When Does Hormonal Balance Become Imbalanced
The hormonal balance is the normal level of hormones in the body. It is the balance between two different hormones and their functions. The balance of hormones is very important because they regulate our moods, emotions, sleep patterns, metabolism, energy levels, appetite, weight, etc.
If there is any imbalance in the hormonal system, then this can lead to many health problems, such as depression, anxiety, daily stress, obesity, diabetes, heart disease, and others. Therefore, it is very important to maintain the balance of hormones in the body and keep them healthy.
Hormones are chemical messengers produced by glands which travel through the bloodstream and reach the target cells. They control almost every function of the human body.
There are two main types of hormones: steroidal hormones and peptide hormones. Steroidal hormones include estrogen, progesterone, testosterone, cortisol, and DHEA. Peptide hormones include growth hormone, insulin, thyroid, melatonin, prolactin, and oxytocin.
There are three stages of life when we are concerned about maintaining the hormonal balance. This includes puberty, pregnancy, and menopause. During these stages, there are changes in the levels of hormones. For example, during puberty, the levels of estrogen increase while those of progesterone decrease. During pregnancy, the levels of progesterone and estrogens rise significantly. In menopause, the levels of estrogen and progesterone fall drastically.
Your High Estrogen Levels Are Expanding Your Fat Cells
Although estrogen is responsible for making women uniquely women, it’s also the hormone that can be the most troublesome in the fat department. At normal levels, estrogen actually helps keep you lean by goosing the production of insulin, a hormone that manages blood sugar. When estrogen gets thrown off, though, it turns you into a weight-gain machine.
Here’s how: When you eat, your blood sugar rises. Like a bodyguard, insulin lowers it by escorting glucose into three different places in your body. When insulin is in good working formnot too high and not too lowit sends a small amount of glucose to your liver, a large amount to your muscles to use as fuel, and little to none for fat storage.
If you’re healthy and in good shape, your pancreas produces exactly the right amount of insulin to have your blood sugar softly rise and fall within a narrow range . But when your estrogen levels climb, the cells that produce insulin become strained, and you can become insulin resistant.
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That’s when insulin starts to usher less glucose to the liver and muscles, raising the levels of sugar in your bloodstream and ultimately storing the glucose as fat. Your fat tissue can expand by as much as four times to accommodate the storage of glucose.
What You Can Eat
Turner calls her food plan âGlyci-Med,” since it’s a mix of foods low on the glycemic index and a traditional Mediterranean diet.
Foods you can eat include lean protein vegetables and most fruit chia seeds, flaxseeds, and most nuts olive oil and some other unsaturated oils and fats, like canola oil and whole grains like buckwheat, brown rice, and quinoa.
On this plan, you’ll avoid or minimize caffeine, alcohol, fried foods, processed meat, peanuts, saturated fat, full-fat dairy, artificial sweeteners, and simple high-GI carbs like white bread.
You’ll eat often — every 3-4 hours — making healthy food choices at least 80% of the time. But you do get one to two âcheat mealsâ a week.
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Understand Hormonal Weight Gain And What You Can Do To Lose It
Did you know there is a direct link between your hormones and your weight? This often slips our minds when were traveling the long and difficult road of weight loss. Our bodies need a delicate balance of hormones to maintain a healthy weight for our body makeup.
Its important to have a clear understanding of how your hormones work so you can lose weight and keep it off. Once you recognize the relationship between weight gain and hormones, you can balance your hormones and lose weight healthily and efficiently.
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If You Have Gut Issues
So you already know that the health of your gut can affect bowel movements, bloating, and even mood, and it can also affect weight on its ownmultiple recent studies have proven a direct correlation between weight gain and the gut microbiome. But if you dont have a totally healthy gut, theres a good chance your hormones are out of whack, meaning the gut can affect weight in more than one way. A healthy gut is critically important for any woman who wants to balance hormones and maintain a healthy weight, Vitti explained. Thats because the gut flora help process and eliminate excess estrogen from the body. If youre not making bowel movements consistently or have other signs of poor gut health, odds are, youre not eliminating estrogen properly and therefore might be dealing with estrogen dominance.
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How To Keep Estrogen At Optimal Levels
To balance estrogen levels naturally and prevent the weight gain that happens with an estrogen imbalance, youll want to do the following:
- Commit to a regular exercise routine. Many studies, including this 2012 one, published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, explain how exercise lowers estrogen levels in obese women.
- Eat your fiber. Fibrous foods help decrease elevated estrogen levels.
- Eat veggies in the cruciferous family. These include broccoli, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, kale, and bok choy. Anything green and leafy is always a good idea, too!
- Reduce your exposure to endocrine disruptors. Endocrine disruptors are chemicals that interfere with our natural hormones. Avoid plastic containers, cans, or water bottles made with BPA. Never microwave plastic.
- Choose organic foods when possible, and choose phthalate-free cosmetics and personal care products.
