How to Balance Hormones Naturally for Men and Women
Hormone imbalances can happen to both men and women, causing a wide variety of symptoms that can be unpleasant, difficult to deal with, and disruptive to your daily life. If you’re dealing with hormone levels that are too high or too low for one reason or another, you’re not alone! Plenty of people deal with these issues, and there are lots of things you can do to help correct the problem and start feeling better. Some of these tips are specific to male or female hormone levels, while others work for everyone. You can pick and choose the best options for you!
For Women
Avoid Dairy
Dairy products like cream and yogurt might not be beneficial when it comes to female reproductive hormones. Some studies show that there may be a link between consuming these products and lower levels of female fertility. While it hasn’t been proven that dairy products can be directly harmful to your health unless you’re lactose intolerant or have a dairy allergy, if you’re struggling with hormone imbalances, trying to limit the amount of dairy you take in might be helpful!
For Men
Reduce Alcohol Intake
Excessive use of alcohol has a long list of negative effects on your health, and hormones are no exception. There’s lots of evidence indicating that high levels of alcohol intake can damage your testosterone levels, resulting in erectile dysfunction, infertility, low muscle mass, and many other problems. Cutting down on how much you drink, or cutting alcohol out entirely if you’re able to, can make a world of difference in how good you feel overall and in your hormonal levels!
For Everyone
Eat a Healthy Diet
What you eat plays an enormous role in your hormone levels. Your food is the fuel and building blocks that you supply to your body to ensure that it can function properly, and in order to make hormones in the proper amounts and have them work the way they’re supposed to, your body needs healthy fats, fiber, and plenty of protein. Looking for ways to incorporate these things into each meal you eat with lean meats, vegetables, leafy greens, legumes, fish, nuts, and other good sources of nutrients will help your hormone levels tremendously, as will reducing your sugar intake!
Exercise Plenty
Exercise can be helpful in cases of hormone imbalances by helping you maintain a healthy weight along with a good diet, but its benefits go far beyond just keeping the number on the scale down! Exercise improves how your body processes insulin, helping you control your appetite in a healthier way, and reduces your risk of diseases like diabetes. Even low-impact exercise like walking, swimming, or yoga can have major health benefits when it comes to your hormones!
Prioritize Sleep
Nothing sends the body into a tailspin like a poor night’s sleep, especially when you regularly don’t sleep long enough or well enough. Sleep deprivation affects your stress hormones, your appetite hormones, your growth hormones, and many of the other vital chemical messengers in your body. Making sleep a priority in your day to day life can help to improve your hormone levels as well as increasing your energy!
Consider HRT
Sometimes, even when you’re making the right lifestyle choices and setting yourself up for success with your hormones, it still isn’t’ enough, and if you’re finding this is the case for you, hormone replacement therapy, or HRT, like the kind offered at Renewed Vitality, might be right for you! To learn more, contact us today with your questions. We’ll be happy to help you!
Whether you’re dealing with the symptoms of menopause, a thyroid problem, low estrogen or testosterone, or any other type of hormone imbalance, hormone replacement therapy, or HRT, can be one of the best and most effective ways to get you feeling better again! HRT helps to alleviate symptoms that can make day to day life difficult and unpleasant, and get you feeling better again without complicated or confusing medication.
There are a lot of different delivery methods for the hormones in HRT, and each one has its own upsides and drawbacks. If you’re considering starting hormone replacement therapy, knowing the options that are available to you in terms of how the hormones get into your system is a good place to start! Here are some of the main options to be aware of.
Pills
Hormone pills are a very common form of HRT, in large part because they’re familiar to most patients. Not everyone has dealt with a topical patch or cream before, but almost everyone has had to take a daily pill for some reason or another. Although some hormone pills have more complex dosing schedules, most are taken once a day.
Pills are easy and effective as a delivery method for therapeutic hormones, but they do carry some potential side effects, like headaches and nausea. Additionally, if you suffer from liver problems or are at risk of strokes or blood clots, pills may not be the best plan for you, as they can exacerbate these problems.
Patches
Hormone therapy patches stick to your skin with an adhesive and allow the hormones to be absorbed through your skin, where they eventually circulate through the rest of your system. They’re changed periodically, typically once a week, and if you’re the kind of person who frequently forgets to take medication on a daily basis, the patch might be a great option for you! They also work well for people who can’t take pills, for instance, if you have a liver problem.
