When I say hormone balance, you, like most people , probably start thinking about  menopause, PMS, loss of libido  and other female issues.  Yet there is so much more, and often these “female hormone”  imbalances are caused by imbalances in what I call the “survival hormones”.

I never really thought of myself as a hormone specialist because I don’t concentrate on female issues.  Sure I see my fair share of menopausal women and help them balance their hormones.

I specialize in helping people restore their energy, overcome fatigue and  thyroid imbalance get their blood sugars in balance. And, because of my own personal success with cleansing and detoxification, I am really successful with using detoxification with all my patients and clients.

Then one day, it hit me.  I do specialize in balancing hormones.

Only it’s not limited to the sex hormones.

Making Friends with your Survival Hormones

When I’m working with someone who is fat, foggy and fatigued and has symptoms of female hormone imbalance, I often start with what I  have come to term the”survival” hormones. They are the hormones that are vital to our day to day functions and have daily rhythms. Not to say I don’t deal with the sex hormones, which tend to have a monthly cycle. Those are vital too. And they are intimately related to the day to day hormones.

 I’ve observed that there’s a huge misconception when it comes to hormones – what they are and what they do. And there’s especially a lot of confusion about how to bring them into balance.

SO I have planned a series of articles  to educate you about your hormones and empower you to nurture them and love them into balance.

In each article you’ll get a “Hormone 101” look at the hormone of the week – its function, what can go wrong, how to test it and a few tips on how to bring it into balance.

The how to bring it into balance part is a lot more complex than I can can cover fully in a short blog post, so I’ll point you in the direction of where you can find out more – a book, a recording, an in-depth article or a coaching program.

Hormones in this series

• insulin – blood sugar balance
• adrenaline – quick burst of energy in fight/flight situations
• cortisol- sustained support of fight/flight situations
• DHEA- growth and repair, immune system support and recovery from illness
• pregnenalone – precursor for all other steroid hormones
• thyroid – metabolic rate
• leptin – appetite and fat burning
• ghrellin – appetite
• growth hormone – stimulates fat burning and lean muscle growth, repair
• melatonin – promotes deep sleep
• progesterone – promotes growth of uterine lining in reparation for pregnancy, inhibits tumor growth
• testosterone – promotes male features – muscle strength, facial and body hair
• estrogen – promotes female features, supports ovulation and regulation of female cycle

These are just one liners on the function of each hormone. They are oversimplifications and generalizations. just to give you a idea of how they work together.

My goal is not to turn you an endocrinologist but to put you in charge of your own body so you understand how your day to day choices effect how you feel and how your hormones dance with each other.

A few highlights on what this series will cover:

• How when you’re stressed, your adrenals secrete the hormone cortisol goes up and DHEA goes down, leading to increased insulin production and fat accumulation around your waist
• how very low calorie diets inhibit the enzyme that converts the thyroid hormone T4 to the active form, T3, thus decreasing your metabolism and causing you to gain weight rather than lose it.
• As men age, the hormone testosterone  decreases and more of their testosterone gets converted to estrogen, which naturally slows fat burning ,
• How estrogen slows fat burning and increases fat storage as a part of facilitating fat storage in preparation for fertility, birth and lactation.
• how high levels of insulin, released when you eat sugar and many high carbohydrate foods,  suppresses growth hormone and leads to increased fat storage.
• How eating close to bedtime suppresses your natural growth hormone surge at night, leading to increased fat storage.

There are lots more gems to be shared, including information about leptin and ghrellin, gluten intolerance and autoimmune diseases and their effect on your hormones

Please Post a Comment Below and let me know what hormones you’d most like to learn about.

Love, Health and Joy,

Dr. Ritamarie