Natural Remedies & Vitamins for Hormonal Imbalance
Your hormones play a role in almost every function in your body, and if your levels are out of whack, it can have major impacts on your health. Hormones are the chemical messengers in the ecosystem of your body, so imagine if the messengers in our lives, like the news or the mail service, weren’t working like they were supposed to. It would cause chaos!
A hormone imbalance can affect your physical, mental, and emotional health, it’s common to find hormone imbalances in men and hormone imbalances in women. You might have trouble controlling your appetite or sleep if your hormones are out of balance, for example, or can leave you feeling lethargic or more depressed than usual. If you suspect you have a hormone imbalance, there are some simple lifestyle changes that you can consider making that will help you to get things back on track and feel better! Here are some natural remedies to help a hormone imbalance.
Magnesium
Magnesium is an essential mineral, meaning that humans need it to be healthy. It’s found in foods like whole grains, dark, leafy vegetables such as kale or spinach, and legumes like beans or chickpeas. It’s also found in dark chocolate! Adding more of these foods to your diet can be a good way to help with magnesium levels, but many people take a supplement or use a magnesium spray or soak to absorb the mineral through their skin.
Upping your magnesium intake can help you balance your hormone levels, and it can also help you sleep better and reduce any muscle cramps you might be having.
Healthy Fats
Fat is a necessary part of any human diet, and consistently eating foods that are low in fat can be detrimental to your hormone levels. A hormone-healthy diet will contain plenty of healthy, nutritious fats like fish, avocados, nuts, and olive and coconut oils. Fats like these are called MCTs (medium-chain triglycerides) and omega-3s, and they’re also good for your brain health!
B Vitamins
There are eight different B vitamins in total, and they all have different jobs they do in the body. Making sure you take in your B vitamins can help you to deal with hormonal imbalances. You can take a B-complex supplement to help with this, but you can also get the B vitamins from your diet.
A lot of the usual vitamin-rich suspects show up here, like salmon and dark leafy greens. Eggs and nutritional yeast are also good choices, as well as sunflower seeds, beef, trout, shellfish, poultry, beans, and organ meats like liver.
Protein
Protein provides the body with amino acids, which are essential nutritional molecules that the body can’t make on its own. Some of your hormones are actually made of these amino acids, called the peptide hormones, and they help control things like growth, energy metabolism, appetite, stress, and reproduction.
High protein foods like eggs, chicken breast, lentils, or fish are important to include throughout the day. Not only will they help you feel fuller longer, they will help give your body the building blocks it needs to create other essential hormones that control your health and how you feel.
Making simple lifestyle changes like these that help balance your hormone levels can really improve how you feel and function throughout your day, but if you feel that the results you’re getting from these healthy choices are still not enough, it’s time to turn to the experts. A hormone replacement therapy center like Renewed Vitality can get you feeling better with bioidentical hormone treatments to help your body achieve the levels it needs. Contact us if you’re interested in learning more!
Almost every person will experience hormonal changes during their lifetimes. It’s also common for both men and women to start experiencing symptoms of hormone changes and deficiencies as they age. But how do you know for certain if you’re experiencing a hormonal imbalance?
First, it’s crucial to evaluate your symptoms. In women especially, hormones are a critical aspect of every phase of life—from the beginning of menarche through childbearing age and into menopause. These hormones change over time to meet our body’s changing needs.
But sometimes hormone levels become unbalanced, creating uncomfortable or painful symptoms. At Renewed Vitality, our symptom checker services help people address hormonal problems and feel their best through each stage of life.
Common symptoms of hormone imbalances often include:
Hair Loss
The health and growth of your hair is also specifically related to your hormones. Thyroid abnormalities, for instance, can cause a person’s dry hair or skin, thinning hair, or fragile nails. Hypothyroidism, hyperthyroidism, and parathyroid disorder are also known to cause hair loss.
Anxiety or Depression
Nearly 20% of Americans suffer from an anxiety-related disorder, and 7% from a major depressive disorder every year. Women may be at a higher risk due to changes in estrogen levels during menstrual cycles, pregnancy, or menopause that are correlated to worsening depression. In terms of hormones specifically, research on the impact of estrogen receptors in the brain concluded that estrogen reduces the fear response and anxiety levels for both humans and rodents. Higher amounts of estrogen were also correlated with less fearful responses when stimulated by fearful situations.
Heightened Moodiness or Irritability
The hormone estrogen induces an important effect on neurotransmitters in the brain, including serotonin (a chemical that improves mood). For women, fluctuating estrogen levels can cause premenstrual syndrome (PMS) or depressed mood during the perimenopause (the phase before periods stop completely) and the menopause. Men with low levels of testosterone have a higher chance of developing anxiety or major depressive disorder when compared to those with normal levels.
Weight Gain or Loss of Muscle Mass
A wide range of hormone-related conditions can result in weight gain, including an underactive thyroid (when it does not produce enough thyroid hormones that help regulate your metabolism). Hormone-related weight gain or loss of muscle may also result from polycystic ovary syndrome, a problem causing small cysts on the ovaries, and menopause, which creates hormonal changes that can make you more likely to gain fat near your abdomen.
Low Energy, Stamina, or Motivation
While experiencing perimenopause and menopause, a woman’s ovaries gradually produce less estrogen and progesterone, which promotes sleep. Decreasing estrogen levels could also make night sweats worse, which disturb your sleep, contributing to greater fatigue and low energy levels.
Low Sex Drive
Low libido is a common symptom for women going through perimenopause or menopause because of falling levels of estrogen and testosterone. Additional menopausal symptoms include night sweats, fatigue, low mood, and greater anxiety, all of which can also negatively impact your sex life.
Still uncertain whether you’re suffering from hormone imbalances? Take our quick quiz that helps you evaluate hormonal imbalance symptoms. To get started, click here for women and here for men. Truly, the more information you have about your specific hormonal imbalances (triggers, causes, etc.) the better you can heal them moving forward.
If you and your healthcare provider think you may be experiencing hormone imbalances, contact Renewed Vitality today! We are the Reading area’s hormone therapy resource and can help you start feeling healthy and more like yourself again.
