Three Ways To Balance Your Hormones Naturally

According to Sheila Zhou, a scientist at USANA Health Sciences, a leading producer of high-quality supplements, “Hormones for women during their menstrual cycle can either be your best friend or your worst nightmare. Too little or too much can affect your skin tone and weight, or make you feel extremely irritable and tired.”

These experiences of hormonal fluctuations can be challenging to deal with. To avoid them, Ms. Zhou shares her expert recommendations for balancing your hormones naturally:

1. Have a nutrient-rich diet

At any stage of your life eating well-balanced meals is important for good health. In order to achieve optimal nutrition, your diet needs to consist of a balance between clean proteins (beans, seeds, wild caught fish), healthy fats (coconut oil, avocado), antioxidant rich vegetables (broccoli, spinach, sweet potatoes) and healing spices and herbs (cinnamon, turmeric).

Sometimes, despite having a rich nutritional diet, your body can feel far from optimum, and that is when the benefits of taking health supplements come in. Some natural botanic extracts such as soy isoflavones, black cohosh, dong quai, licorice, and chasteberry help support women’s health during menopause, providing relief from a variety of menopausal symptoms, including hot flushes.

Soy isoflavones have also been shown to support bone health in menopausal women.

2. Avoid or limit the use of endocrine-disrupting chemicals and opt to use natural skincare

Endocrine-disrupting chemicals are unnatural chemicals found in man-made products, such as plastics, toxic household cleaning products, and pesticides. Endocrine-disrupting chemicals are extremely harmful to your body because they alter your balance of hormones, therefore triggering changes in the way it functions. Avoiding or limiting your use of household products with these chemicals will prevent these harmful toxins from entering your system.

Even though you don’t ‘consume’ these chemicals, endocrine-disrupting chemicals can be absorbed through your skin, meaning you are exposed when any of these products come in contact with your body. By opting for preservative-free skincare and hair products such as the USANA Sense range of products, you are eliminating the risk of hormone disruption.

As you age, many females tend to use more anti-aging beauty products to iron out all facial imperfections. The downside to using anti-aging cosmetics is that some beauty products contain harmful chemicals. Instead of going to the cosmetic aisle, however, try taking grape seed extract supplement instead to achieve that healthy age-less glow. Proanthocyanidins in grape seed extract not only help with improving skin-aging appearance but assists in overall cardiovascular health as well.

3. Get more sleep and interval exercise

Regulating a sleep cycle of 7-9 hours a day is essential for hormonal control, especially as cortisol (the stress hormone) is regulated at night. Cortisol helps your body respond to stress appropriately and prevents your body from getting sick. When your body is alert your cortisol levels increase. Sleep deprivation also increases the level of cortisol in your body and makes you more prone to developing diabetes or obesity. Getting adequate amounts of sleep prevents fluctuations in hormones and prevents your cortisol levels from increasing too drastically. Regular physical activity can have a significant effect on balancing hormones naturally. Interval exercise releases hormones that reduce stress levels, enhance the immune system, and regulate metabolic function.