Organic Lifestyle Magazine

Heal the Endocrine System and Balance Hormones

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Last updated on: June 7, 2016

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As OLM always says, it starts with diet. Supplemental therapies are much more effective with a healthy diet, and for most people, the right diet is all they need. But there are plenty of people who do not have access to healthy foods, and there are many who have such a depleted endocrine system that the body is just plain going to need a lot of help.

This is an excerpt from the ridiculously long article, Holistic Guide to Healing the Endocrine System and Balancing Our Hormones I believe that it’s easier to heal the body when you understand how the body works, but understanding the endocrine system is big a task.  It’s a long article, but I think it’s worth it and I hope you’ll check it out.

Eliminate and Flush Out Endocrine Disrupters and Detox the Body

Endocrine disruptors (EDs) are chemicals that mimic our own hormones. They bind hormone receptors and disrupt the body’s normal hormonal actions. Endocrine disruptors may cause a more powerful response than the natural hormone would have or a diminished response. In some cases, they cause a completely different response than its natural counterpart would have created. EDs are typically measured in parts per trillion, which is indicative of the fact that very small amounts can have a disrupting effect on us. EDs are very stable. They don’t break down quickly. This is, in large part, why they are in so many products. They also get stored in our fat cells. They tend to stick around for a long time.

How to Avoid Exposure to Endocrine Disruptors

  • Keep your home clean, and vacuum often.
  • Always avoid artificial fragrances
  • Avoid plastic (I know, easier said than done)
  • Avoid touching, breathing the air, or consuming foods or liquids that have come in contact with warm or hot plastics (make sure that a hot car is well ventilated)
  • Avoid canned foods
  • Avoid any and all BPAs and most products that replaced BPAs with other petroleum based products
  • Filter tap water before drinking
  • Get a whole house water filter (we breathe chemicals from tap water when we shower)
  • Avoid chemical cleaning products
  • Avoid conventional personal care products like makeup, shampoos, soaps, moisturizers, etc.
  • Avoid food sprayed with chemicals
  • Avoid BPA paper receipts (some receipts contain 250 to 1,000 times the amount of BPA typically found in a can of food)

As usual, eating right makes all the difference. Science is finding that people who eat well, and include copious amounts of various vegetables in their diet, have less concentration of BPAs and other EDs in their body than people exposed to similar levels who do not eat well.

Get Your Gut Right

A healthy gut expels toxins better than an unhealthy gut. A healthy gut has beneficial bacteria, which science is finding makes a big difference in the amount of EDs we retain. Specifically, there’s been some big research on probiotics:

In one study, lab rats were exposed to BPA and some of them were later given probiotics. The results found that the amount of BPA excreted through urine and bowel movement was 2.4 times greater in the rats given probiotics, and the percentage of BPA bound to the excrement was significantly greater. This equated to lower BPA concentration levels in the blood for the rats administered probiotics.

Eat Right – Always Be Detoxifying

Eat a salad every day with lots of raw vegetables and herbs, many of which help moderate estrogen and other hormone levels, and these salads will help flush out chemicals. Drink lots of water, and try cranberry lemonade with stevia to aid the body with detoxification.

Avoid and Remove Toxic Heavy Metals

Arsenic, cadmium, lead, mercury, and many more of these kinds of waste from industry have detrimental effects on our endocrine system.

Supplements and Foods that Remove Heavy Metals

Sleep Well

We work all day. Our body works all night to regenerate. When we don’t get enough sleep, we need adrenalin to make it through the day. This wears out the adrenal glands and eventually disrupts the entire system. Adrenaline, as common as it is, can be toxic to us after some time. Get plenty of quality, deep, regenerative sleep and don’t compensate with stimulants.

Exercise and Be Active

If sleeping well is difficult, exercise is most likely the answer. But that’s not all exercise has to offer. Breathing heavily and sweating profusely during an intense exercise program can expel a tremendous amount of toxins. Exercise also resets our hormones, balances our mood, and makes our brain work much better. While most turn to alcohol, television, and drugs during times of stress, this is when we need exercise the most. Here’s a tip: next time life gets too stressful, take a squat break. Squats release tons of hormones and will help alleviate stress and cravings for vices.

Top 10 Herbs, Vitamins, and Minerals for Better Endocrine Health

Before we get into this, know that every vitamin and mineral is important. We tend to be low in some more than others due to the way we live, but taking vitamin D won’t make up for not getting enough calcium. For that matter, taking a calcium supplement won’t make up for not getting enough calcium either, because we need to get most of our vitamins and minerals from our food. Supplements can supplement our food, but they don’t make up for a toxic diet.

