Why Do You Need a 12 Week Weight Lifting Plan?

Weight lifting has a profound impact on cortisol, insulin, progesterone, and fat metabolism. These benefits, combined with the increased calorie burn at rest, make it a foundational practice for body contouring and fat loss.

Here’s the thing though: these lab markers need to be tested and then retested in order to show results. Progesterone takes up to three months to see changes, and markers like hemoglobin a1c for blood sugar and insulin resistance depend on the three-month life cycle of your red blood cells. This means that if you want to see meaningful changes in these markers, you need to give it a solid three-month go. In other words, you need a 12 week weight lifting plan!

If you’ve been relying on cardio for weight loss or hormone balance, it’s time to reconsider. Let’s dive into how weight lifting works, from a hormonal perspective, and why it’s non-negotiable in any sustainable weight loss or body transformation plan.

Why Weight Lifting Affects Cortisol

Cortisol is the body’s primary stress hormone. Produced by the adrenal glands, cortisol’s job is to help the body respond to stress—whether physical, emotional, or environmental. But when cortisol levels remain high over long periods, the body shifts into a state of chronic stress, which leads to fat retention, particularly around the abdomen.

Cardio, especially intense, long-duration exercises like running or high-impact aerobic routines, elevates cortisol levels. While this isn’t inherently bad, consistently high cortisol can cause muscle breakdown and interfere with the body’s ability to burn fat. Weight lifting, on the other hand, works with the body’s stress response to improve the overall balance of cortisol.

Intense weight lifting increases muscle mass, which in turn helps regulate cortisol. More muscle means a better ability to manage stress and burn fat. When you build muscle through weight lifting, your body becomes more resilient to stressors, reducing the overproduction of cortisol and preventing the fat-storage response. The increase in muscle tissue also supports better sleep and recovery, which are crucial for keeping cortisol at bay.

In a 12-week weight lifting plan, cortisol levels stabilize as your body adapts to progressive overload. This enables a balanced stress response, leading to reduced belly fat and improved overall body composition.

Why Weight Lifting Affects Insulin Sensitivity

Insulin is another key hormone in fat metabolism. When we eat carbohydrates, insulin is released to help our body absorb glucose. Over time, excessive sugar and refined carbs cause the body to become insulin resistant—a condition where the body doesn’t respond to insulin properly, leading to higher blood sugar levels and fat storage. This is particularly common in conditions like PCOS, which are often characterized by insulin dysregulation.

Insulin resistance is a significant barrier to weight loss, particularly when fat cells become saturated with excess glucose. Traditional cardio routines don’t effectively address insulin resistance in the way weight lifting does. Weight lifting, however, improves insulin sensitivity, allowing your body to process glucose more efficiently and burn fat as fuel instead of storing it.

Weight lifting forces the body to use energy in the form of glucose and fat during the recovery process. As muscle fibers break down and rebuild, the body becomes more efficient at using insulin and glucose. This process not only improves energy production but also reduces fat storage, as your body begins to burn fat at rest instead of relying on glucose.

Incorporating a 12-week weight lifting plan into your routine leads to a significant increase in insulin sensitivity, making it easier to lose fat and maintain a healthy weight. As your muscles grow, the increased demand for glucose helps clear excess sugar from your bloodstream, further promoting fat loss.

Weight Lifting and Hormones

Progesterone is a vital hormone for women, playing an essential role in regulating the menstrual cycle and supporting fertility. Progesterone is produced from pregnenolone, a precursor hormone that is the building block for several other steroid hormones, including cortisol, estrogen, and testosterone.

When the body is under chronic stress, as it often is with long bouts of cardio, the adrenal glands prioritize cortisol production through a process known as pregnenolone steal. This happens when the body diverts pregnenolone from progesterone production to make more cortisol, which lowers overall progesterone levels. Low progesterone can lead to symptoms like irregular periods, mood swings, and difficulty losing fat.

