You Don’t Know How Important Your Hormones Are – Until You Read This!
How do you feel today? Energetic or tired, worried or happy, hungry or full? A lot of how you feel (and how your body functions) is controlled by our hormones. And you DO have some control over them!
You use about 50 hormones — chemicals that travel throughout your body and make changes to your cells. You experience those changes as feelings or bodily changes.
Waking up in the morning is due to a hormone called cortisol. Being able to fall asleep at night is due to the hormone melatonin.
And hormones all work together. So, for example, if you’re stressed, your body produces cortisol (the stress hormone) but decreases production of oestrogen and testosterone.
So, let’s look at 6 important hormones – and what you can do to make them work for you.
Vitamin D
Yes, it’s a hormone! It’s produced by sunshine on your body. It helps protect you from upper respiratory tract infections, so it might also help to prevent you from getting Covid-19 (this is not yet proven). It’s so good for you that it’s worth keeping it topped up.
If you live in a climate where you don’t get enough sunshine, you are more at risk from cardiovascular disease, infections and infertility.
Here’s what to do:-
- If you don’t get enough sunshine, then vitamin D supplements (while not as good as the real thing) seem to help.
- You can also get vitamin D from eggs, milk, oily fish and mushrooms.
- Try to “stockpile” vitamin D in the spring and summer to carry you through winter.
- If you have darker skin, your body makes vitamin D more slowly, so it’s even more important to get lots.
Lunchtime sunlight, at least outside winter, is best for vitamin D, because that’s when the UBV rays are strongest. They can’t get through windows, so go outside. In summer, 2 to 8 minutes of daily lunchtime sunshine is enough if you have light skin; if you have dark skin you need 25-35 minutes a day.
Melatonin – the Darkness Hormone
Melatonin is often called ‘the sleep hormone’- but it’s more attuned to darkness. A little while after sunset you get a spike of melatonin which prepares you for sleep. But modern life gives us bright light at night, including screens.
So it takes longer to fall asleep, your sleep is more disturbed, and you don’t feel well-rested the next morning.
Here’s what to do:-
- Keep active – mentally and physically – during the day (so that you need to recover from it).
- Don’t eat a meal close to bedtime.
- Make your environment as dim as possible in the hour or two before bed.
- Melatonin supplements are not proven to be effective – and we don’t know its long-term effects. So don’t take them.
- Adding blue filters to your devices doesn’t help much – it’s the brightness that counts, not the color.
- The best thing to do is to read for a little while before bed – with only a soft, dim light.
Leptin – the Hormone Controlling Your Weight
Your weight has a lot to do with genetics (which you can’t change), and our hormones (which you can influence by what you eat).
The hormone ghrelin tells you that you need food, insulin tells your body to store some food as energy, and peptide YY and leptin tell you you’re full.
Leptin is hugely important for your weight. When you eat too much sugary food initially, insulin kicks in and weakens the effect of leptin. A Western diet causes inflammation which stops insulin being recognised, so more insulin is produced, which weakens leptin even more. It a nasty cycle that causes weight gain.
- Modern, processed foods, particularly food containing sugar or vegetable oils, play havoc with your hormonal balance so avoid them as much as possible. This includes baked goods.
- Instead enjoy whole foods – fresh poultry, fish, vegetables and fruit. Omega-3 fatty acids are good and you find those in green leafy plants and the flesh of any animals or fish that have consumed them
- The good news is you don’t have to worry about portion sizes. When you’re eating healthy food (items your great-grandmother would recognize), your body will sort itself out.
Oestrogen / Estrogen
Oestrogen and testosterone were thought of as sex hormones, but they do a lot more! Women’s brains use more oestrogen than men’s, giving women high brain energy, enhanced ability to learn new skills and boosting immunity.
Which sounds great – but there’s bad news too. As women head towards menopause, oestrogen levels drop. Brain neurons slow down and some women age faster. This decrease can also lead to increased risk of Alzheimer’s
So it’s really important for women to make sure they get enough oestrogen to maintain brain health. But how?
Well, obviously hormone replacement therapy can be prescribed if you’re low on oestrogen.- Luckily though you can also supplement through food.
- You need lots of omega-3 fatty acids which you get from oily fish and vegetables. Supplements are also available but it’s always more effective to get omega-3 from a healthy diet.
- One tablespoon of flaxseed oil daily is more than half of the omega-3 you’ll need that day!
- Also eat sesame seeds, chickpeas, dried apricots, legumes, strawberries, mango and cantaloupe (melon).
- Aha – dark chocolate also contains a little oestrogen!
- You should avoid plastic as much as possible. It’s lousy for the planet, and it’s lousy for you too! BPA is a chemical in many plastic products, and it’s a problem for oestrogen. So use proper ceramic plates for your meals, and drink from glasses or ceramic mugs or cups, not plastic. And of course, don’t heat plastic containers in a microwave.
Thyroid Hormones (T3 and T4)
Do you know the most common hormone problems in the West today?
- Diabetes
- Under-active thyroid (hypothyroidism)
- Over-active thyroid (hyperthyroidism)
An underactive thyroid produces tiredness, cold sensitivity, weight gain, constipation and depression.
An overactive thyroid gland results in agitation, mood swings, difficulty sleeping, sensitivity to heat and diarrhoea.
Women are more likely to have thyroid problems than men, especially as we age. So it pays to look after these hormones.
- You need iodine – and that comes from seafood, as well as from iodised salt (regulated in some countries, not in others). Dairy products also contain iodine. Vegans should consider an iodine supplement.
- Selenium is also important for thyroid function, and you get that from meat, eggs, fish and Brazil nuts.
Cortisol – the Stress Hormone
Originally, cortisol helped us “fight or flight” – nowadays it’s useful for physical performance and to focus on important tasks. But if cortisol goes up too much for too long, it’s a problem.
If you produce too much of this “stress hormone”, you might have difficulty sleeping, reduced oestrogen and some memory loss. You’re also at higher risk of Alzheimer’s.
Stress is a huge problem today – experts say it’s due mostly to social media and the modern 24/7 working culture.
What can you do to reduce stress?
- Exercise! It can be anything – a 15-minute walk, press-ups, dancing, 1 minute of star jumps, climbing stairs – they’re are all great.
- Spend time in Nature – experts still aren’t sure exactly why, but it works!
- Yoga, Pilates or Tai Chi all help with both exercise and mental relaxation.
- And of course, your diet. Yes, you’ve heard it before. Avoid processed goods, choose whole foods instead. Eat a lot of different foods including different-coloured vegetables, pulses, legumes and beans.
Of course there are many more hormones, but these 6 are important – and you can boost them, which is great news!
Sources: the Society for Endocrinology; Hormone Health Network; the Telegraph
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Warm regards,
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