Four factors you can't ignore when balancing your hormones

Healthy hormones are as sweet as a well-orchestrated symphony. When working well they provide abundant energy, generous sleep, smooth skin, and emotional well-being. However, when they become imbalanced, the sky seems like it's falling and it can be a struggle to even get through a day without an emotional breakdown. This is why you need to know the major factors that affect hormones, so you can take a more comprehensive approach to rebalancing them.

Get enough vitamin D

Even though vitamin D is often referred to as the sunshine vitamin, it is actually a neuro-regulatory hormone. This may explain why people experience mood swings, depression, and irritability when they are low on vitamin D exposure, such as the winter months or other areas which experience much less sunlight.

To maximize the absorption and storage of vitamin D, get in the sun and allow it to penetrate the skin for 15 to 30 minutes in peak hours of the day (the further north, and the darker the skin, the longer the exposure required), of at least the arms and legs. Vitamin D is NOT absorbed through glass, so get directly into the sun outdoors.

If sunlight is not a good option, especially during the winter months, consider a liquid Vitamin D3/K2 supplement or foods with good vitamin D content such as fermented cod liver oil.

Restore adrenal function

The adrenal glands govern much of the hormonal system and become exhausted due to overwork, stress, lack of sleep, and stimulants (caffeine, nicotine, etc.) Long term abuse of the adrenal glands can causes cellular damage that takes considerable time to repair. This damage causes the adrenals to be unable to produce the hormones we need to focus, feel alert, control our moods, etc.

Normalizing the adrenal glands often has a cascading effect on the other glands in the body and helps balance hormone production. It can take 4-6 months to restore depleted adrenals and even longer if sources of adrenal depletion are not improved (ie. stress or a daily coffee habit).

To help restore adrenal function, eat clean, whole foods and avoid any stimulants. Also consider adaptogenic herbs, B-vitamins, vitamin C, magnesium, probiotics, and enzymes.

Nourish the thyroid

Thyroid imbalances can be attributed to many factors, including environmental pollutants (heavy metals), exposure to radiation (EMF's), dietary excesses or insufficiencies, certain medications, stress, and yeast infections.

A poorly working thyroid will eventually affect the production of all the other hormones in the body until every aspect of health is negatively impacted. Like the adrenal glands, many natural health care physicians will focus on the thyroid in order to restore proper functionality to all other glands and the entire body.

Rebuilding your thyroid can be tricky, depending on whether it is underactive or overactive. In either case, cleansing the digestive system is necessary, as well as reducing stress and avoiding exposure to EMFs and environmental pollutants. If you have hypothyroid (or want to know the signs) and want to heal it naturally, visit the first source below.

Eliminate bad estrogens

Xenoestrogens are man-made estrogen mimicking molecules that are significant hormone disruptors. These chemicals and disruptors cause imbalances that eventually can cause thyroid related disorders such as hypothyroidism.

Examples of xenoestrogens, which should be avoided, include:

- Plastic containers - Lining of canned food - Styrofoam cups and containers - Cosmetics and toiletries - Agricultural chemicals - Non-organic meat and dairy

Avoiding xenoestrogens after decades of exposure is only half of the equation. You must also eliminate them from your body by stimulating proper liver function so they may be eradicated from your body.

Hormones May Help Younger Women With Menopause Symptoms

For Linnea Duvall, a marriage and family therapist who lives and works in Santa Monica, Calif., the symptoms of menopause started when she turned 50. She felt more irritable and a smidge heavier, and she started waking up two to three times a night. And then she had a hot flash.

"It felt like a nuclear bomb went off right behind my belly button," she says. "The radiation went out to my fingertips, the tops of my toes, the top of my head and the ends of my hair."

But Duvall would not consider hormone therapy to control the flashes. She was terrified. She says she can sum up her fear in two words: "breast cancer."

To understand why she feels this way, we have to look back a few decades to a time when many postmenopausal women were taking hormones to treat symptoms. At the time, hormones were thought of as something of an elixir of youth that could also prevent chronic disease. So women took hormones indefinitely. But a huge study in 2002 changed everything.

Known as the Women's Health Initiative, it found that taking estrogen plus progestin hormone replacement therapy actually increased a woman's risk of heart disease and breast cancer. The study had a huge effect. Within months the number of women taking hormones in the U.S. dropped by almost half. Today, only about 10 percent of women ages 50 and over are on hormone therapy.

That was a huge overreaction, according to Dr. Wulf Utian, director of the North American Menopause Society, particularly in light of more recent findings. A more detailed analysis of the Women's Health Initiative data found that age really made a difference in heart disease risk. For women who started hormone therapy between the ages of 50 and 59, there was a protective benefit, says Dr. JoAnn Manson, one of the lead investigators of the study and a professor of medicine at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

Women who take hormones earlier after the onset of menopause may experience less plaque, blood vessel blockage and atherosclerosis, Manson says, and possibly even a reduced risk of heart attack. But for women over the age of 60, the benefit seems to disappear. This is probably because older women already have plaque buildup, Manson says.

