An Introduction to Women’s Hormones: The Good, the Bad, & the Ugly
Are you ready to take charge of your health? Schedule your free 20-minute discovery call with our New Patient Coordinator to see how you can become a patient at MaxWell Clinic and start your healing journey today.
Women’s hormones often get a bad rap. But your hormones aren’t evil! They’re beautifully complex and perfectly designed to help you thrive. They support your growth, your resilience to stress, and your miraculous ability to create life. But when your hormone levels aren’t optimal, they can cause symptoms like weight gain, fatigue, insomnia, and mood swings.
Watch the video on women’s hormones:
- Learn common signs of hormone imbalance and how to manage symptoms of PMS, PMDD, and menopause.
- Join me as I discuss hot-buttonhormone topics like birth control pills, bioidentical hormone replacement therapy, and supplements to improve hormone health.
- And discover 5 key strategies to improve your hormone balance naturally.
Unlocking the Secrets of Hormone Health
Hormones are the unsung heroes of our bodies, orchestrating countless physiological processes that keep us healthy and functioning optimally. From regulating our mood to controlling our metabolism and fertility, hormones play a pivotal role in our overall well-being. In this comprehensive guide, we will delve into the intricate world of hormones, exploring their impact on our bodies and ways to optimize their function naturally.
Part 1: Hormones – The Body’s Messengers
Hormones are biochemical messengers produced by various glands throughout our bodies, including the thyroid, adrenal glands, pancreas, and ovaries. They are responsible for transmitting vital information between cells, ensuring that our organs and systems work together harmoniously.
One crucial aspect of hormone health is balance. When our hormones are in equilibrium, we experience overall well-being. However, imbalances can lead to a wide range of symptoms and health issues. Some common hormonal imbalances affect thyroid function, insulin regulation, and sex hormones like estrogen and progesterone.
Part 2: PMS and Menopause – Natural Phases in a Woman’s Life
Women experience hormonal fluctuations throughout their lives, with two significant phases being premenstrual syndrome (PMS) and menopause.
Premenstrual Syndrome (PMS): PMS encompasses a group of symptoms that typically occur between ovulation and menstruation. Around 80% of women experience some PMS symptoms, which can vary in type and intensity from month to month. These symptoms include breast tenderness, bloating, headaches, mood swings, irritability, and more.
The root cause of PMS lies in hormonal shifts, particularly the decline in progesterone levels after ovulation. This hormonal rollercoaster can affect neurotransmitters like serotonin, contributing to mood swings and emotional fluctuations.
Recognizing and honoring these feelings is essential. PMS symptoms, while influenced by hormones, are very real, and it’s crucial not to dismiss them. Stress can exacerbate these symptoms, so managing stress is a key component of managing PMS.
Menopause: Menopause marks the end of a woman’s menstrual cycles, officially diagnosed after 12 consecutive months without a period. The average age of menopause is around 51, but it can occur earlier or later. During menopause, ovaries stop ovulating, leading to lower estrogen and progesterone production.
Menopause comes with a set of symptoms, including hot flashes, night sweats, mood swings, sleep disturbances, and more. Additionally, it can lead to issues like vaginal dryness and decreased bone density.
Understanding and managing these hormonal changes during menopause is crucial. Regular check-ups, including bone density scans, can help assess and address these issues. Hormone replacement therapy (HRT) may also be an option to alleviate symptoms, but it should be discussed with a healthcare provider.
Part 3: Strategies for Hormone Health
Maintaining optimal hormone health is a holistic endeavor that involves various lifestyle choices and strategies. Here are five key strategies for optimizing your hormones naturally:
-
- Stress Management: Chronic stress can disrupt hormone balance. Implement stress-reduction techniques like meditation, mindfulness, gratitude practice, and setting healthy boundaries in your life. Reducing over-analysis and embracing playfulness can also alleviate stress.
- Quality Sleep: Prioritize sleep hygiene by reducing screen time before bed, practicing relaxation techniques, and establishing a nightly routine. Magnesium supplements, melatonin, and regular exercise can enhance sleep quality.
