Unlocking Your Health: Understanding Hormones
Why are Hormones so important?
Hormones are chemical messengers in the body produced mainly by the endocrine system, that play a huge role in our everyday lives. They affect your blood sugar, blood pressure, growth, fertility, sex drive, metabolism, and even sleep. Hormones are basically you.
If your endocrine system is unbalanced, it can create an imbalance in your nervous system. Ever heard the expression, “my nerves are shot”. Over-taxing the nervous system can cause stress, which can lead to stress eating. However, the foods you might eat when you are stressed could disrupt your endocrine system. Couple that with the adaptive subconscious, it is a vicious cycle. Fear not, this is just the educational part of the article, I will get to how you can set yourself free and begin to balance again.
Weillcornell.org - Hormones Role on Our Health, and Wellness.
How do hormones work?
In short, when hormones are released from the brain, they go into your bloodstream, signals are sent to target cells, and depending on their job, they will be released as necessary to keep you as balanced as possible. Again, they govern blood sugar, blood pressure, growth, fertility, sex drive, metabolism, and sleep.
How do your hormones become imbalanced?
Hormonal imbalance occurs when there is too much or too little hormones in the bloodstream. This can occur due to a multitude of factors, but primarily diet, exercise, and stress. Which can cause fatigue, changes in heart rhythm, unexplained weight loss or weight gain, constipation, diarrhea, numbness & tingling in hands, higher blood cholesterol levels, affects your reproductive function, depression, and anxiety. Hormone imbalance is the leading cause of infertility in women and erectile dysfunction in men. So again, hormone imbalance doesn't just affect women.
According to Loma Linda University, hormone imbalance can be treated with lifestyle changes and sometimes medication. And let me just say there is nothing wrong with needing medication, but it just shouldn’t stop you from creating healthy habits while using it. Pills don’t fix our behavioral issues, we do. Other reasons for hormone imbalance are diet, exercise, stress, sleep disruptions, and environmental and societal factors.
Before we move on, I want to express some concern in this area. It is my opinion and based on lots of research, that advertisements, social media, food addiction (from altered/processed foods), and adaptive subconscious* are responsible for a large amount of unhealthy patterns, and here’s why.
*Adaptive subconscious – the act of your subconscious making judgments and decisions on your behalf, without informing your conscious mind. A fun trick we humans do, huh?!
In 2021, it was reported that $297.5 billion was spent on advertising in the U.S. alone. On average, you will see 500+ ads a day. What you may not know is, that your brain is constantly taking in information on your environment and what it is hearing around you. Even when you are not paying attention. Your brain will make decisions based on what it gathers from your five senses (taste, smell, touch, sight, hearing). This is the adaptive subconscious I discussed earlier. Your brain makes decisions based on the past, without telling you. So, when you keep grabbing for your phone after you deleted your social media account, you're on autopilot. And yes, this totally happened to me. So grateful for social media detoxing. Anyway. Your subconscious brain is the one making decisions for you and sadly, my brain was programmed with some pretty bad habits once I became aware.
However, to explain this further, let’s take a hypothetical scenario. Let’s say a company may select yellow in their advertising, as people associate the color with the emotion of joy, happiness, and power. Then couple that with a catchy song, maybe throw in a word that means love & boom after hearing the ad a few times your brain connects the brand to joy, love, and happiness. Even if their food doesn’t bring you joy, love or happiness.
Actually, it might even make you think that a sweet treat or meal deal could really boost your mood. And why wouldn’t you?! Companies spend hundreds of billions of dollars each year trying to get you to see their products, and I fully believe with all the money they spend, I would hope they are aware of the adaptive subconscious. Additionally, the food has been altered with ingredients that make their food more addictive than Mother Nature. So, when you feel low, your body craves dopamine (the body’s reward system – feel-good hormone you get from eating and staying alive – yay!) And if you are imbalanced hormonally, there is a good chance so are your dopamine receptors. And since normal fruits and veggies no longer give you the dopamine spike you’re looking for, you crave altered food that may not be balanced for your body. So, your adaptive subconscious just may grab that sweet treat or salty snack to get that feeling of love or joy back in your day. That’s right, the struggle is real.
