Have you been feeling more tired than usual lately? Don’t have a lot of energy in bed? Do you have sudden mood swings or have you noticed that your belly has grown a little rounder? Normally, we just chalk it up to the aches and pains of aging—but it could also mean that your hormones are no longer balanced. Hormones are the chemical messengers that affect our entire body—from our brain, heart, muscles, bones and reproductive organs and work best when balanced.
When your endocrine system is working at its best, your hormones are released into the bloodstream in the proper quantity. The endocrine system in turn is controlled by the pituitary gland, found in the brain. Imbalances occur when a person is stressed, isn’t eating properly, or from illness and old age. These things throw the pituitary gland out of balance, and the endocrine system sends either too much or too little of these hormones. As we age, our bodies tend to either increase or decrease the amount of certain hormones and this contributes to various diseases and conditions that we have come to associate with age, such as cardiovascular disease, hypothyroidism, muscle and hair loss. These problems are what anti-aging specialists and doctors who highly recommend hormone replacement treatments want to cure: to turn back the clock and keep our hormones perfectly balanced.
For women, the menopause transition years begin during the early 50s, but if you’re troubled by not eating healthier and are less active, nutrition and exercise can greatly affect your hormone levels. Another culprit of hormone levels declining early is chronic stress, leading to decreased progesterone levels and rendering the thyroid hormone ineffective. There is also a xenohormone that exists in our environment and in our food. Exposure to plastics or pesticides from vegetables can cause an excess in women’s estrogen levels, known as estrogen dominance. This is also a suspect in infertility and PMS among women.
Men also go through a transitional period where, as they age, their bodies produce fewer hormones and their hormone levels start to decline. This period is known as an andropause, and is perfectly possible to slow down this decline by having a healthy lifestyle and exceptional supplements. But these can only take you so far—hormone replacement therapy can help in balancing this decline and can help you avoid heart disease, diabetes, hypertension, high cholesterol levels, Alzheimer’s disease and osteoporosis. It’s important, in men, to get their testosterone levels balanced. By checking your overall health, medical experts can then create a plan of action that will help eliminate your hormonal imbalances, and can help you back on track to a happier, healthier, more comfortable life.
There many modern treatments that can help you reverse the symptoms of hormone imbalance, get rid of the moodiness and improve memory, sleep, bone strength and density. There are various ways where these treatments can aid you in feeling better, natural hormone therapy can be administered by injections, gels, pills, patches, pills or even through pellets inserted under the skin.
