Get The Sleep You Need
While you sleep, growth hormones are released that boost your immune system and aid in tissue repair.8 A good nights sleep also helps control your levels of the stress hormone, cortisol, so you are better equipped to deal with stress during the day ahead. If you find you have trouble falling and staying asleep, you can make simple lifestyle changes to reach optimal sleep, such as supplementing with my Rest and Restore sleep formula.
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.
/8manage Stress In A Better Way
Erratic schedules, busy lifestyle or underlying problems are all contributors to stress and if not treated in time, the issues can become chronic. When the body is under stress, hormone production goes for a toss too. Cortisol and adrenaline, the body’s two fighters in an emergency get disturbed too and when they are not controlled in time, they can wreak havoc.
Hence, proper stress management is crucial. Meditation, yoga, aromatherapy or simply just working out need to be brought into use to promote hormonal balance.
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How To Treat Hormonal Acne Naturally
In some cases, plant-based treatment options may be used to clear up mild hormonal acne.
Natural treatments are usually free of the side effects sometimes caused by prescription options. But they may not be as effective. Research on natural options is lacking, and at this time nothing has been proven to produce results. Talk with your doctor about potential risks and to ensure the treatment wont interact with any medications youre taking.
What Causes A Hormone Imbalance
There are many things that can disrupt the body and lead to a hormone imbalance. The longer your hormone levels are out of balance, the more difficult it is to rebalance your hormones. Finding the root cause of your hormone imbalance is key. Some of the common causes of a hormone imbalance include chronic stress, a poor diet, exposure to endocrine disruptors, diabetes, and thyroid disease.
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To Decoding Your Hormones: How Long Should Your Period Be
Since we only have our own period to compare to, it can be hard to know whether what we experience is normal. Lets run through some normal cycle parameters so that you can determine where you fall:
The length of your periodrefers to the number of days from the first day of your bleed to the last day before your next bleed. A healthy range for your cycle length is anywhere between 21 and 35 days, with the average being around 29 days.
Many of my clients tell me their period is always late because it comes on day 30 . This is a huge misconception: that if your period isnt 28 days, you arent normal. If your period consistently arrives around the same day of your cycle, and it falls within the healthy range of 21 to 35 days, this is your normal, healthy cycle length.
Whether or not you fit this textbook 28 day cycle , the most important factor to consider is whether your normal has changed or not.
Our menstrual cycles are very responsive to stress in our lives and demonstrate this most clearly in the length of our cycles. Stress is not always psychological , but may be physical .
When we are more stressed, our body does not deem our environment to be a safe place to bring a baby in to the world, and can shut down ovulation all together, or delay it until it deems we are safe. The end result of this change in ovulation is a missing period altogether, or longer cycles than your normal. Think this might explain your menstrual cycle problems?
Stop Using Electronics Close To Bedtime
Were all used to having screens in our faces much of the time, whether its for work or scrolling social media. But research shows that screens, and especially the blue light they emit, can disrupt your endocrine function, keep your brain awake when its time for bed, and even change your sleep patterns. Try turning off your screens at least two hours before bedtime, or use blue-light blocking glasses.
Researchers think blue light at bedtime is a problem because that light can fool your body into thinking its in a different time zone its like you have a constant bad case of jet lag. Scientists studying yeast cells and mice have found their systems operate based on multiple circadian clocks, and surmise that humans also run on particular cycles. For example, the liver is active at night, while the salivary glands in our mouths turn in when the daylight fades.
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How To Balance Hormones
Hormones are the chemical messengers that affect your mental, physical, and emotional health. They are your bodys chemical messengers, traveling to tissues or organs in your bloodstream. Hormones work overtime and affect several different processes throughout the body, including growth and development, metabolism, sexual function, mood, and more. Typically, the body produces a precise amount of each hormone needed for various processes to stay healthy. Contact our obgyn in Lake Success for help with hormone balancing.
