Hormonal Ups and Downs
Take Control and Feel Better Now by Patricia Staino
H
mon, and they mean ormonal ima lot of different balance can things—everything wreak havoc from PMS issues, adon your health affectrenal fatigue, PCOS, ing everything from diabetes, thyroid digestion to weight, issues, and more. brain health, ener Typically, gy, mood, memory, hormonal imbalancsex drive, sleep and es are caused by a fertility. Samantha variety of things—it Gladish, a registered could be environholistic nutritionmental toxins, unist and metabolic healthy eating habits, balance weight loss dealing with a lot of coach, wanted to Samantha Gladish stress. Then there’s help women realize a cascade effect: If we’re suffering from there were simple, foundational steps they poor-quality sleep, for example, it will could take to get back in balance, without drive up cortisol, imbalance our insulin, depriving themselves. In her book, The 30-Day Hormone Solution, she helps wom- then lead to food cravings and poor eating choices, which will further imbalance our en learn more about regaining control of insulin, and that cycle will spiral out of their hormones to optimize health. Natucontrol. ral Awakenings’ managing editor Patricia Staino sat down with Gladish to learn more about how hormones work and the What are some common habits we can change to bring them back misconceptions about hormones in balance. in women?
The book is so informative and helpful. What motivated you to write it?
I thought to myself, if I had 30 days to spend with a woman, what would I teach her about her health? What does she need to know to really move the needle and optimize her health? Hormonal imbalances are very com26
For women who still have a regular menstrual cycle, there’s a misperception that if they’re taking birth control pills, that’s going to end PMS symptoms and “regulate” their cycle. That couldn’t be further from the truth. Ingesting any kind of synthetic hormone will cause a lot of hormonal chaos in our bodies. Synthetic hormones shut down our ovaries from producing our own natural
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estrogen and progesterone. Essentially, it’s like the ovaries are getting lazy, and our own natural rhythms are no longer functioning like they should. Instead of taking synthetic hormones, we need to look at the root causes of PMS symptoms: Why are you experiencing an irregular cycle in the first place? Why do you have cramping, bloating, breast tenderness, or migraines during your cycle? The pill isn’t addressing the cause, it’s just masking it. Another misconception is “adrenal fatigue.” That’s a term that gets thrown around quite frequently. What “adrenal fatigue” really indicates is a miscommunication between the brain and the adrenal gland; you’re not going to fix that by taking a supplement. We need to look at our lifestyle, how we react to and manage stress, how we’re sleeping, how we’re eating, how we’re integrating self-care, and that all plays a big role in our adrenal health. One other thought: Post-menopausal women often ask if they can get anything out of reading my book. Absolutely. The chapter on the menstrual cycle may not relate to them, but the rest of it—adrenal health, sleep, detoxification—is all still relevant and will affect the symptoms they experience post-menopause.
Is hormonal imbalance more of a female issue, or do men have issues with hormones as well?
There are definitely a lot more issues with females, primarily because we have cycles and we give birth. Our hormonal issues are a little more complex than those of men. Women are functioning on a 30-day cycle, and men are going through a 24-hour cycle. That’s not to say that men won’t have issues, though. They can experience problems with sleep, cravings, moodiness and weight gain as well.
You offer a diet plan and 60 recipes in the book to help readers get started, but the first half of the book lays out how hormones work, how they are impacted by lifestyle, and how they can be returned to balance. Besides dietary
