Optimising Your Hormones

Jul 3, 2017 | Uncategorized

Optimising your hormones

OPTIMISING YOUR HORMONES

Chinese medicine has long understood the importance of how eating at certain times throughout the day can maximise your health and wellbeing. According to the Chinese body clock, between the hours of 5-7am is when our body’s energy is gathered in the Large Intestine. This is the best time of day to have our first morning bowel movement to clear away waste from the previous day. The clock continues to move and between the hours of 7 – 11am are the hours of the Stomach and Spleen – our Earth element. This is the most ideal time to eat breakfast, as this is when our digestive organs energy is at their peak.

Skipping breakfast can drain the energy of the Stomach and Spleen, which can lead to low blood sugar levels, fatigue and puts strain on our adrenal glands. It can also interfere with our hormonal balance.

Hormonal imbalance can look like:

  • Irregular menstrual cycles (less then 25 days and longer then 35 days)
  • Amenorrhoea (no period)
  • Heavy periods
  • Painful periods
  • PCOS (polycystic ovarian syndrome) or PCO (polycystic ovaries)
  • Endometriosis
  • Difficulty falling pregnant
  • Recurrent miscarriage
  • Fibroids
  • Fatigue
  • Insomnia
  • Headaches/migraines
  • Foggy head
  • Low libido
  • Acne
  • Mood swings
  • Constipation/diarrhoea
  • Plus much more…

Now, there are a wide range of reasons and factors as to why someone can have a hormonal imbalance. But there is one simple way to influence your overall hormonal health. And that is eating at regular, predictable times throughout the day (as in every 2.5 – 3 hours, even for just a snack) and especially eating breakfast Every. Single. Morning.

A big part of having stable hormones is also having stable blood sugar levels. When we eat, our food is broken down into glucose (a simple form of sugar), which is circulated through our blood stream for energy. We use what we need, and any excess is sent to the liver to be stored for later energy usage.

The liver is one of our prime detoxification organs. It detoxifies everything from our food to our hormones so we can stay happy and healthy. The liver loves its job, and its very good at it. However, when we skip means or go for hours without food – our blood sugar levels drop. The liver then needs to stop it’s job of processing and regulating our hormones and instead focus on pulling stored glucose back out into our blood stream so we can keep functioning.

So imagine you have a hormonal imbalance. Now imagine skipping breakfast or eating at irregular times every day for a week, then for a month, then for a year. That is a long time for your blood sugar levels to be dipping and spiking throughout the day and a long time for your liver to not be doing its job as effectively as it could. For some people, this is their reality! It doesn’t seem like the body has even been given the space to regulate itself does it?

I don’t know about you, but if I want happy hormones, I do not want my liver to be distracted from it’s job of processing and regulating. I want to do everything I can to help support it to do its job. And one of the most straightforward ways to do this is to have breakfast every day in accordance to the Chinese body block and to continue eating at regular times for the rest of the day.

Yes this may mean putting some effort in the night before doing some food prep making sure you have enough to eat for the next day, or getting up a little earlier in the morning to prepare. But that little bit of extra effort you put in will be so worth taking the steps towards happier and healthier hormones.

Some delicious and healthy options for breakfast:

  • Avocado, mushroom and eggs
  • Warming congee/porridge
  • Stir fry vegetables
  • Broth soups with vegetables
  • Sweet potato waffles
  • Chia pudding

Now we’d like to hear from you. Do you have any of the signs of hormonal imbalance listed above? Do you need help bringing your body back into a state of wellness?

Lauren is available for consultation at Angea Monday’s and Friday’s – give the clinic a call 03 9510 3700 to book in your appointment and get your hormones back on track!