5 Common Women's Health Problems That Can be Treated with Functional Medicine and Nutrition

Here at Root, we treat a variety of women’s health conditions with functional medicine and nutrition.  Here is a list of 5 conditions we commonly work with:

Approximately 10% of women suffer from hypothyroidism, or an underactive thyroid.  The Autoimmune form of hypothyroid disease is known as Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis.  It is estimated that around 90% of cases of hypothyroidism are actually Hashimoto’s. With Hashimoto’s, there is an autoimmune attack on the thyroid taking place and antibodies are present in blood work. 

We also work to prevent thyroid issues from occurring by assessing full thyroid panels from a functional medicine perspective. Thyroid issues don’t happen overnight and there are many lifestyle and nutrition changes you can make to optimize thyroid levels before a problem occurs.  For a variety of reasons, including issues with insurance billing, full thyroid panels often aren’t even offered in traditional medicine.  At Root, we have access to affordable thyroid testing and we assess more than just thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH). We also look at free T3 and T4, and thyroid antibodies. We value looking at the full picture, and looking at just the TSH often doesn’t cut it.  If you were told your TSH was normal in the past, but still feel like something is off, we would suggest getting a full panel done.  

PCOS is the most common metabolic and hormonal disorder in women, and is estimated to effect between 6-13% of women.  To be diagnosed with PCOS, women must meet at least 2 of the following 3 criteria:

– Absent or irregular menstrual cycles (Oligo- or amenorrhea).

– Clinical or biochemical signs of hyperandrogenism

– Polycystic ovaries

The vast majority of women with PCOS suffer from insulin resistance, and therefore have difficulty losing weight.  Other symptoms associated with PCOS include skin problems (acne), hair loss, unwanted hair growth (hirsutism), irregular or heavy periods, and mood disturbances.

We review PCOS, root causes, and natural treatment with nutrition, lifestyle and supplements in our course: The PCOS Symptom Reversal Method.

It is estimated that almost 30 million Americans experience migraine headaches and that 3 out of 4 sufferers are women.  Migraine treatment is highly personal and can be approached in a variety of ways. We often look at diet, genomics, micronutrient levels, hormones, stress levels, and sleep, to name a few things.

 

There are also several herbal remedies for migraine prevention and treatment. Here’s a study comparing taking daily riboflavin (vitamin b2) 100mg to one of the most common migraine prevention medications, propranolol at 80 mg/day. They were equally efficacious at that dose, but the patients who took riboflavin had significantly less side effects. At Root, we are well versed in herbal medications, have access to high quality third party tested supplements, and review potential interactions between herbs and medications through a subscription database.

 

Though we can use functional medicine for most health conditions, the above are some of our special interest areas.