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Hormonal Ups and Downs
Take Control and Feel Better Now by Patricia Staino
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things—everything ormonal from PMS issues, adimbalance renal fatigue, PCOS, can wreak diabetes, thyroid havoc on your health issues, and more. affecting everything Typically, from digestion to hormonal imbalweight, brain health, ances are caused by a energy, mood, variety of things—it memory, sex drive, could be environsleep and fertility. mental toxins, unSamantha Gladish, healthy eating habits, a registered holistic dealing with a lot of nutritionist and metastress. Then there’s bolic balance weight a cascade effect: If loss coach, wanted to Samantha Gladish we’re suffering from help women realize poor-quality sleep, for example, it will there were simple, foundational steps they drive up cortisol, imbalance our insulin, could take to get back in balance, without depriving themselves. In her book, The 30- then lead to food cravings and poor eating choices, which will further imbalance our Day Hormone Solution, she helps women insulin, and that cycle will spiral out of learn more about regaining control of control. their hormones to optimize health. Natural Awakenings’ managing editor Patricia Staino sat down with Gladish to learn What are some common more about how hormones work and the misconceptions about hormones habits we can change to bring them back in women? in balance. For women who still have a regular men-
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 common, and they mean a lot of different 20 Hartford County Edition
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strual 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 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 changes, what other adjustments