- Inflammation Control: Chronic inflammation can interfere with hormonal regulation. Reduce added sugars, gluten, dairy, and alcohol in your diet. Consider high-quality fish oil supplements and focus on gut health to combat inflammation.
- Intermittent Fasting: Daily intermittent fasting, involving a 14 to 16-hour fasting window, can positively impact hormone regulation. Consult with your healthcare provider before trying this approach.
- Supplements: Certain supplements can support hormone balance. FemCoil can help with estrogen-progesterone balance, while Ashwagandha 35 is beneficial for stress-mediated hormone imbalances. Restorate is an excellent choice for PCOS-related issues, and Omega Clean Mono Max 1300 can address inflammation.
It’s important to emphasize that these strategies should be personalized and discussed with your healthcare provider. Every individual’s hormonal profile is unique, and tailored recommendations are essential.
Conclusion
Hormones are the conductors of our body’s orchestra, influencing nearly every aspect of our lives. Maintaining hormonal balance is crucial for overall well-being, and natural approaches can play a significant role in achieving this balance.
Remember that hormone health is not one-size-fits-all. Consult with a healthcare provider to understand your unique hormonal profile and tailor recommendations to your specific needs.
By managing stress, prioritizing sleep, controlling inflammation, considering intermittent fasting, and incorporating appropriate supplements, you can embark on a journey toward better hormone health. Take charge of your hormones, and you’ll be well on your way to a healthier, happier life.
This blog post provides an in-depth overview of hormone health, covering key phases like PMS and menopause and offering practical strategies for optimizing hormone balance naturally. It emphasizes the importance of personalized approaches and consulting healthcare professionals for tailored recommendations.
Are you ready to take charge of your health? Schedule your free 20-minute discovery call with our New Patient Coordinator to see how you can become a patient at MaxWell Clinic and start your healing journey today.
hello everyone
welcome to another one of our maxwell clinic webinar and group visit events we are so
excited and glad you are here i think this could be a really good opportunity for us to all incorporate our peace
breathing for the day so before we talk about the complex
nature that is women’s hormones why don’t we all take a really cleansing
inhale for five one two three four five
and out for five one two three four five
release the day anything that hustle and bustle that you had going on before you were here to
dedicate your time to expanding your own knowledge base and maybe you have some personal questions that we can address
after i look forward to digging and getting started so let’s go so this is an introduction to women’s
hormones the good the bad and the ugly i am assuming that the predominance
population of my patient audience today is female however if there’s a few
gents in the audience too we welcome you with open arms because the more um
everybody can be educated on this very rich and robust topic uh the better
there is there’s so much to understand about the beautiful and complex female
body so welcome i have you all unmute but if you have any questions please type your questions in the question
answer box and at the end of our time together i will try to address as many as i possibly can what i would ask of
all of you to do is as we’re going through the different kind of highlights and high points if
there’s a certain topic that you’re like i really want to know more information about this
put it in the q a box and let us know because what we’ll do from here is this is a great springboard to do additional
webinars where we can go into more of the details with kind of the nuance nuance aspects of the big umbrella that
is clinton’s hormone topic in the event that the internet goes down i will switch to a hot spot so stay on
five to ten minutes i will hop back on as soon as i possibly can so we’re gonna start with the
presentation outline which is what we’re going to cover together today this is what i like to call the meat and
potatoes so we’re going to do a broad overview of the female hormone lifetime
arc broad overview is key women’s hormones are complex and there’s
a lot of different aspects to it so each slide that we show and present and talk about today
could be its own webinar presentation or two-hour podcast or ted talk unto itself so realize that my goal and objective
today is to just go through everything from a meta perspective to really take a broad look at this topic in general to
hopefully provide some additional education points of understanding and maybe even elicit further questions for you to ask
your maxwell care clinician so that you can dive into things from a more personalized and tailored nature to
really hopefully peel back that next onion layer of a possible component to maximizing your