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Follow A Healthy Diet Including Herbs And Dietary Supplements
You can include the following foods, herbs, and supplements in your daily diet to combat hormonal imbalance.
a. Coconut Oil
Coconut oil contains medium-chain fatty acids that are extremely beneficial for your health and provide building blocks for hormones. These fatty acids help reduce the inflammation within your body that might have occurred due to hormonal imbalance . Coconut oil is also great for your overall health as it helps you lose weight by boosting your metabolism and reduces stress and anxiety .
You Will Need
1-2 tablespoons of 100% virgin coconut oil
What You Have To Do
How Often You Should Do This
You can do this 2 to 3 times daily.
b. Avocados
Avocado is a rich source of monounsaturated, polyunsaturated, and saturated fatty acids. These fatty acids have anti-inflammatory properties that can help treat hormonal imbalance . Regular intake of avocados promotes heart health and also ensures an adequate supply of fiber and nutrients required for good health. It may also help reduce the weight gain due to hormonal imbalance.
You Will Need
What You Have To Do
How Often You Should Do This
You can consume this daily.
c. Ashwagandha
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A Healthy Diet Is Key
When it comes to getting all the essential macronutrients and micronutrients necessary to balance hormones, we should always turn to food first. Supplements are great, but theres no substitute for good, whole foods the ones that come directly from the Earth, just as nature intended. Your endocrine system needs certain foods, which contain specific nutrients, to do its job. Lets see which ones those are!
Key Hormone #: Estrogen
The first hormone is estradiol this is the form of estrogen produced in the greatest amounts by women of childbearing age. Estrogen is considered the happy hormone, because it boosts neurotransmitters like serotonin and dopamine, which gives us a sense of pleasure and motivation. It is also great for:
-
Irregular cycles
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Skin And Hair Changes
Acne. A sudden increase in acne is one easy way to identify a possible hormonal imbalance. One of the few hormones involved is androgens. Androgens, typically referred to as male hormones, but found in both males and females, regulate your skins sebum production. If your body produces androgens in excess, sebum can build up in your pores and cause a pimple to surface.
Hair loss. The quality and vitality of your hair is also directly related to your hormones. Thyroid abnormalities, for example, may cause dry hair or skin, thinning hair, or brittle nails. Hypothyroidism, hyperthyroidism, and parathyroid disorder can also cause hair loss.
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
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Scary Side Effects Of Hormonal Birth Control
Did you know one of the side effects of hormonal birth control actually is hormone imbalance?
There are a lot of women all over the world who use hormonal birth control, and a lot of women also have a hormone imbalance and have no idea.
Today, I want to go over a few things you might not know about birth control, and hormone balance.
First off, I want to clarify that this is not a post bashing birth control or anyone who uses it.
This is not a medical opinion.
This is information from a woman who is passionate about womens health and an advocate for women being informed about what they are putting in their bodies.
This information is for your benefit, and to make you more aware of what birth control is and what it does.
Using contraceptives to prevent pregnancy when you are not ready for kids yet is not wrong in my opinion.
But you may want to consider the side effects of hormonal birth control before you start using it.
I am against uninformed women taking something that could harm them.
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How To Treat Female Hormonal Imbalances Naturally
Hormones are chemical messengers that travel through the bloodstream. They make their way to different tissues and organs in the body where they control how they work. They each play important roles, some in fertility while others affect our appetite, mood, sleep, and growth.
As humans, we naturally produce these hormones in the right amounts. This can decrease with age and be more drastic for some than it is for others. A sedentary lifestyle and poor diet can also affect hormonal health and result in imbalance.
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Food Items That You Should Avoid
Its very important to know which estrogen dominance foods to avoid. You should steer clear of red meats, processed food, refined carbs, and foods rich in saturated fats. These categories of foods have a negative impact on the body in general. They produce harmful metabolites and can increase the risk of diseases like diabetes, and cardiovascular afflictions.
Estrogen levels tend to be higher in individuals who eat a Western type of diet. High-fat, high-carb diets can have harmful effects on the body and cause hormonal imbalances which may lead to estrogen dominance.