However, some people aren’t good candidates for hormone patches. Anyone who spends a lot of time out in the sun should avoid this form of treatment, since the heat and light makes them release their doses too quickly, so athletes, outdoor workers, frequent tanners, and those who live in very hot climates should consider other options.
Creams, Sprays, and Gels
Patch treatments aren’t the only way to absorb hormones through your skin. You can also use creams, gels, or sprays, which are all applied to the skin to deliver the hormones. Where on the body you apply them depends on the specific topical treatment you’re using– some need to go on the leg, while some go on the arm, and so on.
Like patches, topical treatments like sprays or creams are a good option for anyone who can’t take oral pills, but you have to be careful using this form of treatment as there is a chance they might rub or wash off before being properly absorbed. Topical treatments should always be applied after a bath or shower, and allowed to fully dry before dressing.
Pellets
At Renewed Vitality, pellet therapy is our preferred method of hormone delivery. While we offer other options so that each of our patients can find the treatment plan that works the best for them, we find this is one of the most effective ways to get the hormones you need circulating in your system!
With pellet therapy, we use a simple and painless outpatient procedure to insert a hormone pellet under your skin, usually in the thigh, hip, or buttock. The pellet releases its hormones slowly without you needing to remember to take a pill, change a patch, or apply a cream, and only needs to be changed about every three to six months. Pellet therapy is safe and natural, and helps to avoid the side effects of other forms of hormone treatment.
At Renewed Vitality, the members of our team are dedicated to helping you find the hormone replacement therapy plan that works for you so that we can get you feeling better as fast as possible! If you’re interested in learning more, please don’t hesitate to contact us to schedule an appointment today!
Hormones are the chemical messengers of the body. They are in charge of sending the signals back and forth across your systems that make all of your natural bodily functions happen, and this means that having your hormones at the right levels is really important! Hormones that are out of balance can end up making life pretty miserable, but luckily, your hormone levels aren’t completely out of your control. There are plenty of lifestyle choices you can make to help get yourself back on track. Here are a few of them!
Get Your Protein
Aside from helping you build strong muscles and keeping you full for longer periods of time, protein is a vital nutrient for the body because it supplies amino acids that your body can’t make by itself. These building blocks are a crucial part of making your hormones in the first place, so make sure you get plenty of healthy protein at each meal– chicken, fish, eggs, and lentils are all good sources of this vital nutrient.
Exercise Regularly
The importance of getting your daily movement in cannot be overstated, especially in this day and age where so many people live sedentary lifestyles. Exercise not only improves your circulation and helps your hormones work more effectively, but it can increase how sensitive your body is to hormones, helping increase their efficacy even more. Regular exercise can also help improve your body’s response to insulin, which is very important for your health.
Improve Your Sleep Quality
With so many sources of stress and distraction, getting a good night’s sleep can seem like a tall order, but it’s worth prioritizing your eight hours every single night. Lack of sleep or poor quality sleep is linked to imbalances in many different hormones, and you can probably notice these effects in yourself whenever you have a stretch of time where you’re sleeping poorly. Practice stress reduction techniques and sleep hygiene to help you get plenty of uninterrupted sleep that will allow your body to go through all of the sleep cycles and restore itself. You’ll thank yourself in the morning, and so will your endocrine system!
Consider HRT
One of the most powerful ways to address hormone imbalances that are disrupting your life is to consider hormone replacement therapy, like the kind offered at Renewed Vitality. Our bioidentical hormones are a safe and effective treatment for many different kinds of imbalances, and can help you to start feeling better. If you’re interested in learning more about HRT as an option, make sure to contact us today and one of our friendly and helpful team members will be happy to assist you.
It’s a fact of life that things start to change drastically in your body as you age. Your joints get stiffer, your eyesight gets worse, and your hair turns gray. Some of the biggest changes, however, can come from changes in your hormonal levels as you age. These hormonal changes are called menopause for women and andropause for men. They can cause major effects in the body, not all of which are very pleasant, and occasionally these symptoms can get in the way of you living a full and healthy life as you get older. However, you don’t just have to suffer through it! Hormone replacement therapy, or HRT, can be an effective treatment for the symptoms of menopause and andropause.
