What Is Hormone Imbalance And How Do I Fix It Dr Lane Sebring Explains How To Achieve Hormone Balance For Women
If you are wondering how to achieve hormonal balance for women, youve come to the right place. In this interview with Dr. Lane Sebring we discuss all the options around healing unbalanced hormones. Hormonal balance for women is a bit complicated but it is DOABLE. I know, because Ive been on this path myself, and at age 52, Im living proof that hormonal balance for women is a goal we all should strive for.
This interview will provide information on how to know if your hormones are unbalanced and how to get started on the road to achieving hormonal balance for women. Lets get started!
Dr. Lane Sebring has been practicing medicine for over 18 years. He specializes in primary care and anti-aging medicine that is rooted in nutrition and lifestyle changes. He advocates the Paleo Diet as well as alternative ways to heal the human body without the use of strong drugs or harmful antibiotics. He believes the human body wants to heal and conventional treatments are healing it in a way the body does not recognize.
NOTE: this is part ONE of a 2-part episode. to listen to part 2.
In this episode, Dr. Lane Sebring shares his extensive knowledge and experience regarding hormonal treatments. He explains what hormones are, why he compares them to drugs, and discusses what happens when your bodys hormones are imbalanced and what you can do to treat them. He also explains bioidentical hormone therapy and why its different from steroids.
In this episode, youll learn:
Key Takeaways:
You Have Poor Digestion
We already know that digestive health affects the health of the whole body, but it can also provide clues about whats up with your hormones. If youre constipated, it might be a sign of excess estrogen levels . Many women who feel bloated or sluggish after eating meals may be experiencing reduced insulin sensitivity associated with PCOS.
No matter what, when youre experiencing any digestive symptoms, its important to find out what the trigger is before it starts a domino effect with your health.
Now that you have a better idea of how to spot a hormone imbalance, lets take a look at the quickest ways to fix a hormonal imbalance.
Supplement With Vitamin D
A Vitamin D deficiency is more common than you may think, with over a billion people worldwide suffering from either a deficient or insufficient supply of this critical vitamin. Vitamin D plays an extremely important role in a number of bodily functions, such as immune function, cell differentiation, and inflammatory response. Low levels of Vitamin D have been associated with an increased risk in colon, prostate, and breast cancer, as well as tuberculosis, influenza, and heart disease. A relationship has also been found between hypothyroidism and a vitamin D deficiency.
Ideally, we would get our daily dose of Vitamin D from 10 to 30 minutes of uninterrupted sun exposure, but this is unrealistic for most. Thats why its important to take a Vitamin D3 supplement and eat foods rich in Vitamin D, such as pastured eggs and wild salmon. Its also important to note that as we age, our production of Vitamin D decreases, so make sure youre monitoring your levels and getting them checked by your primary care provider.
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The Best Foods For Hormone Balance
Carrie Gabriel, MS, RDN, clues us in on the best foods to eat for hormone balance.
When we think about hormones, we often immediately think of reproductive health. But theyre not just heavily involved in keeping the reproductive system functioning: Hormones can affect your mood, stress levels, appetite, and overall health. If our hormones are off balance, we might feel more fatigued than usual. Even further, we might experience irregular bowel movements to irregular menstrual cycles, heightened stress, and general irritability. Yikes!
Many of us dont think about turning to food first as a remedy for hormonal issues too often, we tend to steer toward medication. And unfortunately, hormone production isnt something we can directly control.
Diet is integral to hormone health, especially by regulating your gut health . Thankfully, there are certain foods that can help you balance your hormones, so we can select the best foods that regulate hormones and fuel our bodies with those. Heres everything you need to know about treating hormonal imbalance with a hormone-balancing diet and other positive health habits.
Inside this article:
Try Stress Reduction Techniques
Stress harms your hormones in several ways.
The hormone cortisol is known as the stress hormone because it helps your body cope with long-term stress.
Your bodys response to stress activates a cascade of events that leads to cortisol production. Once the stressor has passed, the response ends. However, chronic stress impairs the feedback mechanisms that return your hormonal systems to normal .