- Consider bioidentical hormone replacement therapy, which uses plant-based hormones identical to those produced naturally by the human body to keep hormones balanced.
Free Phone Consultation With Our New Patient Coordinator
Our providers at Leigh Ann Scott, M.D. are devoted to understanding our patients health concerns and symptoms. We use scientific-based protocols to find the root cause of hormonal imbalances, thyroid dysfunction, nutritional deficiencies and more. We believe that spending quality, personalized time with each patient provides the necessary foundation to help you achieve optimal health and wellness. Our system incorporates provider consultation, comprehensive health assessment, and laboratory testing in a warm and caring environment.
Contact our New Patient Coordinator for a Free Phone Consultation. She can explain our protocols and fees in more detail, answer any questions or concerns you have, and explain how our approach can help with hormonal balance, anti-aging, and disease prevention, so that you can enjoy a vibrant and healthy life!
Please contact her directly or complete the form below and she will contact you. There is no obligation with this consultation. If you feel we are a good fit for you, our New Patient Coordinator can also get you booked for your first appointment.
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Adiponectin The Starvation Hormone
Adiponectin is a hormone produced by the fat cells. Its main function is to increase the rate at which the body breaks down fat, boost metabolism, enhance muscles ability to use carbohydrates for energy, and regulate glucose levels.
The more adiponectin you have, the more fat you burn. Also, the more fat you carry around, the harder it is for your body to produce adiponectin. So as you lose weight and your percentage of body fat decreases, your adiponectin levels rise, helping you to lose even more fat and maintain the loss more easily than before.
When adiponectin levels are low, the body stores excess fat in fat cells to protect against possible starvation during difficult times hence its nickname, the starvation hormone.
To positively influence adiponectin levels:
- Take fish oil daily: daily intake of fish oil or omega-3 supplementation can increase adiponectin levels by 14-60%.
- Exercise: both low and high intensity exercise have a positive impact on adiponectin levels. However, shorter duration higher intensity exercise is perhaps the most effective form of exercise as it has a more pronounced impact on metabolism and other hormones. When combined with a healthy diet, exercise can boost adiponectin levels by 18-48%.
- Increase fiber intake: fiber can increase adiponectin by up to 60-115%.
- Add monounsaturated fats into your diet: common sources include avocados, nuts, and olive oil.
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What Conditions Are Caused By Hormonal Imbalances
Dozens of medical conditions are caused by hormone issues. For most hormones, having too much or too little of them causes symptoms and issues with your health. While many of these imbalances require treatment, some can be temporary and may go away on their own. Some of the most common hormone-related conditions include:
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If You Have Excess Testosterone
On the flip side, another sex hormone can affect weight too. Testosterone is known as the male hormone , but all genders have a balance of testosterone, estrogen, and progesterone levels. If theres an excess of testosterone, it can cause weight management issues just like estrogen. In women, excess testosterone can cause insulin resistance, Ruth explained. This leads to weight gain and can slow, or even halt, weight loss efforts. Bottom line: Hormonal health and balance of the sex hormones is crucial for all functions of the body, including healthy weight.
Ghrelin: Aka The Craving Hormone
Ghrelin works in tandem with leptin. When your stomach is empty, it is ghrelin that is responsible for telling you that you are hungry and that you need to eat something. These days, something is broken in the ghrelin mechanism too, increasing your hunger with your rarely feeling satiated.
Ghrelin is secreted primarily in the lining of the stomach. Your stomach makes ghrelin when its empty. Just like leptin, ghrelin goes into the blood, crosses the blood-brain barrier and ends up at your hypothalamus where it tells you youre hungry. Basically, ghrelin is high before you eat and low after you eat.
How to tame this craving hormone?
Water is an essential part of life and well, it can help you tame down this hunger hormone. Make sure you keep yourself well hydrated and next time you feel hungry, have a glass of water first and you may be surprised to find your hunger pains abating.
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How To Balance Your Hormones And Lose Weight
Did you know that there is direct relationship between hormones and weight loss? Your hormones control every aspect of weight loss including your metabolism, where you store your fat, your appetite and even your cravings.
This means that any kind of hormonal imbalance may sabotage your weight loss efforts! Sure, skipping potato chips and hitting the treadmill is a trusted way to lose weight, but if your hormones are out of balance you may struggle to lose weight. However if you understand how they work and how to balance them you will be able to lose weight faster.
Balance Hormones To Lose Weight
The hormone that has the biggest influence upon weight gain is insulin, particularly if we have too much of it. Insulin rises when we eat, but foods like refined carbohydrates and sugar spike this hormone the most, and fats the least.
Too much insulin over a long period of time can lead to a condition called insulin resistance, which can further worsen weight gain and raise your risk for type 2 diabetes.
If you struggle with PCOS symptoms, such as irregular cycles, breakouts, joint pain, or hair loss on the crown of your head, you may also have a higher amount of insulin circulating in your system. For ways to manage blood sugar balance and PCOS naturally, check out this article.