well-being the next thing we’re going to talk about is why hormones are so important and what they do what do these things even
do what does it mean tms and dr jekyll those of you who experience that know exactly what i’m
talking about menopause and the great reproductive transition i know that there was a
broadway show at one point about menopause and it it it deserves its own its own spotlight
birth control hormone replacement oh my we’re gonna touch lightly on these topics and just
kind of again broad overview common signs of hormone imbalance and
then lastly five key strategies to improve hormone balance naturally that you can do
right now and today and starting at home let’s start with your hormones in you a
beautiful life together in review i bet most of you may not have known
that in the beginning whenever you were a developing egg
you were developing within your mother who was a fetus who was actually developing within your grandmother
so this is really interesting because the environment with which your mother
was birthed and her womb actually impacted you and it impacted the
egg development for what would eventually turn into the beautiful being that you are
so a little quote to help you understand this further is that every female fetus
including your mom developed all the eggs that she will ever have while she was a fetus inside her own mom
and of course one of those eggs ultimately developed into you so in reality you started your life inside of
your grandmother this is a revolutionary topic for some uh and for those who um know that
different stressed states whenever a woman is developing a fetus
can impact all kinds of things we have to not only look at the state of the well-being of
our mother whenever we were in gestation within her but what was the state of our grandmother whenever she was carrying
our mother the way in which we are connected throughout the lineage of our family history is
really important and impactful and a really fun fact to start off with to understand the very very beginning of
how this all developed because all of the eggs that are contained within your ovaries
have a lot to do with different hormone signaling and how it affects your body
so important bit to begin with what a wonderful life your hormones and
you have together so let’s go through it all really quickly so there’s earth and the egg creation as
we just recently we just touched on so upon birth you have all the eggs within your ovaries that you will have for your
entire lifetime so as you’re going through childhood
puberty stage one so this is actually tanner stages for those of you who have any medical background but the stage one
of puberty is the child’s appearance before any physical signs of puberty appear so
birth infancy toddler all the way up to your initial signs of
a developing body into puberty we call that stage one so at that point
all of your eggs are still within your ovaries but nothing’s happening there’s no release or any no signals for those
things to occur so stage one continues until approximately
after our eighth birthday at this point the hypothalamus begins to send signals to the pituitary gland to
begin to make and release luteinizing hormone which is known as lh and follicle stimulating hormone which is
fsh these are two major players within the hormone life cycle
so stage two this is the beginning of physical development so typically around age nine
to eleven you’ll have breast buds a small amount of pubic hair internally your uterus
begins to enlarge now the age at which puberty had physical symptoms of puberty has begun
has actually decreased over the years which is really fascinating so we’re seeing now
that a lot of younger girls you know even age eight nine are starting to develop earlier than their
mothers and grandmothers and there’s a lot of factors and a lot of theories around why that’s happening
environmental toxin exposure early antibiotic exposure
especially in gmos through our food antibiotics through cow’s milk there’s a lot of different factors um in our water
there’s a lot of there’s additional hormones and things that didn’t used to be there that are influencing and
increasing the development rate of children these days so another topic but fun fact
so puberty stage three is when breast buds start to grow armpit hair and we’ve
all been there or have children or young young budding adults who are
going through this at this time maybe hips and thighs start to expand height increases
stage four breasts take a fuller shape pubic hair is fully grown and this is when first
menstruation which is known as menarc occurs typically between the ages 12 to 14. like i said a minute ago this can
happen earlier um as early as nine for some young young ladies but this is sort of the very
first stage of when our hormones start to take that regular monthly menstruation
stage five so the final stage is usually around age 15. this is when
periods have regulated they’re regular after about six months adult breast size usually happens around this age and
reproductive organs are fully developed so then we have our years of fertility this is approximately age 14 to 50.
