Group items tagged

the Glucagon Stim test is a useful alternative to the ITT for HGH deficiency evaluation.

Inflammatory cytokines appear to inhibit hormone production at the levels of the adrenal glands, testes, and ovaries.  This is in addition to suppression at the level of the hypothalamus and pituitary.  One proposed mechanism is via a reduction of sensitivity of the testes to LH.

Our clinic offers a number of health checks such as regular annual check-ups to ensure you are fit and healthy, pregnancy checks, yellow fever, discrete STI testing, etc.

New study casts doubt on survival benefit from bilateral mastectomy in women with BRCA1 or BRCA 2 breast cancer.   Of concern also, only 14% of women had genetic testing done with most occurring at the time of diagnosis.  It is very likely that these women had significant family history that could have been identified if genetic testing was performed earlier.  

this study looked at ovarian sex hormones as it relates to premenopausal women and breast cancer risk.  They used saliva as the test medium to evaluate estradiol and progesterone.

Review of data analyzing salivary cortisol finds saliva is a great medium, with sensitivity and specificity exceeding 90%, for evaluating the stress response.  So, where is the Louisiana State Board of Medicine, BCBS, and other insurance companies on this.  They are in favor of inferior testing and treatments ie.  hysterectomies for pelvic pain (50% success rate).   The great item here is this is not one study but an analysis of multiple studies. This is contrast to "opinions" that often govern the above mentioned organizations/businesses.

In this study, in addition to Estradiol, IL-6 was followed via salivary testing. This study found that post-exercise IL-6 elevation reduced energy availability from fat stores.  

salivary testosterone via immunoassay shown to have sensitivity and specificity to be 100%.  Very reliable method to test for testosterone levels.

saliva as an alternative to serum testing for hormones.  

This study found salivary cortisol testing is a better technique for children, in evaluating HPA axis function in children with asthma.

Salivary hormone testing again shown to gold standard.  This study looked at salivary cortisol levels in those with Cushing's disease, Cushing's syndrome, and with adrenal incidentaloma.   The results make one scratch their head.  The sensitivity and specificities of salivary cortisol were very high, exceeding at least 94% with most > 96 and 97%.  So, why the opposition?  Ignorance I guess.

Another study validates saliva as a reliable method for hormone testing.  The author concludes: "steroid concentrations in saliva are independent of flow rate and reflect those in the free fraction in plasma".  This study also discuss potential collection problems and means to resolve them.

Don't chew gum to increase saliva for saliva testing.

this study looked at salivary testosterone to serum testosterone and found poor correlation.  One major problem with this study is the significantly smaller amount (10 fold) of testosterone in women than men in healthy individuals.  This study took place in postmenopausal women, which would have significantly lower levels than healthy women.  They also don't discuss the pitfalls of equilibrium dialysis of serum free testosterone.  Another major flaw is the mere logic of looking at serum for tissue activity.   What is the correlation between serum levels and tissue activity.  There is tremendous assumptions being undertaken that serum levels of testosterone whether total or free translate to genomic or non-genomic signaling.  I also wonder if newer techniques using Mass Spec can better detect the typically pico levels of testosterone in women's saliva?  This study does nothing to dissuade the use of salivary testing.

early study looking at saliva testing in infertility treatment.  This goes back almost 33 years.  But of course, it took medicine 176 years to recommend that Vitamin C help prevent scurvy on long sea journeys.

one of the first studies I can find on salivary hormone testing.

older, but good review on autoimmune testing.

It is an inflammatory, refractory disease which includes colon, rectum and little part of small intestine. The person who is suffering from Ulcerative colitis in tests shows ulcers inside the colon. Ulcerative colitis comes under the category of ...

It is an inflammatory, refractory disease which includes colon, rectum and little part of small intestine. The person who is suffering from Ulcerative colitis in tests shows ulcers inside the colon. Ulcerative colitis comes under the category of ...

low strength via hand-grip strength test found to be associated with increased mortality risk.

Handgrip strength test is found to be associated inversely with mortality and cardiovascular events in men and women with diabetes and glucose dysregulation.  Strength is more predictive of morality in men versus women, but this study finds predictive value for both.