Also, I strongly recommend detoxing or limiting social media or exposure to ads for overall health. “A lot of what’s out there in social media isn’t backed by research, but a lot of people are influenced by it anyway and make decisions to either add food or cut certain foods,” Cotter said. “There are a lot of ‘What I eat in a day’ posts, which aren’t even what people should eat. Plus, there are a lot of drinks and products marketed that can be put out there without proper information. There are a lot of influencers without any nutritional background working with companies to promote products without understanding the effect of what promoting these products does.” (University of Rhode Island). Also, fun fact word of mouth is a very effective marketing tool and accounts for 20-50% of all purchasing decisions, so social media is advertising, effectively. :)
What’s more, as mentioned above, food is being increasingly altered. There are genetically modified (GMO), non-organic (pesticides), hormones, antibiotics, infected mucus in milk (yup and yuck due to antibiotics to make the cows produce more milk), processed food, artificial & natural flavors, just to name a few. All can lead to unhealthy behavioral patterns which can lead to addictive behaviors. Just check out this 60-minute interview (link below), scientists create flavors that are put in food and beverages that create repetitive or as I call addictive behaviors.
60-Minute Interview - Tweaking Tastes and Creating Cravings
Pub Med - Social Media's Influence on Adolescents' Food Choices
Forbes.com - Why word of mouth marketing is the most important social media
Cleveland Clinic - Hormonal Imbalance
Food Addictions
Addictions are not easy, especially when we are not truly aware. According to Auburn University, we are only conscious 5% of the time. It used to be 10% when I was a child, so that number is not improving. “So, most of our decisions, actions, emotions, and behavior depend on the 95% of brain activity that goes beyond our conscious awareness” (Auburn). Wouldn’t these mean addictions go undiagnosed, like alcoholism, as it can only be self-diagnosed? If we are not aware, how can we fix it? The same goes for food addiction.
As you can imagine, I see food addiction as a sign that your hormone levels may be off, so do take stock of what foods you are eating, what you crave, and why you are craving them. Understanding ourselves better is the key to unlocking our ability to shift our behaviors from unhealthy to healthy.
Cleveland Clinic.org - Why are certain foods so addictive
Siteefy - How Many Ad Do We See a Day.
Auburn.edu - Mysteries of the Mind.
Food Related Diseases
The top diseases are heart disease, stroke, and type 2 diabetes, which have been linked to poor diet, including eating too much or eating too little. Not to mention a great deal of other issues including impacting your hormone health. I.e. endocrine disorders and depression, which can be caused by sugar intake (not kidding, this was a huge shock to me, I used to love my cookies, but didn’t realize they could make me depressed).
And here is a sad truth. According to Time Magazine, the average doctor only receives 11 hours of nutritional education. Not to mention, 27% of the medical school programs in the U.S., didn’t meet that “recommendation”. Based on how important food is to overall hormonal health and how hormonal health plays a huge role in our everyday health; this seems way too low to me. Not to mention the average doctor only spends 8 to 20 minutes with each of their patients. In my personal experience, you rarely get enough time to discuss the issue, let alone receive key educational pieces to help you understand your health. And I truly hope this article helps to do that.
I’ll also be adding links to my research if you’d like to dig a bit deeper on a topic.
National Institutes of Health - How dietary factors influence disease risk.
National Institutes of Health - Main Nutritional Deficiencies.
Cleveland Clinic - Why are certain foods so addictive
Time Magazine - How Nutrition Education for Doctors is Evolving.
WebMD - What to Know About Sugar and Depression.
How to regain hormone balance:
There are so many ways you can positively impact your system, the most recommended are diet, exercise, and meditation practice. Read the list below, and pick a few to try out. Include this practice daily, build habits over time, and then come back and add another. Allow yourself time to instill and integrate the new patterns as a daily part of your life. Feel free to explore and choose what works best for you. The key is not to overwhelm yourself. Rome was not built in a day, and neither will your healthy habits.
