How to Support your Hormones

Your hormones are like little chemical messengers made by your body that are essential to healthy body function. Hormone health includes things like your period, PMS, fertility, thyroid, insulin, stress (e.g. cortisol, adrenaline and noradrenaline), appetite regulation (e.g. leptin and grehlin) and loads more. 

But did you know that dieting can impact your hormones? There are so many things to consider here, but these are just a few examples of the impacts that dieting can have:

• Dysregulated levels of sex hormones (like oestrogen and testosterone) causing various period problems, decreased sex drive, poor bone health and more

• Hypothalamic amenorrhea - i.e. absence of menstruation (read more about this below)

• PMS

• Current and future fertility issues

• Thyroid dysregulation (e.g. hypothyroidism or autoimmune thyroid disease)

So do you want to know five key ways to support your hormones? And foods and nutrients that help hormone health? Read on!

5 ways to support your hormones

Here are five of my favourite ways to support your hormones

1. Enjoy protein, fats and carbs - low fat and low carb diets are notoriously popular, but your body needs this all three of this amazing trio for hormone production and function

2. Eat regularly and eat enough - blood sugar dysregulation and dietary restriction are both linked with various hormonal issues

3. Support your stress levels - cortisol is a key player in hormone health. for example, it impacts your HPA (hypothalamic pituitary adrenal) axis which impacts your HPO (hypothalamic pituitary ovarian) axis and can negatively impact your menstrual cycle

4. Soak up the sun - vitamin D is key to the production of various hormones (and is in fact a hormone itself!)

5. Next time you’re tempted to diet...don’t! As we learnt earlier this month, dieting has been linked with a whole list of hormonal issues relating to your period, fertility, thyroid, mood and more

Foods and nutrients for hormone health

And here are some of my favourite foods and nutrients for hormonal health

P.S. Has your period gone missing?

It might be hypothalamic amenorrhoea (HA) . HA is essentially when your period goes ‘missing’ and the most common causes include

• Disordered eating / eating disorders

• Over exercising

• Stress

• Low body weight 

HA involves a complex cascade of hormone and organ communication and function, from your hypothalamus in your brain all that way through to your ovaries. In the most basic terms, your brain determines that it’s not ‘safe’ to make a baby (for example, due to a lack of food which the body interprets as the threat of famine or starvation) and effectively shuts off your reproductive system to prevent any reproduction from happening. 

HA doesn’t just mean you don’t get your period…there are lots of other impacts too. Infertility, thyroid issues, reduced bone density, increased risk of fractured or broken bones, anxiety, depression, hair loss or thinning, brittle nails, skin issues, low libido…these are just some of the issues linked with HA.

Getting your period back is certainly possible but it won’t happen overnight and it takes conscious work. Repairing your relationship with food and your body, gentle movement, rest, relaxation, self compassion, nourishment, patience…these are all key to recovering from HA and getting your period back.

If you relate to anything at all in this post or would like to chat more, please reach out to me.