Weight lifting, however, helps prevent pregnenolone steal by reducing chronic stress and improving the body’s ability to manage cortisol levels. The controlled stress of weight lifting encourages hormonal balance, ensuring that pregnenolone is used to produce progesterone, not cortisol. As a result, weight lifting supports the body’s natural progesterone production, which helps balance estrogen and supports fat metabolism.

Additionally, weight lifting helps improve thyroid function, another factor in hormonal balance, which is often impacted by excessive cardio and stress. For women looking to optimize hormonal health and fat loss, weight lifting is far more effective than cardio, especially when it comes to maintaining or increasing progesterone levels.

The Impact of Muscle Mass on Calorie Burn at Rest

One of the most overlooked benefits of weight lifting is its ability to increase calorie burn at rest. Unlike cardio, which burns calories during the activity itself, weight lifting creates a lasting metabolic effect. This is because muscle tissue requires more energy to maintain than fat tissue. The more muscle you have, the higher your resting metabolic rate (RMR) becomes.

When you lift weights, especially with progressive overload (increasing the weight or intensity of exercises over time), you create muscle micro-tears that require the body to expend energy to repair and rebuild the muscle fibers. This process, known as muscle hypertrophy, boosts the afterburn effect (known as excess post-exercise oxygen consumption or EPOC), causing the body to continue burning calories even after the workout is over.

With each lift, your body burns calories not only during the session but also in the hours and even days following the workout as muscle tissue recovers. Over time, this leads to a significant increase in calorie expenditure, even while you’re resting or sleeping. This increased calorie burn at rest directly supports fat loss, helping to reduce body fat percentage without the constant need for cardio.

Why Weight Lifting is Essential for Body Contouring and Fat Loss

When it comes to body contouring—changing the shape and composition of your body—weight lifting is non-negotiable. It’s not just about burning fat; it’s about building muscle that will give your body the tone and shape you desire. Unlike cardio, which tends to result in general weight loss, weight lifting allows you to sculpt and define your body by increasing muscle mass.

Muscle is denser than fat, meaning that as you build muscle, you’re not just losing fat—you’re reshaping your body. This is why weight lifting is the key to long-term fat loss and contouring. As you continue to increase muscle mass through weight lifting, your body naturally becomes leaner, firmer, and more toned. Plus, muscle tissue is metabolically active and burns more calories, even at rest, making weight lifting an investment in your long-term fat loss goals.

For body contouring specifically, lifting weights boosts your metabolism in a way that cardio can’t. It allows for fat loss while maintaining or increasing lean muscle mass, ensuring that you’re not just shrinking your body, but actually shaping it. This makes it far more effective than cardio when it comes to achieving your desired physique.

12 Week Weight Lifting Plan

If you’re ready to get serious about your hormone health and fat loss, there’s no better time to start than now. A 12-week weight lifting plan will transform your body, boost your metabolism, balance your hormones, and reshape your figure. Over the course of 12 weeks, the gradual increase in weight and intensity will allow you to build muscle while optimizing your hormonal profile. By the end of the program, you’ll notice improved insulin sensitivity, reduced cortisol levels, balanced progesterone, and a significant increase in calorie burn at rest.

Are you ready to transform your body and health with weight lifting Check out our 12-week weight lifting plan at the end of this post to get started on the path to hormonal harmony, fat loss, and a body that feels as good as it looks.

The post 12 Week Weight Lifting Plan for Hormone Health appeared first on Dr. Alexandra MacKillop.

My patients share this nearly famous quote from their primary care providers all the time. That’s how they end up in my office, of course. Because they’re not fine. They feel terrible, with their hair falling out, gaining weight for no reason, freezing all the time, debilitating fatigue, brain fog. They look and act like a walking, breathing hypothyroidism textbook and yet…their other doctors say they’re “normal.”

What gives?

