Most women struggle with hormone imbalance, whether they are aware of it or not. Thyroid issues, moodiness, hot flashes, lack of libido, and painful periods are only a few ways hormonal imbalances can manifest in your life. Unfortunately, it is difficult to pinpoint the root cause of your troubles, as there is not one thing to blame for your complaints. Stress, diet, poor lifestyle choices, and environmental factors can all play a role.
Signs Of Hormone Imbalance
If you regularly suffer from two or more of these symptoms, the chances are that your hormones are out of balance.
- Irregular periods
- PMS symptoms (mood swings, bloating, headaches)
- Fibroids
- Fibrocystic and tender breasts
- Endometriosis
- Thyroid issues
- Hot flashes
- Night sweats
- Low energy
- Low libido
- Weight gain
- Hair loss
- Water retention
Check out this video to help you understand how hormones work and the most common symptoms of hormone imbalance.
But don’t think you are helpless and at the mercy of your out-of-balance hormones. Instead, feel empowered knowing you can do a lot to help improve your hormone health.
Here are 7 natural ways to help with hormone imbalance:
1. Eat More Fruits And Vegetables
When women suspect that their hormones may be out of balance, rarely do they think of their diet as a factor that may have contributed to their problems. But diet and nutrition profoundly impact your overall health, from immune to hormone health.
A simple change you can make is eating more fruits and vegetables. Increasing the consumption of foods containing phytochemicals, antioxidants, and other beneficial plant compounds has been shown to support healthy hormone levels. They also provide fiber, vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, and other nutrients that promote good health.
Tip: Regardless of how many fruits and veggies you currently consume, there is always room for improvement. For the next 7 days, commit to eating an apple a day and gradually add more colorful fruits and vegetables to your current diet.
2. Try Seed Cycling
Seed cycling is praised for helping regulate your cycle and support hormone balance. But what exactly is seed cycling?
Seed cycling means incorporating four different seeds into your diet to support the hormonal needs of the different phases of your menstrual cycle.
From day 1 to day 14 of your cycle, eat 1 tbsp of freshly ground flax seeds and 1 tbsp pumpkin seeds daily. Both flax and pumpkin seeds contain natural estrogen-promoting substances that can help prepare the uterine lining for implantation and bring estrogen levels into balance.
From day 15 to day 28 (or until menses), eat 1 tbsp of freshly ground raw sunflower seed and 1 tbsp sesame seed daily. Both sunflower seeds and sesame seeds are high in vitamin E and zinc. These nutrients are essential for optimum progesterone production.
The beauty of this strategy lies in its simplicity and that as you do it, you will be more in tune with your menstrual cycle. As a result, you will pay more attention to how you feel throughout the month and understand better how your natural hormonal fluctuations influence your mood and energy levels.
3. Drink More Water
Many women don’t understand how hydration affects their bodies’ ability to keep their hormones in balance. Drinking fresh, clean water helps keep your body hydrated, which supports the adequate functioning of your endocrine system, a network of glands and organs responsible for regulating a range of bodily functions through the release of hormones.
For instance, your thyroid and adrenal glands are part of your endocrine system. The thyroid produces hormones that regulate metabolism, growth, development, and energy production, while the adrenal glands produce hormones that control functions such as blood pressure, heart rate, and stress response.
Remember, poor hydration can adversely affect your body’s ability to detoxify and remove toxins, leading to hormonal imbalance. So be sure to drink at least eight glasses of water a day.
4. Exercise Regularly
Not just what we eat affects our hormone levels; exercise also plays an important role. Hormone-related health problems, such as sleep issues, mood swings, stress, and weight gain, may be successfully addressed by increasing your physical activity.
While it’s easy to put exercise on the backburner and find plenty of perfectly valid excuses why you don’t have time to go for a walk or to the gym, physical activity deserves to be part of a hormone-loving lifestyle. Exercise enhances your overall wellbeing and boosts hormone levels, such as dopamine, serotonin, estrogen, and testosterone.
