H - Hormones

H – Hormones

Hormones are tricky things, we can have too much of one and not enough of another, and they change all the time so its hard to get a perfect picture. Our hormones change as we grow and change through life. They can change daily, weekly, yearly so its hard to suggest a one fits all solution as everyone is so different. I won’t give you supplements or herbs that can be used in hormonal conditions but I can tell that there are certain things you can do which will help your body cope with all the hormone fluctutations.

Firstly I would suggest you detox your bathroom. There are thousands of chemicals in all the beauty products that we use and many of them are endocrine or hormone disrupting. Our skin absorbs these chemicals straight into the bloodstream – which is how nicotine and hrt patches work. Women are especially prone to putting lots of lotions and potions on their bodies so taking some of these chemicals out would reduce the burden on the body. Some good brands that I love include Green People and Tropic who use no disruptive chemicals in any of their products so I can shop with these companies and feel completely safe. There is also a great app called Think Dirty – not as racy as it sounds – which shows you how ‘dirty’ your product is and is fabulous for making decisions on your products. It is a useful tool in deciding what you will keep and what you want to be substituted for something cleaner.

Then I would think about your liver. Our livers are incredibly hard working and have to deal with everything we put in and onto our bodies. As well as this all our hormones need to be metabolized and if the liver is clogged up then it will have a harder job sorting out all the internal processes. So give the liver a break sometimes.

Make sure your bowels are moving once if not twice a day. This gets rid of all the toxins and metabolized hormones and makes sure they are not recirculating back into the system. See last weeks video for more info on the gut.

Exercise a few times a week and work up a sweat to release feel good endorphins.

Get on top of your stress. Stress makes all the hormonal conditions worse. The production of cortisol, our stress hormone, actually steals from other hormone pathways so we end up depleted even more if stress is constantly high. Having some techniques that will help calm things down is absolutely vital. Things I use are tapping, breathing, exercise, sea swimming and being in nature. Find something that suits you and make it part of your routine.

And finally sleep. Getting a good nights sleep makes the world seem like a better and more manageable place. Make it a priority and try for 6-8 hours if possible