Category: Fertility

Know Your Hormones! #3 Cortisol

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Do you ever get STRESSED OUT?

 

Don’t worry…I do too!

 

When we get stressed out, cortisol is one of the hormones that can help us make it through the day. If you’re thinking: “But that’s every day for me!”,  then you’ll want to watch this short video where I’ll share my TOP 3 tips for balancing your cortisol levels so you can handle stress more effectively.

 

 

 

 

What is cortisol?

 

Cortisol is a hormone made by our adrenal glands (two little triangular shaped organs that sit on top of each kidney – so we have one right and one left adrenal gland). (1)

 

 
What does cortisol do?

 

Our adrenal glands release cortisol to help us deal with long-term stressors like:

  • High-stress jobs
  • Balancing work, home, relationships and all of your other many responsibilities
  • Coping with a loved one’s illness
  • Coping with our own long-standing health concerns like infertility and polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS)

 

 

How does cortisol help us deal with long-term stressors?

 

Cortisol raises our blood sugar by converting fats & proteins into glucose (sugar). (1, 2)

 

Glucose is the preferred fuel of our cells because our cells can convert it to energy very efficiently. And when we’re stressed out, we need lots of energy to fuel our brain to help us make the right decisions and of course to fuel our other vital organs like our hearts, lungs and muscles. (1, 2)

 

 

So what’s the problem?

 

If we are consistently stressed out – day in and day out – our adrenal glands need to make lots of cortisol on a repeated basis. Excess cortisol over time (months & years) can lead to:

(2)

 

On the other end of the spectrum, too little cortisol isn’t good either because it can lead to

  • Difficulty getting out of bed in the morning
  • Inability to handle stress
  • Decreased ability of other hormones to function optimally, including thyroid hormone, estrogen & progesterone

(2)

 

 

So what can we do about this?

 

Saying we need to relieve stress is obvious – but I know the million dollar question is how? The answer will be unique to each person, but my top 3 tips for YOU today are:

 

  1. Eat to balance your blood sugars: If your blood sugar levels drop too low, cortisol is released because the body considers blood sugar levels that are too low (hypoglycemia) to be a stress on the body. Watch last week’s video for some basic nutrition tips to stabilize your blood sugar levels.
  2. Practice relaxation techniques daily: Abdominal breathing, progressive muscle relaxation, and positive Self-talk can all be used to help turn off your stress response and turn on your relaxation response.
  3. Physical activity: Find something active you LOVE to do. I know – this may take a while, but keep at it. It doesn’t have to be the typical running or hitting the gym, both of which are great of course, but if these don’t excite you, you won’t be motivated to it. So think outside the box. What about yoga, kickboxing,  dance lessons, rowing, dragon boating or dodgeball (yes, it’s a thing!). The bottom line is to find something you LOVE to do, so it doesn’t feel like you’re being forced to “exercise”. I truly believe there’s something out there for everyone…so start looking!

 

 

Final Thoughts

 

You can’t balance cortisol by getting rid of all of the stress in your life – that would be unrealistic and unnecessary because there’s always going to be stress (and some stress can actually be positive motivators). Instead, by introducing the tips above (start one at a time so you don’t get overwhelmed!), you can help cortisol work smarter not harder – and thus keep it, and your other hormones in better balance.

 

Next week, we’ll be learning about a hormone the women are going to be super interested in – here’s a hint – it’s in charge of our metabolism!

 

References:

  1. Marieb, EN. Essentials of human anatomy & physiology. 11th ed. Boston: Pearson Inc.; 2015.
  2. Bellevue, Shannon Ed. Functional and personalized hormone restoration therapy live event workbook. LP3 Network Inc. 2017.

 

Take good care of your Self until then!

 

 

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Know Your Hormones! #1 Estrogen

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Do you feel like your hormones are “out of balance”?

 

You’re not alone!

 

Many women feel like their hormones are out of control – but they don’t know which ones.

 

Over the next 4 weeks I’ll be introducing you to 4 of the main hormones that could be responsible for many common symptoms women experience, so you can start to become more aware of the importance of hormonal balance.

 

Let’s start with estrogen!

 

 

Estrogen is an important hormone for women.

 

Estrogen is made mainly in the ovaries for women who are still having their periods. Estrogen is made during the first half of your menstrual cycle (before ovulation occurs), to really help prepare & thicken the uterine lining for implantation after ovulation and successful fertilization.

 

But sometimes estrogen can be too high (estrogen excess) and sometimes it can be too low (estrogen deficiency) resulting in many symptoms that fluctuate over a woman’s cycle and lifetime.

 

Possible signs of estrogen excess:

Estrogen excess can be seen in women with endometriosis, fibroids, PCOS and fertility issues.