As a functional medicine doctor, thyroid disease is one of the main problems I treat in my office. While some patients walk in already knowing they have a problem and what it is (they’re looking to slow progression of their condition, or treat it without prescription medication), the majority have never gotten a diagnosis to finally explain their symptoms and start treating them at the root cause.

Why do thyroid problems so frequently go undiagnosed?

In my experience, there are typically three (categories of) reasons that my patients fail to receive an accurate diagnosis for their symptoms when they see other doctors. These are the three reasons that they might get told they’re fine when, in reality, they are struggling with thyroid disease. They might be told it’s in their head or (gasp!) probably perimenopause because, as if they didn’t realize it already, “You’re in your 40’s now…”

In my opinion, making an accurate diagnosis is not hard. Sure, the years of schooling that teach healthcare providers how to screen for all these different conditions and what they mean can be very challenging indeed. But, once you know the information, you just need to do the thing.

So, without further ado, here are the three reasons that my patients receive a misdiagnosis or have a missed diagnosis of a thyroid condition:

1. They’re not running comprehensive enough tests

This might sound obvious, but if you don’t test your thyroid you’re never going to accurately confirm a thyroid problem.

Unfortunately, most doctors don’t actually test thyroid function on screening labs. Sure, they run Thyroid-Stimulating Hormone (TSH) but fail to acknowledge that TSH does not actually test thyroid function.

TSH is a hormone the brain makes to tell the thyroid what to do. The thyroid is then, in turn, supposed to produce T3 and T4, which are the main thyroid hormones. The liver is supposed to make proteins called thyroid-binding globulins to carry these hormones through the blood stream to tissues, acting as a reservoir for these important hormones. The tissues themselves (gut, liver) are supposed to conver T4 into T3 as needed, per-diem to run metabolic functions in cells.

All of these functions are testable. Yet, most healthcare providers don’t test them.

Why?

They fail to recognize that TSH isn’t the full picture. Our brains are smart, but they’re even smarter than we give them credit for. Meaning, on account of other cellular processes going on in the body, the brain might be perfectly fine with an underfunctioning thyroid, thank-you-very-much, and carry on its normative signaling despite underfunctioning of our main metabolic regulator.

If you don’t test the full thyroid panel, you don’t get the full information. And if you don’t have full information, you can’t rightfully rule in, or out, a thyroid condition.

There are seven different main patterns for hypothyroidism, and I explain them all in my post titled: The Root Cause of Hypothyroidism. Check if out if you are curious what might be going on behind the scenes.

If you aren’t working with a functional medicine doctor, I’d encourage you to ask your PCP to run the full list of tests for you.

2. They don’t test frequently enough

You don’t need a medical degree to know that our metabolic needs when we’re sleeping differ dramatically form when we’re running a marathon. We also have different metabolic needs when we are resting versus when we are stressed. Our thyroid needs likewise differ when we’re sick, when we’re tired, when it’s winter versus summer, and according to the menstrual cycle. In fact, TSH levels on blood work even differ throughout the day! (They’re typically highest in the morning.)

If you’re concerned you have hypothyroidism, your doctor is going to be looking for an elevated TSH level. Remember that TSH is thyroid-stimulating hormone, meaning it’s released in order to stimulate the thyroid’s production of thyroid hormone. If the thyroid is under functioning, the brain will send a stronger and stronger signal to get the thyroid to pick up the pace, akin to an angry boss yelling at a lazy employee.

In many cases of hypothyroidism, the deficiency is subtle, with the TSH level only sometimes exceeding the reference range, typically only in the morning when TSH levels are highest. (That is, not to mention, that many labs and subseqently, many physicians, use a reference range that is far too broad; but that’s a different post for a different time.)

So, if you only test TSH (which most physicians do) and only test it once per year (which is the current standard “screen”) and don’t remind patients to remain off biotin supplements (which many physicians forget about) and don’t require a morning, fasted draw (which most don’t) then there is a good chance you will miss the elevated TSH level and your doctor will wrongly tell you that your thyroid is “normal” when it ism in fact, not.