Increased dopamine levels in the brain help decrease stress and enhance your mood. So when you feel down, why not go for a walk or a nice jog? If you have trouble sleeping, exercise can help by encouraging serotonin production, which promotes a good night’s sleep. In addition, boosting serotonin levels can positively affect your mood, appetite, digestion, and even sexual function. Regular exercise can also help boost testosterone, slowing the natural aging process.
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5. Reduce Stress Levels
According to a 2020 survey, 49 percent of American adults report increased stress taking an emotional and physical toll on their bodies. Feeling tension in the body and experiencing mood swings are two common ways stress can manifest. Although your body is designed to handle small amounts of stress, chronic stress can wreak havoc on your health, leading to hormone imbalance.
Your stress hormones – adrenaline and cortisol – are only meant to be released by the body occasionally. Yet, if you experience chronic, sustained stress, your body is forced to release stress hormones continuously. This can lead to weight gain, thyroid problems, fatigue, insomnia, depression, anxiety, irregular menstrual cycles, infertility, and more.
Learning to deal with stress by staying calm in stressful situations is a great way to manage stress better. While you cannot eliminate stress, you can train yourself to respond to it in a way that is less destructive to your hormone health.
Tips: Practice yoga, meditation, or breathwork daily to help calm your body. Schedule time for self-care, so it becomes a health-promoting habit over time.
6. Fix Your sleep
The recommended daily amount of sleep is about 8 hours. Getting a sufficient amount and quality of sleep is critical for optimum hormone regulation. If you are a light sleeper, wake up multiple times throughout the night, or have trouble falling asleep, your low-quality sleep likely disrupts your hormone balance.
Too much sleep isn’t always a good thing either. Sleeping more than 9 hours a night can disrupt your sleep cycle, reduce metabolism, and cause daytime fatigue. Take sleep seriously and take action to improve your sleep hygiene.
Tips: Keep your cell phone, laptop, and other electronics out of the bedroom. Train your body to know when it’s time to sleep by going to bed and waking up at regular times.
7. Ditch Toxic Skincare Products
Unfortunately, it is not a cliche that we live in a highly toxic world. Our food, water, air, and even personal care products expose us to hundreds of harmful chemicals. Yet, shockingly enough, cosmetics and other personal care products are subject to little government oversight, allowing manufacturers to use toxic chemicals in their formulations, many of which have been linked to severe health problems, including cancer.
According to the Environmental Working Group (EWG), some of the most common chemicals used in cosmetics are:
- Formaldehyde (a known carcinogen)
- Paraformaldehyde
- Methylene glycol
- Quaternium 15 (releases formaldehyde)
- Mercury (damages the kidneys and nervous system)
- Dibutyl and diethylhexyl phthalates (disrupts hormones and damage the reproductive system)
- Isobutyl and isopropyl parabens (disrupts hormones and harm the reproductive system)
- The long-chain per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances known as PFAS (linked to breast cancer)
- M- and o-phenylenediamine, used in hair dyes, (irritates and sensitizes the skin, damage DNA, and can cause cancer)
Research shows that the harmful effects of endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs) are much more extensive than initially recognized. Clinical studies have linked EDCs to certain types of cancer, including breast cancer, cardiovascular and neurodegenerative diseases. Similarly alarming studies have also linked EDCs exhibiting estrogenic effects to increased uterine and breast cancer risk.
The bottom line is, no matter how clean your diet is, how well you manage your stress, or how much you exercise, if your environment is filled with toxic chemicals and your skincare products are laden with endocrine-disrupting chemicals, you can still struggle with signs of hormone imbalance.
Tips: Purchase natural and organic skincare products with clean formulations containing no toxic chemicals. Read labels carefully and avoid products with EDCs. Alternatively, you can make your own moisturizer, toothpaste, shampoo, or body butter with all-natural ingredients. A quick online search for DIY skincare recipes will get you thousands of non-toxic and skin-loving ideas.
Are you committed to improving your hormone health but not sure where to start? Explore ways for us to work together.