StressCheck determines your levels of DHEA (dehydroepiandrosterone) and cortisol. These two hormones are vital to your body's battle against the physiological challenges that arise when confronted with stress. Using a saliva sample, this health screen assesses the levels of the hormones necessary for healthy stress response.

• Measures DHEA and Cortisol, your body's natural response to stress
• Easy Saliva Collection

Price: $60.00

Are You Handling Stress the Best Way for Your Body?

Stress is good for you.

It's true. Stress is often thought of in a negative light--and with good reason. However, stress, both physical and emotional, also helps your body stay active and alert, more prepared for obstacles it may face. Two hormones, DHEA (dehydroepiandrosterone) and cortisol, are your body's main forces for coping with stress. An imbalance of these hormones can put your body at a great disadvantage for handling the sometimes overwhelming feeling that stress brings.

That's where StressCheck comes in.

StressCheck by BodyBalance measures your DHEA and cortisol levels to determine if they are properly balanced. Classified as adrenal or "stress" hormones--DHEA and cortisol serve as markers of stress response, regulating how your body reacts during stress. Each hormone is released into your bloodstream from your adrenal glands when your body feels stress and helps your body make the necessary adjustments to protect your health.

These two hormones help balance each other to ensure a healthy stress response. DHEA is anabolic, a constructive hormone that can boost the immune system, decrease blood pressure, and help regulate sleep, among its many functions. Cortisol is a catabolic hormone, a hormone that, in an unbalanced state, can weaken the immune system, increase blood pressure, and prevent restful sleep. Yet when your body feels stress, cortisol is essential. Cortisol maintains and raises your energy levels to assist your body during that stressful period. Together, these two hormones work to provide your body with optimal stress response and good overall health.

Stress Hormones....
Cortisol is a powerful steroid released to "activate" your body in times of stress. You need cortisol to "pump you up"' to meet all the daily challenges of life. Without it you'd have no motivation to even get out of bed in the morning!

But if your body produces too much cortisol over a long period of time, it can disrupt your blood sugar metabolism, trigger emotional problems, and make you feel constantly tired and weak. Eventually, chronic cortisol imbalances can lead to weight gain, muscle and joint pain, insomnia and premature aging.

DHEA is the most abundant hormone in your bloodstream. Although the complete scope of its function is not yet fully determined, DHEA seems to balance the effects of cortisol, by improving the body's ability to cope with stress. It also provides the source material for the production of important sex hormones.

Clinical studies suggest that DHEA can boost energy levels, strengthen immune function, improve memory, and reduce body fat. Some researchers believe that DHEA acts as a "mood elevator," preventing depression and senile dementia by protecting important neurons in the brain. DHEA levels should be closely monitored when supplementing, however, to prevent potentially harmful imbalances.

What We Can Do For You...
StressCheck is a safe, easy-to-use, and reliable health screen that uses a small saliva sample to measure your levels of DHEA and cortisol--hormones vital to your body's response to stress. This noninvasive and inexpensive health screen provides the accuracy of a laboratory analysis without you having to leave the comfort of your own home. When you order your health screen, we'll send a complete kit to you. You collect the required saliva sample and send it back to us in the prepaid return mailer provided. Within 7-10 working days of receiving your sample, we'll send your results to you.

What You Can Do For Yourself...
Stress can often make you feel powerless, swamped by the pressures of time, cumbersome demands, -- the list could go on and on. With the information you'll receive from your StressCheck health screen, you'll know how your DHEA and cortisol levels compare with normal, reference range levels and what that means for you and for strengthening your ability to cope with stress. If your results show that your levels of these hormones are not in balance, you can then work with your health care provider to develop a safe and productive plan for getting your levels to their proper state. The goal of StressCheck is to provide you with valuable information you can use to combat the pressures of stress to the absolute best of your ability and live a healthier life, information that puts you in control.

What To Do Now...
Ordering is as simple as our health screens. In fact, you can order your health screens right here on our website. Your health screens will be delivered to you within a few days, helping you on your way to more control and better health.

Rferences:

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Born J, et al. Night-time plasma cortisol secretion is associated with specific sleep stages. Bio Psychiat 1986; 21: 1415-1424.

Born J, DeKloet ER, Wenz H, Kern W, Fehm HL. Gluco- and antimineralocorticoid effects on human sleep: a role of central corticosteroid receptors. Amer J Physiol 1991; 260(2 Pt. 1): E183-E188.

Freiss E, Traschel L, Guldner J, Schier T, Steiger A, Holbsboer F. DHEA administration increases rapid eye movement sleep and EEG power in the sigma frequency range. Am J Physiol 1995; 268(31): E107-E113. cience News. 1998; May

Hechter O, et al. Relationship of DHEA and Cortisol in disease. Med Hypotheses 1997; July 49(1): 85-91.

McCarty R, et al. The impact of a new emotional self-management program on stress, emotions, heart-rate variability, DHEA and Cortisol. Integr Physiol Behav Sci 1998; Apr-Jun; 33(2): 151-170.

Namiki M. Aged people and stress. Jap J Geriatrics 1994; 31: 85-95.

Oberbeck R, et al. Endocrine mechanisms of stress-induced DHEA secretion. J Endocrinol Invest 1998 Mar; 21(3): 148-153.

Opstad K. Circadian rhythm of hormones is extinguished during prolonged physical stress, sleep and energy deficiency in young men. Eur J Endocrin 1994; 131: 56-66. Blood GW,