  1. B vitamins: Always use a complex unless otherwise recommended by a professional.
  2. Fatty acids with DHA and EPA: There’s a million reasons, but the bottom line is that we need the right fats to create healthy cells. Since cells are what we are made of, healthy cells = healthy body.
  3. Vitamin D: It’s actually a hormone.
  4. Magnesium: Like vitamin D, Magnesium is one of those nutrients that we tend to be pretty low in, and the results from fixing the deficiency are usually pretty dramatic.
  5. Maca root: Most often taken to improve libido, energy levels, mood, and fertility, maca does not affect the hormones directly, but it has hormone-balancing effects that help alleviate a range of stressors including fatigue, anxiety, stress, depression, and sleep issues.
  6. Chasteberry: This herb has been used for thousands of years by women to relieve menstrual problems and it’s also used by natural health practitioners to reduce a male’s testosterone levels when need be (not recommended for most men of course).
  7. Black cohosh: First used by native Americans, and now very popular in Europe, this herb has commonly been used to treat symptoms of menopause, PMS, painful menstruation, acne, weakened bones osteoporosis, and for starting labor in pregnant women. Black cohosh also has many positive benefits for men as well.
  8. Saw palmetto: While the previous two are typically used by women, saw palmetto is known as a male supplement, primarily for better prostate health and to balance men’s hormones. But it’s not just for men, as it’s also useful for women with hair loss, acne, menopausal symptoms, and more. It also keeps women from producing too much testosterone but does not seem to impede normal production.
  9. Glandulars: Glandulars are desiccated glands, typically derived from pigs, cows, or sheep. They are obviously not for vegans, but if they are an option, glandulars provide the nutrition that the glands need, obviously, since they are made up of that nutrition.

Stress

You see every professional talking about eliminating stress when you look at articles about balancing hormones. For those who like to cause stress, this is great advice. On the other hand, the idea of eliminating stress for most people is fool hearty. Accidents happen. Children go missing. People get fired. Wars happen. People die. Stress will always be around, ready and waiting to consume us. The trick is in how you handle it.

People who are dealing with a lot of stress often attempt to balance their hormones in part by avoiding stress, but the stressful situation that may have helped set off the hormonal imbalance still needs to be dealt with, and chances are, dealing with stressful situations is going to be stressful.

Handle stress better.

Breathe properly (deeply, like a singer or a martial artist). A well-trained massage therapist can help detoxify the body, and we all know how relaxing a massage can be. Grounding helps open our energy pathways, which has a tremendous effect on our glands. Spend lots of time in nature. Try yoga. Meditate. And don’t quickly make big decisions when you are stressed.

Conclusion

It takes time for the endocrine system to heal; it’s rarely a quick process. Since our endocrine system is responsible for our hormones, when our hormones aren’t working, we really aren’t ourselves. Or at least, we’re not our best. Hormones influence us so powerfully that a balanced endocrine system can be the difference between happiness and misery. When our hormones aren’t working right, we can’t think straight. We make poor decisions. We lash out. We live in fear. We excite too easily. We sleep too much or not nearly enough. Hormone balance is critical! But that’s the catch.We tend to self-sabotage when our hormones aren’t working properly. Someone who’s head isn’t working right tends to have a very hard time getting well. It often makes a long road to health even longer. And for those who are overweight, hormonal problems will continue to be an issue until well after that excess weight is lost because of how we store toxins in our fat.

Be patient. The good news is that it virtually always takes a heck of a lot less time to get well than it took to get chronically ill.

P.S. The following is a list of supplements that could all be taken together (save the male and female formulas, obviously you’ll pick one). Not everyone will need more than a few of these to see significant results, and it’s much easier to figure out which formulas are best for you if you read the entire, Holistic Guide to Healing the Endocrine System and Balancing Our Hormones. Most importantly, nobody will notice significant results without a healthy diet. It’s imperative that the gut is taken into consideration for any holistic approach to healing. Gut health comes first, and ignoring the gut will result in a lot of problems. Be sure to check out Detox Cheap and Easy Without Fasting – Recipes Included, and Candida, Gut Flora, Allergies, and Disease, and see the Further Reading section below.

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Michael Edwards

Michael Edwards

Owner at Organic Lifestyle Magazine
Michael Edwards is the founder, owner, editor-in-chief, and janitor for Organic Lifestyle Magazine. At age 17, Michael weighed more than 360 pounds. He suffered from allergies, frequent bouts of illness, and chronic, debilitating insomnia. Conventional medicine wasn’t working. While he restored his health through alternative medicine he studied natural health and became immersed in it.

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Michael Edwards
Michael Edwards