From your mood and sleep cycle to your appetite and fertility, hormones drive many aspects of your health. With multiple organs and glands regulating hormone production, it is understandable that these sensitive chemical messengers can easily become out of sync. Fortunately, they do not have to stay that way. You can rebalance hormones naturally.

Common Signs of Hormone Imbalance

Aside from feeling out of balance, there are physical changes you can look for including:

• Depression
• Fatigue
• Hair loss/thinning
• Infertility
• Insomnia
• Low libido
• Weight gain

If any of these sound familiar or if you want to prevent them, try these nine natural methods…

1. Avoid toxic containers and cleaning products Plastic bottles and containers may contain chemicals like BPA while many cleaning products contain toxins such as DEA, parabens, and sodium lauryl sulfate.
2. Reduce your caffeine intake Caffeine elevates cortisol levels, lowers thyroid hormone levels, and stresses your body. Instead, drink green or tulsi tea for energy, balanced hormones, weight loss, and cancer-killing benefits!
3. Ditch those birth control pills It may be convenient to use birth control pills, but they can raise your oestrogen to dangerous levels increasing your risk of high blood pressure, blood clots, heart disease, migraines, and mood changes. They can also cause breast tenderness, nausea, irregular bleeding, gallbladder disease, and benign liver tumours as well as lowering your libido. So consider some alternatives.
4. Support your digestive health When left untreated, digestive system damage can develop into leaky gut syndrome and disrupt hormone balance. So, heal your gut and support digestive health with high-fibre foods, bone broth, fermented vegetables, and of course—probiotics!
5. Get your short, medium, and long-chain fatty acids Eating a variety of fatty acids keeps your hormones balanced, boosts metabolism, and promotes weight loss. Try coconut oil, avocados, and salmon.
6. Supplement with herbs and vitamin D3 Adaptogen herbs promote hormone balance by improving thyroid function, lowering cholesterol, reducing anxiety and depression, fighting brain cell degeneration, stabilizing blood sugar, and supporting the adrenal glands. Vitamin D3 maximises immunity, insulin secretion, and heart function while regulating blood pressure and brain and fetal development.
7. Balance your omega-3/omega-6 intake Too many omega-6 vegetable oils (i.e. sunflower, canola, peanut, etc.) and too little omega-3 animal and plant sources (i.e. wild fish, chia seeds, walnuts, etc.) disrupt your hormones. Balance your intake and add the omega-6-rich gamma-linoleic acid (GLA) from Evening Primrose Oil to your diet to support progesterone levels.
8. Exercise! Exercising triggers your body to release the hormones it needs while reducing stress levels, enhancing immunity, regulating metabolic function, and maintaining your ideal body weight.
9. Sleep 7 to 8 hours—every night Anything less than seven hours of sleep every night leaves your body sleep deprived and your hormones imbalanced. Your hormones like to stay on a schedule, so set yourself a bed time and wake time and stick to them!

If you need help with any of these steps, just ‘Ask a Naturopath’.