this is where there is a monthly administration when one egg is released within a month i will show you that on
our next slide and we can visualize that together but so
to review you’re born and within your ovaries you have eggs and all of the eggs you’re going to have in your lifetime are contained within your
ovaries during your years of fertility you will have really important key players luteinizing
hormone and follicle stimulating hormone we’ll come to that in a minute will help signal the release of one egg
that then goes through the fallopian tubes into the uterus and that is what you experience when your uterine
wall will shed and you’ll have your monthly menstruation there’s a lot of hormones that change and adjust during
this time period that’s kind of a broad overview so after the years of fertility so
menopause perimenopause occurs whenever there’s
you can start to have symptoms it’s kind of like ovaries sputtering because they’re running low on egg supply so
that’s why irregular periods might happen you might have one and then not have one for a few months and then have
another one because oh there’s another egg left or there’s enough of a hormone signal to go ahead and release that so
it’s this transition period and ending of the ovarian egg supply therefore the cessation of fertility as well as
monthly menstruation and then post-menopause is that time period where
menstruation has completed and that is until the end of your your in until death decision
so the monthly samba this is the monthly dance that our body does it’s very interesting
so and this is why estrogen and progesterone are things you will commonly have heard uh about or or
already are familiar with because they dance with the luteinizing hormone and
follow the stimul stimulating hormone so follicular development so the first
day of your cycle down here if you’ll you’ll look um as the sort of circular pictures shift
the body sends different signals to release an egg
the what is left is during the ovulatory phase what is left in the luteal phase
is a whole different set of hormone signals so in the beginning part of our cycle
we have estrogen that is taking the predominance hormone as you can see from the blue
arc here as soon as the ovulatory phase is over and the egg is released in the
ludial phase progesterone takes over now if estrogen or progesterone are too low
or too high we can experience different physical symptoms because of the effects that it has on our body we’ll go into
that in a minute again this is just a broad overview we could go into this slide alone for at least two hours but
this gives you a general idea of what occurs from the first day of your cycle through they typically average cycles to
28 days a lot of women cycle between 30 32 and that’s perfectly normal as well
everybody every human body is a little different
hey hormones so why are they important well
let’s talk about what they are first so the two main female hormones that we’ve already referenced are estrogen and progesterone both are produced within
the ovaries testosterone and dhea are also present however in lower amounts testosterone is
typically a predominantly male hormone however women have it as well
other important influences as we mentioned are the luteinizing hormone and the follicle stimulating hormone
so what do they do well first of all they help create life which is a miraculous experience
our bodies ladies are incredible and beautiful and they do
amazing things within our our vessels and beings and because of these amazing hormones human life is replicated and
procreated and the species lives on that’s pretty remarkable so
can’t tell we’re going to try to really love on the on our hormones by the end of this so
let’s talk about what each one of them the two main players in the female hormone landscape do so estrogen
estrogen really focuses on regulating your menstrual cycle it affects the reproductive tract so vaginal wall thickness estrogen will decrease as you
go into menopause which is why a lot of women will experience vaginal dryness or just atrophy of the
vaginal wall in general it’ll affect the urinary tract the heart blood and bones
breast skin hair mucus pelvis and the brain estrogen is actually protective for certain neuronal brain functions
which is really interesting progesterone so progesterone plays a key role in maintaining pregnancy it repairs
the body for conception and it regulates the monthly menstrual cycle so estrogen tends to have a little bit more systemic
effects than progesterone that does not mean progesterone is not equally as important because it absolutely is
so testosterone testosterone as i mentioned is predominantly a male sex hormone produced in the ovaries in small
amounts combined with estrogen it helps with bone and breast health fertility sex drive menstrual and
and vaginal optimization low testosterone levels symptoms of fat can be changes in breast
tissue fertility problems low sex drives osteoporosis vaginal dryness irregular
menstrual periods high testosterone levels which a lot of you may be familiar with because that’s typically associated with polycystic ovarian
syndrome or pcos which is becoming more and more common so uh that can
leave you with acne blood sugar regulation issues excessive hair growth infertility lack of menstruation and the
thing about these sort of diagnosis and things that we’ve kind of captured is there’s a spectrum
so you can be a little pcos ish and not necessarily be full have full
polycystic ovarian syndrome but your hormone profile can look a little bit in that direction and there’s room to
optimize everything is really um over a spectrum and it’s