Your bodys master hormone, your thyroid hormone, also regulates metabolism, fat-burning, and energy. If you have an autoimmune thyroid condition, gluten sensitivity, or other hormone imbalance, low thyroid hormone can also significantly contribute to weight gain and an inability to lose weight.
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The Hormone Reset Diet
The Harvard-educated physician and New York Times bestselling author of The Hormone Cure shows you how to grow new receptors for your seven metabolic hormones, making you lose weight and feel great fast!
When it comes to weight loss, most people dont think about hormones. But when you develop resistance to your seven major metabolic hormonescortisol, thyroid, testosterone, growth hormone, leptin, insulin, and estrogenyour body adjusts by increasingly raising your hormone levels and ultimately slowing down your metabolism. And a slower metabolism leads to weight gain and difficulty losing weight. The solution, Dr. Sara Gottfried contends, is to reset the efficiency of your hormones by repairing and growing new hormone receptors.
Based on leading scientific research, The Hormone Reset Diet is her proven weight loss and energy program to reverse hormone resistance in just three weeks. It will help you:
For the last twenty years, this Harvard-MIT educated physician has helped thousands of women address the root hormonal causes of what bothers them most: excess weight, lack of energy, aging, and illness. Going beyond her bestselling The Hormone Cure, this program is the next generation of her deep understanding of hormonal optimization for rapid weight loss.
Engage In Regular Exercise
Physical activity strongly influences hormonal health. Aside from improving blood flow to your muscles, exercise increases hormone receptor sensitivity, meaning that it enhances the delivery of nutrients and hormone signals (
7 ).
Insulin is a hormone that allows cells to take up sugar from your bloodstream to use for energy. However, if you have a condition called insulin resistance, your cells may not effectively react to insulin. This condition is a risk factor for diabetes, obesity, and heart disease .
However, while some researchers still debate whether the improvements come from exercise itself or from losing weight or fat, evidence shows that regular exercise may improve insulin resistance independently of body weight or fat mass reduction .
Many types of physical activity have been found to help prevent insulin resistance, including high intensity interval training, strength training, and cardio .
Being physically active may also help boost levels of muscle-maintaining hormones that decline with age, such as testosterone, IGF-1, DHEA, and human growth hormone .
For people who cannot perform vigorous exercise, even regular walking may increase these hormone levels, potentially improving strength and quality of life .
Summary
Strength training, aerobics, walking, and other forms of exercise may modify hormone levels to reduce your risk of disease and prevent muscle mass decline as you age.
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Balancing Hormones For Weight Loss: A Guide To Hormonal Health For Women
Most women struggle with weight loss because they dont understand their hormonal health. In this guide, I explain what hormones are, why they matter, and how to balance them for optimal weight loss.
When you hear the word hormone, what comes to mind? Chances are, you think of menopause, PMS, fertility, birth control, pregnancy, and other issues that affect womens bodies.
But did you know that hormone imbalance plays a role in weight gain, too?
Are you struggling with hormone imbalances? If youre experiencing irregular periods or other symptoms, you dont have to live with them anymore. Find out how hormonal health affects women and how to balance hormones naturally for optimal health.
The female body has its own unique set of hormones, called reproductive hormones, which regulate various functions, such as menstruation, pregnancy, lactation, ovulation, and menopause. These hormones also play a role in maintaining overall good health.
Hormonal imbalance refers to the disruption of these normal levels of hormones. This can cause symptoms such as irregular menstrual cycles, infertility, mood swings, acne, hair loss, bloating, and fatigue. Learn more about balancing hormones for weight loss.
Your Weight Gain Is Only In Your Abdomen
Menopause puts your body through a whole host of changes, one of them commonly being weight gain. Why? Your production of estrogen, along with other hormones, takes a dip. Outside of menopause, low estrogen levels can be due to excessive exercise, disordered eating patterns, or pituitary gland issues. Decreased estrogen levels can change the fat distribution of your body, causing you to gain more in the belly as opposed to the hips, thighs, and buttocks. Estrogen deficiency can also impair the action of insulin, making it harder to regulate blood sugar and leading to increased hormonal belly fat and abdominal weight gain.
Your gameplan:
Melt away hormonal belly fat caused by low estrogen and insulin resistance by adopting a low carbohydrate eating plan, recommends Johnston. Between protein, fat and carbohydrates, carbs have the biggest impact on raising blood sugar and insulin levels, she says. Reducing high-carbohydrate foods such as refined sugars, breads, cookies, crackers, and pasta and boosting less insulin-stimulating foods rich in fiber, protein, and healthy fat can have a significant impact on your waistline.
Keep in mind that if your carb consumption dips too low, it can suppress your leptin levels and interfere with leptins ability to regulate your reproductive hormones so its important to keep some whole-food based sources of complex carbohydrates in the diet such as fruit, starchy vegetables, and whole grains.
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