Hormones. I feel like in this day and age hormones are 'almost' a curse word. I have hormones on my mind for multiple reasons right now. So many people I know...and my family included....are struggling hormonally. Hormones make us who we are. They are so connected to how we feel and act, how our skin looks and it is amazing how much of us do not fully realize that. When our hormones are off we can be over anxious, extremely exhausted, our skin can be oily and broken out, we can feel full of anger and the list just continues. We also can gain a lot of weight or have troubles losing weight. It is just so intense how much our hormones control our lives.
I also feel like a lot of us need to have a general knowledge of how to help our hormones but we just don't know how to. If we go to a medical doctor (as a woman) we will be STRONGLY advised to go on birth control, which is synthetic hormones, which translate to long term poison for your body and also masking the issues that are causing the hormone imbalances in the first place.
I have had hormonal issues for years because of the cancer that I had. I have never been able to get them very balanced but after reading a book called 'Trim Healthy Mama' I feel like I have a lot more knowledge as to how to help myself. I also have a wonderful Naturopath doctor who has helped me so much along the way. I thought I would write out some of the things I have learned along this journey. I do NOT profess to know much, but I do know SOME things and it has been so helpful to me so here is some info I wanted to share with YOU....
I wanted to list a couple basic things you might try if you have horrible PMS or awful skin, or if your husband is showing signs of hormonal imbalances (tons of fatigue, depression, lack of drive etc) or your children, friends etc...
First of all you might want to get all your hormones tested. It might be a struggle with your doctor but it is worth doing. You should also get your thyroid, liver and iron levels tested (get your iron levels tested especially if you have really heavy periods). You need to go on day 21 of your cycle to get this blood test to get your hormone levels accurate. That is important to know!!
Hormone levels are affected by stress and toxins and that is because this directly affects your liver which is what regulates your hormones. If your liver is not doing well you do not generate new hormones every month and you just reuse your old ones. To give you a tiny hint...most of us have struggling livers in this day and age. We are so surrounded by toxins! To start helping yourself hormonally I would recommend a parasite cleanse first (hate to break it to you but pretty much everyone has parasites), followed by a liver and gall bladder cleanse. This will clear your liver of thousands of small stones related to parasite refuse. My husband just did this and although he was not very hopeful it would help it made a tremendous difference in his health. You can find cleanse protocols on line. Another thing to do is take some things to gently assist your liver to optimum health. You can look up some natural things to eat and supplements you can take for a healthy liver.
After you have done this the next step is to figure out if you have any allergies. These will wear you and your liver down. It is not fun to do this but you can try some eliminating dairy and gluten first. Do this for at least three weeks. If you are still feeling gross and your skin is not doing well eliminate anything that makes you feel bad. After you have eliminated things slowly add one thing back into your diet at a time. If you feel sick after you eat it or your skin breaks out you need to be free of that food for a year. That will give your body some time to heal from it. When our body is struggling one of the first things it does is form an allergy. It is like a cry for help from our body. Another thing you can do to help your liver is get digestive enzymes and take them before each meal. This will assist your body in digesting your food and hopefully you can absorb nutrients better.
Another thing you can do for your hormones is take Evening Primrose Oil pills and drink Raspberry Leaf Tea every day. This will hopefully help lessen PMS symptoms. I have had a lot of success with drinking large amounts of Raspberry Leaf Tea.
Your body also needs healthy fats to produce healthy hormones ~ coconut oil, avocado, butter, fish oils, adding those into your diet every day will help your body out a lot.
Another random thing that might help is getting rid of synthetic soy. Try to cut down on the soy you consume and also try to use makeup, shampoo, body soap and toothpaste that is free of parabens and toxins ~ even if it is just for six months to give your body a break. Our skin absorbs so much!
Another good thing to do is to think about the life style you are living. Are you able to exercise gently to sweat out toxins? Are you drinking enough water? Could you add some apple cider vinegar to it or lemon juice to help flush you out and make your body less acidic? Can you up your vitamin C levels and Vitamin D levels? Would you consider a B complex supplement? Could you go to bed around ten every night for a few months and take some liquid magnesium before you went to bed? How about baths with baking soda and eps and salts in it? Could you lessen your stress levels? Could you spend more time outside and less time staring at a screen?
All of these little things put together will help your body hormonally. Of course some people are going to need hormone therapy. Well, what is out there other than birth control? According to most doctors there isn't anything...there is ONLY birth control. Well...you can take bio identical hormones. Those are totally different than synthetic. You have to get your doctor to prescribe them and you have to go to a compounding pharmacy to get them but they just might make all the difference in the world for you health! Do some research on that. Once you have had your blood test and you know your hormone levels do some research and figure out at what times of the month you are struggling the most and figure out what is dipping or rising hormonally during that time. You might need to be using some progesterone cream at a certain time because your progesterone levels are way too low etc. Look up how each hormone affects your body. It will probably blow your mind and you will probably be able to figure out if you have issues with too much testosterone or estrogen etc just because of how you feel and how your skin is.
It is also good to do some research on how cortisol affects your body and how having too much of it may have caused your adrenal glands to tank. Check out adrenal fatigue online...but know doctors here do not recognize it so once again you have to get creative in how you treat it. You need to be informed and confident.
I write all this because I am so sick of feeling so tired, so anxious, so angry and knowing that so much of it has to do with my hormones. I feel like so many girls are trapped because doctors let them down over and over again. Birth control is not the answer! Your liver needs help, your adrenals need help. You need rest and healing. You need supplements and good fats and you need to probably eat protein every three hours and more complex carbs not mixed with fats. Eat your fats with lean protein and with veggies...Eat your carbs with protein and veggies but not with much fat. It will help in all ways good :) Also cut down on inflammatory foods if you can. That will help your body in so many ways!!!!
I am still a nursing mom so there is not a ton I am doing for my hormones right now but after I am done I hope to have the self discipline and energy to really make some huge changes. Right now I am working on helping my adrenals but I need to get consistent sleep to really make a change for them and that is a pipe dream right now.
If you have been feeling like you are so not yourself and you feel like you don't remember if you used to be a nice calm happy person...but you think you were?...it might just be your hormones!!!!! Or if your period is ridiculously heavy....it is most probably your hormones! Take heart! It's a process, but your body and your spirit will thank you if you take some steps to help yourself! It takes a choice only you can make.
You can do this! One day at a time, one step at a time. You are worth it :)
No comments:
Post a Comment