Therefore, chronic stress causes cortisol levels to remain elevated, which stimulates appetite and increases your intake of sugary and high fat foods. In turn, this may lead to excessive calorie intake and obesity (
50 ).
In a review of 21 studies in 2,250 people, those assigned to a short sleep group showed higher ghrelin levels than those who got the recommended amount of sleep .
Plus, your brain needs uninterrupted sleep to go through all five stages of each sleep cycle. This is especially important for the release of growth hormone, which occurs mainly at night during deep sleep .
To maintain optimal hormonal balance, aim for at least 7 hours of high quality sleep per night.
Summary
Poor sleep has been shown to decrease fullness hormones, increase hunger and stress hormones, and increase insulin resistance.
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Balance Your Hormones In Seven Natural Steps
10 Sep 2022
Hormones have a huge influence on our health and wellbeing, but there are ways you can manage them, naturally.
Hormones are chemical messengers that help regulate different processes in the body. From feeling hungry to when its time to sleep, we need hormones to keep our bodies on track.
But what happens when your hormones are out of balance? Discover seven natural ways to help prevent the hormonal see-saw.
Adrenal Fatigue Syndrome And Hormone Balance
The problem occurs when your stress is chronic. Then your adrenals have to overwork to produce more and more cortisol. Eventually, when they become exhausted and the stress continues, their cortisol output drops completely. These are all phases of Adrenal Fatigue Syndrome .
Symptoms of AFS include fatigue, weight gain, sleep disturbances, brain fog, anxiety, mild depression, hair loss, dry skin, loss of libido, PMS, infertility, estrogen dominance, hypoglycemia, salt and sugar cravings, unstable blood pressure, heart palpitations, lowered immunity, food and drug sensitivities, central obesity, thyroid dysfunction, gastrointestinal issues, osteoporosis, and an inability to handle or recover from stress.
Some people also suffer from stress-related health issues more than others. Some people have a genetic predisposition to remain in the sympathetic dominant state. This is the branch of your autonomic nervous system that provides the stress response, whereas the parasympathetic branch of your ANS is the one that allows your body to calm down and digest.
How fast the shift from sympathetic to parasympathetic ANS goes is also a key difference between us and other animals.
And although we are extremely adaptable creatures, that is not the same thing as being healthy. You cannot go through life constantly adapting to chronic stress without accumulating some damage, such as AFS, insulin resistance, and thyroid dysfunction.
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What Causes Estrogen Dominance
Typically, Estrogen Dominance is due to a combination of one or more of the following:
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Chronic stress.
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Environmental toxins known as xenoestrogens.
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Lack of ovulation or low progesterone during luteal phase.
Stress and Estrogen Dominance
Our modern fast-paced society is one of the most impactful, because stress causes our Adrenal Glands to produce a lot of Cortisol to keep us going. When we are under chronic stress it can lead to what is called Adrenal Fatigue. This is when our body uses up our Cortisol and begins to steal sex hormones, especially progesterone, to produce it. This leads to an estrogen dominant state because there isn’t enough progesterone on-board. This is one reason that we see women going through menopause earlier.
How Your Gut & Liver Health Can Cause Estrogen Dominance
Your liver is responsible for metabolizing estrogen and it needs certain co-factors and enzymes to do this effectively. If you have insufficiencies in these liver supports, you may not be able to effectively metabolize Estrogen.
When there is dysbiosis or an imbalance of gut flora (too many bad ones or too few good ones, you can end up with beta-glucaronidase, an enzyme that can lead to higher levels of estrogen in the body.
Xenoestrogens Are All Around Us
Lack of Ovulation or Low Progesterone During Luteal Phase
Its A Matter Of Balance
Uncomfortable symptoms are a manifestation of a cascade of hormonal imbalances, and not just from the sex hormones. Other hormones involved include cortisol, insulin and neurotransmitters.
You can actually help re-balance these hormones yourself, often without the use pharmaceuticals!
