Balancing our hormones and the function of all our glands, which will also balance out our organs and the rest of the body, is an extremely important aspect of good health.
Hormones are a chemical that is released by a gland, a specialized group of cells that send messages to the different parts of the body or organs. Unlike the nervous or muscular system which can activate and contract very quickly, the effects of hormones typically run over hours, days, and even weeks. Think of a woman’s menstrual cycle, how our sleep/wake cycles run, and our diets. All of these factors contribute to a longer-term effect on our overall health and bodily functions.
The thing about hormones are that unlike the muscular or nervous system, the patterns and cycles of our hormones are much more sensitive and susceptible to being interrupted. In a way, the endocrine and exocrine system can show us if a person is rhythmically balanced in their health over the long term.
Balancing hormones for optimal health is not unlike other basic approaches to holistic health, much of it is common sense. However, in the luxury of modern society there are some very real threats to our hormonal systems, which are very delicate in nature.
Threat to balanced hormones #1: High exposure to electric frequency and radiation.
Modern technology has made our lives much more convenient, but we have yet as a society to comprehend the effects that carrying around smart phones that emit electrical currents exponentially greater than our body’s own brain and frequency. Scientists discovered many years ago that the human body has its own frequency, and that maintaining this frequency is how energy flows through us, it is the electro magnetic current that our body uses to communicate with itself. This electromagnetic current consists of very small electrical signals that can easily be interrupted from excess frequencies from outside the body.
If you read Apple’s disclaimer that you can find on an IPhone, I’ll let you Google this one but I have read it, they actually warn about the cancer risks associated with having a smart phone near your body, and many studies have shown a link to brain and breast cancer from carrying smart phones, there is also a direct link between cancer and a proximity to cell towers, this is how sensitive the frequency and vibrations of our body are. Check out this Newsweek article that reports the new IPhone 6 comes with an explicit warning not to carry it in your pocket due to excess radiation exposure.
If you check out the National Cancer Insititute’s website than you can read about the studies done and the links between cell phone use and brain cancer, among other radiation related illnesses.
A good documentary to watch for more information is: Resonance-Beings of Frequency, that will teach you a lot more about the natural vibration of the human body and how easily electronics interrupts this. There are ways to avoid excess exposure however and discharge the body.
- Keep any metal objects that can potentially conduct electrical current off of the body, this includes objects as small as metal earrings.
- Keep smart phones away from the body at ALL TIMES, NEVER PLACE NEAR HEAD; use blue tooth and speaker if possible.
- Keep electronics and their connecting outlets a safe distance away from where you sleep/rest in your home.
- Get a sensor tool that can take a reading of the electrical pollution in your home for a surefire way to make your home safe from harmful radiation frequencies.
- Take time to ground yourself daily, and by ground I mean literally walking outside on dirt or grass barefoot and meditating for a few minutes. This is not make believe, the earth actually vibrates at a natural frequency, and guess what else matches earth’s frequency to a T: The human body.
Threat #2: Processed foods of any kind, especially processed flour, sugar, and GMOs;
which have all been shown to act as poison within the body, they will disrupt stress cycles, sleep rhythms, and digestion, and send your very sensitive glands into overdrive. The body will respond as if being attacked and the immune and detoxification systems will begin to fire off and activate in response with hormone signals being incorrect and causing even more internal dysfunction from the toxic food. Make sure to always buy high-quality organic food.
Threats to balanced hormones number #3: Chemical additives to water;
water touching the skin in showers has been found to contain enough chemicals like chlorine to disrupt thyroid function. I do not advise driving yourself crazy and worrying over this stuff too much, but do take it seriously!
Drinking water is no exception, no processed water, no water that has been exposed to sun or been sitting in plastic for a long period of time. The best water to drink is a high quality mineral water that is being bought out of stores quickly so it is being cycled through very fast. Buying water in this way ensures you are getting high quality water to begin with and minimizes potential for contamination due to the fact that it is selling quickly. Good mineral water can often be more expensive, but you can afford it, the body is made almost entirely of water, make a good investment.
Threats to balanced hormones #4: Artificial light and electrical stimulants during the initial release of melatonin during the early phases of darkness.
The human body follows a natural frequency along with the earth that is, unsurprisingly, directly affected by the sun. If we keep ourselves around too much electronic light in the early hours of dusk and darkness the pituitary gland will not begin to signal sleep and release melatonin.
