How To Balance Hormones Naturally Part 1: Eliminate Toxins

I will be the first to admit, for so long I thought eliminating toxins and natural living was just a marketing ploy—even as a Nutritional Therapy Practitioner (NTP), I fought against it! It wasn’t until I started researching the scary effects of toxins in our day to day life, that I became fully convicted. After seeing the amazing effects this lifestyle change had on my hormones, energy and skin health, I became passionate about the links between our hormones and the products we use each day!

So why should you start eliminating toxins? Well, as women our hormones play a big role in our physical and emotional health. If you’re anything like me, I’m sure you have a love hate relationship with hormones—hormones make the amazing miracle of birth possible, but also can lead to some painful symptoms and mood swings.

Here’s the deal—hormones desperately want to work effectively for you and do the jobs they were designed to do! Sadly a lot can get in the way of that and cause hormone imbalances, which if you have ever been on the other side of cramping, acne, weight gain or adrenal fatigue you know these situations are so not fun and often very emotionally draining as well.

Good news—you can learn how to balance hormones naturally, and a huge part of that is eliminating toxins!

So what exactly are endocrine disruptors, besides a term we are seeing more and more of today? Endocrine disruptors are man-made chemicals or substances that interfere with the body’s endocrine system and produce adverse effects concerning development, reproduction, brain health, the immune system and more.

The scary part about endocrine disruptors is that they can mimic the body’s naturally occurring hormones, in particular the sex and thyroid hormones, and produce an over or under stimulation of your body’s natural hormones. In simple speak, endocrine disruptors confuse your hormones ALOT and can lead to many of the negative symptoms associated with hormones.

Endocrine disruptors can be found in many everyday products, including plastic bottles, soy, laundry soap, bedding, children’s toys, but are especially concentrated in our beauty and skincare products.

Now, eliminating toxins not only helps keep daily exposure to endocrine disruptors minimal, but also helps the liver. The liver is your body’s filtering mechanism and is also responsible for detoxifying estrogen, a big puzzle piece in hormonal balance. But, your liver is smart and prioritizes detoxifying toxins, alcohol and drugs before it detoxifies hormones, particularly estrogen. So the more toxins your liver has to filter, the less hormones and estrogen your liver can filter. This can lead to a metaphorical traffic jam called estrogen dominance.

Estrogen dominance is caused by two primary factors:

• Endocrine disruptors
• Chronic stress

Now, estrogen dominance is at the foundation for many issues surrounding female hormones!

You see, our hormones love to work together in harmony, following the checks and balances our body naturally provides to keep hormone levels balanced.

Particularly, estrogen and progesterone need to be in balance in order to perform their jobs correctly and efficiently. When estrogen and progesterone levels are not balanced, estrogen dominance occurs, meaning when there is too much estrogen in the body, relative to progesterone in the body.

Now many factors can lead to estrogen dominance—toxins, refined carbohydrates, hormone injected meat, soy, etc—but two of the main factors are endocrine disruptors and chronic stress.

Some signs of estrogen dominance are adrenal fatigue, severe menstrual cramping, hormonal acne, headaches, fatigue, anxiety, miscarriage, uterine fibroids, PCOS and just feeling “off” in general when it comes to your energy, emotions and hormones.

Chronic stress also plays a huge role in our hormonal balance—until we work to design a stress-less life, take the time to breathe and slow the hustle, our hormone health will never truly reach its full potential.

Learning to say no and prioritize how we spend our time is key in eliminating some of the stress we come into contact with each day!

As we start to eliminate the endocrine disruptors and stress, our hormones will start to balance. The beautiful thing about hormones is they desperately want to balance and work efficiently for you! So, if you have ever thought hormone struggles are just a part of life, rest assured, they can be diminished!

Keep in mind the journey is different for each person, so some may see luscious, vibrant skin and decreased acne, while others may see improved sleep quality and clarity of thought, while others may even see fertility. Trust in the beauty of your own journey!

So how does this come full circle? Well, by working to eliminate toxins you are putting less stress on your liver so that it can carry out its natural detoxification properties. Eliminating endocrine disrupts also allows your hormones to naturally balance and do their jobs effectively. Both are key to healthy hormones!

Yes, the deodorant you use each day may seem like a small step, but it has a huge effect on you!

Wondering where to start?

I always recommend starting with items that you come into contact with the most amount of hours per day. Ask yourself, what products sit on my skin or come into contact with my skin or nose the most amount of hours per day? Start with your deodorant, face moisturizer, foundation, lip stick and laundry detergent.

Switching to safe products can take some time, but just slowly start using up your old products and swapping them out as you can!

Remember, little changes add up to be big changes and each step is a part of painting the beautiful picture of your journey.

For more information, check out my FREE webinar How to Balance Your Hormones in 3 Steps & Feel Like Yourself Again. And stay tuned for Parts 2 (all about stress) and 3 (foods for hormone health) of my series on how to balance hormones naturally!

xo
Caroline

Come connect with me over on my website Flourish and Instagram! Please say hello!