What is Menopause?
Menopause is the natural decline of reproductive hormone levels as a woman reaches her 40s and 50s, eventually leading to the complete stop of her menstrual cycle. Symptoms of a woman entering menopause can be things like hot flashes, chills, night sweats, mood changes, thinning hair, dry skin, vaginal dryness, and more. This is a natural occurrence in a woman’s life, but the symptoms can be difficult to cope with.
What is Andropause?
Andropause is the male counterpart to menopause– natural decline of reproductive hormone levels as a man ages. Its most common symptoms are fatigue and decreased libido, but other symptoms can include decreased muscle mass, mood changes, erectile dysfunction, depression, and other problems that can get in the way of you enjoying your life in and after middle age.
Replacement Hormones
To counteract the effects of menopause, a woman needs to increase her estrogen and progesterone levels. Estrogen does many things, including maintaining healthy blood cholesterol levels, influencing how the body uses calcium and preventing osteoporosis, and maintaining a healthy vaginal environment. Progesterone regulates blood pressure and helps to improve mood and sleep.
Treating andropause with HRT requires testosterone. Among its many jobs, testosterone regulates sex drive, bone mass, fat distribution, muscle mass and strength, and the production of red blood cells.
How Can HRT Help?
Hormone replacement therapy seeks to add hormones back into your system to help boost your levels and alleviate your system. Replacement hormones can come in pill, patch, cream, gel, or spray form, or they can be given in suppository form or by subcutaneous delivery. By using natural, bioidentical hormones like the ones at Renewed Vitality, you can help to counteract the symptoms of menopause or andropause that you experience.
Hormone changes as you age can leave you uncomfortable, unhappy, and feeling like you’ve lost control of your body and your life. With hormone replacement therapy, you can have your life back again! If you’re interested in this form of treatment, be sure to contact Renewed Vitality today to get started.
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!
Most people are familiar with the concept of hot flashes. They’re a very common symptom of menopause, and so many women will experience them at least a few times in their later years. You may be wondering, however, if men can ever experience hot flashes. The answer is yes, they can, but the underlying causes of hot flashes are of course different from the causes of hot flashes in women. Let’s take a look at why a man might be suffering from hot flashes, and what can be done to relieve them.
What is a Hot Flash?
A hot flash is a sudden and unexpected warm feeling that doesn’t correspond to the temperature of the environment. The sensation of heat is often felt in the face, neck, chest, and upper body, and can often cause sweating and redenning of the skin. Loss of heat during a hot flash can lead to chills after it ends, and they can often occur during the night and are then referred to as night sweats.
Hot flashes are not a condition on their own and are a symptom of some other issue that might be happening. They can be bothersome and uncomfortable, and when they occur at night, can lead to lost sleep.
What Causes Hot Flashes in Men?
While hot flashes in women are usually a sign of changing hormone levels, like those seen in menopause, in men they have a few different causes.
Androgen Deprivation Therapy
A treatment for prostate cancer called androgen deprivation therapy works by restricting the production of testosterone in the body. This helps to stop the cancer cells from growing or spreading, because testosterone stimulates their growth. However, the lowered levels of testosterone cause hot flashes for the majority of the men who undergo this treatment.
Lifestyle Stress
Hot flashes can sometimes occur alongside other symptoms in a man such as erectile dysfunction, lowered libido, or mood changes. For these symptoms together, it’s common that some kind of stress, depression, anxiety, or other mental health issue is aggravating them.
Low Testosterone
Low testosterone can occur for many different reasons, and can cause hot flashes. Some of the underlying causes of low testosterone (also called hypogonadism or low T) include undescended testicles, physical testicular injury, Klinefelter’s syndrome, hemochromatosis, pituitary disorders, HIV or AIDS, and many other conditions. Other symptoms of low T include infertility, low energy levels, low muscle mass, decreased sex drive, hair loss, and more. If these symptoms occur along with hot flashes, speak to your doctor about your testosterone levels and what might be causing them to be low.
What Can You Do to Relieve Male Hot Flashes?
Hot flashes can be difficult to manage, and even more challenging to avoid, but there are some steps you can take to make them easier to deal with.
Avoiding Triggers
Spend a week or so being observant about what you’re doing right before and during a hot flash. You might be able to identify some things that trigger them, including warm rooms or tight, hot clothing, alcohol, smoking, caffeine, or spicy food. Avoiding these things can help you to avoid hot flashes.