Limit or Remove Processed or Altered Food – Limit or remove foods that contain hormones, chemicals (artificial and natural), GMO, processed foods, and sugar. Also, I found this guy on YouTube particularly helpful for understanding the dangers of natural flavors and finding helpful alternatives. Natural flavors are created in a lab with natural ingredients, but they are still artificially made. What are Natural Flavors - Youtube Video
Limit or quit drinking and/or smoking – Addictions are not easy, I truly understand. Take your time and commit to it when you are ready. Also, I will mention that alcohol and smoking can impact your nervous system. And now you know what impacts your nervous system impacts your endocrine system and vice versa, which can impact your overall health.
Eat a balanced diet that works best for you - I suggest most of the food be veggies and fruits, however, find what works for you. I invite you to try to sway testing before eating or meditation after eating, to tune into your body and listen to see if the food is in alignment (quick tip: gas, bloating, upset tummy, acid reflux, constipation, diarrhea are all indicators the food may not be balanced for your body). Also, it is ok to indulge every now and again, just try to make it healthy overall.
Move 10 minutes daily- Dance, sing, garden, workout, walk, do yoga, daily energy routine, move your arms up and down while seated in a chair. My recommendation is to do something that moves the spine daily and sweat for at least 10 minutes a day, but movement is key. Use the body or lose that mobility.
Lower sugar intake – High sugar consumption can lead to cramps, mood swings, irritability, and depression. Sugar can increase your estrogen and testosterone hormones, which disrupts your cycle. So, limit sugar intake. This might be hard work, as 66% of packaged foods contain at least 1g of added sugar. The key is to limit processed & packaged foods. And I do want to specify that hormones impact both men and women.
Reduce your stress – I strongly suggest yoga or energy healing to do shadow work. Through this work, we can identify shadow aspects of ourselves, become aware, and build new patterns, versus allowing ourselves to be triggered by our adaptive subconscious. By releasing old behaviors that no longer serve you and repatterning new ones that fit your desired wellness journey. Also, I cannot forget this, stress produces cortisol, which can lead to belly fat, an increase in blood pressure, diabetes, immune suppression, etc. Use tools to help you manage your stress better, like cooling off, expression activities (art), energy healing, food habits, exercise, singing, dancing, breathwork techniques, etc. So many options for you to choose. Just do what makes you happy, that is within healthy reason.
Get a good night's rest – Our pineal gland (located in your brain, part of the endocrine system) is responsible for our circadian rhythms, and helps the cycle of sleep and wakefulness, through the secretion of melatonin. According to Healthline, removing fluoride from your diet will help you decrease pineal gland calcifications, which can impact your sleep schedule, as your pineal gland is unable to detect the amount of light in your environment properly. I’ve done this and it is amazing. I’ve replaced my toothpaste with fluoride-free and my water filter. Pub Med - Fluoride Occurences, Health Problems, Detection and Remediation Methods. “Excess amounts of fluoride ions in drinking water can cause dental fluorosis, skeletal fluorosis, arthritis, bone damage, osteoporosis, muscular damage, fatigue, joint-related problems, and chronicle issues. In extreme conditions, it could adversely damage the heart, arteries, kidney, liver, endocrine glands, neuron system, and several other delicate parts of a living organism.” (Pub Med) From my understanding, it was originally added to water as Scientists thought it would help teeth, but after decades of research, this does not appear to be the case, or at least there at 2 arguments out there that need to be considered.
Meditate or do breathwork practice – This will calm the nervous system, which directly impacts your endocrine system (hormones & reproductive in this context – although it is much larger than that).
Eye work – Techniques are used to place pressure on the optic nerve which sits close to your hypothalamus, pineal, and pituitary gland. Helping you to interact and aimed towards balancing the glands responsible for hormone secretion in your brain. Also, mantra and breathwork can be particularly helpful, but not required.
