What are the Benefits of a Whole Food Diet for Hormone Imbalances?
When you start paying close attention to your hormones and looking for ways to keep your levels optimal, you’ll immediately start running across diet tips and recommendations. Your body is a complex system where every process affects others, and what you put into your body through your food intake has a major impact on your hormones. In the midst of the lists of hormone-balancing foods, you might start to see the words “whole food diet” get mentioned pretty frequently.
A whole food diet basically involves a person avoiding processed foods and eating things only in their most basic and natural form. Most whole food diets rely heavily on fresh fruits and vegetables, grains, legumes, and poultry and fish. When done properly, a whole food diet can have a lot of good effects on your body’s hormones, and it might be worth considering this lifestyle change if you’re looking for natural ways to balance your levels. Here’s how a whole food diet might help your hormone imbalance!
Encourages Protein Intake
One of the things that your body absolutely requires in order to maintain healthy hormone levels is enough protein, which is something that many Americans don’t get. Protein from your food provides your body with amino acids, vital building blocks that the human body needs but can’t make on its own. A whole food diet tends to be rich in protein because it encourages you to eat lean meats like chicken and fish, as well as high-protein legumes like lentils, beans, and chickpeas.
Includes Nutrient Dense Foods
Vitamins and minerals are also important things that you need to get in your diet in order for your hormone levels to be healthy, and a whole food diet, which is packed with fresh fruits, leafy greens, and non-starchy vegetables, is very high in these nutrients.
Promotes Healthy Weight
A healthy and sustainable weight plays a large part in how your body produces and uses hormones, especially hunger-related hormones like insulin and ghrelin. Your weight is far from the only factor playing into your hormone health, but it does have a large role. Achieving and maintaining a healthy weight is a challenge for many people, but a whole food diet can be a step in the right direction.
It’s important to note that any diet can become unhealthy and unsustainable if taken too far, including this one. However, a whole food diet that promotes nutrient-dense foods and avoids processed foods with high sugars and fats is often a good baseline for people trying to keep their weight under control.
Helps Your Gut Health
Eating in a way that keeps your gut microbiome happy and healthy is something that’s being talked about more and more these days, and if you’re making meals with your gut health in mind, your hormone levels will be happier for it. A whole food diet can be extremely beneficial to the millions of good bacteria that live in your digestive tract. It provides them with the fiber they need to flourish, and keeps your hormone production in check by extension.
You should always consult your doctor before making any major changes to your diet and lifestyle. However, incorporating more whole foods into your regular meals can be great not only for your hormone health, but for your overall wellness! If you’re interested in learning more about ways to balance your hormones naturally, make sure to keep reading our blog here at Renewed Vitality.
There are dozens of different hormones in the human body. These so-called “chemical messengers” are responsible for triggering the various processes and rhythms throughout your body over the course of your life, from your circadian rhythm to your hunger levels to a woman’s menstrual cycle. These small little chemicals play a vital role in the way your body functions because of this!
Of the many different types of hormones, one of the most talked-about ones is estrogen. Most people know that it’s a hormone that has to do with the female reproductive system, but how much do you actually know about estrogen beyond that? At Renewed Vitality, we’re the hormone experts, and so we’re giving you a crash course in what you need to know about estrogen!
What is Estrogen?
Estrogen is one of the sex hormones, meaning it’s involved in your sexual and reproductive systems. It’s commonly thought of as a specifically female hormone, but that’s not entirely true! While women have estrogen in much higher levels in their bodies, men have it as well, and not having it can cause problems to their health. While it performs more functions in a woman’s body, estrogen can be found in the endocrine systems of all healthy humans.
What Does Estrogen Do?
Estrogen is a vital component in female sexual maturity. Levels of this hormone begin to rise as a young girl enters puberty, and it causes the changes associated with that point in development, such as breast growth and the start of the period.
In adult women, estrogen plays a major role in the menstrual cycle. Rising levels of the hormone stimulate the ovaries to produce the egg, and the uterus to thicken its lining. Estrogen also works to increase a woman’s chances of getting pregnant during the height of her fertile period. It thins out her cervical mucus to make it easier for sperm to enter her uterus, and it keeps the vaginal walls lubricated and elastic to facilitate sex.
Estrogen plays roles in other processes in the body as well, like inflammation, blood sugar cholesterol levels, collagen production, bone density, and mood.
Where is Estrogen Made?
The majority of the estrogen in a woman’s body at any time is produced by her ovaries. A small amount is made by other organs, like the liver or the adrenal glands, but mostly the ovaries serve this function. In men, the amount of estrogen they need is produced in the testes, the male equivalent of the ovaries.
What Happens if You Have Low Estrogen?
Low estrogen can have major effects on the entire body, not just on your reproductive system. However, not every person with low estrogen is undergoing something abnormal. Menopause is a natural process that every woman goes through, and during it, estrogen levels will drop significantly. This is associated with the common symptoms of menopause, like vaginal dryness, mood changes, fatigue, hot flashes, and breast tenderness. It’s also the reason many women suffer from brittle bones and bone density loss as they age– less estrogen means your bones get weaker. Menopause is not the only cause of low estrogen levels. They might also occur with fertility problems, nutritional deficiencies, or conditions like Turner syndrome.
What Happens if You Have High Estrogen?
High estrogen levels can be caused by anything from the medications you’re taking to conditions like fibroids, ovarian tumors, or PCOS. Its symptoms can include decreased sex drive, weight gain, worsening premenstrual symptoms, or irregular or missing periods.
What to Do About Estrogen Imbalances?
An imbalance in your estrogen levels can throw the functions of your entire body out of whack, making it a difficult and upsetting condition to deal with. Luckily, things aren’t completely out of your control! There are lots of treatments available to help you deal with estrogen imbalances, like the bioidentical hormone replacement therapy (HRT) available at Renewed Vitality! You can contact us today to learn more about how we can help you with your estrogen levels.
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!
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.
