I recently took a course on how to balance female hormones and how hormonal imbalance affects our ageing process and overall health.
This is something every woman should know about, hence I am writing this article. I hope it helps my lovely readers to balance their hormones in just one week. So let’s get started!
Hormones play a very crucial role in our health, and women have been sitting on a hormonal roller coaster ride as per their bodily functions.
This hu-ha of the hormones need not be very difficult to understand. So just get one thing that you need estrogen, progesterone, testosterone (yes that too) and all other hormones in good amounts to let your body function perfectly.
Table of Contents
What do Hormones Do?
These are the precursors that command your body to perform functions such as growing up, repairing the damages, producing a baby, helping it grow etc. Some of the main functions of hormones are as follows –
Estrogen
This hormone is responsible for young skin which we all have taken for granted in our 20s. Estrogen is also responsible for insulin sensitivity.
Progesterone
This one is needed for regular periods, getting pregnant, thick shiny hair, helping you sleep and to keep you in a good mood. (if you feel like setting the world on fire near your periods, you can blame the decreasing progesterone levels for that, which is required to get the periods started).
Testosterone
It is needed to keep your libido good, build muscle mass, keep you active, and generally do all the physical tasks.
Thyroid
Helps keep your weight, energy levels, hair health and mood in check.
What are the Symptoms of Hormone Imbalance in Women?
- Depression or sadness, stress and anxiety all the time.
- PMS hits you hard every time
- Hair thinning
- Weight gain or inability to maintain it
- Hormonal Acne (especially on the chin and jawline)
- Excessive Facial or body hair
- Period irregularity
- Low libido
- Insulin resistance (high blood sugar)
- Disturbed sleep
- Skin Dryness
- Vaginal dryness
- Constipation
- Laziness
- Skin tags
- Puffy face – here is how to get rid of puffy face
Reasons Behind Hormone Imbalance
- Deficiencies are the biggest cause of hormonal imbalance. Iron, vitamin B, D, zinc, and magnesium deficiencies are among the most common deficiencies in humankind. Poor dietary habits are to be blamed for this.
- A sedentary lifestyle is another reason behind hormone imbalance. Unfortunately, cooking and cleaning do not take as many calories as they should, nor do sitting and working on your laptop.
- Thyroid disorders also create hormonal imbalance and hypothyroidism is the most common. Weight gain, hair thinning, and sad mood are the main symptoms of this.
- Diabetes is another example of hormone imbalance where the hormone insulin is not produced or processed in a normal manner.
Recommended read – Home remedies for diabetes that work better than insulin
- Obesity interferes with the process of hormonal functioning.
- Taking birth control pills makes the hormones sluggish too. If you are taking them from outside, why would your body even bother to produce more?
7 Habits to Keep the Hormones in Check within a week & Stay Young
Take Proper Sleep
Disturbed sleep doesn’t let our body rejuvenate and you feel like you are just dragging yourself the whole day. If you struggle to sleep then do these changes
- Take adequate sunlight during the day (don’t sit in a dark room and welcome the sun always)
- No coffee after 4 pm
- Dinner should be 2 hours before sleeping
- Sleep in a pitch-dark room
- Don’t use your phone or other gadgets 1 hour before sleeping
- Take magnesium supplements after asking your healthcare professional
Dietary Changes
They are really huge and make a big difference in your body. Believe me, I tried it when I was trying to get rid of acne, and I performed that body detoxification to get rid of acne.
- Eat greens, and veggies every day
- Say no to processed food and frozen food, and eat freshly prepared food whenever possible
- Take nuts regularly
- Keep a combination of healthy fats and proteins in your plate along with carbs
- Green tea/flower teas
- Eat dark chocolate in moderation
- Use ghee, coconut oil or olive oil wherever possible
- Indian gooseberry is the best to detoxify your body
- Take this hormone-balancing tea twice a week
- Drinking Mint water for Acne in summer season
Stop Sugar
Sugar is so bad for you, it simply destroys the collagen in your skin and just fastens the ageing process many folds. Sugar is your ticket to the wrinkle-land. So try to stay away from it as far as possible.