important to have it tested for you uniquely and not just go off symptoms
so pms and dr jekyll no you are not crazy you’re not crazy although you may
feel that way for a few days leading up to your cycle and i completely understand this entire lecture has been
inspired by that only my own personal experiences however uh
really near and dear friends of mine and watching my mother and her own uh hormone
journey throughout life and just speaking to other women realizing how common
hormone influx is and how that affects how we filter and are in the world
are so here’s what i like to say when the volume dial of our emotions
does not match the situation this is our body giving us an opportunity to discern how we really
feel with grace and ease so one of the key characteristics to mood swings and
irritability that often come along with pms is that you’ll say to yourself ah
okay so i don’t know why i’m reacting this strongly but it doesn’t mean that you don’t feel that way and a lot of
times we will get into a trap of invalidating our feelings because we’ll go oh it’s pms or somebody close to us
will say oh you’re just being hormonal well it’s really important to recognize that the root the actual way we feel may
be substantially true we should honor that it just volume dial might be a little out of our control so it may just
come across a little louder or a little bit more intense but i really hope and encourage everybody to have an
increased level awareness and grace and ease with yourself to take a few minutes to go do i really feel this way and if
so okay let me reapproach but i want to honor that and not just dismiss it because
even though there’s a hormonal influence what i may be experiencing it’s very real
so what is pms anyway well it’s formerly known as premenstrual syndrome a group of symptoms of women typically occur
between ovulation so that was about you know ended around day you know 14 15 16
until you actually have menstruation about day 28 so about 80 percent of women experience some symptoms in the
days leading up to their monthly period and guess what you guys it’s not always the same symptoms and it’s not always at
the same level of intensity because we just couldn’t be easy right so
that’s something that’s really important for you to understand they can be different and vary from month to month so one month you might say to yourself i
am so bloated i just need chocolate and the next month you might be weepy and teary and the next month you might
feel fine and you might not have any symptoms it’s very unique
if these symptoms which can manifest as physical behavioral psychological recur and or senior severe enough to impact
you on a daily life than they’re defined as pms and things like stress tend to make
those symptoms worse just throw in that outfit so what causes me to feel this way well
after ovulation when the corpus luteum begins to break down the decline in progesterone levels towards the end of
menstrual cycles if you remember from our graph the progesterone levels go up and then they decline before we have the
uterine wall shedding occur so they so the declining progesterone
attacks various chemicals in the brain such as serotonin serotonin is our happy chemical it tends to keep our emotions a
little bit more balanced so women with pms often have abnormal levels of hormones
and they appear to be more sensitive to the effects of the declining progesterone if at baseline you have lower levels of
progesterone anyway you may be more likely to experience pms symptoms because then you’re already starting at
a place of deficiency and then we’re decreasing it even more with your monthly cycle
what are pms symptoms exactly so up to 150 symptoms been identified as part of pms the most common are breast
tenderness bloated headaches acne abdominal pain fatigue uh the most common psychological ones
are mood swings irritability anxiety depression feeling tearful upset emotional difficulty concentrating like
i said you’re not crazy this is your body’s physiologic response to hormones shifting in a really natural
way so we just covered a lot about tms
that occurs mostly in the fertility years so now let’s hit on menopause a little bit
a great reproductive transition so what’s menopause menopause is the time that marks the end of your
menstrual cycles it is officially diagnosed after you’ve gone 12 months without a period menopause can happen in
your 40s or 50s the average age is 51 in the united states however some women can even start perimenopause at the end of
their 30s can last an average of seven years so this is a really critical time this is a
critical time to take really good care of yourself and work closely with your practitioner because there might be a lot of ways we can support you to
optimize this transition time so when ovarian function declines with age ovulation doesn’t occur regularly
this leads to irregular missed periods as i mentioned eventually the ovaries stop ovulating all together those strong ovaries and
periods stop completely this results in lower levels of estrogen and progesterone production by your ovaries
so how does it affect the body all kinds of ways so hot flashes
sudden temperature spike that usually occurs from decreasing estrogen levels night sweats similar associated with hot
flashes you’ll be in the middle of the night you just wake up and you’ll be drenched in sweat fluctuating moods
irritability problems with sleeping insomnia
is not helped by the hot flashes and night sweats weight gain frequent urination so something to keep
note of also do the dropping estrogen levels
stopping of your periods lowered sex drive painful sex because of the vagina tends to dry out more whenever there’s
