Listen on iTunes | Listen on Spotify | Listen on YouTube | Review the Podcast
Hormones are the conversation everywhere right now. Honestly, it’s easy to fall into the trap of believing you probably have a hormonal problem just because it sounds like everyone does. But the common causes of hormone imbalance are not what you think.
Just the other day, I was on Instagram, and ten posts in a row made me think my hormones were out of whack. How must someone who doesn’t study nutrition feel if I’m overwhelmed by the fear-inducing information?
When it comes to hormones, there are many thoughts, ideas, and modes of healing. But I want to show you that most hormonal issues are actually a deeper issue that stems from your nervous system response.
Hormonal problems are very real and need attention. It’s good to get them measured once in a while. But I think we need to look harder at how we heal them because it rarely has to do with our hormones.
In my Hormone Reset, I make clear that hormones are messenger molecules. They don’t write the message your actions take but only ship it. This proves that the problem is rarely with your hormones, but what message is your body sending that requires a different flow of hormones, and why?
In this podcast, you will learn how your hormones function and the control that powers them. I also share the three most common root causes of hormone imbalance—you might be surprised to hear what they are.
Common Causes of Hormone Imbalance
Again, hormones are messenger molecules. They package and ship the message, not write it. Your body’s hormones depend on the message being sent and the cells receiving it.
Hormones don’t just act spontaneously. They act according to the message your body sends, making the root cause of hormonal imbalance generally a message problem that stems from your nervous system response.
Remember, your nervous system is capturing information and shifting its response based on its perceived safety level. That perception changes the “master hormones” that shift the flow of all other hormones inside your body. You can see what these master hormones influence via the hormonal hierarchy.
The master hormones are cortisol (managing stress), insulin (managing energy), and oxytocin (enhancing connection). The level of each of these changes the others, which is why the root of your hormonal imbalance most likely stems from these and the signals the body is sending to produce or limit any of these.
The 3 Most Common (Root) Causes of Hormone Imbalance
The hormonal hierarchy or the master hormones shows the three most common root causes of hormone imbalance. Those include your stress response, energy production, and/or connections.
Healing your hormones requires you to heal these common lifestyle deficiencies.
01. Excess Stress
An increase in hustle culture may be the reason you can’t control your cortisol. Or it could be because you’ve become skilled at becoming a master of your own misery. No matter where it’s coming from, excess stress stemming from a lack of safety in your biology will turn on cortisol, leading to a shift in all other hormones.
You can’t fix your sex hormones, heal your PMS, or become fertile in a stressed enviornment. Every hormone in your body will downregulate in response to stress and a lack of safety.
To heal your hormones, you have to heal your stress response. That doesn’t mean avoiding stress but learning how to balance stress. Of course, lessening the body of self-created stress is always beneficial. That means nourishing your body well, sleeping deeply, and being careful with how much cardio you do or how long you practice intermittent fasting.
Every action you take influences your biology. If your body perceives these as unsafe, it will push your hormones into a state of stress.
02. Imbalanced Energy
Energy is the most critical element of survival. Without energy, you aren’t living. Energy is what makes your heartbeat. But energy is not what you assume it to be. It’s not only based on the number of calories you consume or what you can burn.
As the first law of thermodynamics states, energy is neither created nor destroyed. You have the energy you need.
You don’t feel it, not because you don’t have it, but because your body has become imbalanced from a lack of energetic support. When you become dysregulated, your insulin levels spike as your body breaks down its stores (and tissues) to produce the energy you need.
A spike in blood sugar is a stress to the body, changing the pathway of all other hormones. And what goes up must come down. Equally as harmful is the fall.
To heal your hormones, you must work on blood sugar regulation and maintain an even flow of energy through lifestyle practices.
The first step is to understand how much energy you currently have. Take this quiz to find out.
After you take the quiz, implement practices of energy management that happen through lifestyle changes and blood sugar regulation.
03. Unhealthy Relationships
Last but not least is your connection, which is perhaps one of the biggest hurdles we face today: a lack of healthy relationships. Your relationships are shifting your hormones equally to your level of stress.
That’s important, especially in a world filled with artificial connections. Your body needs healthy connections. It’s critical, and it’s changing your hormones that shift the cellular outcomes.
I know relationships are easy to dismiss or overlook. It’s even easy to assume you have plenty of healthy connections simply because you have a lot of online friends. But there is a difference between online communities and living, breathing humans that occupy your space. The human connection changes oxytocin more than any online friend can.
Not because they don’t mean well, but it’s just not the same.
This is perhaps why we have more “friends’ than ever before but also report the highest level of loneliness.
Your body needs human connection. You were created for it, designed in it, and seek it out. Don’t neglect this part of you.
Want to Heal Your Hormones?
Hormonal jargon will always be part of life. But remember, anything that induces fear does more harm than it is helping. Focus on these common root causes before getting lost in the nitty gritty details of hormones.
Focusing on these three things creates space and support for your body to regulate what it knows better than we ever could.
But that means trusting your body and honoring the fact that it knows best.
You were made to heal. Will you trust that your body can?
Check out my hormonal reset program to understand your hormones and the changes that occur throughout your life cycle. It’s a different approach to healing that focuses on the root cause rather than the finite details.
Want to take a deeper dive into more healthy living topics?
This podcast belongs to a larger series called Health School. A podcast devoted to teaching you health is much easier than you know, but that happens when you understand the foundations of how your body works and its connection to your mind and soul.
