Hormonal Balance: Essential Guide for Women Over 40
Ever felt bloated and cranky? You're not alone. Millions feel the same, their bodies running amok with hormonal imbalance. One moment you're soaring high on the wings of joy; next minute, plunged into depths of despair. The culprit? Hormonal imbalance.
This invisible maestro conducts our body's symphony day and night. But when out of tune - we hear dissonance. The question is: Can you restore harmony to this beautiful but complex music?
You bet! From understanding your symptoms to uncovering hidden triggers – even navigating birth control effects – there's so much within reach.
Dive deep into this guide and emerge enlightened about hormones' intricate dance that shapes us all!
Find out what you can do TODAY to get started with balancing your hormones (read until the end:).
1. Understanding Hormonal Imbalance and Its Symptoms
Hormones, our body's chemical messengers that regulate essential bodily processes from metabolism to hair growth, can be thrown off balance with even slight imbalances leading to health issues. However, even slight imbalances can trigger a cascade of health issues.
2. The Role of Hormones in the Human Body
Hormones control everything including metabolism, sexual function, and mood. They are produced by endocrine glands such as the thyroid gland that produces thyroid hormones crucial for metabolic regulation.
However, factors like stress or disease can disrupt this delicate balance leading to hormone imbalances which affect both people assigned male at birth (AMAB) and people assigned female at birth (AFAB).
A typical hormonal discrepancy among female individuals is Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS). This condition causes ovaries to produce excess amounts of testosterone resulting in symptoms like unexplained weight gain and irregular periods. The Cleveland Clinic estimates that 1 out of every 10 women has PCOS, making it quite prevalent.
3. Recognizing Hormonal Imbalance Symptoms
If you're experiencing symptoms caused by hormonal imbalances - be they hot flashes indicative of changing estrogen levels or unexpected changes in bowel movements related to your thyroid hormone production – it’s important to address the symptoms early on. If left untreated, they can lead to bigger problems. For example, frequent urination could signal diabetes due to insulin resistance.
Symptoms of hormonal imbalances:
Night sweats
Reduced interest in sexual activity
Infertility
Mood swings
Trouble sleeping
Depression
Changes in appetite
Painful periods
Digestive issues and bloating
Headaches and migraines
Cravings
Weight loss or weight gain
Fatigue
Brain fog
Irregular periods
Cramps
PCOS
Low blood sugar
Irritability or anxiety
Dry skin or skin rashes
Breast tenderness
Thinning or brittle hair
These are just a few examples of symptoms related to hormonal imbalances…
4. The Connection Between Hormonal Imbalance and Women's Health
For a woman, her hormonal balance is vital. It's particularly crucial for those over a certain age as it has a significant impact on their overall health.
“Hormones, the body’s chemical messengers, keep everything running smoothly. But when they’re out of balance due to stress or illness, it can lead to a host of health problems like PCOS in women. Spotting symptoms early—be it hot flashes, bowel changes or unexpected weight gain—is crucial for timely intervention. Remember: hormonal health isn’t just about managing issues as they arise; it’s also about maintaining an overall healthy lifestyle and staying vigilant to any subtle changes.”
5. How Stress and Lifestyle Factors Contribute to Hormonal Imbalance
We often underestimate the impact our lifestyle choices can have on our bodies. Let's explore how factors such as sustained pressure, inadequate nutrition, insufficient physical activity and more can disturb hormonal equilibrium and cause numerous health problems.
6. The Impact of Chronic Stress on Hormone Levels
Chronic stress is a notorious culprit for causing havoc in your body’s delicate hormonal symphony. It leads to adrenal fatigue which eventually spirals into hormonal imbalances. When we are under constant pressure, it forces our endocrine glands into overdrive as they produce excess cortisol - the primary "stress hormone".
This spike interferes with other hormones like insulin leading to resistance or even thyroid hormones resulting in conditions such as hypothyroidism or hyperthyroidism. Moreover, this cascade effect doesn't stop here but extends its harmful reach affecting sexual function due to imbalanced estrogen levels and testosterone levels in people assigned female or male at birth respectively.
To paint a clearer picture: imagine driving your car non-stop without giving it any rest – what do you think will happen? It'll probably break down sooner rather than later. Our bodies respond similarly when subjected continuously to high-stress environments; the result is an unhappy orchestra of misaligned hormones playing out-of-tune music.
