Is your body behaving strangely? Maybe your menstrual cycle is off, your skin is acting up, or you’re feeling unusually tired. Hormonal imbalance can affect the body in a lot of different ways. Thankfully, finding a way to regulate it doesn’t have to require medications that make you feel odd. In fact, the principles of naturopathy give us ways to balance hormones naturally.
In this post, I’ll first touch on the reasons why your hormones might be imbalanced. Then, I’ll dive into the best natural methods for balancing hormones, including lifestyle changes, foods, and supplements worth considering. You’ll soon discover that the trick to natural hormone balance isn’t a magic herb or vitamin, but a healthy, balanced lifestyle.
Why Do Hormones Go Out of Balance?
Our endocrine (i.e. hormonal) system is complex and it can be thrown off balance by a lot of different factors and in a lot of different ways. A small issue with one hormonal gland can have a cascading effect that impacts all other hormones.
There are medical conditions like PCOS, diabetes, and hypothyroidism, and lifestyle factors like nutrition, stress, and sleep, that all impact your hormones, as well as your body’s ability to process certain nutrients.
To make things even more complicated, all of these factors are often heavily intertwined: Something like a nutritional deficiency can cause a minor disruption that then snowballs into something worse as the rest of the endocrine system gets knocked off balance.
To figure out how to balance your hormones, it’s first important to understand in what way your hormones are out of balance and why. That’s why getting tested is so important. It’ll help uncover the precise nature of your hormonal imbalance as well as any nutrient deficiencies, for targeted treatment.
How to Balance Hormones – 5 Essential Tips
These are the basic principles of achieving natural hormone balance. They’re more than just tips – they’re the secret to a healthy life!
1. Balanced Nutrition
One habit that always helps balance hormones naturally is a great diet. Everyone can benefit from a diet that includes more nutrient-dense plants, proteins, fiber, and healthy fats. In the majority of cases, these are the foods that balance hormones in females.
That said, going in blind is still not recommended. Hormonal imbalance is often interconnected with nutritional deficiencies. For example, PCOS is closely related to insulin resistance, which is why the ideal diet for PCOS involves eating fewer simple carbs and sugars.
When it comes to thyroid hormones, iodine and selenium deficiencies are connected to hypothyroidism, while excess iodine is connected to hyperthyroidism.
2. Sleep More and Better
In today’s bustling, fast-moving world, most of us don’t get enough sleep. Lack of sleep is a huge factor that disrupts hormones, especially in situations where there is no underlying health condition. Poor sleep increases the body’s levels of cortisol (the stress hormone) and ghrelin (the hungry hormone) while decreasing insulin sensitivity.
If you’ve been experiencing symptoms of insulin resistance like hunger, tiredness, or weight gain, make sure to sleep more. Adults need at least 7 hours of sleep a night, but that’s the minimum. Don’t feel guilty about sleeping for 8 or 9 hours a night. It’s not enough to just sleep more, but the quality of your sleep also needs to be high.
3. Stay Calm
There is not a single person out there who needs more stress in their life… At least not when it comes to hormonal health.
This is actually the only tip that will probably help everyone, no matter what kind of hormonal imbalance you’re experiencing, and that’s to reduce stress. Stress confuses the endocrine system and can disrupt the function of a lot of different hormonal glands.
However, the process of stress reduction is different from person to person. I often work with patients on ways to reduce stress in their lives. For some, it may be as simple as taking up relaxing activities like yoga and mindfulness meditation, but for others, it may require bigger lifestyle changes.
4. Exercise in Moderation
Exercise is a must for keeping your hormones balanced. It helps our body’s metabolic processes and how we process nutrients. For most patients experiencing hormonal imbalance, the greatest benefit of exercise is that it increases insulin sensitivity, which often helps with symptoms of PCOS.
However, high-intensity exercise can increase the level of cortisol circulating through the body as well as overall testosterone levels. Women experiencing overproduction of testosterone due to PCOS definitely still need to exercise, especially to stave off the more harmful symptoms of PCOS like insulin resistance.
Moderate exercise like yoga, walking, and moderate interval or resistance training can actually reduce stress hormones. It also has a second benefit – you’ll probably find this kind of exercise is easier to keep up with!
5. Understand Supplements to Balance Hormones
You’re probably interested in hormone-balancing herbs or supplements. While supplements can be extremely beneficial, there is no single list of vitamins or herbs that can help with all hormonal imbalances. In fact, taking the wrong supplement could make your condition much worse.
Before you start taking specific vitamins for hormonal imbalance, make sure to speak with a doctor or naturopath to identify the nutrients that your body is lacking.
Balance Your Hormones Naturally With Dr. Galina
It can be very frustrating to experience a hormonal issue, but you don’t have to deal with it alone. As a naturopathic doctor, I have helped over a thousand women treat their hormonal imbalances… including myself. I understand what it’s like to experience endocrine system imbalance, and I have seen the way it impacts my patients.
I would love to help you live a healthier, better life so you can achieve natural hormone balance. To start on your journey, go ahead and schedule your first consultation!