Stress is something everyone experiences at some point — whether it motivates you or wears you down. But long periods of negative stress can affect the body in many ways, including weight gain and mood swings.
Inga Zilberstein, MD, is an experienced OB/GYN who can help you learn more about your health and wellness through personalized medicine at her office in the Upper East Side of Manhattan, New York. Blood tests give you a quick snapshot of your hormones, but if you want to learn more about stress hormones, dried urine testing is much more accurate.
Dried urine testing is a 24-hour noninvasive test that assesses hormone metabolites using urine samples. Unlike a blood test, dried urine testing gives a broader picture of your health and hormone metabolism throughout the day.
Dr. Zilberstein uses the DUTCH test (Dried Urine Test for Comprehensive Hormones) to assess hormone metabolism and adrenal function. The test involves collecting urine samples four times within a 24-hour period to provide a better understanding of how your body utilizes specific hormones.
The test is very simple: You collect a urine sample in the morning, at midday, in the afternoon, and in the evening. You apply each sample to a specialized piece of paper and let it dry.
We send the dried urine samples off to the lab, where they measure the hormone metabolites, giving us a broad picture of your adrenal and stress health. Dr. Zilberstein interprets your results and designs a treatment plan to help you improve your ability to deal with daily stresses.
Dried urine testing is helpful in diagnosing hormonal conditions, especially those related to the stress hormone cortisol. Unbalanced cortisol levels can lead to various problems, including insomnia, obesity, and thyroid issues.
The DUTCH test allows Dr. Zilberstein to evaluate your cortisol awakening response (CAR), the level of cortisol in the body 30-60 minutes after waking. It’s a strong indicator of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis, which regulates your body’s stress response.
A blunted CAR response signals that the body is under chronic stress and that immune function is compromised. An exaggerated CAR response shows that you’re dealing with anxiety.
The DUTCH test also looks for other key hormones and how the body produces and metabolizes them. A chronic stress response affects other key hormones, such as estrogen, testosterone, melatonin, and progesterone.
Issues with these hormones not only indicate problems with the body’s stress response, but also clue us in on why you have certain symptoms or medical conditions.
Chronic stress leads to various medical issues that affect every aspect of your life.
Learning about stress hormones — specifically the cortisol waking response, cortisol metabolism, and clearance from the body — can help you understand how your body manages stress and how it relates to stress-induced conditions that affect sleep, reproduction, and overall wellness.
To find out more about the DUTCH test and to learn how stress is affecting your body, schedule an appointment with Inga Zilberstein, MD. Call or text 830-254-5941, or send a message through this website.
