Hormone Health 10 Tips to Support Hormone Balance

Menopause can bring about various hormonal changes in the body, leading to symptoms like hot flashes, mood swings, disrupted sleep, and cognitive issues such as memory loss and brain fog.

Recent research shows how hormonal changes during menopause, particularly the decline in estrogen levels, can also significantly impact brain health and may be linked to an uptick or sudden onset of depression, anxiety, ADHD, and other cognitive impairments such as brain fog and memory issues.
In the past, these disorders were brushed off as a woman’s anguish over fertility loss, aging, and “Empty Nest Syndrome,” leaving women to suffer alone.

Understanding the impact hormones play in brain health during and after menopause changes the conversation and empowers women to speak up, take control of their mental and physical health, and seek support when needed.

While it's always advisable to consult a healthcare professional for personalized advice, here are ten general tips that may support healthy hormones during menopause and beyond:

1. Enjoy a Balanced Diet: Focus on a diet rich in fruits, vegetables, whole grains, lean protein, and healthy fats. Limit sugar and processed food and grains.

2. Consider foods with Phytoestrogens, like soy, flaxseeds, and legumes, that might help balance hormone levels.

3. Prioritize Protein: Protein provides the essential amino acids your body needs to produce peptide hormones, a type of hormone made up of short chains of amino acids. These hormones play crucial roles in the body's regulation and signaling processes, acting as messengers to control or influence various physiological functions in your body, including energy production, metabolism, appetite, stress, growth and development, digestion, blood pressure regulation, and immune function.

4. Fiber First: Fiber supports the community of microbes living in the digestive tract that influence hormone levels and overall hormonal balance.

5. Exercise: Exercise is a powerful modulator of hormone sensitivity, influencing how effectively hormones are utilized and how cells respond to them.

6. Maintain a Healthy Weight: Excess weight can worsen menopausal symptoms. Strive for a healthy weight through a balanced diet and regular exercise.

7. Reduce Stress: High stress levels can impact hormone balance. Incorporate stress-reducing practices like yoga, meditation, deep breathing exercises, or hobbies that bring relaxation.

8. Get Adequate Sleep: Sleep is one of the most important factors in hormonal balance. Hormones can rise and fall throughout the day due to sleep quality. Check out this post to optimize your sleep.

9. Limit Alcohol and Caffeine: Excessive alcohol and caffeine intake can exacerbate menopausal symptoms like hot flashes and disrupt sleep. Moderation is key.

10. Regular Health Check-ups: Regular visits to your healthcare provider can help monitor hormone levels and overall health during menopause. They can provide guidance tailored to your specific needs and concerns.

Remember, individual experiences of menopause can vary greatly, so it's crucial to discuss any concerns or symptoms with a healthcare professional who can provide personalized guidance and treatment options.

Banana Dark Chocolate Pecan Muffins

These delicious, paleo, grain-free, dairy-free, banana-dark chocolate-pecan muffins hit the spot every time and make for a delicious on-the go breakfast, snack, or pick-me-up. To be honest, we eat them all day long. They’re that good!

High in nutrition, low in sugar, simple to make and utterly addictive! You’ll be making these muffins on repeat too.

Ingredients:

• 2 1/4 cups Almond Flour

• 3 Ripe Bananas, the riper the better.

• 2 Eggs

• 1/4 cup honey.

• 1/4 cup Olive Oil

• 2 tablespoons Apple Cider Vinegar

• 1 tablespoon Vanilla Extract

• 1 teaspoon Baking Soda

• 1 ½ teaspoon Cinnamon

Add-ins:

• I 1/2 cups Chopped Pecans

• I/2 cup Unsweetened, Shredded Coconut

• Hu Dark Chocolate Gems. You can use dark chocolate chips or dark chocolate chunks if you can’t find the Hu Gems.

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees

2. In a large bowl, mash bananas until smooth

3. Add eggs, olive oil, honey, vanilla extract, and cinnamon to the bowl. Mix thoroughly.

4. Add almond flour to bowl and combine.

5. Sprinkle baking soda over the batter, and then pour the apple cider vinegar over the batter. Once it bubbles and fizzes, mix the batter to combine.

6. Stir in pecans and shredded coconut.

7. Pour batter into a lined muffin tin and fill muffins halfway. Add 5 Hu Gems to each muffin and then add extra batter to cover so the gems are nestled in the batter, not on top.

8. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes, until tops are golden brown. Note the center may be a little moist when you remove it from the oven, but it will be more cake-like/firm once cooled.