Melatonin release and proper deep sleep has been shown to be extremely important in the healing processes of the body, it is believed by some that optimizing melatonin release can stimulate a great healing response in the body to naturally fight disease and chronic conditions during deep rest.
The great thing is that getting great sleep, following a natural cycle, can elicit this healing response just by getting to bed on time. But make sure to avoid too much electronic light, I would advise giving yourself a half hour of down time where you stretch or meditate in near darkness, a dim light or candles are fine, just stay away from reading on iPhones or computers right up until you try to go to bed. Often times we hold these electronics close to our bodies, which will further disrupt our natural rhythms right before bed.
Threat to balanced hormones #5: Caffeine over-consumption.
Caffeine is the most widely used drug on the planet, and it is a very potent stimulant. Caffeine excites the nervous system and can produce unwanted side effects such as raised blood pressure, elevated heart rate, nervous tension, anxiety, raised cortisol and overall stress levels, upset stomach, etc. Caffeine’s benefits and risks have forever been debated, one day we read an article claiming it reduces the risks for many illnesses, and the next day we can read another article on its negative effects.
The truth about caffeine is that we must simply use it in moderation. Some people are more sensitive to a stimulant like caffeine than others, just make sure that you are not someone who is drinking too much caffeine because you run the risk of disrupting the hormones by increasing stress levels and potentially disrupting the sleep cycle.
The only thing that I am concerned with regarding my own caffeine consumption is if it is eliciting a negative stress response from my body in any way. So for example if I notice that I feel a bit anxious, rushed, or my heart rate is high, or even if I am sweating while being physically inactive, it probably means that I drank too much coffee that morning. Another major concern, that I consider to be even more important, is whether or not I get a full night of sleep that night.
Caffeine should always be consumed before the afternoon because it has a half-life of about 4-6 hours. This means that even after 4-6 hours your body still has half of the caffeine you drank in it, so caffeine that is drunk later in the afternoon could easily disrupt the sleep cycle.
So without going into it, just make sure to drink your coffee consciously, and pay attention to what your body is telling you, if you find you are jittery then drink less, and never let caffeine interrupt your sleep cycle because this will not lead to balanced hormones. If you are someone who needs coffee to get out of bed daily then you may want to think about cutting back.
Threat to balancing your hormones #6: Stress.
Too much stress has been shown to elevate the stress hormones like cortisol and adrenaline. The funny thing about our bodies is that the innate intelligence of our body cannot differentiate from literally being in a real fight or flight situation for survival, or an anxiety attack caused by stress or social phobia in a NON LIFE-THREATENING situation.
The stress response is completely the same in some cases of anxiety and stress than if the body was fighting for its survival, just on a smaller scale, and tipping this scale out of balance and adding too much negative stress and worry can greatly upset hormonal balance. How many of our health issues related to diet and exercise have a root cause in what is honestly unwarranted stress?
Even worrying too much one day, or trying to control things and getting stressed out, or spending a lot of time driving in traffic, even working out and socializing can all be stressful to the body when the body needs good rest. Stress and sleep can both disrupt each other and feed into the hormones becoming unbalanced and sending wrong messages to the rest of the body.
Here are some tips on how to keep your hormonal system working on an amazing rhythm for great health and vitality.
Balancing our hormones is really about keeping our body in harmony with the rhythms and flows of our environments. And with that said the best way to do this is to avoid anything that can interrupt these essential chemical messengers and the glands that control them within our bodies.
- Make sure to rid yourself from excessive electrical and radio-magnetic currents that could be disrupting your bodily rhythms, this is especially important for women who have an even more sensitive hormonal system due to the menstrual cycle and the possibility of getting pregnant and having to sustain life for two beings.
- Take proper caution when placing metal objects on the body, once again this applies even more so for women and jewelry, avoid metal objects, and make sure to never keep electronics directly against the body.
- No smart phones against the head or body at all, strive to keep your phone a few feet away from the body. The same goes with any large electronic device, especially one that is connected to the Internet.
- What we can do while getting rid of excessive radiation is to ensure we get proper sleep. Artificial light should be avoided before bed and we should go to bed about an hour or two after it gets completely dark and rise with the sun, this will allow our natural circadian cycle to function optimally. Proper sleep and rest could perhaps be considered the most important way to keep hormones regulated.
