The Cascade of Hormone Imbalance
Balancing Hormones is very on-trend right now in the health and nutrition world. I get asked all the time about supplements like DIM, Chaste Tree Berry, Zinc, and Probiotics as a way to balance hormones. However, most people are focusing on the wrong things. These supplements may claim to have “hormone-balancing effects” but the reason why they are not working is because….
You can't balance hormones without first supporting your adrenal and thyroid health.
The Hormone Cascade
Your adrenals are responsible for things like your stress response, regulating your blood pressure and heart rate. Your adrenals also act as your body's emergency energy reserve when your blood sugar dips too low and you are not properly fueling your body (a.k.a. undereating, imbalanced eating, fasting...). When your adrenals are under stress, they begin producing cortisol and will communicate to your thyroid to slow down.
Your thyroid is responsible for your metabolic rate (how many calories you burn at rest), how quickly your digestion works, your core body temperature, as well as energy levels, and the health of your hair, skin, and nails. Your thyroid senses when your adrenals are under stress. In response, your thyroid is going to slow down as a way to conserve energy (this is a safety mechanism). This means your metabolic rate slows down (meaning you can survive on fewer calories), you will likely see things like weight gain or an inability to lose weight, you will begin to experience cold hands and feet, dry hair/skin/nails, and possibly digestive symptoms like bloating, gas, and constipation.
When your adrenals are pumping out cortisol to keep your body functioning, sex hormone (estrogen, progesterone, testosterone) production will be suppressed. This means you will likely see things like painful, irregular, excessively heavy or light periods. Additionally, low thyroid function has been shown to interfere with the release of an egg from your ovaries thus impairing fertility.
Foundations First, Then Hormones
Symptoms of hormone imbalance are usually the ones that finally get our attention that something is wrong. The problem with going after hormone balance first is that you are simply chasing symptoms and not getting to the root cause of why the imbalance is there to begin with. Think of it this way, if you are in a boat with a hole in it, you would want to try and patch the hole first. If you just try scooping the water out with the hole still there, you may be able to stay afloat but you won’t be making much progress on actually ridding your boat of water.
This is why hormone balance on your own can feel so overwhelming and confusing and often times doesn’t work.
The foundations include:
consuming a nutrient dense, whole food diet
improving and healing gut health and detoxification
balancing blood sugar through meal timing and balancing macronutrients
promoting healthy mineral balance through HTMA testing & consumption of traditional therapeutic foods
proper hydration with mineral rich liquids
balancing the consumption of health fats (saturated > monounsaturated >polyunsaturated)
reducing stress, improving sleep, and getting daily movement and sunlight
These are all aspects that I address with my 1:1 clients and practices that I teach in Flourish Glow Up. With my 1:1 clients we assess your health with an in depth questionnaire that dives deep into the root cause of your hormone imbalances. Together we build a plan that is customized to you that will restore balance to your health and your hormones. If you want to learn more about nutritional therapy and if it could be a good fit for you, schedule a discovery call today!