7. Diet and Exercise's Role in Maintaining Hormonal Balance
A balanced diet plays a pivotal role too. A regular intake of processed foods packed with sugars, artificial flavors and colors, causes spikes in insulin levels leading us towards diabetes land while also encouraging fat storage especially around the belly area - thank you very much, sugar. To prevent this grim scenario from unfolding, ensure that plenty of cooked vegetables, high quality proteins, and healthy fats form the crux of your meals.
Exercise not only improves your wellbeing, but also helps regulate hormones and revs up your metabolism. It's a powerful tool for maintaining optimal health, so why not lace up those sneakers and give yourself the gift of fitness? Many people either under-exercise or over-exercise. Be YOU Balanced Program helps you assess YOUR needs.
“Stress and lifestyle habits can really shake up your hormonal balance. Chronic stress cranks out excess cortisol, messing with insulin and thyroid hormones, even impacting sexual function. Your diet’s key too - sugar-packed processed foods spike insulin levels and store fat around the belly. But there’s hope. Balanced meals filled with whole grains, veggies, lean proteins, and healthy fats are a powerful tool to help restore hormonal harmony in your body.”
8. The Influence of Birth Control on Hormonal Balance
Birth control, from pills to patches and synthetic hormone creams, can have a significant impact on hormonal balance. This isn't necessarily a bad thing. For individuals assigned female at birth and suffering from PCOS or similar conditions, hormonal regulation through the use of birth control is often recommended.
But how does this work? And what are the potential risks associated with using birth control for hormonal regulation?
9. Potential Risks Associated with Birth Control Use
Birth control methods, such as pills or patches, are designed to regulate hormones and prevent pregnancy by using synthetic versions of estrogen and progesterone. These methods use synthetic versions of estrogen and progesterone - two key hormones that play an important role in menstrual cycles and fertility.
This might sound great on paper but remember that our bodies are complex systems where everything's interconnected. Messing around with one part may cause unexpected changes elsewhere. The effects could be minor – such as mood swings or acne – but some individuals may experience more serious side effects like unexplained weight gain or loss, depression, decreased sexual function among others.
Hormonal imbalance symptoms
Mood swings or depression
Unexplained weight gain or loss
Skin issues such as acne, dryness, and oiliness
A study published by the New England Journal Of Medicine found that women taking combination oral contraceptives had 8 times higher risk for developing venous thromboembolism than those not using any contraceptive method.
Birth control pills and patches are toxic and contain synthetic hormones that severely upset the body chemistry and have side effects such as heart attacks, strokes and cancer.
Think about it: your hormones are supposed to be fluctuating but when using birth control, they are kept the same! So many processes in the body are not happening because there are no normal fluctuations! You are not ovulating and your ‘periods’ while on birth control are fake.
Synthetic birth control is the biggest fat lie sold to women that is poisoning so many!
10. Hormonal Fluctuations During the Menstrual Cycle
The menstrual cycle, a monthly roller coaster ride of hormonal changes in people assigned female at birth, plays an essential role in preparing the body for potential pregnancy. It's much more than just having periods; it's about the symphony of hormones that our bodies produce.
11. Phases of the Menstrual Cycle and Hormonal Changes
The menstrual cycle can be divided into four main phases: menstruation, follicular phase, ovulation, and luteal phase. Each stage is marked by specific hormone levels that affect fertility as well as other aspects of health.
Menstruation begins on day one when estrogen and progesterone levels drop if no fertilized egg has implanted. This triggers bleeding - your period (source). By day 5 or 6 (Key Stat), both estrogen and sex hormone production begin to rise again gradually.
FSH stimulates the growth of multiple ovarian follicles after menstruation has ended. These developing eggs release increasing amounts of estradiol – a form of estrogen – which thickens the uterine lining to prepare for possible implantation later on.
Ovulation occurs around mid-cycle (typically around day 14) under control from luteinizing hormone (LH). The most mature egg bursts from its follicle in response to this LH surge – a phenomenon you might have heard referred to as "the big pop." Estrogen peaks here too because they stimulate LH production.
The luteal phase follows ovulation. The ruptured follicle transforms into the corpus luteum, which produces progesterone and some estrogen. If fertilization does not occur, hormone levels fall again to trigger another period.
This hormonal ebb and flow is what keeps our menstrual cycle ticking over like clockwork – most of the time. But when they get out of sync or unbalanced, it can cause symptoms ranging from annoying (like acne) to severe (such as infertility).
