When it comes to health, weight, fitness, and inflammation play a role. But equally important are hormones, chemical messengers that tell our bodies how to behave and respond to various situations.
Hormones play a massive role in the body and control everything from reproductive cycles to libido. When hormones are out of whack, it can leave you feeling depressed, and inflamed, and cause a host of additional conditions.
The good news is that there is quite a bit you can do to promote hormonal harmony. And the good news is that if you’re already living a healthy lifestyle, you’re probably doing the majority of things that will help to balance them.
So what are we talking about specifically? Let’s take a look. Here are some of the ways to create hormonal harmony in your life.
Cultivate Healthy Relationships
One of the best ways to achieve more hormonal harmony in your life is to seek healthy relationships with others. Having strong emotional connections with people you trust can promote hormonal balance and leave you with a sense of profound well-being.
Cultivating healthy relationships takes various forms. Ideally, you want them to be positive in every sphere of your life, including at home and work.
Healthy relationships are extremely beneficial for testosterone and cortisol levels. The happier they are, the more balanced these hormones become.
Know Your Individual Hormonal Needs
Another way to achieve hormonal harmony is to have a better understanding of your needs. People who achieve balance in their bodies are more likely to have an understanding of their specific lifestyle and environmental requirements.
For instance, you might need to deal with specific health issues, such as an underactive thyroid, to balance your hormones. You might also be someone who experiences elevated stress levels compared to the average person, and that might require special considerations.
Knowing your individual hormonal needs can be challenging, but it is something you can discover with the help of a doctor or someone trained in that specific medical field. Paying attention to hormones and getting hormone therapy when needed is often the secret ingredient for a more enjoyable, healthier life.
Get Regular Checkups
You can also improve hormone health with regular checkups. Going to the doctor’s often and frequently for evaluations can help you keep track of your hormonal health and how it is affecting you.
Doctors are usually pretty good at identifying when someone has hormonal health issues and prescribing medication or lifestyle changes to deal with them. Good physicians will talk to you about how you can modify your life to manage your condition better, even if you need to take drugs.
Limit Exposure To Hormone-Disrupting Chemicals
Limiting exposure to hormone-disrupting chemicals is another way to improve hormonal harmony. Taking a step back from various personal care products, pesticides, and plastics can all have tremendously beneficial effects.
What does that mean in practice? Simple: Use only basic soap when you shower, eat more organic food, and avoid plastic packaging as much as you can, perhaps by going to the market instead.
Unfortunately, you can’t avoid harmful chemicals entirely in today’s world: they’re a fact of life. But you can reduce your exposure significantly. You can also adjust your diet to promote whole foods which can dramatically increase your body’s detoxification capacity, helping you rid yourself of dangerous substances.
Use Hormone-Supporting Supplements
Some people choose to use hormone-supporting supplements. These nutrients assist the body in the production and regulation of hormones, balancing levels more effectively.
Talk to your healthcare provider about vitamin D, vitamin B, and magnesium. If you need additional support, you might also consider taking herbs and spices. Some evidence suggests that herbs and spices like Siberian ginseng may support the regulation of testosterone, for example, helping you feel more energetic and excited about life.
Mindful Eating
You might also want to consider engaging in mindful eating for healthier hormones. Thinking carefully about what you put in your mouth can make a tremendous difference in how your hormones respond.
Eating too much or too little food can have profound effects on hormone signaling. High food intake of the wrong kinds of foods is associated with the dysregulation of hunger hormones and insulin signaling. The body can become immune to satiety factors, making you feel hungry all the time. Issues with insulin signaling can lead to diabetes and other chronic health conditions.
At the same time, eating too little may have adverse effects. People who don’t get enough food can experience spikes in cortisol levels, leading to heart palpitations, sweating, and shock. Increasing calories often brings the body back into balance.
Maintain A Healthy Weight
Related to this is the importance of maintaining a healthy weight. Staying roughly the same throughout your life is a sign of hormonal balance. Again, if you are underweight, your body may produce the wrong type of hormones, leading to damage. The same applies to overweight.
If you notice yourself gaining or losing weight and it is making you feel different, pay attention to what you are eating and how much activity you are getting. Weight is something that can profoundly affect your hormones over time, primarily because fat is such a metabolically active tissue.
Eat Regular Meals
You can also regulate hormone health by eating regular, healthy meals. Eating a balanced diet that avoids blood sugar spikes and crashes is one of the best ways to prevent hormones from jumping around all over the place.
Eating regular meals doesn’t necessarily mean eating three big meals a day. But it does mean getting high-quality nutrition when you eat, including plenty of whole plant foods.
Avoid going long periods without food unless you are under medical supervision. Prolonged fasting can cause profound hormonal disruption for some people.
Reduce Your Intake Of Caffeine
While many people rely on caffeine to get them going in the morning, reducing your intake could be one of the most powerful interventions available for hormone health. Too much coffee, or alcohol for that matter, can disrupt your sleep cycle and negatively impact your body’s internal chemistry. You might find that your cortisol is elevated and you feel “jittery” or that you can’t get the deep sleep your body needs to function at its best.
Fortunately, this issue is relatively easy to resolve. Simply reduce your caffeine intake or stop taking it at all. You might experience a couple of days of headaches as your body adjusts, but after that, you should notice an improvement in your overall well-being.
Increase Your Fiber Intake
Another little-known way to better regulate your hormones is to increase your fiber intake. Upping your consumption of whole grains, legumes, and vegetables makes it easier to maintain stable blood sugar levels. It takes longer for the body to absorb the sugar from food, reducing the need for insulin spikes and cutting your risk of developing diabetes significantly.
Get More Water
You might also be surprised to learn that getting more water can also help maintain proper hormone levels. Water is essential for virtually every chemical reaction that occurs in the body, including those involved in hormone production and signaling. Being dehydrated all the time prevents these systems from working properly, leaving you feeling uncomfortable.
Establish A Healthy Sleep Routine
Finally, ensure you establish a healthy sleep routine. Aim for between 7 and 9 hours of quality sleep per night. Sleep is the time during which your body recovers and regulates your hormones the most. Going without can leave you feeling exhausted and out of whack. Take time to rest and relax in the evenings, and avoid the temptation to work continuously.