Hormone Balance Affects Men & Women

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Healthy weight loss takes a holistic approach. It is important to tackle your journey from every angle and one of the most important aspects is to understand how balancing your hormones improves your chances for achieving permanent results.

Understanding the mechanics of hormonal production and release can be important to making healthy lifestyle changes as your body ages. It operates through a negative feedback system, where rising hormone levels slow down production to halt the release.

Hormones facilitate two types of communication in your body. The first type involves glands stimulating each other to regulate your hormone levels. The second type of communication occurs between your glands and target organs. The pituitary gland, positioned near the hypothalamus, works closely with it through a blood system. Some hormones have widespread effects, influencing cells throughout your body, while others only affect specific cells in certain organs.

Hormonal Balance Is Crucial to Healthy Living

Ensuring adequate intake of essential nutrients like fiber, omega-3 fatty acids, and antioxidants supports hormone production and facilitates weight loss. Listed below key hormones, including:

Estrogen: If you think estrogen is only for women, you would be wrong. Estrogen plays a crucial role in both male and female bodies. In women, it's responsible for ovulation, menstruation, breast development, and more. In men, estrogen modulates libido, and erectile function.

Progesterone: Healthy levels of progesterone production and release supports thyroid function, which produces hormones that are necessary for regulating the body’s metabolism. So, progesterone helps determine how your body uses food for energy and fat storage.

Testosterone: When testosterone production drops below normal, muscle mass decreases, which leads to a slower metabolism and weight gain. However, testosterone therapy has been found to increase metabolism, helping the body burn calories more efficiently.

Insulin: Insulin, known as the fat-storage hormone, is released by the pancreas and has a major impact on our metabolism. It allows our organs, liver, and fat to absorb glucose. However, diabetics struggle with proper insulin regulation, leading to difficulties in converting food into energy.

Cortisol: Stress triggers your endocrine system to release cortisol and adrenaline. Adrenaline, like cortisol, is a stress hormone that prepares your body for fight-or-flight responses. But excessive release of stress hormones can result in rapid heartbeat, anxiety, and emotional eating.

Thyroid Hormone: By ensuring your thyroid has what it needs and adopting healthy lifestyle choices, you can regain control of your body. Taking the appropriate thyroid medication can also help, but it's important to note that it won't automatically reverse weight gain. It may take time.

Your hormones have a huge impact on how you feel both mentally and physically. Certain hormones play a key role in your body functions and can affect our health in various ways. At MRC, we understand that balanced hormones are essential for overall health and wellness.

An at-home hormone test kit can help identify hormonal imbalances by identifying common culprits that can lead to weight gain and make losing weight difficult. Increasing your fiber intake can promote an increase in ghrelin between meals. So, make sure to eat plenty of fruits, vegetables, beans, and whole grains to get enough fiber.