“You could be experiencing uncomfortable symptoms to more serious health conditions. These could include things like painful periods, heavy bleeding, or even fertility issues. So it’s crucial to understand and monitor these hormonal shifts for optimal well-being.”
12. The Role of Heavy Metals in Hormonal Imbalance
Our bodies are incredible machines, but sometimes outside factors can throw off their fine-tuned operations. One such disruptor is heavy metals.
These harmful substances found in our environment can wreak havoc on hormonal balance. It's a subject not often addressed, yet its effects on our wellbeing are immense.
The Top Four Heavy Metals That Cause Hormone Imbalance
You must deal with heavy metal toxicity to help restore hormone balance. Below are the four heavy metals most commonly associated with hormone imbalance and symptoms such as infertility, fatigue, brain fog, moodiness, and weight gain.
1. Mercury
Statistically, we all have mercury in our bodies thanks to exposures from amalgam fillings, coal burning, industrial manufacturing, fish, shellfish, and even some medications.
Mercury causes a hormone imbalance by lowering progesterone and raising estrogen. It is also linked to thyroid hormone disruption, which often causes weight gain and chronic fatigue.
There are two different kinds of mercury: methylmercury and inorganic mercury. Methylmercury is more common and comes from eating seafood that’s high on the food chain as well as crustaceans on the ocean floor. That’s because it accumulates in the tissue of shellfish and larger migratory fish that eat smaller fish. The EPA suggests moderating your intake of fish like tuna, swordfish, shark, mackerel, and marlin. It’s estimated that in general we take in about 10 mcg of mercury daily from food.
Inorganic mercury is found in silver mercury amalgam dental fillings. Women who have 4–10 amalgam fillings are estimated to uptake 8–30 mcg of mercury daily. For women with 10 or more fillings, that number rises to 163 mcg each day.
So, is that a lot of mercury or a little bit?
According to the World Health Organization, the upper limit for safety is only 2 mcg per kilogram of body weight per day, or 2 mcg per 2.2 pounds. For a woman weighing 140 pounds, her mercury intake should not exceed 127 mcgs a day. A woman with 10 or more fillings is far surpassing that amount at 163 mcg, and this not include mercury exposure from other sources.
Although many people have their mercury fillings replaced, unfortunately the mercury you accumulated from having them for so long is likely still accumulated in your body tissue.
2. Cadmium
Cadmium is another heavy metal that is abundant in our environment and that disrupts hormone balance. We are exposed to cadmium from cigarette smoke, water, fertilizers, air pollution, fish, coffee, plastics, and some yellow coloring agents .
Cadmium is linked to low levels of progesterone and prolactin (the hormone that triggers the production of breast milk) as well as lowered testosterone and infertility in males
The unfortunate thing about cadmium is it accumulates in the pituitary gland, our master hormone gland. The pituitary gland is in the brain and acts as an air traffic controller for all the body’s hormones, directing hormone production based on feedback loops between the brain and the hormone glands. These include the thyroid, adrenals, ovaries, and testes; cadmium can impact function in these areas.
Cadmium also blocks and mimics estrogen, which has been linked to fertility issues in both women and men. Because it blocks estrogen receptors, you can suffer from an estrogen imbalance even if your body makes enough. This is because it’s not getting into your cells and your body perceives this as a deficiency.
Cadmium is also a carcinogen. It causes more cancers than all the other heavy metals combined, included prostate cancer and breast cancer.
Cigarette smoke is the most common and concentrated source of cadmium. Tobacco plants absorb high amounts of cadmium from the soil, which is then released into the bloodstream when smoked. This is the primary reason smokers have significantly higher rates of cancer. Cadmium also accumulates in the kidneys, thus contributing to not only kidney disease but also poor bone health. The accumulation of cadmium in the kidneys causes them to excrete higher levels of calcium in the urine, thus decreasing calcium levels in bones (estrogen deficiency also lowers bone density). Lowered bone density leads to bone pain, bones that fracture easily, kidney stones, osteomalacia (softer bones), and osteoporosis (brittle bones).
3. Lead
Lead interferes with the production of sex hormones, and is linked to irregular menstrual cycles and infertility by inhibiting progesterone, prolactin, and estrogen activity. It also reduces testicular function in men and levels of the stress hormone cortisol, which can cause fatigue.
Thankfully, lead levels have decreased since the 1950s with the introduction of unleaded gasoline and lead-free paints. Nevertheless, lead paint continues to be the most common cause of lead exposure in many older homes.
