If you have properly tested your Hormones and they are all within normal ranges but you are STILL dealing with Hot Flashes or Insomnia, Mood swings, Hair loss, and Weight gain, (regardless of a well followed weight loss plan), You MAY actually be dealing with too much SEX HORMONE BINDING GLOBULIN!

So what is SHBG?

Remember in Science class where you discovered that water doesn't dissolve fat? You can put a little fat, (like oil), in water, shake it up till the cows come home, and the fat still sits on top of the water in stead of dissolving into the water. If however, you mixed some oil in with another oil and shake it up, the two mix up and dissolve into one another!

That's what is meant by "Likes Dissolve Likes."

Our SEX, THYROID and Some of our ADRENAL HORMONES come from CHOLESTEROL and are only FAT Soluble!

And Blood is WATER Soluble, NOT FAT Soluble!

That means in order for Your Estrogen, Progesterone, Testosterone, DHEA, and Thyroid Hormones to get transferred from one place in the body to another, (where they do their jobs), they must be transferred in the blood by "Carrier Proteins" that can move through the blood while carrying the Hormones with them!

This Carrier Protein is called a HORMONE BINDING GLOBULIN. For our Sex Hormones, the Binding Globulin is called Sex Hormone Binding Globulin (or SHBG). For our Thyroid Hormones, the Binding Globulin is called Thyroid Hormone Binding Globulin (or THBG)

All the fat soluble hormones must have these Binding Globulin Proteins to carry them to the different parts of the body. And guess what comes next? This Carrier Protein can be "too high" or "too low" in amount and thereby effect the workings of your Hormones!

If you have too much SHBG (or THBG) OR too little SHBG (or THBG), your hormones will not be properly transferred to where they need to go to do their jobs!.

Think of it this way.

Imagine yourself with a bunch of other people in a little river village, all hitching a ride down the river on a boat where you need to get to the next little river village. There are a ton of boats for you to choose from, and lots of room to pick your choice... so you hop on the closest one and head down stream. But when you get to where you are going... all the other boats are trying to dock too and there aren't enough docks to allow you to get off.

That's what happens when there is TOO MUCH SHBG or THBG. When your Hormone Binding Globulin levels are elevated, the Hormones that are attached to them can't get transferred to where they need to go because there aren't enough "docking stations" (called receptor sites) for the Binding Globulins to attach. If the hormone can't get to where it needs to go, and then get inside the cell... it can't do it's job!

Now imagine that there are a bunch of other people needing to get down stream with you just like before, but this time there aren't enough boats to go around. The boats fill up, but there just aren't enough boats to transfer all the people that need to get to the next village.

In this case if you don't have enough boats to transfer all the people who want to go to the same place... it doesn't matter how many people are ready to go... they can't get there if there isn't a way to get there.

This is what happens with SHBG and THBG are low! The hormone levels might be ok... but they can't get to where they need to go to do their work.

So if your SHBG or THBG levels are either elevated or too low... you will have symptoms of hormone DEFICIENCY regardless of how much hormones you have!