Holy hormones Batman!

That’s one of the yearly events we have here, “Holy Hormones.” It’s an important one because so much of our health is a function of our hormones being in balance, which can be tricky in our modern world.

With more than 70 hormones, most of which have more than one function, it’s a rich tapestry of activity in our bodies with signals flowing to and fro, interacting with each other, responding to the environment, both internal and external and working with the materials available at the time. Things get out of whack fairly easily.

Our negative lifestyle impact

The lifestyle choices we make have a dramatic impact on our hormone balance (or imbalance). Here are some examples, but certainly not comprehensive in scope.

Food

• Eating a lot of Omega-3s (which come from things like canola oil, vegetable oils, fried foods in general) throws our hormones out of whack.
• Eating non-organic food throws our hormones off because we have an immune response to the pesticides, which eventually wears out the glands that produce our hormones.
• Eating sugar causes our insulin (a hormone) to spike. Insulin binds with every cell in the body, telling it to “let the sugar in.” When our cells are constantly bombarded with insulin because we eat so much sugar, they no longer respond to insulin and that’s how diabetes develops.

Stress

Stress produces a hormone called cortisol, which was evolutionarily intended to store energy for times when food was scarce. Now, food isn’t generally scarce for us in the modern, industrialized world. So we just get fat instead.

Medication

Some medications, like birth control pills, are specifically designed to disrupt the balance of hormones. Others just shred our intestines, which leads to autoimmune disorders, and these are often the cause of a failing endocrine system. Antibiotics destroy the balance of gut flora in our digestive system, and one thing we are just starting to understand is the complex and beautiful signaling relationship between our hormones and the healthy bacteria that live in our gut.

The positive lifestyle impact

Food

• Cut out sugar and watch as your blood sugar levels become regulated, which will reduce the need for your pancreas to produce insulin, which will re-sensitize your cell receptors to insulin, which means more energy and a much lower risk of diabetes.
• Get rid of the bad fats but really load up on the good fats. Hormones are disrupted by saturated fats and Omega-3 fatty acids, which come from processed food and vegetable oils (canola, safflower, peanut, soybean, etc.). But the molecular basis for hormones is in good fats and cholesterol, which come from foods like avocados, nuts, seeds, fatty fish (salmon, mackerel, tuna), butter, olives, coconut oil, olive oil, and cheese.
• Eat organic. Avoid the pesticides that cause an immune response and inflammation.
• Eat grass-fed, free-range and wild-caught protein. Avoid grain-fed, antibiotic-ridden meats and fish. And this includes dairy products as well. Get grass-fed, raw milk, cheese and butter if you can (raw milk is illegal in North Carolina, so I’m not sure I can say that…).

Stress

You’ve got to learn some ways to reduce and manage your stress. It’s a natural part of life, but in today’s world, it’s way too common for people to be completely overwhelmed by stress, even for years at a time. Exercise is a great stress-reducer, as are things like meditation and prayer. Pursuing hobbies, positive relationships and down-time are also crucial. This is very personal. You might find that gardening is for you, or painting, or rallying Jeeps through mud puddles. It doesn’t really matter. Do your thing.

Exercise

Exercise releases the hormone endorphin in your brain, which reduces physical and emotional pain and stress. It also helps to promote testosterone production in men (and women actually). It regulates blood sugar, which helps control your insulin and here’s the really big one: it promotes the production of the thyroid hormone T3, which helps regulate metabolism, inhibits weight gain and provides cells with energy.

Medication

Avoid it when possible. Try natural remedies for things like headaches, colds and the flu before you start with over-the-counter drugs. Explore birth control options that aren’t hormonal. Avoid antibiotics, particularly when you and your doctor aren’t completely sure your infection is bacterial. And before you resort to antibiotics, try using ginger root or any number of anti-bacterial substances that exist in nature.

In conclusion, think about this:

You train your hormones every day when you eat sugar, or let the stress overcome you, or get a bad night’s sleep. You teach your body to respond a certain way–and we’ve come to a point in society where it’s generally not good training. But you can train your body to go the other direction, and there’s no better time to start than now.