Alcohol can be a fun way to socialize with friends and family, but it comes with a price. It isn’t a surprise that alcohol is not the healthiest beverage to consume. The third most preventable cause of death is from alcohol-related causes coming in at 95,000 deaths per year. Drinking more than 4 alcoholic beverages for men and 3 for women per day is considered heavy drinking and can put high levels of harm on your body. Here we will discuss the effects of alcohol on the digestive system
Alcohol can be a fun way to socialize with friends and family, but it comes with a price. It isn’t a surprise that alcohol is not the healthiest beverage to consume. The third most preventable cause of death is from alcohol-related causes coming in at 95,000 deaths per year. Drinking more than 4 alcoholic beverages for men and 3 for women per day is considered heavy drinking and can put high levels of harm on your body. Here we will discuss how alcohol affects the body.
Paying attention to your period regularity is one of the best ways to determine if your hormones are balanced. Our hormones are vital for maintaining many of our daily functions. If hormones are imbalanced over an extended time, this can lead to many complications like PCOS, osteoporosis, nutrient deficiencies, hair loss, fatigue, depression, and low energy. Your cycle length is extremely important because women go through 4 phases throughout each cycle, and all of them need to occur in the correct window of time for a regular period. As a rule of thumb, if your menstrual cycle length is shorter than 21 days, then your period is early and it’s time to look into what is causing your hormonal imbalances. It is important to take into consideration your own body patterns because you can still have an early period, though your cycle length may be more than 21 days. An example of this is if you regularly have a cycle length of about 34 days and then suddenly it is dropping to 23 days, then you could also have a period early. Watch your period patterns, and if your cycle length drops significantly for 3 months then you should dive deeper into asking ‘why is my period early?’
During the start of the luteal phase, which occurs after ovulation, progesterone is increasing, but if pregnancy doesn’t happen, progesterone will drop by the end of the phase. This drop-in progesterone may be more extreme for some women and this causes estrogen to increase rapidly. Additionally, this hormone imbalance can be caused by other factors such as stress. This extreme shift in hormone levels could be the cause of PMS symptoms. There is a solution though because here is a list of 17 foods for PMS.
Your gut health and fertility are related to hormone production and regulation. If you are experiencing certain issues with your gut health it can affect your hormone balance. How fertile you are depends on hormone balance and regulation. Specifically, when estrogen and progesterone are out of balance this can create issues that cause infertility because you are not ovulating properly. Gut health can significantly impact the hormone balance in your body.
Your period relies heavily on your hormonal production in order to be regular each month. We have to produce our hormones in different amounts every day to create the 4 phase menstrual cycle. Due to this, your period can give you important clues about your overall health when you track your period and any related symptoms.
Progesterone is the hormone released in the second half of your menstrual cycle after ovulation. It is produced by the corpus luteum, the sac that remains once you ovulate & turns into a hormone-secreting gland during the luteal phase. It’s important to dig into your root causes of low (or no progesterone). Supplements may help to support a nutrition, lifestyle, & movement foundation. It is also important to focus on food sources of these nutrients!
PCOS, or polycystic ovarian syndrome, is a hormone-related condition that can affect your cycle and infertility. If untreated, PCOS can eventually develop and increase the risk of type 2 diabetes. It is diagnosed by having two out of the following three symptoms listed below. As a syndrome, there is a collection of symptoms that are patient dependent. Due to this, PCOS can present very differently from person to person. It is important to understand your root causes driving your condition and receive proper treatment for each cause.
If you have a missing period for any amount of time, that is a signal your body is trying to send you that something is imbalanced. Your hormones are driving the bus that leads you to your menstruation every month. If your hormones are too low or too high, the bus will take a turn in the opposite away from menstruation. Hormone levels can be greatly impacted by your lifestyle and nutrition, so it is important to figure out what the root causes are for your missing period.
Stress is a physiological response that results from a stressor. Normally we associate stress with a hard job, difficult family problems, busy schedules, or hard exams, but we can also become stressed due to imbalances in the body not necessarily caused by those external factors. Nutrient imbalances, blood sugar increases, and low hormone levels can all lead to stress. It is important to understand that stress is not always just a product of a stressful lifestyle and that sometimes the stress you feel is an indicator something is imbalance internally. When these imbalances occur our cortisol production is increased from the adrenal glands, which sets off a cascade of negative effects in our body.
This increase in cortisol will trigger your fight or flight response in the sympathetic nervous system which will cause a rise in blood sugar, blood pressure, and breathing rates. During stressful situations, digestion and reproduction take a backseat because they are not a priority for survival. When you are stressed for long periods, this can trigger adrenal fatigue because your adrenal glands are producing too much cortisol which uses a lot of energy. Digestive issues and hormone imbalances can be a cause and a result of stress.
