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You are here: Home / Archives for hormones

hormones

Why Sleep? Your Adrenals Need a Break

October 29, 2019 by Joni Leave a Comment

tired woman

The “fight or flight” syndrome – you’ve heard of it, right? Accompanied with the image of the saber-toothed tiger dashing after a hunter, getting ready to attack. You often get into this situation, don’t you? In modern times, we’re not literally in that frantic position, but our bodies are often reacting as if we were fighting for our lives. Our adrenal glands, located on top of each kidney, are forced to work overtime in an effort to deal with stress from all sources:  injury, disease, work, family, finances, environment, etc.

What Adrenals Do

It’s hard to imagine these small endocrine glands, essentially the size of a walnut, responsible for the manufacture and secretion of vital hormones such as cortisol, estrogen and testosterone. The cortisol production is crucial for the body to combat stress. Whereas thousands of years ago the stress was a finite amount of time – you either outran the predator or survived or you were eaten – nowadays, stress seems to be a state of being for so many people.

Although not getting along with a boss or missing a bill payment are not life-threatening like the saber-toothed tiger, our bodies react to the stressors in a similar fashion. The body starts to feel unsettled. More and more cortisol is produced because the body believes it needs massive amounts of energy to run for its life. This happens over and over again throughout the day:  getting the kids ready for school and getting yourself ready for work, traffic, spilling coffee on your new suit, your assistant calls in sick and you’ve got to send out 20 packages today, the babysitter is late picking up the kids from school and taking them to soccer practice, your late afternoon meeting runs over and you leave the office late so family dinner becomes you eating leftovers alone. And all this is going to happen again tomorrow!

drawing of adrenal glands

The Warning

Here’s the problem:  chronic stress can overload the adrenal glands to the point of exhaustion. For some, the fatigue will become overwhelming and the adrenals will no longer function properly to provide the energy and resources the body needs on a day-to-day basis. When someone is exhausted, a natural suggestion is to get more sleep. That’s not always easy with adrenal problems because insomnia is a common symptom. There are, however, steps you can take to prepare yourself for sleep, which is certainly one of the best ways to refresh and rejuvenate your body, mind and spirit.

Set a Sleep Routine

For better sleep and to heal your adrenal glands:

  1. Go to bed at the same time every night between 10-10:30pm.
  2. Avoid stimulants such as caffeine and sugar in late afternoon/evening (or remove them completely from your diet to avoid any rollercoaster-like blood sugar surges).
  3. Keep a gratitude journal near your bedside. Every night, list five things for which you are grateful. Remind yourself that even though you may feel fatigued, there are wonderful aspects of your life and many reasons to heal.

How is your energy level throughout the day? Do you wake up feeling tired? Give your adrenals some love and they will love you right back. Take care of yourself, please. I’m here to support you be your most vibrant self! 😉

Filed Under: Body Tagged With: adrenals, hormones, sleep

Carrots Help Balance Hormones

April 7, 2016 by Joni Leave a Comment

Carrot Balance Hormones

Crunchy, colorful, and apparently champs in helping us balance our hormones; carrots are your new best friend.

Do you suffer from PMS, night sweats, stress, acne, weight gain, thyroid issues, cravings, or low libido? There are several symptoms that can arise when your body’s hormones are out of whack.

Breast tenderness Bloating Volatile emotions
Pounding headaches Weight gain Vaginal yeast infections
Depression Uterine fibroids Fibrocystic breasts
Joint pain Water retention Irritability
Unstable blood sugar Hot flashes Night sweats
Insomnia Mental fogginess Decrease sexual drive
Vaginal dryness Fatigue Frequent urination
Migraine headaches Memory problems Concentration problems
Dry skin & Brittle nail Flatulence Osteoporosis

Wow. Now you see the important role balanced hormones play in your everyday health and happiness.

Let’s Talk Estrogen

Estrogen is a hormone produced in both men and women and is essential for regulating sexual and reproductive development.  Did you know your stress levels increase the production of estrogen?

Also, your body has to contend with a steady supply of xenoestrogens. These are synthetic estrogens used in personal care products, food can linings, plastic, Styrofoam and agricultural chemicals.

When you ingest or absorb these ‘fake’ estrogens your body recognizes them are real and we have no control over the havoc to our hormonal systems that they create, resulting in (among other things): cancer (ovary, breast, and prostate), decreased libido, low energy, poor sleep, and obesity.

As nutritional therapy practitioner Lauren Geertsen states:

“Estrogen dominance is an underlying cause of PMS, menopausal symptoms, hormonal acne, infertility, and mood disorders.  It doesn’t just affect women: men, and particularly pre-pubescent boys, face the threat of estrogen dominance.  Lack of muscle tone, erectile dysfunction, and ‘man boobs’ all point in part to estrogen dominance.”