low estrogen levels vaginal dryness and bone fractures as well it’s really important ladies that whenever you are
approaching menopause you have a dexa bone scan to check your bone mineral density so that that way we can target
our recommendations to support bone health as well as you get older so
what about birth control and hormone replacement therapy oh my
so what’s the deal with birth control for hormones anyway so birth control pills
have been used in order to help with hormonal regulation and control so let’s talk about that just a little bit so
birth control pills provide a synthetic version of either estrogen or progesterone or a combination of these
synthetic hormones can help regulate your menstrual cycle decrease pms symptoms acne cramping and help support
a healthy uterine lining in patients who have endometriosis because when we’re adding in additional
synthetic estrogen progesterone we’re boosting the body’s natural reserve creating sometimes more of a balanced
state depending on the your hormone levels to begin with there are some risks so risks include
nutritional mineral imbalances such as elevated copper level levels increased risk for blood clots serious one
especially in our cold times as we’ve learned about covid it affects the vascular system and it can increase
blood clotting risks so you add birth control and long-term birth control use on top of that and
it’s something to to be concerned with potentially increased risk for cervical cancer there’s mixed results on whether it’s
increased risk for breast cancer or not data kind of goes back and forth on that so it’s best to optimize hormones
naturally versus adding in any synthetic hormones if possible we will use any tool within our toolbox in order to help
you optimize and function at your best if we have to go down that road it’s not that they’re evil we it is a tool we can
use however we try to avoid using synthetic hormones at any possible turn because optimizing your body naturally
is our best bet and first for selection hormone replacement therapy you might
have heard a lot about this so hormone replacement therapy primarily focuses on replacing the estrogen that your body no
longer makes after menopause however we often utilize combination hormone replacement therapy to optimize hormones
in the perimenopause and menopause for a short duration so
we typically use combine hormone replacement therapy for women who are going into the perimenopause and through
the menopause transition and then potentially for a few years after what combination is used depends on
baseline testing and symptoms if women still have a uterus it is important to never take estrogen by
itself you always take estrogen in combination with progesterone that’s really important
it can the reason why is because when estrogen is taken alone and not balanced by progesterone it can stimulate growth
of the lining of the uterus and that can increase the risk for endometrial cancer so if you have had your uterus removed
via hysterectomy you may not have to take progesterone but that will all have to be guided by your clinician
so combined hormone replacement therapy most commonly comes in the form of topical cream drops patch or vaginal
creams and um it’s used we’ve found in our experience it can be
really helpful for that transition period of time as far as to manage symptoms and help preserve some of the
things that we know estrogen does so well which is helps bone health brain health focus concentration decreasing
hot flashes it’s really great it’s a great option so the benefits as i just mentioned
preserve brain function um osteoporosis hot flashes helps with vaginal dryness loss of libido helps
with depression irritability and sleep the risks so the risks include an increased risk of breast or endometrial
cancer blood clotting because we’re adding in estrogen stroke or heart attack the key important thing to know
about hormone replacement therapy is that you want to make sure you’re using bio-identical hormones and not synthetic
hormones we want to match what the body is producing naturally on its own as closely as possible
hormone imbalances so common signs hormones is that you
common symptoms of possible hormone imbalance include mood swings breast tenderness heavy
periods and cramps hot flashes anxiety fatigue sleep disruption low libido
polycystic ovarian syndrome acne infertility facial hair weight gain hair
loss brain fog endometriosis uterine fibroids and surprisingly gut symptoms
ibs symptoms can also be associated with hormone imbalances so a lot of things hormones can affect
so why is that well for those of you who have researched this already we have
come to learn as uh science has progressed that the hypothalamus which is located in your brain pituitary
adrenal thyroid gut immune and gonadal access wow what does that mean that means
they’re all connected and they all affect each other i know
it’s not simple it is not a straight line we used to think that just the hypothalamus affected just the ovaries
and that was that was it it was just a linear north-south type of relationship we have come to find as you can see from
this illustration that there is interplay between inflammation your adrenal glands
your thyroid insulin levels your ovaries your gut your liver your brain you are
one very well connected system that can affect hormone regulation and balance
so known possible triggers and mediators that affect optimal hormone function chronic stress
always comes back to this doesn’t doesn’t it it does gut health nutritional insufficiencies
extended toxin exposure so pesticides bpa a poor diet food and allergy
