How do you know if you have an imbalance in seretonin? And if you do, how do you help to balance that level ?
Question:
Answers:
Serotonin is present throughout the body at nerve synapses, but I presume you are refering to CNS serotonin, responsible for mood.
No, there is no (commercial) test. Patterns of behaviour and mood can indicate depression (in which serotonin is released in low amounts; but also norepinephrine), or mania (in which serotonin and others are high). This is done via experienced questioning.
Anti-depressants, such as the SSRI's ("Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors", such as fluoxetine), act by slowly increasing average levels of CNS seotonin.
Drugs like lithium modulate high (and low) serotonin levels.
Other Answers:
Depression is one symptom, Celexa is one medication for it.
There is natural pills that you can find online. happy pills there are a few others, you just have to look around
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As you may know, Seratonin is a neurotransmitter responsible for a sense of well-being in your brain. Without sufficient serotonin, you may begin to suffer from depression, fatigue, and premenstrual tension, for example. Many people in this condition are diagnosed with simple depression and placed on anti-depressants, often an SSRI type which increases serotonin levels in the brain. The SSRI may actually help for a while.
However if the stress continues and if no attention is given to the adrenal imbalance then the person’s condition may worsen. The cortisol level my drop as the adrenals begin to fail to keep up with the person’s need for stress hormones. At this point the person may feel increasing fatigue and lethargy. They might find that simple daily tasks become more and more taxing and that exercise, which used to be energizing now exhausts them. Sleep which used to come easily, may be difficult or may just feel unrefreshing. If the cortisol drops in the daytime, the pituitary, a master gland in the brain, will send hormonal signals to the adrenals in attempt to stimulate them to produce more appropriate amounts of cortisol. In some cases, by the time the fatigued adrenals are able to respond to the stimulation from the pituitary, the daytime hours have passed and it is now nighttime. Normally, at night the cortisol levels should be lowered to allow for proper sleep, but if the adrenals produce too much cortisol in the evening the sleep with be poor quality. This leads to more daytime lethargy and mental sluggishness. In addition, with less ability of the adrenals to produce higher cortisol levels as needed, the person finds that their blood sugar no longer regulates well and that they may develop symptoms of reactive hypoglycemia, such as shakiness, confusion or irritability between meals. This is because in healthy adrenal patients cortisol is released in slightly higher amounts between meals to keep their blood sugar from dropping too high.
Conventional medicine recognizes two extreme conditions of adrenals; Addison’s disease (extreme, potentially deadly hypofunctioning adrenal glands) and Cushing’s disease (extreme hyperfunctioning Adrenals with high excess cortisol). Lab tests for diagnosing Addison’s and Cushing’s diseases include blood levels of cortisol and urinary levels of cortisol and aldosterone. If your labs and symptoms are not severe enough to qualify you for one of these two diagnoses, then your adrenals are considered normal.
There is an alternative lab test capable of detecting these non-optimal adrenal conditions. It is a simple saliva test that measures several parameters of adrenal function. The test kit is given to the patient in the doctor’s office and instructions are provided for collection. The patient then collects saliva on a cotton roll four different times through-out a single day and the sample is sent to a specialized lab that deals with saliva hormone testing. In two weeks a comprehensive report returns to the doctor’s office that shows the level of two key adrenal hormones: cortisol and DHEA.
Source(s):
http://www.doctorbuxton.com/svc_adrenal.php4
Blessings! ;)
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