Hormones

Many women find themselves in a hormonal turmoil at some point in their lives.

For example…we’ve all heard of hormones. We know we have them.

But what are they really? What do they do? Where do they come from?

In a nutshell, hormones are natural chemicals produced by the body. Their purpose is to send messages from one part of the body to another. Hormones are responsible for everything from letting you know that you’re hungry to regulating the amount of glucose available to your brain for larger functions like deep concentration or decision making.

Hormones have a significant impact on:

Your emotions and the way you feel,
How much weight you lose or keep,
The quality of your sleep,
How energetic you feel,
Memory, both short term and long term,
And many, many other vital functions of the body both for survival and overall wellbeing and quality of life.
Hormones are not just about periods and hot flushes.

Our reproductive years are the post -puberty years of menstruation and fertility, followed by the gradually decreasing hormonal levels of the premenopausal phase, before arriving at the menopause, clinically defined as the period following one full year with no menstruatration.

A FEW KEY PLAYERS

ESTROGEN

Produced primarily by the ovaries, estrogen is the term used to refer to any compounds producing estradiol and estriol. Estrogen is also produced by the feto – placental during pregnancy.

PROGESTERONE

Progesterone production takes place in three main areas – the ovaries during menstruation, the placenta during pregnancy and the adrenal glands.

TESTOSTERONE

Considered to be mainly a male hormone, testosterone is also produced in the female ovaries and adrenal glands. It influences bone strength and muscle mass and is essential to a women’s libido.

Unfortunately, many people have turned to the pharmaceutical industry to balance their hormones. While we are not suggesting that all pharmaceutical hormone balancing products are bad news, it’s also not unreasonable to say that some of these products are overly aggressive and result in undesirable side effects.

You’ve probably heard quite a lot about cortisol and its association with stress. Cortisol is a hormone produced by the adrenal glands in the body in response to both emotional and physical stress.

When in balance, cortisol serves a valuable purpose—it lets us know when something is wrong. Cortisol has a very strong relationship with the production of cytokines and different immune cell functioning. It can have some upregulation or downregulation where it is thought that it can lead to weakening or strengthening of immunity and health

This is why the old cliché about “listening to your body” really is so important. It can be tough raising a family, pursuing a career, and goodness knows what other demands tend to get thrown at us on a daily basis. If you’re feeling “stressed out,” that’s your cortisol hormone telling you that it’s perfectly OK to give yourself a break.

When your cortisol levels are unbalanced, you can tell because you’ll have some of the following problems:

Tiredness even after a good night’s rest
Craving really high carb foods or junk food
Irritability and “brain fog”
More energy at night than in the morning
Essential oils are a holistic, all-natural approach to balancing your hormones.

It is important to understand what essential oils can and can’t do.

Essential oils can’t replace hormones neither can essential oils become hormones. They can’t produce hormones. Nature doesn’t work like that.

But, nature did give us these amazing essential oils that can support our bodies in healing ourselves and then affect our bodies in wonderful ways. In other words, we can treat hormones without hormones. Essential oils are your support. But again they won’t get you there alone if you neglect lifestyle choices that establish the foundation for your good health.

At The Women’s Health Clinic we help to assess your unique situation to create a personalized plan to manage imbalances. We will look at nutrition, exercise, managing stress, reducing the toxic load and self care suggestions.