Inflammation & Hormonal Stress Panel (DUTCH)

Advanced inflammation assessment incorporating the DUTCH comprehensive hormone panel — measuring cortisol patterns, oestrogen metabolites, androgen status, and melatonin — alongside inflammatory biomarkers, to identify how chronic stress and hormonal dysfunction drive systemic inflammation.

Chronic inflammation and hormonal dysfunction are deeply intertwined biological processes. Elevated cortisol suppresses immune function and drives visceral fat accumulation, itself a source of inflammatory cytokines. Oestrogen imbalance promotes chronic low-grade inflammation via multiple pathways. Testosterone deficiency correlates with elevated CRP and IL-6. Understanding inflammation fully requires simultaneously measuring the hormonal drivers — and the DUTCH (Dried Urine Test for Comprehensive Hormones) panel is the gold standard for doing so. NutraNourish's Inflammation and Hormonal Stress Panel combines the DUTCH Complete test with a targeted inflammatory blood panel. The DUTCH panel — using dried urine samples collected at home across a single day — provides unparalleled detail on the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis: not just total cortisol but the cortisol awakening response, free cortisol metabolites (capturing cortisol production), and cortisone — distinguishing between high cortisol production and high cortisol conversion. This level of nuance is simply not achievable with a single serum cortisol measurement. Estrogen metabolism is mapped across three pathways — 2-OH, 4-OH, and 16-OH oestrogens — with particular attention to the 4-OH pathway, which is genotoxic and associated with elevated breast and endometrial cancer risk when dominant. DHEA and its metabolites, progesterone metabolites, and androgens including testosterone metabolites are fully characterised. The inflammatory blood panel adds high-sensitivity CRP, IL-6, TNF-alpha, and homocysteine alongside a cortisol awakening response via saliva where appropriate. Together, these data allow Dr Menka to construct a complete picture of the hormonal-inflammatory feedback loop — identifying whether, for example, impaired oestrogen clearance is driving chronic neuro-inflammation, or whether a blunted cortisol pattern indicates burnout and adrenal depletion. A one-hour physician consultation translates these findings into a targeted plan addressing both inflammatory burden and its hormonal root causes.