As far as a lot of us are concerned, hormones are not only associated with women. It is important we realize that our hormones play a significant role just as our body system does. It is because of its contribution to our overall health and well-being.
What are hormones and why are they important?
Our hormones include estrogen in women, testosterone in men, insulin as well as adrenaline. They are important components of our body because they are responsible for sending out chemical messages throughout our system. Our hormones are molecules emitted by the different organs and glands in our body. These organs include the adrenals, pituitary, thyroid, pancreas, testicles and our ovaries which is known as our endocrine system.
The endocrine in our body would join forces and regulate the amount of hormones that are being distributed to the rest of our body to make it function normally. If one of these becomes slightly out of balance, it will cause an extensive, if not significant health complications.
Imagine our hormones to be like a recipe for a cake. If you put too little or too much of its ingredients, it can drastically affect the final output. It is said that our hormone levels would start to waver due to age factors. However, hormone imbalances can also occur when our endocrine system is not being taken care of.
How do you know if you’re hormonally imbalanced?
The way we take care of our health would dictate normal functions in our endocrine system. Once our endocrine system gets affected negatively, it would result in a hormone imbalance. When this occurs, there’s a wide range of symptoms that indicate the problem. The kind of symptoms we would experience would also depend greatly on which gland is not functioning properly.
However, certain conditions that commonly affect our hormones would trigger symptoms including:
– Extreme fatigue
– Dry and dull skin
– Puffed up or acne-filled face
– Unexplained weight gain or weight loss
– Decreased libido
– Hair thinning, or balding
– Non-stop sweating
– Infertility or irregular menstruation (in women)
– Aches or stiffness in the muscles
– Blurred vision
– Difficulty sleeping
How are hormonal imbalances caused?
There are a lot of likely causes our hormones become imbalanced. It would usually depend on which gland or hormones are affected. Some of these causes include:
– Hyperthyroidism
– PCOS (in women)
– Pregnancy (in women)
– Stress
– Certain medications
– Cancerous or benign tumors
– Eating problems
– Diabetes
– Menopause (in women)
How is hormone imbalance treated?
Conventional treatments are available for hormonal imbalances including hormone replacement therapies, insulin shots, oral contraceptives and more. While they can effectively reduce symptoms, they can also have a negative impact on the health. First, taking prescriptions drugs can make us become more dependent on them for the rest of our lives. Also, conventional treatment can only lessen the symptoms but not solve the problem. In the long run, our organs take in the most toll and eventually develop abnormalities. Then, there is also a likely chance that severe side effects can also take place.
Fortunately, there are natural ways to treat your hormonal imbalances that are also effective. It is important to recognize first the root cause of the problem by pinpointing your symptoms. Below are seven ways to treat and restore the balance of our body’s hormones:
- Making essential oils a part of our health routine
When our hormones are imbalanced, it means that there toxins in our body. For women, eliminating the toxins is important to prevent problems like PCOS or menopause. Relying on body care products that contain harsh chemically-processed formula is not a good idea. Fortunately, better options are to use products that contain organic ingredients like essential oils, castor oil, and coconut oil are now available.
Essential oils that are ideal for managing hormonal imbalances include:
o Fennel
o Thyme
- Eating a proper and nutritious diet
More often than not, the food we eat can also affect our hormones negatively. A large portion of food we eat does not contain all the essential nutrients needed for our endocrine to function normally. Therefore, we should fill in more foods that contain omega-3 fatty acids like fish. It is also important to load up on sufficient protein consumption. Then, instead of saturated fats, we should switch to healthy fats.
- Turning to meditation to address emotional imbalance
Stress is also another top factor causing our hormones to become erratic. The hormones that get usually affected by stress are cortisol and adrenaline. When we are highly stressed or anxious, these two hormones will react negatively consequently wreaking havoc on our body. To address this, you can turn to meditation and breathing exercises including yoga or massage therapy. You can also try music therapy or other stress-reducing techniques like lighting scented candles or allowing some day off for yourself.
- Engaging in exercise and physical activity regularly
While meditation is good, getting yourself physically active in moderate exercises or sports is also a good way to manage hormones. Exercise is reported to effectively reduce insulin levels, therefore, lowering potential health problems like diabetes. Exercising regularly can also help men with increasing the hormones that maintain muscle and growth which is the testosterone.
- Limiting sugar and refined carbs intake
Consuming lots of sugar and refined carbs have known to be linked to several health issues like obesity, diabetes, and others. When we consume foods that have a lot of sugar, we are likely to develop insulin resistance which then results in prediabetes and weight gain. To regulate our insulin, it is important to lessen our sugar and carb consumption.
- Drinking tea, especially green tea
Green tea is known to contain plenty of properties that are beneficial to our health. It is because it has a lot of antioxidants that do a lot of good to our body especially in lowering our insulin levels. You can purchase some green tea bags here: https://amzn.to/2RLjurl
Good sleep is just as vital as eating healthy foods and exercising regularly. Studies show that lack of sleep can negatively affect our hormones including cortisol, insulin, leptin as well as our growth hormones. To help you maintain hormonal balance, make sure to sleep at least 7 hours daily.
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