Already have an account?
Get back to the
Health

4 Natural Ways to Balance Your Hormones

Making small changes will give you more energy and balance.

Tags:

Headaches, heavy periods, hot flashes — whatever your age, chances are you’re dealing with a hormone hassle. These study-proven solutions can help you feel your best fast!

Eat beef.

In a recent survey, two in three women in their 30s reported having frustrating period problems, such as bad cramping, sleep difficulties, spotting, or periods that dragged on six days or more.

Eat four ounces of zinc-and iron-rich foods — such as red meat, poultry, fish, seafood, eggs, nuts, or seeds — daily. “Zinc and iron help your ovaries function properly during your premenstrual and menstrual weeks,” says Ann Louise Gittleman, Ph.D., author of Before the Change ($10.89, Amazon).

“So keeping your intake steady can prevent the imbalances that
make so many 30-something women feel miserable every month.”

Consume healthy fats.

Your risk of PMS — bad PMS — triples after age 40. Monthly symptoms amplify in this decade because this is when your ovaries start producing huge bursts of estrogen and progesterone to try to keep you fertile as long as possible, explains obstetrician/gynecologist Mary Jane Minkin, M.D., author of A Woman’s Guide to Menopause and Perimenopause.

“Any monthly symptoms you’ve already been experiencing worsen — and you can have all sorts of new ones, too!” Taking 2,000 mg. to 3,000 mg. of fish oil daily can calm your ovaries, cutting even severe monthly premenstrual discomforts, such as headaches, depression, bloating, and breast tenderness 50 percent in three months.

Also, try eating a medium-sized potato each day during your toughest time of the month. Spuds pack enough L-tryptophan (an amino acid that boosts your brain’s production of soothing serotonin) to cut your risk of PMS-triggered irritability and blue moods as much as 50 percent.

Pile on the veggies.

Estrogen lessens inflammation and nourishes muscle, nerve, and joint tissues, so experiencing a shortfall of the hormone leaves you more apt to feel less flexible and to feel more pain, say UCLA researchers. Add two cups of colorful vegetables to your daily diet. Vegetables are rich in painkilling, inflammation-reducing pigments — and because each color of vegetable provides a different pigment, the wider the variety you eat, the less pain you’re likely to feel.

Take maca.

At least 90 percent of us gain weight — 12 pounds, on average! — as we pass through menopause. The reason? Estrogen and progesterone help keep your metabolism high, so when those sex hormone levels drop, your ability to burn fat can plunge, too.

The Rx: A daily 2,000-mg. dose of maca — a metabolism-revving herb from Peru — halts menopausal weight gain for 74 percent of women, reports the International Journal of Biomedical Science.

Try this one from Nutra Champs: $17.94, Amazon.

This article originally appeared in our print magazine, Reverse Aging.

Use left and right arrow keys to navigate between menu items. Use right arrow key to move into submenus. Use escape to exit the menu. Use up and down arrow keys to explore. Use left arrow key to move back to the parent list.