A hormonal imbalance will affect you from PMS to Infertility to Menopause and everything in between, hormones can make us feel like life is enjoyable and beautiful or dark and challenging. Regardless of age, you’ll always feel well when your hormones are in balance.
It is often said ‘happy wife, happy life’, but I would take that one step further and say happy hormones, happy life!
Teenage boys and men also suffer from hormonal imbalance, so I have shared below eight of my top tips to balance and support your endocrine system to feel strong, healthy and optimistic about life.
The endocrine system is a tightly regulated system that is designed to help your hormones and their functions at just the right level to support wellness. One way this is achieved is through ‘feedback loops’. When these loops don’t have the right cofactors from vitamins, minerals and herbs the whole endocrine system suffer making you feel mentally and physically wobbly.
Instead of working from the symptoms of hormonal imbalance back, I will discuss the foundational parts of your health that you can balance now before symptoms arise. If you are already symptomatic, you can implement these tips to get back into balance and optimum wellness.
Both men and women will benefit from using these eight tips below, and I’m already supporting my children with this advice, so I set them up to win long term.
If you don’t know where or how to start your wellness journey, build your own Wellness Profile to identify your top 3 areas to focus on to transform your health. It’s free and you will get tailored advice on how to strengthen your health.
1. Deal With Your Inflammation
A diet high in animal fats, processed meats and grains, dairy and sugar will increase inflammation and cause hormone imbalance. These inflammatory foods increase your risk of disease and obesity and are a significant cause of hormone issues. Excessive alcohol also increases inflammation and reduces immune function, and has a knock-on effect on your endocrine system.
For women, heavy drinking increases the risk of ovulation disorders. For men, it lowers testosterone levels, causes erectile dysfunction and decreases sperm production, so stick to a few glasses of organic red wine a week. Caffeine can cause hormonal imbalance and dehydration and lead to mineral deficiencies. High consumption of caffeine can also interfere with fertility.
Lowering your caffeine to one cup per day, or giving it up entirely, is a good idea when you’re trying to get pregnant.
Eat more plants, less animal protein, cut dairy and go more pesca vegan for three months to combat your inflammation and hormonal imbalance. Ideally, it is best to eat 3 cups of green veggies per day, but if you find that a little tricky fast track like I do with The Super Elixir or our Rejuv Super Greens Powder.
Drink at least 2L of water per day and add 1/2 teaspoon of unprocessed sea salt plus a squeeze of lemon to this 2L which acts as a natural electrolyte to boost hydration and reduce inflammation.
See point 3 below for what you think about and how you deal with your stress also directly affects your inflammation and, therefore, our hormone health.
2. Balance Your Blood Sugar Levels
Blood sugar spikes will directly impact your hormones and cause them to peak, creating hormonal imbalance, particularly oestrogen, leaving you feeling mentally and physically out of sorts. The sugar rush will also kick start your fight or flight/stress response surging adrenaline and cortisol creating a vicious cycle leading to fatigue and mental disorders such as depression and anxiety.
Good quality protein at each meal from fish, nuts, seeds, organic eggs, or a vegan protein powder will provide easily absorbed essential amino acids to balance your blood sugar levels and hormones. Adding Omega 3’s from oily fish, avocados, nuts, seeds, and coconut oil will also help regulate your blood sugar levels. Research shows will also help regulate ovulation, improve egg quality and even delay the ageing of the ovaries. Just be mindful of increasing fish high in mercury. If you don’t like to eat fish, add a good Omega 3 supplement like our Omega 3 and Krill Oil Capsules.
Do your best to opt for organic foods with lots of green vegetables, as pesticides can affect oestrogen and other hormones and worsen your hormonal imbalances. If you plan to have some chocolate over Easter, see my blog on choosing healthier options to avoid spiking your blood sugar and upsetting your hormonal balance.
Suppose you feel you have an issue with your blood sugar levels, especially with Easter just around the corner. In that case, our popular Blood Sugar Support Capsules have wondrous herbal ingredients to adjust insulin levels having a direct balancing effect on hormones.
3. Reduce Stress
Research has shown that stress directly impacts both male and female hormonal levels, and with such a difficult few years for many and stress levels at an all-time high, we are seeing a massive rise in hormonal imbalance related issues in our clinics.
As stress increases, fertility also tends to decrease, with one study measuring the levels of an enzyme linked with stress in women’s saliva trying to get pregnant for over one year. The enzyme tested is alpha-amylase, which helps the body digest carbohydrates linked to the fight-or-flight stress response.
Stress also increases heart rate and vasoconstriction, triggering hot flushes and increasing period paid. Blood circulation is also reduced, causing fatigue, body pain, and mood disorders: low libido and PMS and Menopause symptoms.
Adopting mindfulness and daily stress-reducing techniques will have a substantial beneficial effect and for lots of great tips, download our FREE Rejuv Good Habits Guide.
Our Adrenal Complex Capsules are great if you need help with your stress levels, for I combined adaptogenic herbs to support your nervous system so you don’t automatically jump into fight or flight.
By defaulting into fight or flight, your body cannot be in a place of healing and restoration, for the body is so busy fighting fires. The human body has 11 systems, and 2 out of those are essential for fertility and reproduction, but since the body is built for survival, the first two systems to get out of balance are these two. Getting your stress under control is vital to calm your nervous system and, therefore, your hormones.
4. Use Less Plastics
Plastics are hormonal disruptors, so increase your green and cruciferous vegetables and reduce exposure to plastics from water bottles and storage containers. Please never use plastics when serving or warming food. Using glass, ceramic or stainless steel is best. Sometimes, especially with kids, plastic water bottles are necessary, so choose the PBA and toxic-free varieties but still keep them out of the direct sun and heat.
