The ZRT Laboratory Blog

It’s well understood that the food we eat provides the amino acids, micronutrients (eg., vitamins and minerals) and macronutrients (proteins, fats and carbohydrates) we need to sustain our lives. However, it may come as a surprise to know that some foods contain more than just the amino acid precursors to neurotransmitters and actually contain high levels of some neurotransmitters themselves like…

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Getting an early jump on a disease process like cancer makes treatment exponentially easier and outcomes generally better. Under the current guidelines, that early jump on prostate cancer starts at age 55 for men at low to moderate risk and 40-45 for men at high risk. It takes years for cancer to grow to a detectable point after the tumor's initial induction from a normal cell to a cancerous one.…

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Treatment TakeawayOn awakening cortisol should increase about 50% in the first 30 minutes then begin to progressively drop the remainder of the day. Three, rather than one, early morning collections are what is needed to accurately assess the CAR; one immediately on waking, one 30 minutes later, and another at 1 hour. Thirty minutes after awakening from a good…

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Everyone knows zombies are hungry. Naturally, brains are on the menu, and occasionally my six-year-old daughter expresses her concern that a zombie might eat her brain as she sleeps (thanks, ParaNorman). But the nerd in me can’t help but wonder why a zombie would want to eat today’s brain. Eeeeww. We’ve literally turned into the human equivalent of potato chips.Nutrient-Poor & Toxin-Rich…

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SHBG, or Sex Hormone Binding Globulin, controls testosterone effect in both men and women by modulating changes in sex steroid levels. When SHBG goes up, free testosterone goes down. I like to think of SHBG as a sponge that soaks up androgens and to some degree estrogens as well. Since it binds so specifically and tightly to testosterone, it makes up part of the equation that equals androgen excess…

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The testicles of a man in his 20s are known to contribute about 5-10mg of testosterone per 24-hour day and levels of total testosterone in the venous blood with that amount are observed to yield roughly 300-1200 ng/dL in the morning at the diurnal peak. Testosterone, whether endogenous or given exogenously, negatively feeds back on the hypothalamus, limiting GnRH and thus LH and FSH from the…

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Last week, I discussed Melatonin's Role in Sleep. By focusing on MT6s, we may be focusing on the tip of the melatonin iceberg. We see very high levels of MT6s in the urine as a result of pineal synthesis and release of melatonin in response to dark stimulation. Melatonin is released, fulfills its role as central nervous system sedative, resets our cellular clocks and is then sulfated and to a much…

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Melatonin is a ubiquitous little hormone that comes in an indolamine package similar to serotonin, its precursor. Thanks to its unique structure, it can travel easily through the blood stream and readily crosses the blood-brain and placental barriers. It is synthesized and used all over the body to perform a number of indispensable roles. It’s the main reason our bodies know what time it is and…

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Thanks to everyone who joined in for the Role of Hormones in Sleep Disturbances webinar! We had a great turnout and I was so happy to be able to share this information with everyone. There were a number of questions I wasn’t able to address due to time constraints but they were all excellent questions. I thought at least someone would be interested in a follow-up as I speak to the rest of the…

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I've been up to my elbows in melatonin research for a week now.I always felt like I had a pretty good working knowledge of where melatonin came from in the body, roughly how it was synthesized, the signals that propagate its production, and where it acts. Like most clinicians, I tended to think of it for sleep problems in general and as an adjunct treatment for some of the comorbidities associated…

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