The word hormone comes from the Greek word meaning messenger. Each hormone has a specific message to relay, and our hormones are interrelated and interdependent like a symphony. So, if one of them is not playing in the right key, it will affect the whole symphony causing symptoms. In perimenopause, symptoms often occur such as fatigue, moodiness, hot flashes, foggy thinking, loss of sensuality, anxiety, night sweats and weight gain .
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The Four Phases Of The Menstrual Cycle
What happens during each menstrual cycle? High-level, an egg develops and is released from the ovaries. If a pregnancy doesnt happen, the uterine lining sheds during a menstrual period. You bleed, and the cycle starts again. The four phases of the menstrual cycle are the menstrual phase, follicular phase, ovulation phase, and luteal phase. The length of each phase can differ from woman to woman, and it can change over time.
Swap Carbs For Healthy Fats
Foods that balance hormones include a variety of fat-containing foods that provide short-, medium- and long-chain fatty acids. Your body needs various types of fats to create hormones, including saturated fat and cholesterol.
Not only are these essential fats fundamental building blocks for hormone production, but they keep inflammation levels low, boost your metabolism and promote weight loss.
Healthy fats have the opposite effect of refined carbohydrates, which lead to inflammation and can mess with the balance of your hormones.
My four favorite sources of anti-inflammatory, healthy fats include coconut oil, avocados, grass-fed butter and wild-caught salmon.
- Coconut oil uses are plentiful. For example, coconut oil has natural antibacterial and fat-burning effects.
- Avocado benefits include improving heart health, lowering inflammation, controlling your appetite, and contributing to your daily intake of fiber and nutrients, such as potassium.
- Salmon nutrition is also impressive. Its one of the best sources of omega-3 fatty acids, which are known to lower inflammation and help with cognitive functions. Omega-3 fatty acids are a large component of brain-cell membranes and are important for cell-to-cell communication in the brain. Research shows that omega-3 fatty acids help protect against hippocampal neuronal loss and reduce pro-inflammatory responses.
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Incorporate Healthy Fats Into Your Diet
The kind of food you eat matters! And the right kinds of fats make a big difference in hormone health and help you regulate your menstrual cycle. You can add more hormone-friendly fats to your diet like:
These all support healthy adrenal glands and provide the raw ingredients necessary to bolster hormone production in the adrenals. Fats are also great to balance blood sugar and promote insulin sensitivity, especially important for women with PCOS, or if youre trying to lose weight.
Learn more about the holistic way to lose weight > >
Hormone Balancing Tip #: Balance Blood Sugar
Having balanced blood sugar means that your body produces a normal insulin response when you consume food. A balanced meal includes good quality fat, protein, and fibre. A balanced plate might look something like this:
12 of your plate greens and vegetables 14 of your plate good quality protein 14 of your plate complex carbs 1-2 tablespoons of healthy fats
Here at Nourished, we wanted women to have an easy way to get started on their blood sugar balancing journey. We created a 100% natural vitamin for you to get started on your journey. Click the button below to see more info and add our Blood Sugar Balance vitamin to your cart.
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Beware Of Medications And Birth Control
Are you aware of your medications side effects? Some can disrupt your hormone balance, leading to side effects like fatigue, appetite changes, altered sleeping patterns, low libido, sadness and even depression.
Some medications that can mess with your hormone balance include corticosteroids, stimulants, statins, dopamine agonists, rexinoids and glucocorticoids. Beware of your medications, talk to your doctor about the side effects and research natural alternatives whenever possible.
Birth control is another medication that alters hormone levels. The pill is a type of hormone therapy that raises estrogen levels to levels that can cause many complications.
Studies show that the health risks of taking them, especially long term, may include issues like:
- Breakthrough bleeding between cycles
- Increased risk of uterine bleeding, blood clotting, heart attack and stroke
- Breast tenderness
Your Period Is Irregular
This one may seem obvious, but Ive spoken to women who were told it was normal to go months without having a period, despite not being on any kind of birth control.
The fact is, a healthy menstrual cycle is a product of a symphony or hormones, including estrogen and progesterone, that are also the same hormones involved in regulating your mood, metabolism, mental health, libido, digestion, and so much more! If youre not cycling, we need to find out why!
