Balanced Hormones for Better Loving

Author: Jan Roberts

Lifestyles and environments are becoming ever more toxic with ‘hormone-disruptors’—or xenobiotic hormones—appearing in many guises. Hormonal imbalance, which can affect both sexes, is a primary contributor to lowered libido. If you’re the fella or the gal who is always ‘hot to trot’ you might find it hard to believe that lack of sexual desire, even in young men and women, is actually a problem. But believe me … it’s far more common than you might think, and the situation is getting worse. The question is, why and what can be done about it?

Hormone disruptors are all around us. Hormonal birth control tops the list, but also think commercial skincare products, agricultural chemicals, plastics, nutritional deficits (such as a lack of essential fatty acids), poor gut health (see my previous post) and certain foods like sugar, chocolate and wine. Compromised nutrition delivers a less-than-optimal supply of essential fatty and amino acids (just two examples) and Western society remains plugged into a stressful fight-or-flight response pathway. Not surprisingly, your normal, healthy hormonal balance is under serious threat every day. And balanced hormones are actually the key to foundational physical and mental wellbeing, optimal fertility, and true health reproduction. And a great sex life especially!

Creating balance in your entire endocrine system is a two-step approach. The first step is to ensure there is an abundance of all the factors that can positively influence hormone formation, while removing as many toxins and chemicals from your lifestyle (and your environment) as possible. The second step is to add the very best available products to restore and maintain hormone balance.

Let’s take a look at the first step. A healthy microbiome (think gut bacteria) has a big influence on hormone production. Check my last post for steps on how to restore optimal gut health. By adapting some of the changes recommended there, you will be on your way to a better hormonal balance.

Cleaning up your diet comes next. I recommend a Paleo-style diet, which helps with hormone formation, weight management and much more. Specifically, here’s what I suggest:

• Choose organic vegetables whenever possible. Avoid the agricultural chemicals that can disrupt both gut health and hormonal balance.
• If you eat meat, choose grass-fed, free of hormones and antibiotics. Choose wild-caught fish over farm-raised fish.
• Measure whole grains in bites, if you have trouble avoiding carbs. 7-10 bites per meal is adequate for most people; some can tolerate more while others cannot tolerate grains at all. It is ideal to choose gluten-free grains when /if you do consume grains. On a true Paleo style food plan, grains are eliminated completely.
• Consume plenty of cruciferous vegetables daily. This includes broccoli, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, cabbages, kale, rocket/arugula and more. These vegetables support your body’s detoxification process, which is very important in managing hormones as well as for reducing the toxic exposure we all face in today’s world.
• Eat lots of onions and garlic. These are age-old detoxifiers.
• Consume healthy fats and oils, such as olive oil, coconut oil, olives, and avocados daily. Your body needs fat (and protein) to make hormones. Healthy fats are also integral to weight loss/management.
• Avoid or reduce processed foods, saturated fats, sugar and animal dairy products

Finally, I want to suggest some fully-researched, natural products for his and her hormone balance.

For her, there is Femmenessence (with three different formulations for her different life stages). For him, there is Revolution Macalibrium. These products work through the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis, which is how the body makes and regulates all hormones, including estrogen, progesterone, testosterone, insulin, cortisol, etc. By working at the level of the hypothalamus, these products have a profound impact on hormone levels, which is what makes these products unique. They adapt to your individual needs, increasing the production of the hormones that your body needs in order to restore balance, while decreasing the production of those your body does not need.

Because they work through the HPA axis, which must constantly rely on a feedback loop, once hormones are balanced, we see them plateau at the normal, healthy range. (Think about a feedback loop like a thermostat. The thermostat in your house keeps the temperature stable, turning the furnace or A/C on or off as needed. Likewise, when properly supported, your body provides the feedback to either make hormones, stop making them or maintain them, based on your body’s needs to keep the balance).

Better still, these products are safe and recommended to take long-term. When there are so many hormone disruptors all around us, and when hormone imbalance is so common and responsible for so many physical and mental ills, it’s great to have safe, natural products to counter those ill effects. With a libido boost besides