Our hormones drive our bodies with a number of functions beyond our measure. These are the chemical messengers which carry a number of responsibilities, some of which scientists haven’t discovered yet. For example, without melatonin getting released when the day settles, we wouldn’t be able to sleep. Without ghrelin hormone, we won’t know we need to eat something. All these hormones carry tons of signals, driving different organs and impacting the functions of the brain. Now imagine if these don’t work anymore or go out of balance.
What is Hormonal Imbalance?
Hormones have a cross-talk as well, and each hormone syncs with another. Most of the time, a number of hormones need to work together and do an intricate dance to perform a certain responsibility; for example, pregnancy requires a sensitive interplay of estrogens, lutein hormones, progesterone, testosterone, oxytocin, and many others to take place. If any of these undergo dysfunction, either in overproduction or underproduction, the system falls, and this imbalance results in dire results, such as miscarriage, or even infertility, in this example.
How to Balance Your Hormones?
There are many ways to balance the hormones in your body. The best is to follow a healthy diet, take less stress, save yourself from avoidable chemicals and radiation, and do meditation. All of these factors come into play in balancing our hormones. Now, let’s see the different ways we can balance our hormones.
1) Eat a Balanced Diet
There are many healthy foods you can consume in order to balance the hormones in your body. Fruits, vegetables, and whole grains are ideal foods as they contain many phytochemicals, fiber, vitamins, and minerals. You can cherish your meals by making vegan recipes, especially for snacks and breakfast. Add some lean protein, too, such as poultry, game, and fish.
Farm-fed eggs and commercial dairy products can be unsuitable for many people, so it is recommended you stick to organic produce. It is also recommended you take 4 to 5 servings of colorful plant-based foods such as fruits and vegetables. Also, lentils and beans are wholesome sources of proteins that contain a number of minerals and amino acids. Amino acids are the building blocks of your hormones, and minerals act as essential coenzymes to make your hormones workable.
2) Manage Your Stress
Stress is one of the most common causes of hormonal imbalance in your body. When you are stressed, some hormones produce a high amount, decreasing the number of other hormones relative to them. So, it can disturb the homeostasis of hormones in your body. For example, when you are under too much stress, your body enters into a state of sympathetic nervous system activated state. In this state, too much epinephrine, also called adrenaline, gets produced in a high quantity, shifting your response to a Fight or Flight mode. Your body functions are heavily disturbed in this state; for example, your digestive system slows down significantly, decreasing nutrient absorption.
Therefore, it is important to lower the stress levels in your body, so you don’t always remain fixated in a sympathetic state. Manage your stress levels by taking emotional support and identifying what tasks or problems are important enough to face. You might be taking unnecessary baggage on your shoulders and dragging your health down in the process. If you need a direction to manage stress more effectively, there is no harm in consulting a professional mental health therapist in that order.
3) Do Meditation
It is now suggested that synchronized breathing or rhythmic breathing does wonders to your health. People believing in ancient art live by the therapies that connect the mind, body, and soul. It is now explained how it helps our body and mind connect with each other and help us to attain a state of wholesomeness. Your hormones will automatically start working in a more balanced state if you program your body towards this achievable state of harmony.
What’s more, meditation techniques help you shift your focus to your body and improve your condition of hormones. When your body is receiving enough oxygen and nutrients in your blood. When you do meditation, you have a good supply of oxygen and nutrients in your body through rhythmic breathing, making your hormones more balanced in the process.
4) Avoid Chemicals As Much As You Can
It is one of the most damaging factors among many when it comes to hormones. Most of us are not even aware of how different chemicals get absorbed in the body through our noses, skin, openings, and whatnot. There are different chemicals in synthetic products, for example, PVC and sulfates, that tend to disturb the mechanistic work of hormones in our bodies. Whenever we come in contact with a chemical that is not good for the hormones, it influences our body in a number of ways.
Good advice is to stay away from chemicals as much as you can that you can avoid. Frequent exposures to such agents can lead to cancer formation, which is, obviously, a horrible effect of hormone imbalance gone beyond control. EDTA, sulfates, plastics, preservatives, parabens, and other such ingredients in your bathroom products, and fructose corn syrups in your processed foods must be avoided as much as possible.
Stick to organic things and minimize your consumption of unnecessary items, say luxury items, which only increase the chemical load in your body. What’s more, a little aspect that needs to be shared here is the increased quantity of waste and pollution which is affecting our climate in a disastrous state. Seeing such conditions, we can acknowledge how the use of these chemicals and products is harming not only the health of our bodies but of our earth as well.
5) Check Your Routine
We are a direct product of the habits and routines we follow. Are we living a sedentary lifestyle most of the day? Are we relying on binge-eating and heavily sweetened foods to feel good about ourselves? Are we doing more work than we can actually bear? Sometimes, there are small details of the day that we are ignoring that may be responsible for the hormone imbalance in our body. The best way is to write about your day in a journal and be mindful of how you spend your routine.
Though hormone imbalance is generally triggered by different points, as mentioned above, there are certain triggers that might be specific to a person. For example, you might be overworking yourself and unintentionally bringing your body into a state of hyperactivity most of the day. Such things can disturb the balance of your hormones.
Another big example is the use of devices such as laptops and mobile phones around sleeping time. Blue light seriously damages our natural circadian rhythm or the biological clock in our body that controls our sleep patterns. The result is an imbalance of the sleeping hormones and elevated levels of stress hormones, making it really tough for us to sleep at night. For this, you need to make sure to avoid the use of screens for at least two hours before going to bed.
Some Other Tips to Follow
There are some other tips to follow for balancing your hormones too.
For example, if you have Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome, you might want to talk about seed cycling with your dietitian. It is a holistic way of balancing your sex hormones which may help you with the symptoms of PCOS and in managing your menstrual cycle. The seeds contained in the therapeutic intervention contain a good amount of nutrients, such as omega-three, which directly help in improving your menstrual cycle health.
Another example of balancing your hormones is by taking more vitamin D with the recommendation of your healthcare provider. You will eventually see improvements in your overall health. It is because apart from calcium absorption, vitamin D plays a huge role in maintaining a balance of hormones in the body by its antioxidant and anti-inflammatory nature. What’s more, it helps in the smooth production of hormones by the glands, which helps in good overall health.
Final Words
These are some of the ways through which hormones can be balanced for a healthier lifestyle. One cannot ignore the importance of balanced hormones if one wants to have a beautiful, happy and healthy life. Without the right education and mindfulness of how you are spending your routine and how you are interacting with the environment, you cannot make your body go into a balanced state where it is producing hormones in a smooth manner.
For this, it is highly important to take care of your hormones by taking a healthy and organic diet. Also, exercising, meditation, stress management, and seeking emotional support are some healthy ways to bring balance to your body’s hormone production and stability. Be aware of how your body gets exposed to different chemicals in different ways and limit your exposure to harmful ones. With these simple ways, you are much able to improve your overall hormonal health.
References:
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