 

Possible signs of estrogen deficiency:

  • Dry hair, skin
  • Fatigue
  • Hot flashes
  • Sleep disturbances
  • Urinary incontinence
  • Vaginal dryness

Estrogen deficiency can be seen in women with fertility issues, menopause, and post-menopause

 

To complicate matters, both estrogen excess and deficiency can lead to similar symptoms, for example:

 

How do we know if estrogen is too high or too low?

 

Sometimes it can help to test your estrogen levels as well as for other factors involved in estrogen level changes. This can be done via blood testing. 

 

What happens after I get my estrogen results?

 

Sometimes, once we know more about what your levels are, then we can help address your hormones more effectively.

 

To balance estrogen excess, options may include cruciferous vegetables, fibre and restoring gut health to eliminate estrogen more effectively, as I’ve discussed here in my Hormone detox series and again here in my Fertility series. If you’re look for more information on other important hormones for fertility click here.

 

To improve estrogen deficiency, options may include nutritional changes, supplements and herbs to help to support the body’s own production of estrogen. If necessary, we also may need to consider whether bio-identical compounded hormones are necessary.

 

Final Thoughts

 

Now remember, even though you may see one or more of your symptoms in either the estrogen excess or deficiency category – that’s not the end of the story. That’s because your hormones don’t function in isolation from one another. They can overlap in function, interact with one another, and can even modify the function of one another. This means that your symptoms may be due a combination of hormonal imbalances and not just estrogen. To achieve whole body hormonal balance we need to understand your other hormones are functioning as well.

 

Next week, we’ll be learning about another important hormone – and here’s a hint – it’s important for blood sugar balance.

 

Take care until then!

 

If you’re ready for one-on-one naturopathic care backed by 15 years of experience helping people start and expand their families, click here or on the button below to get started.

Book Your Appointment – It’s Easy!

You can also use the above button to book a complimentary no-obligation 15-minute Optimal Health Meet & Greet Visit so you can ask me questions about my approach to helping you feel your best through perimenopause & beyond – before committing to an initial naturopathic visit.

My Top 7 Liver-Loving Veggies

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For today’s Everyday Detox tip for Hormone Balance, I’m going to share my top 7 veggies to help your liver detoxify from estrogen more efficiently and I’ll explain who really needs to do this the most.

 

And if you’re worried I’m going to tell you to buy some foods you’ve never heard of – I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised because they are all pretty common veggies, and hopefully, with giving you 7 options, you can find one that you enjoy.

 

To help support liver detoxification of estrogen on a daily basis, we want to choose veggies from the Cruciferous (or cabbage) family. This family of vegetables contains lots of healthy nutrients including antioxidants, fibre, vitamins, minerals and a compound called indole-3-carbinol (I3C). I3C has been shown to help the liver detoxify estrogen into its less harmful breakdown product.

 

 

 

My top 7 Cruciferous veggie picks

(in alphabetical order because I don’t want to play favourites – I really love them all!:

  1. Arugula (also known as rocket lettuce)
  2. Bok Choy
  3. Broccoli
  4. Brussels sprouts
  5. Cabbage
  6. Cauliflower
  7. Kale

 

Not sure how to enjoy them?

 

  • Bok choy, broccoli & cauliflower go great in stir-fries.
  • Oven-roasted Brussels sprouts can be super tasty.
  • I love to use arugula, kale & cabbage in salads – they each hold up well in easy-to-pack mason jar salads.

 

How do you know if you might need help detoxifying from estrogen?

 

Many people suffer from symptoms related to estrogen dominance (too much estrogen compared to the amount of progesterone in the body) including:

Estrogen dominance is also related to any conditions for which these can be symptoms of, including:

 

If you want to learn additional & personalized natural ways to help detoxify from estrogen and improve any of the conditions above, then click here.

 

I’ll see you next week for our final Everyday Detox tip!

 

Take care until then!

 

If you’re ready for one-on-one naturopathic care backed by 15 years of experience helping people start and expand their families, click here or on the button below to get started.

Book Your Appointment – It’s Easy!

You can also use the above button to book a complimentary no-obligation 15-minute Optimal Health Meet & Greet Visit so you can ask me questions about my approach to helping you feel your best through perimenopause & beyond – before committing to an initial naturopathic visit.

How to Reduce Your Toxin Exposure (Without Breaking the Bank!)

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It’s week 2 of our Everyday Detox series! If you missed the first week, you can find it right here.

Today we’re going to talk about reducing exposure to toxins because it’s known that many different chemicals can negatively impact our hormones.

