At Be Optimal, we preach treating causes, not symptoms. A symptom is just the smoke signal indicating something deeper going on. Hormonal imbalance, is one of the causes often creating or contributing to symptoms. Some of the common symptoms we see associated with hormonal imbalance include:
Irregular Menstrual Cycles
Low Libido
Hot Flashes
Inability to lose weight
Mood swings
Headaches
Insomnia
Fatigue
Chronic Infections
Our hormones are little messengers that travel in our bloodstream to help the organs communicate. When everything is able to communicate efficiently, our body is in a state of balance or homeostasis. Hormones become imbalanced when our system is handling too much stress. This stress shows up in many ways in our day to day life, and manifests as inflammation and toxicity which makes it difficult for our hormones to do their jobs. Ready to learn how to regulate your hormones?
Here are my Helpful Hints to Healing Hormones:
Clean up your diet
Poor diet and inflammatory foods irritate our intestinal lining and leads to Leaky Gut. Once this happens the particles in our gut seep out of the gut lining and into the bloodstream and create systemic inflammation. When our bloodstream is disrupted, the contaminants from our gut start tampering with the hormones traveling in the blood, and internal body communication becomes unstable. To avoid your gut health wreaking havoc on your hormones, here are the dietary changes I recommend:
Go Organic: In the U.S, all of our produce is so highly sprayed with glyphosate and pesticides. These sprays create a lot of toxicity in our Liver making it hard to break down estrogens, and inhibits some of the Liver’s detoxification processes. Glyphosate also is a big contributor to the degradation of our gut lining, creating that undesirable Leaky Gut situation.
Cut out inflammatory foods: There are several inflammatory foods, but a few that specifically play a big role in hormone disruption include:
Gluten: Besides the fact that Gluten is also highly sprayed with Glyphosate, the yeast in the grains we are consuming actually attract estrogens, and makes it harder for the organs to break it down.
Soy: Soy is estrogenic in nature, so it messes with our sex hormone balance. It also irritates our Thyroid and can disrupt Thyroid Hormone production.
Sugar: This obviously creates blood sugar irregularities in the blood stream, but it also can create imbalances in the Liver and the Pancreas. In addition to managing blood sugar, these two organs are also big players in the management of the Endocrine/Hormonal system.
Decrease stress levels
Stress isn’t actually all in your head. When we get stressed out the body increases your Cortisol levels. Cortisol is a stress hormone released from your adrenal glands. It is also converted from other hormones. Your body is self-regulating, so it raises your stress hormones to help you get by, and with the conviction that the stress will be short term. The problem with this is when we are in constant long-term stress, our endocrine system prioritizes your stress hormones and makes more Cortisol and less sex hormones, hence the reason we see symptoms like irregular cycles.
Meditation, journaling, taking a hot bath, and going for a walk are some of my favorite ways to manage stress. There’s no right way… but finding and making time for things that allow you to decompress is essential. Without decompressing, long-term excess cortisol creates fatigue, sleep issues, brain fog, and so many more undesirable symptoms as your hormones become more and more unbalanced!
Exercise
Mild to moderate exercise promotes regulation of several hormones in the body including growth hormone and sex hormones. It stimulates your metabolism and helps with the proper breakdown and conversions of your hormones. Remember, hormones travel via the bloodstream so the increase in circulation from exercise supports hormone transportation.
That being said, overexertion has the opposite affect on the body. Overworking the body consistently with exercise leads to suppression of the hypothalamic-pituitary-ovarian axis. This causes a condition I see frequently in females which is called the Female Athlete Triad. This triad consists of irregular or absent cycles, depleted metabolism/energy levels, and low bone mineral density. We often are able to recognize that these symptoms are related to our hormones but don’t acknowledge the affect that extreme exercise has on those hormones. To understand more about how extreme exercise affects hormones Read about the Female Athlete Triad!
Avoid Xenoestrogens
Xenoestrogens are particles that disrupt the receptor sites for our hormones and ultimate alter/disrupt body communication. Sources of Xenoestrogens or hormone disruptors include many cosmetic products, fragrances, plastics, and solvents. This isn’t to say all of those things are inherently bad, but it is where reading your labels and knowing what the products you’re using are made from matters.
I hope these Helpful Hints provided some insight on easy ways to shift your hormones to a more balanced state. For more information on Hormone Balance be sure to join us for our free health classes this month. To register for Dinner the Doctors, Click Here! As always, we are here to support you on your health journey!
Dr. Naomi Smith, DC