But of course, you knew that, because your symptoms and intuition are hard to ignore.

3. They forget about the immune system

The most common cause of hypothyroidism is an autoimmune condition called Hashimoto’s Disease. But, here’s the thing: you can have Hashimoto’s and not yet have hypothyroidism.

Hashimoto’s as an autoimmune disease means that a person’s immune system is wrongly attacking their thyroid. The immune system is supposed to produce antibodies aimed at fighting off infections, like COVID or Epstein-Barr virus, or strep throat. But, with Hashimoto’s, the immune system instead starts making antibodies against thyroid tissue, called anti-thyroperoxidase (anti-TPO) and anti-thyroglobulin (anti-Tg) antibodies.

The result is thyroid inflammation and evnetual thyroid tissue destruction, accompanied by all the immune symptoms that make you feel sick, like fatigue, brain fog, joint pain, hair loss, depression and…do I sound like I’m describing hypothyoridism yet?

Remember that TSH does not screen for Hashimoto’s Disease, yet Hashimoto’s Disease is the number one cause of hypothyroidism. Also keep in mind that while Hashimoto’s Disease often leads to destruction of the thyroid gland and eventual resulting hypothyoridism, it doesn’t always; but it still produces symptoms of its own accord that notoriously accompany hypothyroidism. Because of these symptoms, Hashimoto’s sufferers often feel too unwell to exercise, or eat well and likewise gain weight just as they would with full blown Hashimoto’s hypothyroidism.

Maybe you’ve already been tested for Hashimoto’s and told you don’t have it, but your symptoms are so suspicious that you’re not sure you believe the diagnosis. Of course, it’s possible that you don’t have Hashimoto’s or other thyroid disease, and you need to keep advocating for yourself and digging to find that answer.

But then again, remember this: most people with Hashimoto’s weren’t born with it. Rather, they were born with a genetic predisposition that was triggered by something, such as Epstein-Barr virus, COVID, gluten sensitivity, or, notoriously, hormonal and immune shifts such as those seen in puberty, pregnancy, postpartum and perimenopause. This means that even if you were previously tested for Hashimoto’s and the result was negative, that may have changed at some point throughout your life. My own doctor even incorrectly told me that if the antibodies are negative, they’re negative and there’s no point in retesting. I’m grateful that I had the knowledge to advocate for myself and get the appropriate lab work.

I want that for you, too.

So, friends, remember that you are the one who knows your health best. If something feels off, it definitely is; it’s just a matter of testing for it. (And that means running the right tests, running them frequently enough, and remembering to be comprehensive!)

I hope this helps you to get the best posible healthcare. You deserve it!

I’m Dr. Alexandra MacKillop, a functional medicine doctor, food scientist and nutrition expert.

I specialize in women’s nutrition & hormonal health, addressing concerns like longevity, fertility, postpartum, PCOS, endometriosis, and gut symptoms like bloating, constipation, diarrhea and more.

If you’re looking for a new way to approach your health, I’m here to help you through it.

Become a Patient

Don’t miss out! Join the email list.

Sign Me Up!

Love this post Share it!

• Facebook
• Pinterest
• Instagram

Want more Grab a copy of my new book, The Postpartum Check-In !

Reminder: The information on this post or anywhere else on this blog or other writing is purely educational, and is not intended to diagnose, treat, prevent, or cure any health condition.

The post Did Your Doctor Say Your Thyroid Is Fine (Three Reasons for a Missed Diagnosis) appeared first on Dr. Alexandra MacKillop.

