As we age, hormonal problems become more prevalent especially for women who have just dealt with childbirth. More and more women and men as well suffer from one or more symptoms of hormonal imbalance at some point in their lives.
Women going through menopause typically agonise the most with more symptoms to contend with. Whether you are a man or a woman, balancing your hormones is possible and can even be done cheaply and naturally.
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Why You Should Be Cautious about Hormonal Imbalance
Balancing your hormones is one of the most important things that you can do to ensure that you will live a normal and healthy life. The sad truth is that many people, especially men, choose to not pay attention to the symptoms.
This is probably due to the common belief that only women experience hormonal imbalance, but of course, this is simply a myth. Anyone can go through this because all people have hormones.
Women of childbearing age have many important hormones including estradiol, progesterone, and cortisol.
For men, important hormones include testosterone, estrogen, and dehydroepiandrosterone. Before you learn about how to balance your hormones, you should know first if you really are undergoing hormonal imbalance.
For women, the following are the most common signals:
- Breast tenderness
- Insomnia
- Decreased sex appetite and vaginal dryness
- Headache and/or migraine
- Depression
- Infertility
- Obesity, water retention, and/or bloating
- Significant changes in hair and skin
- Caffeine dependence
- Rapid heartbeat
For men, you are most likely facing hormonal imbalance if you experience two or more of the following:
Irritability
Loss of libido and/or erectile dysfunction
Hair loss
Prostate enlargement
Anxiety
Low stamina and fatigue
Enlarged breasts
Strange weight loss or gain
Gallbladder problems
Infertility
As you can see, hormonal imbalance can be linked to a number of health conditions. Thus, it is essential that you act quickly in treating your present condition. Here are the top 7 natural hormone-balancing techniques that you can try today:
1. Change Your Diet
There is a saying that you are what you eat and indeed, this is true.
The food you consume has a lot to do with your hormonal imbalance. A balanced diet can alter your condition considerably, but there are vital changes that you should do beyond others.
For one, you should eat foods that are rich in zinc (e.g. beef, lamb, crab, oysters, and veal) as these aid in testosterone production.
Foods with high omega-3 fatty acids (e.g. fish like tuna and salmon, walnuts and eggs) are also helpful because they generate good cell membranes that allow hormones to reach their targets efficiently.
Also, do not forget to add more fibre into your diet such as whole grains, fruits, and vegetables. These clean out your system by eliminating old oestrogen so you achieve better balance.
2. Aerobic Exercise Is Your Friend
Aerobics is widely known for being effective in releasing chemicals in the brain that promote good mood. Therefore, doing some exercise will help eliminate extreme mood swings, which are caused by excessive or insufficient reproductive hormones.
3. Know What To Avoid
In general, there are four things that you should stay away from if you are experiencing hormonal imbalance.
The first three are sugar, too much dairy, and caffeine. These are the main reasons as to why you are suddenly feeling sluggish or you seem to be tired all the time. Some people have insomnia or difficulty in sleeping at night because of too much caffeine.
When they wake up the next day, they cannot go through the day without taking a nap. This is a sign that the body is struggling with hormone production.
The fourth thing that you should stay away from is stress, which denotes that you have too much cortisol in your body. This particular hormone blocks out oestrogen, which then causes low serotonin levels, a condition that affects the mood of a person.
4. Sleep For At Least 7.5 Hours
Many adults today deprive themselves of sleep.
According to the Great British Sleep Survey, more than 50% of individuals do not get enough sleep, with women three times more at risk of insomnia than men.
Getting a full night’s sleep is more crucial than you may think. This is when testosterone is produced, so when you do not get enough sleep, testosterone levels significantly drop.
This causes lower sex drive and other sexual problems. In addition, sleep is where melatonin production takes place. Often, this is considered a person’s biological clock.
Melatonin is responsible for many things that happen in the body including dreaming, but it can also affect your immune system and may cause faster aging and elevates risk of type 2 diabetes if melatonin levels are low.
5. Go Out & Enjoy The Sun
If you always stay indoors, there are plenty of health risks that you will soon be facing.
One of them is hormonal imbalance, so make sure you go outside and give your body a dose of sunlight. Doing this regularly can aid in stabilizing your hormones.
You do not have to stay for a long period of time outdoors. Just a few minutes of walking around the block at least twice a week is enough to keep you healthy and your hormones stable.
6. Try Out Some Natural Herbs
There are several plants that have therapeutic benefits for humans.
If you are suffering from hormonal imbalance, you should find out more about adaptogen herbs. In herbal medicine, adaptogen is actually a natural substance from plants that helps you in adapting to stress.
These herbs also aid in the normalization of processes that take place within the body. Currently, there are numerous adaptogen herbs, but the most popular is ginseng.
This particular root is said to have the ability to support a much healthier sex drive. It also helps cure erectile dysfunction and even enhances men’s performance.
When it comes to hormonal imbalance, it can strengthen your hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal or HPA axis, which will allow you to cope with stress and have a healthier immune system.
7. Meditate With Nature
When you meditate, you practice the art of nurturing awareness and mindfulness.
You cultivate calmness, which is very much needed when you are aiming for balanced hormones.
Meditation helps in two ways as it not only balances the mind but the body as well. You can participate in a meditation class or you can simply try to relax with nature.
Many studies have proven how effective Mother Nature is in calming a person down. Meditating with nature can reduce your blood pressure if you are currently suffering from it as well.
In truth, blood pressure is somewhat controlled by hormones. When triggered, this can lead to conflicted hormones, which eventually causes stress.
Try to meditate and recognize your surroundings as well. This will help alleviate hormonal problems in the end.
When your hormones are out of balance, there are negative effects that will take place both emotionally and physically. Each and every cell in your body makes use of hormones and thus, it’s more than crucial to solve hormonal issues before they get out of hand.
Take some time and review the given methods above to finally free yourself from the undesirable consequences of imbalanced hormones.
Health by choice, not by chance.
-David Aston
