Hormone’s are tricky little suckers. They love us of course, but when we don’t give them what they want, they’re like a kid on halloween with unattended candy; they go wild and can easily get out of control.
Hormone’s aren’t simple – dang. Hormones are blissful when they’re balanced, and do wonders keeping you on track, but can wreak havoc when they’re not. And when I say wreak havoc, I mean seriously devastating consequences to your body, mind and quality of life. The reality – it doesn’t take much these days to throw them off, and we’re faced with hormone disruptors all around us – things that enter the body that aren’t natural. And as you continue the aging process, you become even more sensitive to disrupting them. Boo, right!?
It’s important to understand our hormones, what they are, and what they do, in order to support them. When disruptors come into play, things like BPA from plastic, they mess up communication the body needs to function at its peak. This can happen by the disruptor confusing our bodies or even by it disguising itself as a good guy. See, I told you they’re trickey, and sneaky too! Don’t be too fooled though, they aren’t the only thing causing imbalance. Stress plays may be the biggest factor of all.
Hormones communicate directly to tissues in your body. In women’s health these hormones include: ovaries, testosterone, pituitary, thyroid, pancreas, and other parts of the body. But, like I mention when I’m talking about the body and massage, everything is connected, so I never like to think of things as singular. And to add another layer, the mind body connection is real, and important.
Our bodies are made up of different systems, ten if you wanna get techy. Our hormones fall under one of ‘em – the endocrine system. For some perspective, the other systems of the body are: skeletal, muscular, nervous, cardiovascular, lymphatic, respiratory, digestive, urinary, and the reproductive system. These systems often interact with each other so ensuring balance within all systems of the body is key.
Hormone’s have some hefty responsibility to carry. They ensure we’re sleeping well, we have a healthy sexual appetite to reproduce, they help us sleep well which helps with growth and development, and they make sure we’re not moody b’s. So when talking about wreaking havoc in our bodies, it’s basically turning all those things upside down.
These are some common symptoms that show up with imbalance:
- Negative changes to cholesterol levels.
- Negative changes to blood glucose levels
- Mood swings
- Sleep disturbance
- Fatigue & weakness
- Disruptive PMS symptoms
- Weight changes
- Hair and skin issues
Whose quality of life wouldn’t be affected by symptoms like those? It happens to so many women, myself included. After suffering through it and experiencing all of those symptoms, I’m very careful now when I see things creeping in again because I never want to be in that place again!At the time it felt like no end in sight.
Here’s a some insight on where disruptor’s are lurking:
- Environmental Chemicals: Within the last 70 years, we’ve seen a rise around every corner. From what we put in our bodies, to what goes on skin, there have been more than 80, 000 additional chemicals introduced into our environment. Maybe not a big deal if we knew they were safe, but we simply don’t know, as the majority of them have never been tested for safety. This is not just one for aging women, it’s having an effect on everyone.
- Stress and Increases Cortisol Levels: It’s pretty rare that we’d have to fight, freeze or flee from a tiger these days, but our bodies are responding to a lot of things that make us think we need to. We are reacting to daily stressors the same way, like we are in severe danger and need to respond. This weighs and taxes our mind and body, and after only a matter of time, begins to show up in the body in ways that can’t be ignored.
Hormones are one of those things I never paid a ton of attention to, until they became so off balance, ignoring them was no longer an option. I had no idea at first that what I was experiencing was tied to imbalance, as is the case with most women.
How ‘bout you – any signs you’re off balance? Stay tuned into the blog, as we keep talking about hormones.
