In all my years of personal and professional experience around female endocrine health, I’ve found that very few women know how to spot the signs of hormonal imbalance. After all, we’re often taught that pain and suffering are just a normal part of the female experience. Why would we think to question killer cramps or massive mood swings? Because those things are, in fact, not normal, inevitable aspects of womanhood. They’re just a few clear signs from your body alerting you to a hormonal imbalance. Try: Eating leafy greens. Members of the brassica family like kale contain indole-3 carbinol, a powerful hormone balancer that promotes estrogen metabolism, which will help eliminate excess estrogen and prevent estrogen dominance. Try: Weaning off the pill. The transition may not be easy, so it’s extra important to build a strong foundation of healthy eating and lifestyle habits and find an alternative birth control method for contraception before you quit completely. Try: Adjusting your diet. Cut caffeine, which exacerbates symptoms and perpetuates the tired/wired cycle. If you can’t cut it completely, at least reduce it to one cup or less per day. Start the day with a healthy, protein-packed breakfast to balance your blood sugar and improve your odds of staying satiated and energized. Try: Milk thistle. This herb has been shown to help detoxify the liver and even out estrogen. Try: Spicing it up. Research has linked spicy food to higher testosterone levels in men, and testosterone is just as important for a woman’s sex drive. Try: Magnesium. Your body’s C-reactive proteins are responsible for causing inflammation. Taking a calcium-magnesium supplement can help lower the amount of C-reactive proteins1 in your body, and calcium is also part of our tissue matrix—bones, cells, and skin—and very important for skin cell renewal. Try: Adding lemons and oranges to your water. Citrus fruits contain a compound called D-limonene, which is critical for healthy liver function. Try: Adding in more protein. Hormones are made from amino acids, and you can’t get your estrogen up if you can’t make enough of it from your food. Try: Limiting your sugar intake and eating lots of fiber-rich foods that will help detoxify your liver and create more of a specific hormone called FGF21 that has been found to prevent sugar cravings. Try: A chasteberry supplement. Research has shown it affects the production of various hormones in your body, especially progesterone. If your period is problematic, it’s important to learn what the root cause is. Knowing this will help you get healthy now and prevent disease in the future. Download the MyFLO app to track your symptoms and have a better period next month.