Is PCOS to blame for your missing period? Read 9 Unexpected Signs of PCOS
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How Does Hormone Pellet Therapy Work
The procedure is relatively simple. Pellets smaller than a grain of rice, made entirely of natural sources of hormones are implanted beneath the fatty tissue under the skin. These implants closely mimic the function of hormonal release, meaning hormones are slowly released by the pellets into the blood stream to make up for the hormones that your body isnt producing. For example, if your body is experiencing a lack of testosterone production , hormone pellets may be implanted underneath the skin to supplement testosterone in your body.
Herbs Nutrients And Nutrition Options For Hormone Balance
As a Naturopathic Physician, I am lucky to have so many tools in my toolbox to provide treatment options to my patients having hormonal balance issues! Depending on symptom severity and patient preference, I can choose between a variety of options that will work best for them. This is one of the many reasons that I love Naturopathic Medicine and one of the reasons I often use supplements to balance hormones.
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Correct Ways To Balance Your Hormones Naturally
Having a hormonal imbalance can impact your overall health significantly. Some characteristics extend beyond an individuals control. But there exist manageable properties that can influence hormone levels.
The endocrine system spreads hormones around, and various other functions throughout the day. Even tiny changes in hormonal levels can cause adverse effects to occur. Stress in the body can also happen. Over time the symptoms can become worse which could also lead to chronic issues.
Strategies that follow may assist:
Get sufficient sleep
Getting enough sleep is one of the key factors to maintaining a good hormone balance. Hormone levels may fall and rise throughout the day. Due to poor sleep quality. Some studies reveal that the adverse impact of sleep disturbance can affect hormones which could lead to:
- Issues with appetite
Getting a complete unhindered nights rest can help the situation and regulate hormone levels. Alternatively, you can get a bottle of semenax to help with this.
Dont expose yourself to a lot of light during the night
Being exposed to blue light, such as light from a computer screen or cell phone can disturb your sleep cycle. The body reacts to this as though it were daylight and changes its hormones in response.
Being exposed to striking artificial light during the night can confuse your body. Making it suppress the hormone melatonin. Which can affect many functions negatively.
Manage your stress levels
Incorporate exercise
Appetite And Weight Gain
You may gain weight during hormonal shifts, such as menopause. But hormone changes donât directly affect your weight. Instead, it likely happens because of other factors, like aging or lifestyle. For example, when youâre feeling blue or irritated, as you can be when your estrogen levels drop, you may want to eat more. It can also impact your bodyâs levels of leptin, a hunger-revving hormone.
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Hormone Balancing Tip #: Support Hormone Detoxification
Our liver and gut are the two major organs responsible for breaking down and clearing hormones once they have been used in the body. It’s so important that these systems are working properly to prevent build-up of hormones which contributes to hormonal imbalances. Heres a brief overview of how to support these two systems of detoxification.
What Causes Hormonal Imbalances
Throughout your life and even throughout the day your hormone levels naturally rise and fall.
Certain periods of life cause more dramatic changes and fluctuations in hormones, including:
However, there are several other reasons why your hormone levels may be irregular at unexpected times. Some of the most common causes of fluctuating or imbalanced hormone levels include:
- Certain medications.
These hormonal imbalances are more likely to be temporary or fixable with a change in medication or properly managing stress.
Chronic hormone-related conditions can have several different possible causes. In general, the main conditions or situations that cause medically significant hormone imbalances include:
Tumors, adenomas and growths
Any kind of growth on a gland or organ that produces hormones, such as a tumor, adenoma or nodule, could affect its ability to do so.
Tumors
Rare endocrine tumors form in glands or in cells that produce hormones and can cause hormone imbalances. Some of the rare endocrine tumors include:
Adenomas
An adenoma is a benign tumor. Many adenomas are nonfunctioning, meaning they dont produce hormones. But some can produce excess hormones. These are called functioning adenomas. Adenomas that affect your endocrine system and cause hormone imbalances include:
Other growths
Damage or injury to an endocrine gland
Autoimmune conditions
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