In my office, I frequently see women dealing with period problems. Unfortunately, many providers have told these women that their experiences are “normal” even though they are far from optimal. So, they go along in life thinking that they need to deal with uncomfortable symptoms like unpredictable bleeding, irregular periods, cramping, PMS and more. In these instances, it make take years to get an accurate diagnosis. For other women, however, the change in period symptoms is what catches their attention. Their periods used to behave one way and then, all of a sudden, things changed. Even still, many providres write this off as normal, even when it’s not. “Bodies change,” they say. While this is true—bodies do change—we still have criteria that need to be met in order to classify something as normal.

With regards to a vague symptom like a period starting, then stopping, then starting again, many providers may write this off as normal because:

1. It isn’t going to kill you
2. It typically doesn’t affect quality of life enough to become debilitating
3. It’s really common

…and this is true. Unpredictable bleeding won’t cause end of life, and unlike severe cramps, it’s not painful, merely inconvenient. Plus, it’s a symptom many people deal with. However, providers in the traditional medical model aren’t equipped to deal with a symptom like this. They haven’t been trained in piecing out these symptoms of hormone imbalances and don’t have tools to address it apart from completely overriding your hormones altogether, like through hormonal contraception.

Abnormal bleeding might look like spotting mid-cycle, or having your period start as normal, stop for 24-36 hours, then resume again. Other times, it may stop for 3-4 days and then resume. These patterns indicate different root causes.

In this post, I’m going to outline a few reasons that a person may experience unpredictable bleeding of this nature. Whether you’ve been dealing with this problem for years or it’s a new symptom that suddenly changed, you deserve to have your health explored in detail.

Reasons for Unpredictable/Irregular Bleeding

1. Hormone Imbalances: At the start of your period, hormones drop quite low, comparatively to how things typically “flow” throughout the remainder of your cycle. Take a look at the graphic above: ovarian hormones drop quite low during the first phase, the menstrual phase of the cycle. Irregular hormone production, particularly of estrogen, can easily cause these levels to stop and start. Both high and low estrogen levels may cause irregular bleeding. High estrogen without enough progesterone to balance it out is problematic, growing the uterine lining too much and leading to this “extra” bleeding. Low estrogen dips can produce spotting.
2. Breastfeeding: Nursing, even after periods have returned postpartum, causes real-time hormone fluctuations. Paired with exercise, sleep deprivation, or stress, this can be a big tax on the body. Consider TLC and working on stress managment techniques to help support the demands on your body during this time.
3. Stagnation: This is a term from Traditional Chinese Medicine! In the TCM perspective, blood and energy, called qi, flow through the body in predictable channels. If there’s an interruption to this flow, blood may literally not flow how it should, getting “stuck” and causing irregular patterns of starting and stopping! Especially combined with clotting, dark colored blood, cramping, breast pain, irritability, bloating, and other symptoms associated with stagnation, you should see a TCM practitioner and/or acupuncturist!
4. Stress: Similar to the flow of energy in TCM, emotional stagnation can cause problems in the body. As with the effects of trauma and stress on the body’s neurological pathways (i.e. “The Body Keeps The Score” by Bessel van der Kolk, MD) emotions also affect physiological pathways. If emotions aren’t flowing freely, it can cause other areas of the body to get “stopped up” too. Think: constipation, difficulty crying, insomnia, headaches, muscle tension. Do you notice that you’re holding your breath or struggling to breathe deeply Do you have tightness and tension in your pelvis Are you feeling rushed, under pressure, or frustrated Find healthy outlets for emotional frustration. Focus on finding targeted means of relaxation. See a therapist, talk to a close friend, build TLC into your day. Even better, employ cycle syncing methods to help support emotional vitality and “let go,” especially during your period.
5. Fibroids/Polyps: If you have mid-cycle bleeding, particularly after physical exertion, sex, or bowel movements, you may have a structural abnormality of the uterus that may need surgical removal. Make an appointment for a pelvic ultrasound.
6. Ovulation Bleeding: Mid-cycle spotting (very light, pink or brown; not red) at the time of ovulation as identified by tracking basal body temperature is a different kind of bleeding, not related to your period. This one truly may be normal, associated with changes to the ovary at the time of ovulation. However, if you have new ovulation spotting when you never did previously, it may be time to see a healthcare provider for some hormone testing.