It’s no secret that we’re constantly exposed to toxins on a daily basis. From what we eat to what we put on our skin to the air we breathe – we will never be able to eliminate all toxins from our lives. But we can help reduce some of that toxic burden on our body, allowing our organs of detoxification to work more efficiently.

Today I want to talk about how to reduce the toxin exposure we get from foods – specifically pesticides. And I know you’re probably thinking: “I already know what she’s going to say: Buy everything organic.” And that’s where you would be wrong!

I don’t believe that everything needs to be organic – but that you want to shop wisely and buy the most contaminated foods organic & save your money and buy the rest non-organic – and I’ll share my fave FREE resource to help you learn the difference.

To help me make sure I’m buying organic the smart way, I use research put out by an organization called the Environmental Working Group (EWG). They do a lot of great work and just this week, they updated their list of 48 commonly eaten fruits & veggies tested for the amount of pesticide residue found on them after washing & peeling. After analyzing all of the produce they ranked them from most to least pesticide residue and developed 2 helpful lists:

  • The Clean 15: the 15 vegetables or fruits found to have the least pesticide residue
  • The Dirty Dozen: the 12 vegetables or fruits found to have the most pesticide residue.

It’s been shown that pesticides can contain chemicals that may disrupt our hormones. They can also simply add to the toxic burden our liver has to deal with on a daily basis, overburdening its detoxification pathways, and giving the liver more work than it can handle.

How can you use this list to reduce your toxin exposure?

To reduce your pesticide & overall toxin exposure:

  1. Shop for produce on the Clean 15 List every week. Eating more of these veggies & fruits on a daily basis helps give you the nutrients & fibre you need while limiting your pesticide exposure.
  2. If you can afford it, buy certified organic versions of the produce on the Dirty Dozen list. That way you can enjoy their health benefits on a daily basis without worrying about giving your liver excessive toxins to detoxify.
  3. If you can’t afford to buy organic at all, as I know it can get expensive, try to at least avoid eating the produce on the Dirty Dozen on a daily basis. Instead, choose to eat them only once or twice a week, or once or twice a month – depending on how much you want to reduce your overall toxic load. Replace Dirty Dozen veggies in recipes with those found on the Clean 15 whenever possible.

 

How do you know if you need to reduce your pesticide exposure?

Most people can benefit from reducing their exposure to toxins but especially:

Final Thoughts

As you can see, many people can benefit from reducing their toxin exposure and minimizing pesticide ingestion, using these EWG lists make it easy to get started.

At the end of the day, even with considering pesticide exposure, the benefits of eating vegetables & fruits in terms of their fibre, antioxidant, vitamin and mineral content outweigh the risk of pesticide exposure, for most people, so it’s still always important to get your veggies & fruits in on a daily basis regardless of pesticide exposure. I hope that this blog helps you make wiser choices for you & your family.

I’ll see you next week where I’ll be sharing another everyday detox tip with you.

Take good care of your Self until then!

 

Ready for a one-on-one personalized fertility program to support you as you’re trying to conceive?

Click here to learn how Dr. Odette can help maximize your chances of getting pregnant whether you’re just starting to try to get pregnant this year or you are further along on your TTC (trying to conceive) journey.

If you’re ready for one-on-one naturopathic care backed by 15 years of experience helping people start and expand their families, click here or on the button below to get started.

Book Your Appointment – It’s Easy!

You can also use the above button to book a complimentary no-obligation 15-minute Optimal Health Meet & Greet Visit so you can ask me questions about my approach to helping you feel your best through perimenopause & beyond – before committing to an initial naturopathic visit.

Everyday Detox: Hydrate for Hormone Balance?

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When women come to me concerned that their hormones are out of balance, they never think water has anything to do with it…but it does!

 

In the first video of my Everyday Detox for Hormone Balance series, I take you back to basics and share with you the 3 things I do myself to make sure I get enough water throughout the day, to help all of my organs of detoxification function optimally.

 

I’ll even explain (briefly, don’t worry!), why water is important for balancing hormones.

 

https://youtu.be/UUP4rEtcMLs

 

 

Who can benefit from hormone balance (and this Everyday Detox series)?

 

Take good care of your Self until then!

 

 

 
Here’s my FREE gift to help you on your fertility journey:

 

If you want more FREE tips to help you plan for pregnancy (including a Quick Guide to Fertility Tests, then click here!) or click the button below!

 

FREE Fertility Test Cheatsheet Download

 

All the best to you on your fertility journey!

 

 

Ready for a one-on-one personalized fertility program to support you as you’re trying to conceive?

 

Click here to learn how Dr. Odette can help maximize your chances of getting pregnant whether you’re just starting to try to get pregnant this year or you are further along on your TTC (trying to conceive) journey.