Healthy Lifestyle Changes
Building in more exercise, nutritious foods, and plenty of sleep will help to improve many things about your physical health, including hot flashes. Prioritizing fitness and health and taking care of your body can help to make these episodes easier to deal with.
Treat the Cause
If you can identify the underlying cause of your hot flashes with your doctor’s help, such as environmental stress or low testosterone, you can begin treating the underlying cause of your hot flashes and stopping them altogether.
Hormone Replacement Therapy
Hormone replacement therapy can often be a great treatment for men looking to deal with their hot flashes, although with some exceptions. Men with a history of prostate cancer are advised not to undergo any testosterone replacement therapy since testosterone stimulates prostate cancer cells. However, if you and your healthcare provider think this might be a good option for you, contact Renewed Vitality today! We are the Reading area’s hormone replacement therapy resource and can help you start to feel like yourself again.
Whether you’re treating a hormone imbalance, dealing with the issues of menopause, or addressing problems with your thyroid, hormone replacement therapy can completely change how you feel and your outlook on life. Hormones affect many vital processes that happen in the body, and choosing to use HRT to put your levels back on track can have powerful effects on almost every aspect of your physical wellbeing.
Once you’ve settled on HRT, though, you have more decisions to make, and one of the biggest decisions is what form of hormone you’re going to use. There are many different ways that replacement hormones can be delivered into your system, and no one way is better than the others. You’ll have to decide which form is going to be the best fit for you, and to do that, you’ll need to know about your options! Here are the most common forms of hormones used in HRT and the benefits and drawbacks of each one.
Pills
Of the forms of hormone therapy, pills taken orally are the most common. Most are taken once a day, although some pills have different or more complex dosing schedules, and they are one of the most researched forms of hormone therapy since they’ve been around for the longest.
The benefits of pills is that they are easy to use and an effective way to deliver hormones to your system. Some of the downsides of pills, however, is that they can carry side effects. With estrogen therapy, for instance, side effects could include headaches and nausea, and pills can sometimes carry risks of aggravating other health conditions, like liver damage or increased risk of strokes or blood clots. Your doctor can discuss with you if these potential side effects are likely to cause an issue in your case.
Patches
Patches attach to your skin with an adhesive and secrete hormones into your system through the skin. Usually you wear patches somewhere out of the way, like on your stomach below your waistband, and you change them out regularly according to the instructions, typically once a week. If you frequently forget to take pills or other medications, patches can be a good option for you since they’re more of a “set it and forget it” kind of treatment.
Skin patches can be a good choice for people who can’t take pills– for instance, if you have a liver condition and can’t take oral estrogen, which is hard on the liver, an estrogen patch completely bypasses the liver and would be a great option. Side effects like headaches or nausea from patches can also sometimes be less intense than those from pills, although this does vary from person to person. Hormone patches usually need to be kept away from high heat or direct sunlight, though, because it can make them release their doses too quickly. This makes them difficult to wear for people who spend a lot of time outdoors in hot climates or who frequently use tanning beds or saunas. If these things apply to you, a different option might be better.
Topical Treatments
Topical hormone treatments cover any type of treatment that is applied to the skin, such as gels, creams, and sprays. They work similarly to patches by allowing the hormone to be absorbed into the bloodstream through the skin. They may be applied to different places on the body depending on the specific medication, like the arm or the leg.
Like patches, hormone creams, gels, and sprays are good for anyone who can’t take hormone pills orally because they bypass the digestive system and go straight to the bloodstream. Unlike patches, however, they do need to be applied regularly, often daily, which can make them difficult for people who have trouble remembering to take medication. Additionally, there is a risk of them being rubbed or washed off before they have a chance to absorb. Because of this, topical treatments always need to be applied after bathing or showering, and you should let them fully dry before dressing.
Vaginal Treatments
Vaginal suppositories, rings, and creams are most often used to deliver estrogen, and they are commonly used by women whose hormone imbalances lead to them having vaginal dryness, itching, burning, or pain during sex. This is one of the most effective ways to treat the vaginal symptoms of menopause. The schedules for these treatments can vary depending on what kind you’re using, from needing to be changed daily or a few times a week to only needing to be changed or reapplied every few months.