intolerances poor methylation mitochondrial dysfunction mitochondria for those who do not know
is the powerhouse of the cell it is responsible for a lot of our energy production in our cellular being
history of synthetic hormone use can actually so that birth control
can affect optimal hormone function in the long term history of physical or sexual abuse inflammation infections
toxins and trauma those are involved those because that’s a really good overview to to remember poor sleep
genetics alcohol and smoking so a lot of different things can contribute to a sub-optimal hormone
balance so what do we do about it well i’ve got five key strategies to help optimize your hormones naturally
however i will emphasize right now and at the end is super important to work with your maximal care clinician
or or whichever clinician that you are currently working with to make sure that your specific and unique needs are taken
into account because every woman’s body is very different and how you respond to
different things will will be different as well and getting to the root cause of what could be
at the head of the cascade that’s causing imbalance is really important
so number one is stress we’re back to that again so reduce stress whenever possible
stress and chronic stress has a huge influence on your hormones and how they
function add in daily meditative or reflective time that can be five minutes
paced breathing throughout the day we started this webinar off with some paste breathing it’s really easy you breathe
in for five seconds hold it and then look out for five seconds box breathing would be breathing in and
then holding it for five and releasing it however you want to do that very powerful to regulating your
autonomic nervous system practice gratitude and mindfulness it’s amazing
what a moment when you’re feeling frustrated and you just think what can i be really grateful for right now how
that will shift your stress very quickly where is your whimsy this is a word that
i love where are you being whimsical in your day-to-day interactions as you’re sending those emails as you’re
accomplishing those tasks and talking to your co-workers or managing your family at home and taking care of your
beautiful children are you being playful with it that can decrease stress immediately because
stress and being whimsy and whimsical in life don’t tend to happen at the same time
play more over analyze less we are in our heads all the time and we have a lot of reinforcement for that try to be in
your body and be as present as you possibly can that your life and body and those around you will thank you
practice boundary setting and the value of enoughness so we tend to think of boundaries as a
from a reactive state of no get away with me i have to protect myself which is justified or flight in a different
form what i’m suggesting is that if you feel that you have enough and you are enough
and that you will always find the resources to be able to do whatever task you need to do boundary setting will naturally occur
for you it will come forward because you’ll be coming at life from a place of ha and ease and so saying you know i i
don’t think i can be able to get to that and releasing it versus having it be another
thing on the g list that you feel like you haven’t accomplished therefore you’re not enough really really big shift in life
so know that life is both the max and the well there’s our name it’s both the acceleration and the rest
so living in that place of high amplitude back and forth can decrease stress levels and ask for
help and stress support especially with any traumas emdr therapy is great there’s a ton of resources out there we
are not in this alone we are a community of souls going through life together and it is really important to reach out in
relationship number two sleep so sleep is very important in hormone
regulation make sure you turn off your screens at least an hour before bed if you can blue light blocking glasses is a great
thing to use towards the end of the evening if you’re going to watch some tv you pop those suckers on and it’ll
signal to your brain that it’s still time to shut down and go to bed wind down have a nightly routine if it
works for you meditative and reflective time before bed this is a great moment for daily gratitude
epsom salt baths very relaxing increased intracellular magnesium better sleep add
an additional magnesium to support sleep we have a product called membrane one to two scoops at night works wonders
magnesium three and eight crosses the blood-brain barrier so it can help spark those neuronal pathways for
working more efficiently during the day as well super helpful melatonin even a low dose three milligrams sublingual at
night decreases inflammation increases sleep quality for many and can help with
or overall hormone regulation because you’re sleeping better exercise is huge for helping you sleep and then
decreasing caffeine and alcohol intake trying to limit caffeine to before noon and alcohol is actually better if
consumed during the day versus at night before you go to bed even though i know it’s not our current social patterning
but your body will thank you to be able to have the time to metabolize that and then get to sleep
number three regulate inflammation inflammation has a
big impact on hormone regulation so how you can do that easily reduce or eliminate added sugars i’m talking no
added sugars the only sugars you should be consuming are those that occur naturally in fruits
or vegetables at best um some alternative stevia and
monk fruit extract and xylitol are acceptable they don’t tend to boost your blood glucose levels