Broccoli, cabbage and Brussel sprouts are cruciferous vegetables that contain Indole-3-Carbinol, which helps the liver metabolise oestrogen. It’s best to steam cruciferous vegetables, avoiding the goitrogens present in their raw state.
Please never heat plastic or use a microwave oven, particularly in microwave-safe plastic, to cook your food, which is linked to cancer. Never leave your water bottles in the car, expose them to heat, come back another day, and drink the water! It’s easy to get glass bottles, a home water filter and glass storage containers.
5. Use Herbs for Hormonal Imbalance
I love Chinese & Ayurvedic herbs, and I have been using them for most of my career with great success. Traditionally taken as a tea, these herbs can be pretty arduous for the taste buds and tough to endure, not to mention the many hours to boil them up.
For this reason, I formulated my Female Hormonal Balance Capsules for women and our Fertility Support Capsules for couples to fast track hormonal balancing without intense herbal tea flavours that are difficult to drink. This combination is ideal if you have fertility issues.
I also helped formulate two new wonderful Elixirs for WelleCo – The PMS and Goddess Elixir (for Menopause). Always keep your Super Elixir as your foundational base and then you can add either of these as a booster.
The PMS Elixir is great for teenage girls right up to women who are still menstruating to reduce all symptoms of PMS from water retention, sore breasts, sugar cravings, mood swings and period pain.
The Goddess Elixir is to help you elegantly move through menopause, reduce symptoms such as low libido, hot flushes and mood swings and realign you so you catapult into this amazing new season of feminine flow.
Gone are the days we have to suffer in silence with our hormones, it’s time you stepped into your inner goddess and live from a place of integration and outrageously good health.
Adding seaweed to your diet is also a tremendous hormonal balancer, particularly for the thyroid, for it is high in iodine, and you can buy dulse and seaweed flakes to add to salads and stir fry.
You can also make yummy homemade sushi rolls with fish and avocado, swap the rice for quinoa, or opt for black or brown rice to keep your GI index down. If you know you have a thyroid issue, you can also add our Sea & Soil Super Green Capsules, which I used to heal my thyroid and many of my clients.
6. Improve Your Sleep
Low quality or limited amount of regular sleep is linked to inflammation, and hormonal imbalances can reduce the body’s ability to heal during the night, leading to excessive stress, a natural enemy of hormonal balance.
Over many years, I have seen sleep as a significant catalyst in reducing the endocrine system’s entire function. So how much is enough? We are all different, but the classic 8 hours is a great start and keeping the temperature cool at around 17-20 degrees celsius.
Ultimately you need to wake up feeling refreshed, and you need to work out what is your optimum, but most need 6-10 hours a night to feel well. Serotonin to melatonin ratios more hours before midnight is the goal for, as the saying goes, one hour before midnight is like 2 hours after midnight, so early to bed and early to rise is ideal. If you need help going to sleep, try our Bedtime Blend Capsules before you go to bed.
I love wind-down rituals like an Epsom salt bath, essential oil and the sleep tea I formulated for WelleCo, available in our online shop, to support deep restorative sleep. I’ve also composed the Rejuv Moon Milk – a free recipe you can use with ingredients you’ll find in most health food shops or supermarkets.
7. Increase Foods High in Vitamin C
Plant-based Vitamin C helps with wound healing if you have hormone-related acne and is excellent for fertility. It triggers regular ovulation in women and can increase sperm quality in men.
Plant-based vitamin C with Citrus Bioflavonoids has been shown to reduce menopause symptoms, including hot flushes, legs cramps, sexual and mood disorders, and hair and memory loss.
Vitamin C foods also help your body absorb iron, an essential nutrient for women. Grapefruits and other citrus fruits, kiwis, guava, cherries, berries, and kale are excellent sources. Pumpkin Seeds are also high in vitamin C, and as a bonus, they are anti-parasitic and even increase in zinc, an essential nutrient for reproduction in both men and women.
If you want to add a plant-based vitamin C with flavonoids supplement, be very careful not to buy synthetic vitamin C, which flushes out of the body. Opt for a whole food vitamin C as found in our Immune Support and Immune restore vegan, organic capsules. This is also why I chose plant-based vitamin C for all WelleCo products, including the new PMS & Goddess Elixirs.
8. Move Your Body
Exercise is also crucial for the hormonal balance to support your mental and physical health. Choose an activity you love that brings you joy, spend time in nature, get your barefoot on the earth, breath and choose to respond rather than react to your environmental triggers. The sea is also wonderful to balance your nervous and hormonal systems, and if that is hard for you, opt for Epsom salt baths or foot baths.
As an act of self-love, I move my body each day, even if just for 30 minutes. I also stay present and use this time to embrace prayer and affirming, positive statements over my life.
I also use this time to practise gratitude, giving thanks for everything in my life as it is, not waiting to give thanks for when my health, relationships and circumstances are ‘perfect’ for that is unrealistic and can lead to increased stress and hormonal imbalance which robs you from being able to enjoy your life as it is now.
As you can see, there are many things you can do through diet, lifestyle and supplementation to balance your endocrine system, reduce inflammation, get out of fight or flight and reduce hormone imbalances at any age.
Please keep it simple, for the grass isn’t greener on the other side. The grass is greener where you water it. So make the above, move, breathe, be kind to yourself and others, and notice all the beauty around you, balancing your hormones and feeding your mind, body, and soul.