I still couldn’t give up on sugar as I so love Indian sweets, chocolates, and gajjak (crunchy peanuts & sesame seeds wrapped in jaggary) in winter. However, you can at least reduce your frequency of consumption.
Recommended read – what happens when you stop eating sugar
Abhyanga or Massage
Abhyanga means massage. Massaging is a great way to detox and let the lymph and blood flow properly. It gives a push for all the toxins to drain towards the lymph nodes.
- Do these face massage strokes on your face to get rid of that puffy face, ice facial works well too but they can only be performed in summer.
- Dry brush massage is another way of moving the body’s lymph. You just need to brush your body gently before bathing with a dry body brush only. Don’t use any other harsh brush or cloth brush, please.
- Another good way to massage your puffy face is by using a kansa wand (the Indian gua-sha) and you know the famous gua-sha stone.
Take Your Vitamins/Minerals
You won’t believe how effective is taking your vitamins and minerals. Just do it under the care of your healthcare professional.
Do you know taking regular vitamin D can reduce the risk of breast cancer by 80%
Can you see what a world of difference taking these supplements makes? Vitamins like vitamin B-complex help give you healthy skin, hair, nerves and more.
If Iron is low in your body then the production of all hormones slows down. So if you need your hormones, body detoxification and lustrous hair, you need iron.
Don’t get me started on the importance of magnesium, calcium, omega-3 and all the minerals. You don’t need to take a handful of supplements (remember excess of everything is bad) but at least one multivitamin a day is needed especially if you are in your 30s and beyond.
Read – Selfcare Routine for Busy People
Remove Toxins from your environment
Removing toxins from your environment is also helpful for your hormonal production and its balance as you age. Some unheard measures of removing toxins from our environment are –
- Get rid of Plastic in all forms, especially from the kitchen. Opt for steel utensils, glass utensils, and other safe metals and avoid plastic containers.
- Don’t heat the plastic in the microwave, healing plastic containers in the microwave can leak the toxins in your food. So whenever you are heating or reheating the food, use glass or ceramics.
- Indoor plants are another way to remove harmful gases and toxins from our environment. Read about the best indoor air-purifying plants.
Movement
If you are not walking 10k steps every day, your hormones will remain lazy and sluggish too.
Tracking your steps daily is a good idea with a simple step tracker watch and once you get an idea about how many steps you usually complete, you can do without one as well.
This will give you a rough idea of how much activity you need to do after your usual house chores.
Adding some yoga and pranayama to your routine will be the cherry on the cake and you will love the effects of kapalbhaati pranayaam if you do it consistently.
Other things to Consider To Balance Your Hormones
- Good Gastrointestinal Health – you poop daily, and you digest regular food easily without getting bloated or acidic most of the time are signs of good gastrointestinal health.
- Great Mental Health – Stress is a big culprit of the hormonal imbalance, meditation, therapy, talking to your friends and family, playing with your pooch and indulging in some artistic activities are great stress-busters.
- Regular Blood Workups – Get your blood tests done annually or twice a year if you find any abnormality in them. The most common tests are complete blood count, HB, thyroid, PCOS profile etc.
- Oil Pulling – It is the process of keeping the cold-pressed virgin (coconut/sesame) oil in your mouth for about 20 minutes. You can swish it around your mouth as well. It will be difficult to keep it in your mouth for that long in the beginning so you can keep it for 5 minutes and then increase the duration slowly day by day. After that spit out the oil, this oil captures all the toxins in it.
- Recommended Read – 7 Proven Ways to Get rid of Hormonal Acne
This was all about how we can balance our hormones and delay ageing as it comes. Just don’t fret a lot about it, everyone’s journey is different. Some of us may look younger than our age and others older.
The idea is to live life fully, be happy and be the reason for someone’s happiness. Wishing you all great health and hormones!
