Are your hormones out of balance?
If you are tired, sluggish and/or struggling with your weight, this may be a question that you should be asking yourself.
While our hormones fluctuate naturally throughout our monthly cycle, imbalances are becoming more common as we are exposed to many more toxins and chemicals, continuous stressors, food intolerances, and excess hormone consumption from non-organic meat, dairy and genetically modified organism (GMO) soy than ever before. Pip Reed, Co-Founder of The Health Clinic shares how hormone imbalance is disastrous for your body and how it can be managed.
In fact, thanks to the world that we live in where much of our food is processed with artificial ingredients, hormones and pesticides. We are exposed to more toxins in 30 days than our grandmothers were in their entire lives.
So why is a hormone imbalance so disastrous for your body? There are a number of reasons:
It may lead to weight issues: People respond to imbalances and stressors differently, however up to 85% of people will find that they struggle to lose weight, or they keep putting weight on despite a healthy diet and exercise regime. Around 15% of people will struggle with losing too much weight, or not being able to put weight on.
Hormone imbalances can cause weight issues as they inhibit the body’s ability to absorb insulin, resulting in excess weight around your stomach. An oestrogen or testosterone imbalance may also cause a similar weight issue, whereas an over active thyroid will cause issues with people trying to gain weight. An imbalance in stress hormones (cortisol), sex hormones (oestrogen, progesterone, testosterone) and thyroid hormones can all manifest in weight loss and gain issues.
It may lead to infertility: Some of the many symptoms of a sex hormone imbalance include Endometriosis, Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS), fibroids, and PMS. These signs and symptoms of a hormone imbalance can lead to unexplained infertility in many women trying for a baby.
It may heighten your stress levels: An imbalance in the stress hormone cortisol, can affect your sleep, mood and anxiety levels. Sadly what goes up must come down, so if your cortisol is high for a prolonged period of time, it’s likely to eventually crash causing a full blown burn out, or what is known as adrenal fatigue. Staying in this state for a long period of time can then result in condititions such as chronic fatigue hypothyroidism, as well as causing further imbalances in sex hormones
Adrenal Fatigue can be difficult to bounce back from, so if you find that you are losing a lot of sleep and you are anxious and stressed, consult a healthcare practitioner or to try to solve the problem sooner rather than later.
Increased risk of infection: When your hormones are unbalanced and you become stressed and fatigued, your immune system becomes compromised and you become more susceptible to infection, colds and flus.
Muscle loss: If you have been working on getting toned up, because after all, ‘summer bodies are made in winter’, but find it difficult to build muscle. It may be from an imbalance causing your body to ‘catabolise’ its muscles; that is break them down and use your muscles for energy due to a significant stress imbalance, which will result in muscle mass depletion.
How to Manage It
First things first, you need to get the problem identified and you need to consult a healthcare practitioner who can create an individualised program to help you get your health back on track. This will be done through functional pathology and a tailored supplement, diet and exercise regime.
For those who want to affordably diagnose and treat their condition with regular consultations with a nutritionist for $60 a month, TheHealthClinic.com.au offers Premium Memberships which include 2 x 15 minute video consultations a month with a Practitioner of your choice, supplement prescription, individualised diet recommendations, access to a number of health trackers, access to the health shop food products and more.
From a lifestyle point of view:
Avoid all canned food as cans are lined with BPA, a persistent Organic Pollutant which can linger in the human body for up to 100 years. It can cause the production of free radicals which in turn can deplete the antioxidant reserves in the body
Only consume organic fruit and vegetables. Pesticide residue from fruit and vegetables is a huge contributor to hormone imbalances.
Only consume organic grass fed meat and dairy. Non-organic meat and dairy is often pumped full of hormones to help the animal grow faster, get bigger, and produce more. Consuming artificial hormones will in turn, affect your own delicate hormone balance.
Reduce your use of packaged foods. Many packed foods are laden with preservatives and lots of other nasties that you don’t want in your digestive system. If you buy anything that is packaged, check the ingredients list and only buy products that have a minimal number listed (i.e. less than 6 ingredients) as they are more likely to be as close to natural as possible.