Remove external stimuli from your endocrine system – Limit social media and exposure to advertisements. It is hard at first, but you’ve got this!
Awareness practice – Become aware of the things you do in everyday life. I like to do a mix of focus and movement meditation, where you focus on a task like dishes or yoga and only focus on that one task. Allowing thoughts to creep in, listening to them, then honoring the task by clearing the mind and getting back. Or have more fun with the activity, you could always dress up to set the mood you are looking for, and then do the dishes because it makes the task more enjoyable. Just have fun with it and enjoy something simple but to the fullest.
Understanding Sugar and Hormones.
National Institute of Health - Added Sugar in the Packaged Foods.
National Institute of Health - Effect of Increase in Cortisol Level Due to Stress.
Cleveland Clinic - Pineal Gland.
Healthline - The Pineal Gland: What to Do.
Why do I feel this is important to share?
Throughout my lifetime, I have seen several medical professionals for issues that I now understand were hormonal issues. Having been in and out of the doctor’s office as a child with severe stomach pains, only to have everyone tell me everything looks fine. Sadly, at the time endocrine disruptors were not well known and were being used in our food.
And when I was a kid, we used to believe it was calories in, calories out and we followed the food pyramid, which doesn’t align with my body at all. However, it is important as adults for us to see those behaviors that are no longer serving us. Which includes taking ownership and power over our own health.
I digress. Finally, when I hit puberty, an OBGYN took me seriously regarding the stomach pain. She told me I had endometriosis, and she didn’t need to test me, as there really wasn’t any test. She and many other doctors kept me on birth control for over 15+ years and told me that was my only option. All the while, I still had significant pain. Once again, I felt broken, when in all actuality it was the system that was failing me. After being prescribed birth control, I became depressed and had a great deal of anxiety. I reached out to my family physician, and he prescribed anti-depressants, without recommending diet, exercise, or assisting my parents in helping me seek out help. The pill was the easiest solution, and it didn’t take, but 15 minutes for me to be on my way.
For years those doctors went off information in a chart, never accounting for my emotional state, only my physical. Sadly, the physical act of eating foods that had been altered was what was creating my healthcare crisis, not to mention many of these products were promoted to be “healthy” or “low-fat” “reduced fat” added hormones, we didn't know about, new hard to read labels. And sad truth, things are still being added to our food today. Food became addictive and I had no idea and neither did the doctors. Doctors at the time followed protocols, so I cannot fault them, they were only provided information on what happens to the body after health fails, rarely is it geared towards keeping the population healthy.
It is time we step it up for women and men in healthcare and account for every part of them, including the underlying causes of why we are unhealthy. Diagnosing happens well after wellness has been compromised, so it is important to focus on ways to keep ourselves healthy.
Modern science has viewed Eastern practices as “pseudo-science” or as it has been coined “woo woo” for a long time. It is time as humans we do better, by realizing that nothing is superior in this world. There are a multitude of different approaches that work from one person to the next. Luckily, I met an energy healer, who gave me a wealth of knowledge and helped me to center my physical body, my energetic body and helped me to begin connecting with my inner healer. I am on the road to recovery.
I’ll leave you with one last question if doctors are not educated on nutrition, and the majority of the health issues I’ve experienced had to do with endocrine disruptors in our food, then how can any doctor help me to get well? Fooducation (yup, just made that up) is a huge gap in the medical community, one that I personally think needs to be Modern science has viewed Eastern practices as “pseudo-science” or as it has been coined “woo woo” for a long time. It is time as humans we do better, by realizing that nothing is superior in this world. There are a multitude of different approaches that work from one person to the next. Luckily, I met an energy healer, who gave me a wealth of knowledge and helped me to center my physical body, my energetic body and helped me to begin connecting with my inner healer. I am on the road to recovery. helped me to center my physical body, my energetic body and helped me to begin connecting with my inner healer. I am on the road to recovery.
The journey to wellness is not an easy one, but I promise you, it feels amazing with each day that you grow healthier.
With love,
Jeri
