Unlocking the Secret to Women’s Health
Blog post written by Taylor Stolt, RD, IFNCP
The Importance of Hormone Health
As a Functional Medicine Dietitian, I've worked with hundreds of women to help them overcome low energy levels, painful periods, acne, frustrating bloating, mood swings, stubborn weight gain, anxiety, and more.
Want to know the common denominator? Imbalanced hormones.
Over the last six years of owning my virtual practice I’ve seen hundreds of lab tests showing hormone imbalances.
And every time we rebalanced those hormones, my clients felt amazing.
This is why I created my Restore Program - to help women take control of their hormones naturally and feel like themselves again.
What is a Hormone Imbalance?
A hormone imbalance occurs when there is either too much or too little of one or more hormones in the body.
There are over fifty hormones in the human body, but there are four major hormone categories to pay close attention to:
Metabolic hormones like insulin
Thyroid hormones
Stress response hormones like cortisol and epinephrine
Sex hormones like estrogen and testosterone
When someone says “hormone imbalance” they are usually referring to sex hormones, but hormones from any of these categories can become imbalanced.
Symptoms of Hormonal Imbalance
Since hormones affect so many parts of the body, the symptoms can be wide ranging.
Symptoms of hormonal imbalance include:
Unexplained weight gain or weight loss
Difficulty building muscle; Muscle or joint pain
All-day fatigue; Afternoon energy slump; Feeling sleepy or sluggish after eating
Feeling "hangry", tired, or lightheaded in between meals
Constipation; Bloating; IBS
Depression; Anxiety; Irritability; Mood swings
Irregular periods; Heavy, painful, and/or long periods; amenorrhea
Hot flashes; Night sweats; Low libido/sex drive
Vaginal dryness
Infertility
Headaches; Feeling lightheaded or dizzy when standing
Dry, coarse skin and hair; Hair loss or hair thinning
Acne
Cold hands/feet
Dark skin in the armpits or neck (acanthosis nigricans)
Extreme thirst
Salt/sugar cravings
Chronic hormonal imbalances can also cause conditions like insulin resistance, diabetes, thyroid disease, chronic fatigue syndrome, insomnia, endometriosis, PCOS, amenorrhea (no periods), and hormone-dependent cancers like breast cancer, endometrial cancer, and ovarian cancer.
How Does Functional Medicine and Nutrition Help?
The best answer to hormone imbalances might surprise you.
When women tell their doctor something feels “off”, oftentimes their doctor will do one of two things.
They will dismiss their concerns and tell them “you look fine”, or they will prescribe medication to get them out the door.
Feel like your hormones are imbalanced? “Here’s some birth control!”
Dealing with acne? “Here’s a prescription for antibiotics and spironolactone!”
Feeling anxious? “Take this anti-anxiety medication!”
These medications might mask symptoms temporarily, but they make the actual problem worse long-term.
Functional Medicine, on the other hand, helps you heal.
Functional Medicine uses a systems-based, holistic approach to identify and address root causes of your symptoms so you can heal naturally.
Nutrition is a big part of the healing process.
The food we eat has a direct impact on our hormone health and the foods we choose to nourish our body which can create a balanced hormone system.
This doesn’t mean a gluten-free, dairy-free, soy-free, sugar-free, keto, paleo diet.
Thankfully you can achieve hormone balance without restrictive dieting.
You just need an experienced professional to give you the knowledge and tools you need to navigate the world of nutrition.
Your diet is a key piece to the hormone balancing puzzle, but other aspects of your daily life like stress, sleep, movement, and hydration play an important role as well.
Even the “perfect” diet won’t allow you to feel good in your body if: you’re not getting enough high-quality sleep, you aren’t moving your body the right way (hint hint, many women are actually overdoing it!), you’re hydrating with only water, or your stress levels are through the roof.
Want a Roadmap to Balanced Hormones?
If you want support on your hormone balancing journey, check out my Restore Program.
This is my most popular program where I walk you through all the hormone-balancing essentials one simple step at a time.
You also get access to monthly Zoom calls with me, helpful handouts you can keep forever, weekly checklists to keep you motivated and on track, over 70 hormone-balancing recipes, and access to pharmaceutical-grade supplements.
Find Out More on Plate and Canvas
Taylor Stolt is a registered dietitian that strives to help people who are struggling with hormonal imbalances and the daily challenges can come with it through Functional Medicine. To find out more about functional medicine and how she uses it to help changes lives, go check out her Plate and Canvas website to learn more about her restore program and find more blog posts just like this one!