Maintain A Healthy Weight
Part of following a healthy, calorie-appropriate diet is that it will allow you to maintain a healthy body weight. Extremes of BMI, either significantly underweight or overweight, are associated with amenorrhea and menstrual dysfunction.
BMI is a poor measurement of health, as athletic women with high muscle mass will generally have a higher BMI, but generally, a good BMI target for fertility is between 18.5 and 30. Lower than 18.5 is considered underweight, and higher than 30 is considered obese.
If you are overweight, eating a calorically appropriate, nutrient-dense diet and exercising regularly will help you to shed the excess unhealthy body weight that might be negatively impacting your hormones. Studies consistently show a higher prevalence of PCOS in women who are overweight and obese, which is likely related to the insulin resistance seen in many women who are significantly overweight.
Eating a whole foods diet with limited refined carbohydrates and exercising regularly can help improve insulin sensitivity and shed excess body weight, reducing symptoms of PCOS.
If youre underweight, you need to work on gaining weight, primarily by eating more food in general. If your BMI is below 18.5 and you are struggling with dysfunctional menstruation or amenorrhea, your goal should be to gain enough weight to get back into the 19 to 25 range of BMI.
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Puberty Can Trigger Hormonal Acne
Puberty was probably the first time you noticed how fluctuating hormones affect your skin. During puberty when a womans ovaries turn on theres a rise in estrogen as well as testosterone . Receptors in the skin are sensitive to testosterone, pumping out sebum as a result, which can lead to acne, says , clinical professor of obstetrics, gynecology, and reproductive sciences at the Yale School of Medicine in New Haven, Connecticut. For women, hormonal birth control pills are an option, as they put the ovaries asleep and as a result, shut down testosterone production, says Dr. Minkin.
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Different Hormones Different Symptoms
The human body produces many kinds of hormones from different organs, such as the pituitary gland, testicles, ovaries, heart, pancreas, kidneys, thalamus, and hypothalamus. Some hormones are considered proteins, others are called steroids, and yet others are called polypeptides.
But no matter their name or the gland that secretes them, theyre essential for the healthy functioning of your body throughout your lifespan. Heres what happens to a womans body when there is an imbalance:
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Do You Have A Hormonal Imbalance Signs To Know And Natural Remedies For Relief
- If you are suffering from mood swings, noticing changes in sleeping pattern, and have other symptoms like memory fog, constant fatigue, headaches or digestive troubles, it may indicate trouble with hormones.
Many of us may not realise that there is a hormonal imbalance in our body. If you are suffering from mood swings, noticing changes in sleeping pattern, and have other symptoms like memory fog, constant fatigue, headaches or digestive troubles, it may indicate trouble with hormones.
Hormones are chemical messengers that are secreted directly into the blood, which carries them to organs and tissues of the body for various functions. Hormones perform several important functions like regulating sleep, metabolism, mood and reproductive cycle.
The level of hormones may fluctuate at different stages and phases of life from pregnancy, before and during periods, to menopause. Some medications or certain health issues can also cause your hormones to behave unpredictably.
Here are 8 common signs of hormonal imbalance:
- Digestive problems
âWhilst its important that we observe our bodies, its often hard to understand whats causing what. A key issue for hormone imbalance is that the more inflammation you have, the more hormonal issues you need to overcome,â says Tim Gray, health optimising biohacker, psychology specialist, entrepreneur and global speaker in a post on his Instagram handle.
Gray also suggests way to break the cycle:
Include Healthy Fats In Your Diet
Fat plays an essential role in balancing those hormones associated with metabolism, appetite, and satiety.
For instance, studies show that consuming monounsaturated fats in olive oil can increase insulin sensitivity in both healthy individuals and those with conditions such as high triglycerides, fatty liver, prediabetes, and diabetes.
Medium-chain triglycerides such as coconut oil and pure MCT oil may also help increase insulin sensitivity in diabetes, overweight and obese individuals.
Further research shows that consuming healthy fats with food will stimulate the release of satiety hormones, which helps you feel full and satisfied, thus preventing overeating.
Other healthy sources of fat include avocado, nuts, and seeds.
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