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The Health of Your Hormones

Common hormonal issues that are affecting women's health - 6 easy tips to reduce inflammation and balance your hormones

When it comes to hormones women really need to understand how important they are to positive health and well being. Anyone who has experienced hormonal imbalances will understand how life can be unbearable. Hormone imbalance can be the underlying cause of depression, infertility, hot flushes, vaginal dryness, exhaustion, weight gain, belly fat, sleeplessness and so much more! Currently 1 in 4 couples are experiencing fertility issues and the diagnosis of endometriosis and PCOS continues to increase.

For a healthy woman your hormones should cycle every 28 days, this image is a simple visual on the roles of LH, FSH, Progesterone and Estrogen.

Womens Cycle

Image - A ‘classic’ 28 day cycle – though many women have shorter or longer cycles. Tefi/Shutterstock

If you are experiencing hormonal imbalances there are some simple steps you can take that will support you

  1. Reduce Stress

Explore the balance in your life between self, family and work. Are you overcommitting yourself and creating a stressful environment for your body? Every woman’s body will express itself, symptoms such as illness, emotional pain, unhappiness and disharmony are indicators we need to reduce stress and rebalance our lives.

  1. Environmental toxins

Many chemicals such as BPA, Phthalates, Parabens, and Triclosan are just a few endocrine disrupting chemicals we see in household products. They interfere with the synthesis, secretion, transport, binding, action or elimination of natural hormones in the body. Hormones are the messengers that control most of our body’s major systems from regulating our heart rate to the efficiency of our metabolism. Continual exposure to chemicals can damage and disrupt the important functions of our hormones having a detrimental and long-lasting impact on our health. Want more information head over to our low tox living blog

  1. Essential Fatty Acids

Consuming foods in Omega 3 and 6’s is an important part of a daily diet. Most of us consume enough Omega 6’s however lack omega 3’s. Consuming foods such as walnuts, flax seed oil, fish, chia and inca inchi oil will boost our Omega 3’s. The average health woman requires 4 tsps of healthy oils a day. However, women who are experiencing hormonal issues will need to increase her oils until symptoms disappear.

  1. Cut out the inflammatory foods

The worst perpetrators of inflammation are refined sugar, refined flours and grains, processed oils and poor quality dairy.

  1. Increase the anti-inflammatory foods

Focus on consuming whole foods that are unprocessed; fresh fruit and vegetables, good quality meat, wholegrains, nuts, seeds, cold pressed oils, ghee, fresh herbs and spices, water. 

  1. Reduce alcohol, smoking or other addictions

Some common plants to support hormone balance

Chaste Tree is a shrub that bears violet flowers and berries. The medicinal parts are the dried fruit and leaves. It has been used to treat menstrual cycle problems and pain in women. It may help stimulate progesterone and normalise estrogen.

https://www.uofmhealth.org/health-library/hn-2181002
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8369008?dopt=Abstract

Ashwaganda is an adaptogenic herb commonly used in Ayurvedic medicine. There have been many studies done on the benefits of ashwagandha reporting improvement in thyroid function, adrenal fatigue, reduction of anxiety and depression symptoms, reduction of stress symptoms, boost immunity, increase stamina and endurance, helps support hormonal health and sexual function.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11194174
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3506936/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28829155
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4296437/

Paeonia is a plant and the root is the most commonly used medicinal part of the plant. Peony is said to act as an antioxidant thus reducing oxidative stress and found to help reduce menstrual cramps, PCOS, PMS. Here are some research papers discussing the use of Paeonia.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/B9780443072772000076
https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/pharmacology-toxicology-and-pharmaceutical-science/paeoniflorin

Shatavari is a common herb used in Ayurvedic medicine for women with reproductive concerns. It is also used for antioxidant effects and to reduce anxiety. Shatavari has been explored on the efficacy to help PCOS and hormonal balances in women.

 PMID:29635127 DOI: 10.1016/j.biopha.2018.04.0

Finding the right balance

As you can see from the article above, your hormone health is one of the foundations to your overall health and well being. Finding the right balance can be difficult even with specialist training so going it alone can be distressing! It is important to get professional support when trying to balance your hormones as there are many factors at play that need to be considered. Book in now to have an initial health consult and discuss how we can help you get the balance back into your cycle!

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