Researchers in Denmark also found that age makes a difference. They looked at 1,000 healthy women between the ages of 45 and 58. The women who took hormones experienced significantly reduced risk of mortality, heart failure and heart attack.

Today, menopausal women are young in the scale of things, says Dr. Utian, noting that menopause typically starts between age 45 and 60. If women start hormones within a few years of menopause or even a few years before, he says, there are numerous benefits beyond controlling hot flashes. These benefits include reduced risk of bone fractures, reduced risk of diabetes and, for many women, an overall boost in their quality of life — meaning better sleep, maintenance of libido and more comfortable sex.

"In my opinion, the best recommendation would be for some form of hormone therapy," says Utian.

But here's the worry. Studies do confirm an increased risk of breast cancer among women taking hormones, regardless of age. Manson says any risk is worrisome, but it's important to put this risk in perspective and understand that it is actually small.

"For every 1,000 women per year not using hormone therapy, about three would develop breast cancer," Manson says. "And among every 1,000 women using hormone therapy, about four of them would develop breast cancer, so that's about one extra case of breast cancer per 1,000 women per year on hormone therapy."

This is where things get tricky. There is no consensus in the medical community on whether the symptom relief is worth the extra risk. Different doctors interpret risk differently. And if you're a breast oncologist like Dr. Rowan Chlebowski at Harbor UCLA Medical Center, any risk is too much.

"It's a disease that I see every day," Chlebowsi says. "So I think that's something to be avoided."

Chlebowski adds that hormone therapy also makes it more difficult to read mammograms, since hormones make the breast denser. If mammograms are more difficult to read, it's harder to diagnose breast cancer in its earliest stage when it's most treatable.

So bottom line — this really is an individual decision between a woman and her doctor, a decision based on how much risk a woman can tolerate in favor of symptom control and other potential benefits. Researcher Joann Manson says if a woman chooses hormone therapy, then the lowest possible dose for the shortest amount of time is probably safe for most women.

Menopause and Hormones

Hormones play a role in almost every function of our bodies. Think of them as biological messengers, telling tissues what they should do and when. Estrogen is one hormone that almost all women have heard of but may not fully realize how and why it’s needed. Especially when reaching perimenopause, estrogen becomes a familiar term - in more ways than one. While estrogen is present in both females and males, for the purpose of this article we’ll be concentrating on its role for women. What Is Estrogen?

Estrogen is a vital hormone provided by the ovaries and, in the case of pregnancy, also produced by the fetal-placental unit. It plays several different, important roles in a woman’s life, depending on her age.

When a female reaches puberty, the ovaries begin to release estrogen with each menstrual cycle. It’s also likely to be one of the reasons she experiences the mood disturbances that come with premenstrual syndrome (PMS). Estrogen serves to help regulate the menstrual cycle, trigger ovulation, and create a productive environment for fertilization and pregnancy. Estrogen also affects body shape, body hair, voice pitch, bone formation, vaginal PH levels that protect against bacteria, blood flow to the uterus, contractions during delivery, breast growth, and more.

Estrogen’s Role In Menopause

Perimenopause (the two to eight years leading up to menopause) is brought about by erratic estrogen levels. The fluctuation of estrogen (varied ranges of high production and deficiency) causes both physical and emotional changes such as hot flashes, depression, irregular menstruation, headaches, loss of libido, and mood swings.

Eventually, the ovaries stop releasing eggs. At this point menstruation ceases. When a woman has gone 12 consecutive months without menstruation, she is considered officially menopausal.

Unfortunately, lack of estrogen may continue to cause issues after this point. Symptoms such as hot flashes and mood swings can continue for some time. They may even be worse or better due to the fact that, unlike perimenopause, you no longer have any ups and downs since your body is now producing much less estrogen. Replacing the missing estrogen in the body with medication can help relieve many of these discomforts.

The Benefits of Estrogen Treatment

Estrogen Replacement Therapy (ERT) comes in several different forms and methods but with the same goal: replenish the hormone that is missing from your body so the areas affected by the deficiency can resume normal, balanced function. In a nutshell, so you can feel like yourself again.

Estrogen treatment comes in four primary methods:

• Oral pills - Taken once per day, pills are the most common form of ERT.
• Skin patches - Available with estrogen or estrogen combined with progestin, patches are worn on the stomach and changed once or twice per week.
• Topical cream, gel or spray - Like patches, these methods allow the estrogen to absorb through your skin and enter into your bloodstream. They are typically applied once per day.
• Suppositories, rings, and vaginal creams - These methods involve administering the hormone directly to the vaginal area. It is especially beneficial for women who’ve experienced severe vaginal issues such as dryness or pain during intercourse. These therapies are required to be administered anywhere between daily to once every several months, depending on the method chosen.