9 Ways to Balance Your Hormones Naturally
Hormones are the body’s chemical messengers and their balance is important to a range of biological activities. These activities include metabolism, sexual functions, mood determination, and reproduction amongst many others. Too much stress and unhealthy eating habits can cause an imbalance of body hormones. Osteoporosis, PMS, altered sex drive, UTI, anxiety and fatigue are just some symptoms of hormone imbalance. To maintain optimal health, both men and women need hormones at the appropriate level. Here we’ll be discussing 9 ways to balance your hormones naturally.
1. Cut down your stress level
Rest and relaxation can help the body maintain a proper balance of the body’s hormones. Hectic lifestyles with little to no time for rest, tasks the body excessively. It will likely cause an imbalance in hormonal levels. Women who participate in daily yoga, as well as meditation, are less likely to experience hormonal swings than their restless counterparts.
2. Eat Healthily
Processed foods may cause an alteration of the hormone balance. Fresh, organic fruits and veggies, as well as raw nuts and seeds, should be incorporated into your diet to help maintain balanced hormone levels. Women especially should try as much to avoid non-organic dairy products that may contain steroids, antibiotics and harmful bovine growth hormones. These can easily throw your body out of sync, causing all manner of problems.
3. You may swap carbs for those healthy fats
Foods containing short, medium and long chain fatty acids are essential to naturally balanced hormone levels. Avocados, coconut oil, wild salmon and grass-fed butter are great sources of healthy fats. They are anti-inflammatory, so help to balance your hormones. Omega-3-fatty acids can be found in salmon and this helps to improve healthy cell-to-cell communication. Hempseed, flaxseed or olive oil are also great sources of high-quality oils that can help restore and maintain hormonal balance.
4. Herbal supplements can also help
Herbal supplements such as dandelion, licorice, wild yam, palmetto, blessed thistle, black cohosh, and motherwort are hugely beneficial. Herbs such as ashwagandha and Rhodiola are also very useful. Many of these have several functions on hormonal balance that ranges from the regulation of progesterone levels, thyroid functions, pituitary glands and many more.
5. Exercise regularly
Thirty minutes of exercise at least three times a week will also help your hormone levels. If done consistently, this can greatly help the body.
6. Take care of emotional imbalance
Internal emotions can be instrumental in one’s hormonal balance. The feelings of worry and stress have been shown in Traditional Chinese Medicine to cause certain diseases. These can concentrate in the liver and can contribute to estrogen imbalance. Stress and anxiety are also known to affect insulin levels which of course impacts several hormones.
7. You should also use Essential oils
Natural body care products made from ingredients like coconut oil and essential oils, that can help with balancing hormones. These do not contribute to your body’s toxins as it is with conventional cosmetics that contain harmful chemicals like DEA, propylene glycol, sodium lauryl sulfate, and parabens. Sandalwood essential oil, lavender, clary sage and fennel essential oil are just some to choose from.
8. Sleep more
A lack of sleep or disturbances to your natural circadian rhythm may result in a hormonal imbalance. A lack of sleep joined with the use of corticosteroids and chronic stress are the three major contributors to hormonal imbalances. Sleep early and get 7 to 8 hours of sleep. This will help your body hormone levels achieve balance and normalization.
9. Beware of medications and birth control
Corticosteroids, statins, stimulants, dopamine agonists, glucocorticoids, and rexinoids. These are some of those medications that can alter the body’s hormonal levels and should be avoided. These alterations can result in side effects such as fatigue, altered sleeping patterns, changes in appetite, low libido and depression. Before you take these medications, you may want to talk to your physician about the side effects as well as possible natural alternatives.
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