The more in unison our sleep cycle is with the sun, the greater we heal damage in the body every single night.
So get rid of excess electric pollution and artificial light before bed and enjoy the benefits of greater sleep that matches the natural cycle of the day. This will provide us with a body that has been completely restored in the morning and properly healed.
The Diet and Drink Connection:
Avoid any processed foods or drinks, even diet drinks with low or zero calories. Those low-calorie drinks have toxic chemical additives that can do more harm to the hormonal system than the full calorie versions.
For example: aspartame has been proven to be a neurotoxin and drinking diet soda has been found to show no real reduction in weight loss, and it contains no calories; this is due to the fact that these chemical toxins disrupt hormones and send the body into dysfunction through chemical means. Weight gain can be more complicated than just calories.Once again, women especially come into mind. You see it is not that women have less stamina and vitality than men; it is just that this energy is directed differently. Women have to balance their menstrual cycle over the course of 28 days optimally; this is a long-term cycle of balance and coordination with the organs, hormones, diet, moon, etc. Many factors come into play. So eating processed food can send foreign chemicals into the body, which disrupt the message of hormones, which for a women, whose body is constantly changing with her menstrual cycle, can be extra harmful.
The menstrual cycle can be disrupted and be the cause of great pain and discomfort when a woman eats toxic and processed foods that cause the hormones to become unbalanced.
Balancing the hormones for a woman means eating just the right foods when the natural craving hits, always whole foods and non-processed, and staying well hydrated, getting enough rest, and drinking enough water. Women need to keep their bodies functioning in an even greater balance with nature because they must have the ability to create another life if the opportunity presents itself.
Men are just as susceptible to hormonal imbalances and additional stress from eating processed foods. Some examples of this could be men developing man-boobs at a higher incidence, excess fat gain, lack of sex drive or stamina, mood swings, lack of energy during workouts etc.
The foods we eat literally become what we create our cells out of, and the hormones play a crucial role in indicating to the organs and different body parts how to start responding.
And finally: AVOID STRESS!
Our body has a sophisticated fight, flight, or freeze response associated with the reptilian portion of our brain (the oldest part of our brain) that is totally concerned with survival. The body interprets all stress as a part of this system. There is good stress that I like to call eustress, such as balanced exercise or productive work. There is also bad stress, like worry and unwarranted anxiety. If you are worrying about bills excessively, fighting with a loved one, or just tight and anxious in general, whether it be from lack of sleep, diet, or just plain mental cobwebs; the body is probably suffering from the fight or flight stress described above.
This stress throws the hormones off because the body constantly believes that it is under attack, some of the luxuries of our modern life have been found to create this type of stress, such as:
- Worrying about bills and a lack of money that could be considered a basic safety need. Many times stress is warranted in these situations, so create a constructive plan to tackle and deal with it or else it will drain you of your good energy and unbalance the hormones.
- Balanced hormones cannot be maintained with excess physical stress to the body and nervous systems, such as driving. Driving for long periods of time in traffic or on a fast highway can be very draining to the body. Account for this when considering the best way to lessen stress and balance the hormones. Learn to be mindful when doing strenuous physical activity like exercising or driving, they can be draining on the body if the body is really just craving good rest.
Planning and analyzing and making sure we are meeting the demands of our work or financial needs is very important, but walking around with crippling stress can throw our whole body off. What are the chances of any of these issues being resolved if the body cannot maintain balance and normal function?
Learn to let go. Exhale. Breathe deeply. Do tissue work regularly like foam rolling. Get good rest. Eat good food. Go on long walks. Get healthy sun exposure. Connect with nature. Avoid excess stimulants in any way. Allow your body to flow.
This is the essence of maintaining balanced hormones; my personal experience has been that the hormonal system signals our body in response to our connectedness to the collective environment. Keeping balanced hormones means being in harmony with your environment. And just because we cannot always see the energy waves of frequencies and natural energy flows, does not mean that they are not there. The human eye can only see a very limited wavelength, which is light. But there are countless different types of energy fields flowing around us and through us that we are connected to each day. Even when connecting to another human who is positive or negative our body responds PHYSICALLY.
Balanced hormones means being one with our environment, and if that sounds to tree-huggerish then I bet a picnic in the woods with some healthy food and clean water is much needed!