These treatments, like patches, are convenient because you don’t need to take them every day, and if the only real problems you’re having with a hormone imbalance are related to dryness and discomfort, they can be great to target that symptom directly. They also typically have a low dosage, reducing the risk of side effects like headaches or nausea. On the downside, they often don’t do much to help other symptoms such as hot flashes, so if you have symptoms besides vaginal discomfort, another type of therapy would be a better choice for you. It’s also not recommended to use vaginal treatments long term unless you’ve had a hysterectomy, because extended use can increase your risk of endometrial cancer.
While other types of hormone replacement treatments are available, these are the most common ones that you’ll run across. As you can see, each one has pros and cons, and your doctor can help you decide which will work best for you. If you’re interested in learning more about HRT, contact Renewed Vitality to schedule an appointment today!
Your hormones are the chemical messengers of your body, and they affect just about every process that goes on inside your body, not just your reproductive system. Weight, sleep, appetite, growth, even body temperature– all of these things are affected by changing levels of hormones in your system. You might’ve known this fact already, and maybe you’re familiar with other bodily processes that your hormones affect, but did you know that your hormones also play a role in your cardiac health? The different levels of estrogen, testosterone, and progesterone in your system can change how your heart functions and can even raise or lower your risk of cardiovascular disease. Let’s take a look at how your hormones can affect your heart health.
Estrogen
While estrogen’s primary function is as the female sex hormone, it has a surpisingly strong effect on cardiovascular health. Studies show that leading cause of death in postmenopausal women is heart disease. Although this connection is still being studied, the evidence suggests a correlation between the increased risk of heart disease following menopause and the dropping estrogen levels that occur at the same time, which seems to line up with the various functions of the hormone. Estrogen can improve the ability of your blood vessels to dilate and respond to changes in blood pressure, and they also help you to avoid clots.
There have been some studies that would seem to disprove the theory that dropping estrogen levels are bad for your heart, where postmenopausal women who were undergoing hormone replacement therapy didn’t see any benefits from increased estrogen. However, in these studies, the women were taking orally-dosed estrogen that affects cardiovascular health in different ways and can sometimes cause more harm than good. Naturally derived estrogen that is delivered percutaneously (under the skin) like the kind offered by Renewed Vitality has been shown to have more positive effects on heart health.
Testosterone
Lower levels of testosterone are not only associated with cardiovascular disease, they’re associated with other conditions that can eventually lead to cardiovascular disease, such as insulin resistance, metabolic syndrome and diabetes. Between 27 and 36 percent of men who experience heart failure are also testosterone deficient, so much like estrogen, the connection is still being studied, but a correlation between testosterone levels and heart health is certainly present.
Testosterone has some vasodilatory effects (the dilation of veins) just like estrogen, and also plays a role in fighting inflammation and influencing muscular strength. Because of all of these things, testosterone replacement therapy has been shown to have positive effects for heart failure patients, including female patients, increasing functional capacity and decreasing other heart failure symptoms without major side effects.
Progesterone
Progesterone’s relationship to heart health is a little complicated. Part of this is due to the role progesterone plays in the production of cortisol, the body’s stress hormone that also acts as an anti-inflammatory agent. Heart disease means lots of inflammation, so cortisol is one of the tools the body uses to fight back The body uses progesterone to make cortisol, and in times of stress where lots of cortisol is needed, your body could become deficient in progesterone and experience a hormonal imbalance.
The other part of progesterone’s relationship to heart health has to do with a confusion in terms between natural and synthetic progesterone. The naturally occurring hormone has no negative effects on the cardiovascular system, but synthetic progesterone, or progestin, can be detrimental to the blood vessel walls and may increase clotting. This poses a problem, especially when a heart issue creates a progesterone imbalance due to high cortisol production. However, it’s been found that bioidentical progesterone hormone replacement treatment, like the kind offered by Renewed Vitality, doesn’t share the same risks as progestin and can be a useful treatment to help these imbalances.
As you can see, the relationship between your hormones and your heart is complicated and interconnected, with lots of studies still being conducted today. However, reliable bioidentical hormone replacement therapy has been well-established as helpful in cases of cardiovascular disease, so if you’re interested in learning more about how Renewed Vitality can help you, don’t hesitate to contact us.