Overall, periods that start, stop and then start again after a few days are not normal, no matter how common they are. If you experience this, talk to your doctor about it. If they dismiss it, it may be time for a new approach through functional medicine. Pay special attention to the effects of emotions, stress and how energy flows through your body. After all, the body really does keep the score.

I’m Dr. Alexandra MacKillop, a functional medicine doctor, food scientist and nutrition expert.

I specialize in women’s nutrition & hormonal health, addressing concerns like longevity, fertility, postpartum, PCOS, endometriosis, and gut symptoms like bloating, constipation, diarrhea and more.

If you’re looking for a new way to approach your health, I’m here to help you through it.

Become a Patient

Don’t miss out! Join the email list.

Sign Me Up!

Love this post Share it!

• Facebook
• Pinterest
• Instagram

Want more Grab a copy of my new book, The Postpartum Check-In !

Reminder: The information on this post or anywhere else on this blog or other writing is purely educational, and is not intended to diagnose, treat, prevent, or cure any health condition.

The post Why Does My Period Stop and Start Again? appeared first on Dr. Alexandra MacKillop.

“Okay, okay, hypothalamo-whatta-whatta?“

If that’s what you’re thinking, you’re in good company. The hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal-thyroid-gonadal axis is quite the tongue twister. But don’t worry, it sounds more confusing and overwhelming than it is. In short, the HPATG-Axis is the system of hormone balance in our bodies. To understand how to balance hormones naturally, we need to first understand what hormone balance looks like through this great, big web of connections.

In a nutshell, the HPATG-Axis phrase refers to is the fact that a part of our brain called the hypothalamus communicates with our adrenal glands, thyroid, and ovaries (aka gonads) through a series of hormones produced by the pituitary gland (also located in our brain). In physiology, we often talk about those interactions separately, referring to them as the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis, or the hypothalamic-pituitary-thyroid axis. But in reality, they’re all connected, and this post will explain everything you ever wanted to know about how and why. (Okay, maybe not everything, but the basics…)

The HPATG Axis (AKA Endocrine Axis)

HPATG physiology can basically be summed up like this: the hypothalamus talks to our pituitary gland using hormonal signals, telling the pituitary gland when and how to stimulate our thyroid, our adrenal glands, and our ovaries. All of those glands send hormonal messages back to our brain with information about how much activity is going on, and whether or not there are any problems. In response, the brain tells the body to amp up activity in each of those sites, or tone it down. This is called a negative feedback loop.

When we face periods of stress (or rather, when we face too much stress for too long), our HPATG axis is completely intercepted. This is where we can run into imbalances in our thyroid hormones (such as hyperthyroidism or hypothyroidism), adrenal hormones (such as “adrenal fatigue”), or fertility problems, (such as hypothalamic amenorrhea). These problems can occur one at a time, or all at once, leading someone to feel really sick, and probably also really confused! Stress is a biggie when it comes to a properly functioning HPATG axis. In most cases, if you’re wondering how to balance hormones naturally, we need to start by addressing stress because stress is the single most powerful influence over the HPATG axis.

Stress and Stress Management

When we think about stress, we typically think about the psychological or emotional—deadlines at work, an overly packed schedule, a bad breakup, or a death in the family. But stress comes in many forms, and can even be triggered by good life events…

• Under eating (not enough calories or carbs)
• Nutritional deficiencies
• A significant/sudden change in diet/eating habits (especially yo-yo dieting)
• Over exercising (or a sudden change in the type of exercise)
• Lack of sleep or change in sleep schedule (i.e. night shift)
• Illness or injury (including surgery)
• Travel (even if it’s fun!)
• Moving
• Starting a new job or educational program
• Getting married
• Certain medications, or drug use
• Depression or anxiety
• Emotional distress (like the loss of a loved one)
• Psychological distress (like work deadlines or studying for exams)

