Two of our advisors, Drs Karilee and Richard Shames have graciously allowed us to use the following  "QUICK QUIZ" from the questionnaires in the book Feeling Fat, Fuzzy or Frazzled 

Take the full questionnaire.  If you answer yes to 2 or more on any one gland, you are a candidate for testing.  

Click here for information on our HOME LAB TESTS 

THYROID GLAND EVALUATIONS

  A. Could You Be LOW Thyroid? Do You Have the Following?

  1.Problems with weight - very easy to gain, OR extremely hard to lose, despite sensible food intake AND good exercise?

  2.Problems with body temperature (feeling chilly when others don’t? OR cold feet and/or hands? OR needing to wear socks to bed OR having to dress in layers during the day? OR decreased sweating? OR slow to heat up with exercise)?

  3.Problems with RATE of body processes (decreased reaction time, or slowed reflexes, or sluggish bowel /  constipation, or sluggish liver / high cholesterol)?

  4.Problems with ENERGY (severe fatigue OR utterly exhausted by end of day OR times during day when energy drops out completely, feeling like the plug is pulled on your energy)?
 
Low-Thyroid Point Score Total _______

B. Could You Be HIGH Thyroid? Do You Have the Following?

 1.Bulging eyes OR “Staring gaze” OR people commenting that you’re looking at them too intently?

 2. Excessively fast heart rate OR runs of skipped beats OR bothersome palpitations OR shaking of fingers or hands (tremor)?

 3. Swelling OR tenderness of thyroid gland  (goiter)?

 4. Panic attacks or breathlessness for no reason OR unusual irritability OR hyped-up behavior change without clear cause OR general anxiety or nervousness for no apparent reason?

High-Thyroid Point Score Total _______

ADRENAL GLAND EVALUATIONS

C. Could you Be LOW Adrenal? Do You Have the Following?

 1.Easily frazzled OR flying off the handle frequently OR startling easily OR low tolerance for loud noises?

  2. Poor resistance to respiratory infections OR asthma OR longer than normal recovery time from routine illness OR difficulty recuperating from unusual stress such as jet lag? Being “thrown for a loop” by small things (“the least thing just flattens me”)?

  3.Dizziness upon standing up OR low blood pressure OR fainting?

  4. Low stamina for stress OR caving in easily OR preferring to avoid any confrontations?
 
Low Adrenal Point Score Total _______

D. Could You Be HIGH Adrenal? Do You Have the Following?

  1.Normal thinking that becomes easily confused and frazzled when rushed or under pressure?

  2. Swelling/water retention of fingers OR ankles OR limbs OR face?

  3.. Heart palpitations OR high blood pressure?

  4.Unhealthy thinning skin (easily injured or bruised) OR excessively oily skin?

High Adrenal Point Score Total _______

WOMEN’S SEX-GLAND EVALUATIONS

E. Women, Could You Be LOW Estrogen? Do You Have the Following?

  1.Foggy thinking OR inability to think clearly through a dilemma?

  2.Hot flashes during the day OR excessive sweating at night?

  3.Feeling tearful, often at slightest provocation? OR unable to cope comfortably?

  4. If menstruating, early period days are your most difficult time of month?
 
Low Estrogen Point Score Total _______

F. Women, Could You Be HIGH Estrogen (or Have a Progesterone Deficiency)? Do You Have the Following?

1. Exceptionally fine, smooth, “glowing” skin, hardly needing creams or any extra care?

2. Heavy bleeding OR uterine fibroids OR endometriosis OR extremely uncomfortable uterine symptoms?

3. Tender breasts, at times a sense of being bruised, or of excess fullness?

4. PMS time is or has been the most difficult time of month?
 
High Estrogen Point Score Total ______

MEN'S SEX-GLAND EVALUATIONS

G. Men, Could You Be LOW Testosterone? Do You Have the Following?

  1. Decreased mental ability OR decreased memory OR noticeable foggy thinking?

  2. Decreased erection or sexual performance OR decreased sex drive?

  3. A noticeable decrease in muscle mass?

  4. Apathy, not caring much what happens, low motivation for life?

Low Testosterone Point Score Total _______

H. Men, Could You Be HIGH Testosterone? Do You Have the Following?

  1. Constant pressured feeling OR almost constant irritability OR increased anxiousness for little reason?

  2. Increased aggressive behavior OR excessive, near-violent responses to provocation, with little interest in conciliation?

  3. Excessive body and/or facial hair (not scalp)?

  4. Foggy thinking (unable to focus or think clearly)?
 
High Testosterone Point Score Total _______

Scoring and Interpreting Your Evaluations

By now you have a Point Score Total for each of six evaluations above that pertain to your sex. To determine your endo-type, find the one evaluation out of the six with the highest total points. Whether it is low adrenal or high testosterone, this is your evaluation with the highest point score. 

