Hormones

The endocrine glands produce hormones. For example, the pituitary gland in the brain produces several different hormones including growth hormone, and the adrenal glands located on top of the kidneys produce seven major hormones.

Borreliosis patients usually have multiple endocrine hormone deficiencies or insufficiencies. This is based upon results in about 800 panels of test results.

Hormones that are bound to proteins (such as proteins in the blood) are not active, and are therefore ineffective. It is the unbound hormones that are free to do their work in the body. The kidneys filter and retain most proteins so that they stay in the blood.

For example, a free testosterone level in the blood is thought to be a better test by some doctors, as opposed to a total testosterone level which measures protein-bound and unbound testosterone. A normal total hormone level in the blood does not always indicate what is really happening, if too much of the hormone is bound to proteins and not functioning actively enough to exert its full endocrine influence on the tissues of the body. Sex hormone binding globulin (protein) or SHBG binds testosterone, estrogens and progesterone.

Treatment of those hormones that are found to be below the normal range is straightforward. In general, it is more ideal to have hormones in the upper half of the normal ranges, not just in the normal range. In the laboratory I use, normal ranges are matched by sex and age. Borreliosis patients that are chronically sick may respond better to the influences of hormones on their tissues if the hormone levels are in the upper half of the normal range. Healthy people may do fine in the lower half of the normal range, but those who are sick may often need extra help with hormone supplementation.

The proof is in the pudding, as they say. I have found that borreliosis patients respond dramatically to hormone supplementation. Most of these hormones are prescribed and are either natural or identical (bioidentical) to hormones produced in the body, as opposed to over-the-counter or synthetic drugs.

Symptoms and diseases caused by endocrine hormone deficiencies are similar to those caused by tick-borne infections and hypercoagulation.