9. Cool and store in a container in the refrigerator. We love them cold, but they are also great warmed up or enjoyed at room temperature.

Makes approximately 15 large muffins.

Parabens and Phthalates: What You Need to Know

Getting Educated

When choosing skincare products, we often look to label claims, such as “all-natural,” “cruelty-free,” and “botanical,” to help us determine if a product is safe and responsibly made. Unfortunately, behind these buzzy labels are often products filled with parabens and phthalates. These endocrine-disrupting chemicals can mimic hormones in our body, interfere with normal hormonal processes, and raise our risk for breast cancer, fertility issues, and metabolic disorders. Parabens, in particular, have been found in human breast cancer tissues, suggesting a possible association between parabens in cosmetics and cancer. (1)

Although studies prove these chemicals are hazardous to human health, the FDA has no legal authority to approve cosmetic products and ingredients before they go on the market. (2) As a result, personal care product companies are not required to register with the FDA, provide ingredient statements, adopt Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP), or report adverse effects to the FDA. (3)

Where Does that Leave us?

It is up to consumers to protect themselves and make educated decisions about what to put on their bodies. Doing so is as complicated as it sounds, as these harmful chemicals go by many different names, and when it comes to fragrance, there are no ingredient names at all, as “fragrance” and “fragrance mixtures” are considered “trade secrets.”

Parabens and Phtalates: A Primer

Parabens: Where to Find Them and What to Look for on a Label:

Parabens are a family of related chemicals commonly used as preservatives in cosmetics and personal care items, including makeup, moisturizers, hair care products, shaving products, and deodorants to prevent bacterial contamination and mold. Five different parabens have been completely banned in the EU (isopropylparaben, isobutylparaben, phenylparaben, benzylparaben, and pentylparaben), while others are strictly regulated because they are believed to be endocrine disruptors. Although there is mounting pressure from consumers and health watch groups to remove them from beauty products in the US, the FDA does not regulate their use in these categories.

The Cosmetic Ingredient Review, an organization that assesses the safety of individual chemical compounds used in cosmetic products, recommends limiting total paraben concentrations in a single product to 0.8% and a single application to 0.4%. Unfortunately, this guideline does not consider exposure to parabens from several products by a single user.[4] Moreover, this limit is a recommendation, not a requirement, and does not inform product formulation.

Parabens are Commonly Found in:

1. Makeup

2. Moisturizers

3. Shaving products

4. Shampoos

5. Conditioners

6. Facial and shower cleansers and scrubs

7. Deodorants

How to Recognize them on the Label:

1. Look for “paraben-free" products. If you can’t find that, look for:

2. Methylparaben

3. Propylparaben

4. Butylparaben

5. Ethylparaben

6. Isobutylparaben

7. Isopropylparaben

Phthalates: WHERE TO find them and what to look for on a label:

Phthalates are a family of chemicals that act as plasticizers, solvents, and stabilizers in cosmetics and fragrance production. Many personal care products use phthalates to homogenize products by dissolving solid ingredients. Phthalates are commonly found in nail polish, hair spray, fragrance, aftershave lotions, cleansers, moisturizers, face masks, shampoos, and conditioners. Like parabens, these chemicals are linked to endocrine disruption, reproductive problems, metabolic disorders, and breast cancer. Although they are banned from cosmetics in the European Union, they are commonly used in the US.

Phthalates are Commonly Found in:

• Color cosmetics (foundation, eye shadow, eyeliner, mascara, lipstick, blush)

• Lotions

• Perfume

• Fragrance

• Scented candles

• Body washes

• Hair care products

• Nail polish

• Hairspray

• Cleansers

• Hair Products

• Face Masks

How to recognize them on the Label:

• Phthalate

• DEP

• DBP

• DEHP

• FRAGRANCE: Phthalates are frequently used to make fragrances, but any ingredients used in fragrance or fragrance mixtures are considered trade secrets and exempt from ingredient listing. The entire mixture simply appears as “fragrance” on the ingredient panel. If you see the word “fragrance,” chances are the product is filled with phthalates and other toxic ingredients.

Below are reliable resources and online sites to help you find clean products.

Resources for Cleaner Beauty Products.

EWG Skin Deep is an online database of over 75,000 products and 2,242 brands that provides information to check the safety and ingredient list of the product you’re using or purchasing.

Think Dirty-Shop Clean is an app that puts clean beauty at your fingertips: scan the product barcode to get product information, a list of dirty ingredients and suggestions for cleaner options.

Trusted sites for clean beauty:

Credo
Goop
Clean at Sephora
Beauty Counter