• If you had the most points on a thyroid evaluation, you are a physical endo-type. If you had the most points on a sex-hormone evaluation, you are a mental endo-type.
• If you had the most points in an adrenal evaluation, you are an emotional endo-type.
• Keep in mind that it is only an apparent endo-type, until the results of your home testing are in. Because of wide differences in people’s subjective sense regarding self-evaluations, there is no scale of mild, moderate, or severe in expressing your apparent endo-type.
• We know that symptoms can overlap, and occasionally a person will appear to have two or all three glands as causing major health disruption. For these reasons, the home testing can provide greater definition and direction regarding which gland to address first.
• For some people, your apparent endo-type will be all you need in order to begin making good corrections. Many find dramatic relief from long-term symptoms by simply re balancing their self-evaluation–derived endo-type, which then often helps to stabilize the other glands in the body.
• For example, if you are an apparent emotional endo-type, this may be all the information you need to greatly improve your health status. Based on this simple bit of information, you can now go directly to the adrenal re¬balancing chapter (chapter 8) to initiate over-the-counter improvements in your adrenal status.
  Remember Meredith, the fuzzy-thinking menopausal woman from chapter 1? Most of her yes answers were from the estrogen self-evaluations above. She was a mental endo-type with cognitive symptoms from her sex hormone imbalance.

By now you have a Point Score Total for each of six evaluations above that pertain to your sex.

Even though you now have an apparent endo-type, we strongly suggest that you confirm this finding by means of some simple home saliva tests.These tests can help transform an apparent endo-type (derived by symptoms) into an actual endo-type (derived by physical test results).

Though this takes a bit more time and money, it is a valuable part of a proper assessment of your endocrine chemistry, and will prove very helpful in providing baseline scores that can be used in the future for re balancing efforts.

The information available through self-evaluation questions, no matter how detailed and well scored, is just presumptive. In our experience, the most revealing result is obtained from the combination of carefully selected testing in addition to the above self-evaluations.

If you do not have the time, energy, or finances to use our suggested lab tests to confirm your actual endo-type,  you may elect to use your apparent endo-type to guide you and your practitioner in natural, “over-the-counter” re balancing efforts.

These are explained in the individual chapters. (Always do lab testing before being started on any “prescription” re balancing medicine.) If your medical doctor does not seem to know how to help you with these natural remedies, you may need to seek a licensed naturopathic  physician, knowledgeable and well-trained chiropractor, physician assistant or nurse practitioner to work with you on the fine-tuning aspects required.

Later, you might again use these same chapter 3 self-evaluations to determine if your main apparent endo-type problem has been handled, and if a different gland now needs further help.

While a well-designed self-evaluation questionnaire is indeed useful, particularly for those who cannot do additional testing, we highly recommend saliva tests interpreted by a well-trained practitioner whenever possible. Standard blood tests, although highly useful for some health issues, for adrenal, thyroid, and sex hormones are very overrated, because of the blood level–tissue level dilemma.

Please realize that it is not suggested that you forgo any blood testing, or that you refuse to consider having blood testing first. What is being suggested is that if you are having mild health concerns, for which your own physician does not recommend further evaluation, or if your blood tests have come back normal and you’re still not feeling that well, you might need to take greater charge of your own health process. Saliva and blood spot testing can be an excellent beginning step to help you to pinpoint and correct subtle disorders and are easy to use.

THE BASIC TESTS:

• Thyroid Panel (TSH, Free T4, Free T3, microsomal antibody)
• Menstruating Woman: Sex-Hormone Panel (estrogen, progesterone, testosterone)
• Menopausal Woman: Sex-Hormone Panel (estrogen, progesterone, testosterone)
• Men: Sex-Hormone Panel (testosterone, estrogen, progesterone)
• Sex-Gland Evaluation
• You may want to do the standard minimum saliva panel. At most labs, this is an estradiol, a progesterone, and a testosterone level. Men and menopausal women can do this one saliva sample testing on any day of any month.
• Adrenal Stress Panel (four samples for cortisol and DHEA)
• Adrenal Testing
• There is one test generally called Adrenal Profile or Adrenal Stress Index (ASI). This involves one saliva sample collected in the morning before breakfast, another sample collected around noon (before lunch), another around 4 p.m. (before dinner), and another around 10 p.m. (before bed). Some labs offer this test as a two-sample collection. We suggest that you complete a four-sample test when possible.
• So you have four separate samples collected several hours apart, between meals, to get your daily range of cortisol and DHEA levels. Normally cortisol is high in the morning, lower at lunch, still lower later in the day, and lowest at bedtime. Comparing yourself to the normal curve (supplied by the lab in your kit) can be quite revealing.
• Blood spot testing for Thyroid Hormone

What you can expect:
Once mailed, samples will be evaluated at the chosen lab and the results easily accessed on-line through your Canary Club Information.The results are presented in a format that is easy for you and your practitioner to understand.  Your lab results reflect levels of each of the three different glands’ functional output. This information will help you confirm and refine your apparent endo-type, as originally assessed by the earlier questionnaires.

Now what
Having a more objective assessment of your endo-type will allow you to proceed with very sensible and effective methods to reestablish balance. Whichever of your three main glands shows itself to be most abnormal, is the gland to start re-balancing and re-charging first. If you had more than one gland out of balance, then it is highly recommend you balance and recharge in the order of greatest severity.

Once you have established more appropriate thyroid levels, proceed to re balance the next most needy gland. In the case of discrepancy, the saliva tests carry more weight than the questionnaire.

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