Some women find it difficult to lead a life of dealing with hormones and their effects. Sure, you cannot live without them, but living with them can bring various challenges.
Hormones are the body’s chemical messengers. By traveling through your bloodstream, your hormones go to other organs to regulate regular body functions ranging from your monthly menstruation to how you absorb food and nutrients.
These chemical messengers, if in the right amount, help keep normal body processes, both physical and mental. But too much or too little of these hormones mean can result in diseases and other negative health effects. This is what happens when you have a hormonal imbalance.
Hormonal imbalance can affect your emotions, mood, how you eat, and your overall physical fitness. There are causes of hormonal imbalance that are beyond your control, like getting old, for example. However, some factors like food, lifestyle, and stress management can easily be managed with the right information, attitude, and effort.
Here are seven tips that you can apply to your life to prevent hormonal imbalance as a woman:
1. Learn how to cope with stress properly.
Scientific studies found a link between stress and the endocrine system and how it affects hormone levels. According to the research, even low-stress levels can bring about an endocrine reaction.
Stress can cause elevated cortisol and adrenaline in the body. These hormones are produced as a normal body response to troubles or challenges, but high levels of both chemicals will result in eating disorders, mood swings, or heart ailments.
Finding ways to reduce stress is important to avoid hormonal imbalance. Use a squeeze ball. Listen to music. Go somewhere to relax. Enjoy nature. Learn yoga and meditation. Try these things and find your sweet spot that can reduce your stress levels.
2. Get enough sleep.
If you are not getting enough sleep, you are more likely to have some of your hormones going haywire. Sleeping provides a chance for your body to do repairs and replenish energy to prepare you for the next day. During sleep, your body releases several hormones needed for the body’s healing process: Growth hormones, which are responsible for physical development and tissue repair; leptin and ghrelin, which controls your appetite; and melatonin, which helps you get your nightly dose of slumber.
Getting seven to nine hours of sleep can make you recover from the effects of stress and balance hormones which might have gone too high or too low because of yesterday’s troubles.
3. Lose weight and have an exercise regimen.
Studies show that growth hormones in people who are overweight are lower than in people who have a normal body mass index. According to the Sports Medicine journal, even a short exercise a day can make a difference in maintaining the hormones that affect appetite. This is why you need to find a physical activity that will inspire you to stay active regularly and lose weight in the process.
4. Splurge on green tea.
Green tea is not just a relaxing drink, it also has properties known to help people lose weight. It is rich in anti-oxidants which improves metabolic health. Additionally, it also can ease the symptoms of menopause. Drinking green tea is found to decrease the levels of estradiol and oestrone among post-menopausal females. Tea polyphenols prevent the conversion of androgens to estrone or estradiol, the main hormones found during menopause.
5. Limit sugar consumption.
Sometimes, you just can’t help yourself eating decadent desserts. Who would want to say no to cakes, ice cream, and sweets, right? But the truth is, the world has been feeding us too much of these luscious treats and our body can only take in a certain amount of sugar a day. Add to these sweet delights those foods that are full of refined carbohydrates or white flour, like pasta and bread. Both cause an increase in glucose levels.
When you consume a lot of sweet food or dishes with refined carbohydrates, it can cause a fluctuation in the hormone called insulin. This hormone’s primary responsibility is to regulate sugar in your blood. Eating sweet food will cause your body to release insulin in high amounts. The condition in which your body cannot produce insulin anymore is called diabetes. This will result in the presence of high amounts of sugar in your bloodstream.
6. Eat fatty fish.
Incorporating fatty fish into your diet will help decrease the probability of having anxiety, depression, and mood disorders. That is because fatty fish is rich in omega-3, which assists in balancing your mood. Plus, it also promotes good cardiovascular and digestive health.
7. Avoid smoking.
If you are aiming to avoid hormonal imbalance, get rid of your smoking habit. Smoking disrupts the normal production of hormones released by the thyroid and pituitary gland. It also raises cortisol, which is the primary hormone linked to stress. Hormonal imbalance can cause discomfort and can sometimes intervene with regular daily activities of women. If you want to get treated but can’t visit a walk in clinic Brantford, get your phone and connect with an online doctor instead to get your hormonal imbalance treated.