Many of these things are normal parts of life, and when we are following a pattern of self care, our bodies are able to accommodate the stressors without falling into dysfunction. But when our self-care routine falls out of balance (or we begin struggling with disordered eating) we detract from the foundation of health. When that happens, everything else starts to crumble. One of my favorite ways to explain this relationship between stress and self-care is the bucket analogy:

Self-care fills our bucket, but stress drains our resources. When the bucket gets low, we start to notice symptoms of burnout. When the bucket gets empty, it leads to hormonal disaster, interrupting our whole HPATG axis at a biochemical level in our brains (big red stress arrow on the infographic at the top of this post). Ultimately, learning how to balance hormones naturally means learning how to identify and cope with the small, daily stressors in our lives.

Dysfunction, one axis at a time

The reason we often talk about the HPATG axis in terms of its separate components (HPA, HPT, HPG axes) is because unilateral dysfunction is common. For example, an autoimmune disease called Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis can lead to destruction of the tissue of the thyroid gland and subsequent hypothyroidism. When this happens, the thyroid loses its ability to produce thyroid hormone. When the pituitary gland realizes that thyroid hormone levels are so low, it amps up its secretion of thyroid-stimulating hormone in an attempt to tell the thyroid to do a better job. The problem is, the thyroid itself has been damaged—it can’t do its job until the autoimmune reaction is addressed. (Here’s where stress pops up again: if you’re wondering how to balance hormones naturally in terms of your thyroid hormones, you still need to pay attention to the stress piece because stress is one of the primary drivers of autoimmune disease.)

Low levels of thyroid hormone create a further stress response in the body, signaling back to the brain that something’s off. This consequently affects the signaling between the pituitary gland and the adrenals/ovaries as the body tries to balance things out. Low levels of thyroid hormone, for example, creates a dangerous environment for a growing baby, and so the reproductive system is one of the first to get shut down (via the HPATG axis). On the other hand, pregnancy causes the body to re-prioritize its hormonal resources. When a woman is pregnant, the body needs different levels of thyroid hormone, cortisol, and other hormones to carry the pregnancy to full-term. These body signals these changes through the same negative feedback loop. (All of this takes place without us ever having to think about it. You’ve got to admit, God’s design is pretty amazing!)

The HPATG Axis and Healthcare

When a patient complains of problems like fatigue, weight gain or weight loss, thinning hair, or irregular periods (just to name a few), the solution is never as simple as writing a prescription for birth control pills or Synthroid. There’s always more to the story, and that’s why its so important to identify the root cause of the problem when considering how to balance hormones naturally. In my practice, I do this primarily by talking with my patients in detail about their health history, and taking a closer look at the lab work. From a functional medicine perspective, it’s never safe to assume that the other components of the HPATG axis are functioning properly, even if we’ve already identified that one of them is out of sync. That’s why holistic healthcare means addressing the whole person, and not just using a symptom-by-symptom, band-aid approach.

I’m Dr. Alexandra MacKillop, a functional medicine doctor, food scientist and nutrition expert.

I specialize in women’s nutrition & hormonal health, addressing concerns like longevity, fertility, postpartum, PCOS, endometriosis, and gut symptoms like bloating, constipation, diarrhea and more.

If you’re looking for a new way to approach your health, I’m here to help you through it.

Become a Patient

Don’t miss out! Join the email list.

Sign Me Up!

Love this post Share it!

• Facebook
• Pinterest
• Instagram

Want more Grab a copy of my new book, The Postpartum Check-In !

Reminder: The information on this post or anywhere else on this blog or other writing is purely educational, and is not intended to diagnose, treat, prevent, or cure any health condition.

The post How to Balance Hormones Naturally (Understanding the HPATG Axis) appeared first on Dr. Alexandra MacKillop.