s, we may be focusing on the tip of the melatonin iceberg. We see very high levels of MT6s in the urine as a result of pineal synthesis and release of melatonin in response to dark stimulation. Melatonin is released, fulfills its role as central nervous system sedative, resets our cellular clocks and is then sulfated and to a much…
Tags: Hormone Balance, Melatonin, Sleep
Melatonin is a ubiquitous little hormone that comes in an indolamine package similar to serotonin, its precursor. Thanks to its unique structure, it can travel easily through the blood stream and readily crosses the blood-brain and placental barriers. It is synthesized and used all over the body to perform a number of indispensable roles. It’s the main reason our bodies know what time it is and…
Tags: Hormone Balance, Sleep, Melatonin
The “Uncovering the Truth About Sleepless Nights,” webinar covered the key symptoms of sleep hormone imbalance, long term consequences of sleep deprivation and how 4-point measurement of sleep-wake cycle hormones provide a true 24 hour sleep-wake pattern. In case you missed it, click here to view the recording. Many great questions came in during the webinar. So many, in fact, that I wasn't able to…
Tags: Hormone Balance, Sleep, Patient Education, Melatonin
Thanks to everyone who joined in for the Role of Hormones in Sleep Disturbances webinar! We had a great turnout and I was so happy to be able to share this information with everyone. There were a number of questions I wasn’t able to address due to time constraints but they were all excellent questions. I thought at least someone would be interested in a follow-up as I speak to the rest of the…
Tags: Sleep, Hormone Balance
I've been up to my elbows in melatonin research for a week now.I always felt like I had a pretty good working knowledge of where melatonin came from in the body, roughly how it was synthesized, the signals that propagate its production, and where it acts. Like most clinicians, I tended to think of it for sleep problems in general and as an adjunct treatment for some of the comorbidities associated…
Tags: Melatonin, Hormone Balance, Sleep
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