those do not tend to contribute to inflammation so you’re okay there but you still don’t want to
overdo it you know make sure you’re adding those bitter flavors and savory savory dishes into your into your diet
reduce or eliminate gluten and dairy gluten and dairy are very inflammatory alcohol is as well so reduce or
eliminate that sufficient high quality fish oil supplementation is huge for inflammation and also hormone regulation
so we have a product called omega clean mono max 1300 one capsule twice a day is
sufficient if you want to do a little sprint to really decrease your in inflammation uh quickly two capsules
twice a day for a month is awesome and then you can decrease down to one capsule twice a day you want to target
gut health inflamma cools the product we have two scoops a day is great at healing and sealing the gut so if you do
uh take away added sugars take away dairy and gluten eliminate or reduce alcohol add some fish oil and some
your gut will be happy exercise and reduce stress will reduce overall inflammation as well these are
just some foundational recommendations of course you want to make sure you clear all this with your vaccinal clear clinician before you dive it
asked so really interesting one of the most significant data points in recent
research has found that daily intermittent fasting can have profound effects on the body’s natural hormone regulation optimization so much so that
in my recent um training module on hormones there was a one of the
physicians shared that one of his secret weapons for getting women to feel better
faster is intermittent fasting so really easy super inexpensive to do and try how you
accomplish this is you begin with a 14 hour fasting window each day typically that means
let’s say you have your last meal a day at 7 00 pm so you would wake up the next morning and not eat until nine a.m let’s
just say um a lot of people will skip breakfast all together and go to a 16-hour window
of fasting and an eight-hour window of eating again be careful and gentle with
yourself work with your clinician in order to get specific recommendations for you because there may be other things that
are a part of your case that would make intermittent fasting not be a great idea for you but as a general rule of
thumb it’s a great easy fast tool and strategy to implement to try to help with hormone
regulation naturally and oh number four twice this is number five
supplement so for supplements for symptoms associated with pms or menopause we have
a supplement called femcoil one to two capsules twice a day tends to have really great effects for regulating
um the sort of estrogen progesterone swings that occur and a lot of women have a lot
of have success with this particular product for stress or sleep-mediated hormone imbalances
ashwagandha 35 is a great product one capsule twice a day starting off with that is wonderful for stress-mediated
hormone imbalances or pcos restorate one to two scoops twice a day
so pcos uh those of my ladies out there who have that
restraint is amazing it has inositol in it and it’s great at helping to
target your specific hormone profile imbalances and for inflammation immediate hormone
imbalances we already mentioned this but omega clean mono max 1300 one to two capsules twice a day is great so i’ve
listed a bunch of recommendations however i’m going to emphasize again make sure that you ask and work with
your maximal care clinician before making any changes to make sure you’re doing what is safe and best and right for you and your
body so digging in how to better understand and tailor recommendations for your
individual body maximal care is your partner for practice so as i’ve said so many times
work with your medical care clinicians take a personalized approach to hormone assessment as well as make killer recommendations for you as with
everything we do at the maxwell clinic no one patient evaluation or recommendation is the same as each
individual is sacredly unique that is something we cherish and deeply value
any questions that is it for me
i do not see anything in the q a so i think that wraps up our introduction to hormones
after you watch this for those who are watching the recorded version please let us know of any hormone topics that i
briefly hit on that you’d like to know more information about that will help guide our our topics and webinars in the
future so we can get the content that is most relevant and relatable to you moving forward i hope you all have a
wonderful evening or morning whatever time you’re listening to this from all of us at the maxwell clinic we wish you
well and wellness and thriving for many days to come be well
This blog provides general information and discussions about health and related subjects. The information and other content provided in this blog, website or in any linked materials are not intended and should not be considered, or used as a substitute for, medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. This blog does not constitute the practice of any medical, nursing or other professional health care advice, diagnosis or treatment. We cannot diagnose conditions, provide second opinions or make specific treatment recommendations through this blog or website.
If you or any other person has a medical concern, you should consult with your health care provider or seek other professional medical treatment immediately. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking it because of something that you have read on this blog, website or in any linked materials. If you are experiencing a medical emergency, please call 911 or call for emergency medical help on the nearest telephone immediately.
