by Glen Depke, Traditional Naturopath
Last week I wrote and article “3 Reasons Why You May Have Lost that Loving Feeling” discussing the impact your hormones, neurotransmitters and cardiovascular system will play in your ability to experience intimacy with your significant other. If you missed that article, read this here.
As promised, this week I am going to present you with some simple assessment tools to understand hormones, neurotransmitters as well as your cardiovascular function. This is one of the fun and interesting aspects of being a Traditional Naturopath, I actually have the tools and the know how to understand what your body may be telling you about your health. Actually, when you get acquainted with some of these tools, you’ll understand yourself with more more depth.
Let’s dive right into hormone first.
Have you ever notice cherry or red-colored moles or dots on your forehead or chest? These are called cherry angiomas and often signify estrogen dominance. They are a manifestation that excess estrogen attacks peripheral blood vessels, causing an aneurysm, which creates that cherry color. The location of the cherry angiomas is helpful in determining what may be the problem.
Cherry angiomas on the abdomen or chest:Cherry Angiomas
Cherry angiomas located on the abdomen, or the chest, may either be because of a liver or hormone problem, or both.If there is no liver issue, then excess estrogen may be the cause. This is typically related to problems with the reproductive organs, such as prostate or testicular issues in men and ovarian cysts, uterine fibroids, breast tumors, endometriosis, etc, in women. When I recognize these with my clients, I will always recommend comprehensive adrenal saliva testing that will not only review cortisol and DHEA but also estradiol, estriol, progesterone and testosterone to understand this deeper.
Red dots on your tongue can also be a sign of hormone imbalance as shown in the picture below. I would of course recommend the same testing mentioned above with a client showing this sign.
Another way to assess hormonal imbalance is to utilize the complimentaryAdrenal Stress Profile Assessment offered by Depke Wellness. This free assessment will provide an awareness for your potential hormone imbalances.
If you have signs of hormone imbalance, I cannot say enough the importance of proper testing and assisting your body in finding this balance.
The next area we will address is the cardiovascular system and specifically circulation. To be more specific, this is poor peripheral circulation. So this is a challenge for getting the blood to the small capillaries in the extremities of your body. These extremities would be your feet, hands and the brain. You may recognize this as cold hands or feet, numbness or tingling of the hands or feet or brain symptoms such as poor mental clarity, poor memory or challenges regulating your mood. To recognize poor circulation, you can view the half moons or lunulae at the base or your fingernails. You should have one on each thumb and the next three fingers with none on your pinkie finger as shown below.
This was a huge conversation on social media last week. I posted a comment addressing the moons on the fingernails as this ties into intimacy and relationships and the comment just exploded. Take a look at what was discussed here.
As mentioned above poor peripheral circulation will have an effect on blood flow to the brain, which can lead to challenges with neurons and brain health as tied into the feeling of intimacy, but proper circulation is also important for health of the vagina and penis as tied into performance following the feelings of intimacy. So all around, our circulation is either working for us or against us. For our clients with circulation issues, we always recommend a supplement referred to as Vein Lite to assist the body in achieving improvements with circulation.
Obviously you can see from our earlier discussions that poor peripheral circulation will affect brain health and neurons, but I want to take this a bit further with neurotransmitter function. Last week we discussed the importance of dopamine and serotonin as the two prominent neurotransmitters that would put a damper on intimacy if imbalanced. Now while I do not have a bodily marker for you to look at specifically for this, we do offer a complimentaryNeurotransmitter Assessment tool for you. Section 1 and Section 2 tie into serotonin and dopamine, so if you mark more than 50% of those answers as a number 2 or 3, these neurotransmitters may be playing a role in your ability to find the intimacy you are looking for with your significant other.
I also want to mention that your lack of intimacy with your partner may not be a functional imbalance that you are dealing with. This could be mental, emotional and feeling issue which has left you in a head space, instead of a heart space. If this is the case we posted an amazing special guest article from Sue Ingebretson from Rebuilding Wellness on this subject. Catch Sue’s article here.
In the end remember that a health relationship is an intimate relationship. While every relationship is going to go through its ups and downs from and intimacy level, understanding if this is a functional issue or head space issue is a key. And just as important, is knowing what to do on these levels. I trust that today’s article has exposed some of these areas for you.
Another way to assess hormonal imbalance is to utilize the complimentary Adrenal Stress Profile Assessment offered by Depke Wellness. This free assessment will provide an awareness for your potential hormone imbalances.
If you have signs of hormone imbalance, I cannot say enough the importance of proper testing and assisting your body in finding this balance.
The next area we will address is the cardiovascular system and specifically circulation. To be more specific, this is poor peripheral circulation. So this is a challenge for getting the blood to the small capillaries in the extremities of your body. These extremities would be your feet, hands and the brain. You may recognize this as cold hands or feet, numbness or tingling of the hands or feet or brain symptoms such as poor mental clarity, poor memory or challenges regulating your mood. To recognize poor circulation, you can view the half moons or lunulae at the base or your fingernails. You should have one on each thumb and the next three fingers with none on your pinkie finger as shown below.
This was a huge conversation on social media last week. I posted a comment addressing the moons on the fingernails as this ties into intimacy and relationships and the comment just exploded. Take a look at what was discussed here.
As mentioned above poor peripheral circulation will have an effect on blood flow to the brain, which can lead to challenges with neurons and brain health as tied into the feeling of intimacy, but proper circulation is also important for health of the vagina and penis as tied into performance following the feelings of intimacy. So all around, our circulation is either working for us or against us. For our clients with circulation issues, we always recommend a supplement referred to as Vein Lite to assist the body in achieving improvements with circulation.
Obviously you can see from our earlier discussions that poor peripheral circulation will affect brain health and neurons, but I want to take this a bit further with neurotransmitter function. Last week we discussed the importance of dopamine and serotonin as the two prominent neurotransmitters that would put a damper on intimacy if imbalanced. Now while I do not have a bodily marker for you to look at specifically for this, we do offer a complimentary Neurotransmitter Assessment tool for you. Section 1 and Section 2 tie into serotonin and dopamine, so if you mark more than 50% of those answers as a number 2 or 3, these neurotransmitters may be playing a role in your ability to find the intimacy you are looking for with your significant other.
I also want to mention that your lack of intimacy with your partner may not be a functional imbalance that you are dealing with. This could be mental, emotional and feeling issue which has left you in a head space, instead of a heart space. If this is the case we posted an amazing special guest article from Sue Ingebretson from Rebuilding Wellness on this subject. Catch Sue’s article here.
In the end remember that a health relationship is an intimate relationship. While every relationship is going to go through its ups and downs from and intimacy level, understanding if this is a functional issue or head space issue is a key. And just as important, is knowing what to do on these levels. I trust that today’s article has exposed some of these areas for you.
