Hormonal Imbalance | Common Habits Causing Disruption
Hormonal Imbalance | Common Habits Causing Disruption
It's often believed that adopting certain diet and lifestyle habits can alleviate troublesome symptoms such as acne, bloating, irregular menstrual cycles, fertility challenges, and painful premenstrual syndrome (PMS). However, sometimes these habits, while followed with the best intentions, can counterintuitively worsen the symptoms they aim to mitigate. Courtney and I frequently observe this paradox among the women we work with.
Here are some prevalent habits that may be more detrimental than beneficial for women seeking hormonal balance:
Skipping Breakfast: Contrary to popular intermittent fasting trends, for many women, missing breakfast can trigger an increase in stress hormones, particularly cortisol. This elevation in cortisol coupled with a lack of morning nutrition can cascade into several issues such as blood sugar imbalances, overconsumption in later meals, fatigue, digestive complaints, and heightened anxiety. What do we recommend? Refuel within the first couple of hours after waking, preferably with a protein-rich breakfast, to maintain hormonal equilibrium.
Consuming Caffeine on an Empty Stomach: An early morning coffee might kickstart your day, but consuming caffeine without accompanying it with food can spike stress hormones, disrupt appetite, and dysregulate blood sugar. We recommend pairing your coffee with a meal or, at the very least, enhance it with unflavored protein powder and coconut milk or organic whole milk for added protein and fat.
A Low Carb Diet: Persistently low carbohydrate intake, especially in women of reproductive age, can be an immense stressor. It can lead to complications like blood sugar and insulin imbalances, adrenal issues, thyroid disturbances, and increased inflammation. Ensure you're not excessively limiting your carb intake and focus on maintaining a balanced diet.
Neglecting Morning Sunlight: Our internal clocks, or circadian rhythms, play a pivotal role in governing sleep patterns, hormone production, mood, metabolism, and digestion. A lack of exposure to morning sunlight can upset these rhythms. A simple solution? Take a 15-minute morning break outdoors or sit near a sunny window and be mindful of screen time in the morning.
Overdoing High-Intensity Cardio: Engaging excessively in high-intensity workouts can be another inadvertent stressor, exacerbating hormonal symptoms. We encourage the women we work with to take more holistic approach to exercise by balancing cardio, strength training, restorative movement, and walking.
Using Plastic Containers: The plastics that we often use for food storage, like plastic water bottles and plastic Tupperware, contain chemicals known as "endocrine disruptors" that can i interfere with our own hormones. Making the switch to glass food containers and glass or stainless steel water bottles is a simple but powerful shifts you can make to reduce your exposure to these hormone disrupting chemicals.
The Underlying Theme of Hormonal Imbalance
The consistent theme with all of these common habits that disrupt hormones is stress. It's essential to recognize the different types of stressors in our lives - physical, emotional, and environmental, and take measures to reduce their impact. This is crucial not just for hormonal balance, but for overall health and well-being. If you find yourself identifying with any of these habits, it might be time to re-assess your approach and to consider the different stressors in your life that might be impacting your health.
Improving Hormonal Imbalances by Reducing Stress
If you've identified habits creating stress in your body, here are a few additional tips to consider for effectively reducing stress, improving stress resilience, and supporting hormonal imbalance:
Lifestyle Strategies for Stress Reduction: These tips focus on decreasing stress hormones, activating the parasympathetic nervous system, and providing the body opportunities for recovery. Some effective approaches include:
Redefining Productivity: Recognize that rest is, in itself, productive.
Time in Nature: Spend time outdoors or engaging in nature-like experiences for just 20 minutes has positive benefits on cortisol and stress hormones.
Social Connection: Bonding with loved ones can be a potent stress-reliever. Social connection and a sense of community has positive impacts immune function, metabolic health, hormonal balance, and longevity.
Meditation and Breath-work: Both are powerful tools to calm the mind. One of my favorite breath-work exercises is called Box Breathing:
Sit or stand upright and relax your shoulders, shifting them down away from your ears
Close your eyes and slowly inhale as you count to 4 in your head, filling your lungs completely
Hold your breath for a slow count of 4 seconds
Exhale and release your breath slowly for 4 seconds
Hold your breath out for another slow count of 4
Repeat the cycle 3-5 times
Setting Boundaries: Know your limits and ensure others respect them.
Enhancing Stress Resilience through Nutrition: Your dietary choices can significantly influence how your body responds to stress.
Start with a breakfast within 1-2 hours of waking up.
Balance your meals with whole food proteins, carbs, veggies and fats.
Consume omega-3 rich foods like wild-caught fish.
Incorporate vitamin C-rich foods such as dark leafy greens and fruits.
Organ meats like beef liver or beef liver supplements can provide essential nutrients need to support adrenal health.
Choose sodium-rich foods and consider supplementation when necessary.
A couple of my favorite supplements/products to the body's adaptation to stress include:
JigSaw Magsoothe Powder: Magnesium is a mineral that most all of us are deficient in due to stress, soil quality, etc. This powder contains an amazing blend of absorbable magnesium, potassium and sodium. These minerals work together to support relaxation and to calm the nervous system among other benefits. I love incorporating this powder in the evening about an hour before bed to support sleep and relaxation. You can check this product out in our online professional grade supplement dispensary here.
Tulsi Sweet Rose Tea: Outside of being super tasty – this tea contains tulsi or “holy basil” which is an herb best known for its potent adaptogen effects. Research suggests that tulsi provides broad spectrum benefits for the nervous and supporting the body’s adaptation to stress. It’s also been found to support and enhance immune function and to help with balancing blood sugar. I’ve been enjoying a cup of this tea every afternoon.
In Summary
In the pursuit of balancing hormones and improving your health, it's essential to recognize that certain lifestyle and dietary habits can unintentionally worsen hormonal imbalances by creating more stress. Habits like skipping breakfast, consuming caffeine on an empty stomach, adhering to a very low-carb diet, lacking exposure to morning sunlight, and engaging excessively in high-intensity workouts can work counterintuitively, intensifying symptoms like acne, bloating, and irregular menstrual cycles.
Chronic stress disrupts blood sugar, promotes inflammation, and impairs digestion, among other detrimental effects. Unfortunately, even practices often praised as "healthy" can contribute to hormonal imbalances.
While it's nearly impossible to eradicate stress entirely from our lives, it's within our power to manage and mitigate its effects. By recognizing potential stressors and adopting supportive strategies for improving stress resilience, we can navigate the challenges of modern life and support optimal hormone balance effectively. If you're looking for more individualized support to improve hormonal imbalance and your overall health, we encourage you to apply for 1:1 coaching!