Because lead is water-soluble, it easily leaches into tap water. If you have paid attention to the news, you know this has been a major issue these days. Lead piping can contaminate and entire region’s water supply in older systems.
In Flint, MI, lead contamination of the city’s water supply reached a crisis point in 2014 and still has not been remedied more than five years later.
Washington, DC, had dangerously elevated lead levels from 2002–2010, according to tests from the Center for Disease Control (CDC)
Although lead is now regulated, decades of leaded gasoline and it’s continued use in developing countries have caused lead to persist in the air, soils, and water, contaminating our food supply and many supplements.
Regular testing of foods by the FDA has shown that 20 percent of more than 2,000 baby food samples and 14 percent of more than 10,000 food samples had detectable levels of lead. [Study] [Study] Lead gets into our food supply through air, water, and soil because of pollution.
4. Arsenic
Arsenic is common in treated lumber made before 2002, in pesticides, and in air pollution from fossil fuel combustion. Because rice so readily absorbs arsenic from water and soil, some brands of rice contains arsenic. You should always rinse uncooked rice until the rinse water is no longer cloudy.
Arsenic damages insulin-producing cells in the pancreas. Because insulin regulates blood sugar, this can promote weight gain and fatigue. The accumulation of arsenic in tissues over time can even damage insulin production enough to cause diabetes[*]. Arsenic also damages the testes, thus decreasing sex hormone production in men.
Arsenic contributes to weight gain and weight loss resistance by poisoning the enzymes that transport fat out of fat cells.
13. Digging into the Details: What Are Heavy Metals?
Heavy metals, like lead and mercury, exist naturally in the earth’s crust. However, human activities have led to increased exposure to these toxic elements.
We encounter them through polluted air or water sources and even from consuming certain foods contaminated by pesticides that contain these elements.
14. A Disruptive Force: How Do Heavy Metals Affect Our Hormones?
Hormones are chemical messengers regulating essential functions like metabolism and reproduction. When heavy metals enter our system, they may interfere with hormone production leading to an imbalance—something we certainly don't want.
To give you some perspective on this issue:
Metal toxins might mimic natural hormones (like estrogen), causing overstimulation of hormone receptors which leads to imbalances.
Certain heavy metals block vital enzymatic processes involved in hormone synthesis.
Sometimes metal pollutants bind directly with hormones disrupting their function.
15. Telltale Signs: Recognizing Symptoms of Metal-Induced Hormonal Imbalance
If you're experiencing unexplained weight gain or loss, mood swings or sleep disturbances without any apparent reason—it could indicate a hormonal imbalance caused by metal toxicity.
Other signs include changes in menstrual cycle for women, low libido or sexual dysfunction, and issues related to thyroid hormones like feeling excessively cold or warm.
The tricky part is that these symptoms are quite common for various health conditions. So it's important not to jump into conclusions but seek help from a healthcare provider.
16. Proactive Measures: Minimizing Exposure to Heavy Metals
It's true, we can't totally dodge heavy metals. But, hey, we sure can take some action to cut down our exposure.
17. FAQs in Relation to Hormonal Balance
How do I fix my hormonal balance?
To restore your hormonal balance, try reducing stress levels, maintaining a healthy diet and exercise routine, and avoiding toxic heavy metals exposure.
What are signs of hormone imbalance?
Common signs of hormone imbalance include weight gain, hair loss, irregular periods, or other changes in menstrual cycle patterns.
How can I check my hormone balance?
You can get your hormones checked through blood tests ordered by your healthcare provider. You can also check the cellular effect of hormones when you get Hair Tissue Mineral Analysis done as a part of Be YOU Balanced Program. Symptoms also give important clues about imbalances.
What are the 5 primary hormonal imbalances?
The five main types of hormonal imbalances include thyroid disorders, adrenal fatigue syndrome, insulin resistance and diabetes type II, sex hormone imbalances, and leptin resistance.
18. Conclusion
Cracking the code of hormonal balance is a journey, not a destination. Understanding hormones and their functions gives you control over your health.
Paying attention to symptoms such as unexplained weight gain or hair loss can clue you in on imbalances. Chronic stress, poor diet, and lack of exercise also play major roles in disrupting this delicate equilibrium.
The effects of birth control on hormone levels shouldn't be overlooked either. Awareness about how they fluctuate during menstrual cycles can empower us to better manage our well-being.
Lastly, don’t underestimate the influence heavy metals have on hormonal imbalance! Stay informed, stay healthy!