How to Get Some Balance

The first thing to do is dramatically cut your exposure to xenoestrogens. Choose personal care products that are natural and free of synthetic chemicals. Your skin is your largest organ and what you apply can potentially be absorbed into your bloodstream. Simply ditch the toxic muck and go natural.

Second simple thing is clean up the kitchen. Refuse to buy canned goods with BPA, especially tomatoes as their inherent acidity leeches the BPA from the lining into you! I love to buy and store leftovers in glass containers, but when it isn’t an option I always opt for BPA free cans and containers.

Third thing I recommend is to detox what’s already out of balance. By helping to detox some of the excess estrogen, a raw carrot a day plays an important role in both male and female hormone balance.

Carrots Help Balance HormonesBalance Hormones With A Carrot A Day

Love it. It turns out raw carrots contain unique fibers that bind toxins, particularly excess estrogen, in our intestines while not feeding unhealthy bacteria (similar to what a charcoal supplement would do.)

How to eat your carrot a day:

  • The organic carrot must be raw, not cooked. Avoid packaged peeled baby carrots because the peel acts as a buffer to keep out bacteria, and they are usually soaked in a chlorine solution.
  • You can enjoy the carrot peeled or washed and not peeled.
  • Ideally, eat it in-between meals and not with meals.
  • Eat it whole or prepare a simple Detox Carrot Salad below. You coarsely grate the carrot and add coconut oil, vinegar and salt.

I love crunching on raw carrot while I’m making dinner, but this salad is delicious too!

Detox Carrot Salad

1 medium organic carrot

1 tsp. raw coconut or apple cider vinegar

1 tsp. coconut oil

1/2 tsp. raw honey (optional)

Sea salt to taste

Directions:

Wash carrot well. Do not peel! Grate lengthwise** with grater.

Add oil, vinegar and salt.

Mix and enjoy DAILY!

Note: if you notice the calluses on your palms turn orange after a period of eating this, it can be to do with poor liver function, an inability to convert carotene (potentially toxic) to Vitamin A and low B12.  If this is the case, rinse your grated carrot and squeeze out all the orange-colored juice, before dressing.

** If you can be bothered, use a vegetable peeler to shred carrot length-ways. This maintains the integrity of the carrot’s unique fibers. It can make all the difference to the toxin-binding effects.

Filed Under: Body, Healthy Eats, Science Tagged With: carrot, estrogen, featured, hormones, recipe, xenoestrogen

Self Care

February 6, 2015 by Joni Leave a Comment

self care

What is self care and why should I care?

Self care is a term you’ll hear if you hang out with me. In my opinion self care is just as important as what you put in or on your body.

Let’s get one thing clear up front. We are ALL busy and living hectic lives. Harried living is our culture, at the moment, unfortunately. However, this lifestyle is taking a toll on our health, physical and mental. I have clients in my practice who are always amazed to realize bloating, aches and pains, and diminished energy levels are not just something they have to live with as a price for getting older. They quickly learn how to reclaim their vitality and a large part of this puzzle is self care.

So, what is self care? According to Wikipedia, self care is defined as

“In health care, self care is any necessary human regulatory function which is under individual control, deliberate and self-initiated.”

Self care is the same as self love. What do you do to love yourself up? What do you do to support your body, to let it know you honor it and cherish the amazing vessel it is?

Why should I care?

Not sure why this pertains to you? Follow me here. Stress is a toxin to the amazing vessel, your body. Science has now proven “chronic stress may also cause disease, either because of changes in your body or the overeating, smoking and other bad habits people use to cope with stress. Job strain — high demands coupled with low decision-making latitude — is associated with increased risk of coronary disease, for example”.1

Chronic stress adds to the Cortisol overload in your body as well. If your Cortisol levels are off the charts there is no way you will release excess weight. Plus, elevated Cortisol levels have effects on your other hormones swimming around inside making it hard to get proper rest or even relax. Some simple self care techniques go a long way to help level out all your hormones.

What should I do?

Instead of popping pills, powders and potions jump off the gerbil wheel to spend some quiet time for just you. This simple change is much more effective, sustainable and healthy. When you juggle your schedule why would you not schedule in time to recharge your batteries with some quality self care?

If you don’t take care of you, who will? No one will ever be as adept at providing you what you need as you. Get it? Good!

So what will you do today to recharge those precious batteries?

Other posts you’ll like:

5 Easy Self Care Tips

Do you fall for these self care myths?

 

1Krantz, D.S. & McCeney, M.K. (2002). “Effects of psychological and social factors on organic disease: A critical assessment of research on coronary heart disease.” Annual Review of Psychology, 53 , 341-369.

Filed Under: Body, Health, Mind, Spirit Tagged With: hormones, self care, weight loss

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