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Drs. Karilee and Richard Shames, authors of the book Feeling Fat, Fuzzy or Frazzled have graciously allowed us to use the following "QUICK QUIZ" from the questionnaires in the book. We recommend that you take the full questionnaire. If you answer yes to 2 or more questions on any one gland, you are a candidate for testing. New discoveries in science are revealing the profound impact of hormone imbalance in our lives. Glands work in harmony as a team, so when one or more of these glands become depleted or out of balance altering your hormonal output, it can wreak havoc on your health. This quiz will focus on three of those glands. The 3 glands addressed in this quiz are the Thyroid, Adrenal, & Reproductive (ovaries or testes), which form a "3-legged stool" on which the remaining endocrine system rests. For optimal health, it is vital that all three of these glands are in balance. In order to simplify their program, the Drs. Shames refer to 3 "endo types", physical, mental, emotional to describe the " feeling fat fuzzy or frazzled" 3 legged stool model. -------------------------------------------------------- Thyroid Gland Evaluations Could you be LOW thyroid? 1: Problems with weight, despite sensible food intake and good exercise? - Gaining weight too easily, or
- Extremely hard to lose weight
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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
- Minimal sweating when sweating would be expected, or
- Slow to heat up with exercise
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| 3: Problems with the rate of bodily functions or processing? - Decreased reaction time
- Slowed reflexes
- Constipation
- Sluggish liver
- High cholesterol
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4: Problems with energy? - Severe fatigue
- Utterly exhausted by end-of-day
- Times during day when energy drops out completely
- Feeling like the plug is pulled out of energy
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Could you be HIGH thyroid? 1: Eyes? - Physically bulging eyes
- Staring gaze
- People commenting that you are looking at them too intently
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2: Heart? - Excessively fast heart rate
- Periods of skipped beats
- Bothersome palpitations
- Shaking fingers or hands (tremors)
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3: Swelling or tenderness of thyroid gland (goiter)? |
4: Lack of Serenity? - Panic attacks, or
- Breathlessness for no reason, or
- Unusual irritability, or
- Hyped-up behavior change without cause
- General anxiety, or
- Nervousness for no apparent reason
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Adrenal Gland Evaluations Could you be LOW adrenal? 1: Easily upset? - Easily Frazzled, or
- Flying off the handle frequently, or
- Startling easily or
- Low tolerance for loud noises
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2: Not recovering easily? - Poor resistance to respiratory infections
- Asthma
- Longer than normal recovery time from routine illness, or
- Difficulty recuperating from unusual stress such as jet lag, or
- Being "thrown for a loop" by small things (the least little thing just flattens me)?
| 3: Dizziness on standing up, or low blood pressure, or fainting? |
4: Low stamina for stress, or caving in easily, or preferring to avoid any confrontations? | Could you be HIGH adrenal? 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 bruised, or excessively oily skin? |
WOMEN'S SEX-GLAND EVALUATION Could you be LOW Estrogen? 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 the slightest provocation, or unable to cope comfortably? |
| 4: If mensturating, early period days are your most difficult time of the month? |
Could you be HIGH Estrogen? 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 the month? |
MEN'S SEX-GLAND EVALUATIONS Could you be LOW testosterone? 1: Decreased mental ability, or decreased memory, or noticebale 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? | Could you be HIGH Testosterone? 1: Constantly feeling pressured, 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 on scalp)? |
4: Foggy thinking unable to focus or think clearly? | Scoring and Interpreting Your EvaluationsTo 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 reproductive-hormone evaluation, you are a mental endo-type.
If you had the most points in an adrenal evaluation, you are an emotional endo-type.
Bear in mind that the results only give you an apparent endo-type. You will have more clarity once you receive the results of your home testing. Because of wide differences in people’s subjective sense regarding self-evaluations, there is no scale here 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, 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 healthy 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 in " feeling fat fuzzy or frazzled" (chapter 8) to initiate over-the-counter improvements in your adrenal status. In our experience, the most revealing result is obtained from the combination of carefully selected testing in addition to the above self-evaluations.
Now whatHaving a more objective assessment of your endo-type will allow you to proceed with very sensible and effective methods to reestablish hormone balance. Whichever of your three main glands shows itself to be most abnormal, is the first gland to start re-balancing and re-charging. If you had more than one gland out of balance, then it is highly recommended 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 a discrepancy, the saliva/blood spot tests carry more weight than the questionnaire. Log-In
Always do lab testing before starting 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.
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Gland Self-Evaluation Quick Quiz
