12 DAYS OF TIPS TO AVOID NOT-SO-MERRY HORMONES FROM RUINING YOUR HOLIDAYS

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It’s beginning to look like Christmas…actually, it’s beginning to feel a lot like Christmas which isn’t always so great.  Ho ho whoa…everything seems so overwhelming. You worry about the craziest things; that Santa will be coming to town and because every hotel in the area is booked, will want to stay with you. (You already have more out-of-town guests than you can handle). That Amazon closes for the holiday. That you don’t have a chimney. Your latkes will turn out leaden. You do too much. You eat too much. You sleep too little. Holidays can send the already delicate balance of your 50 or so hormones seriously off the skids, making you feel anything but comfort and joy. Cortisol, leptin, insulin, thyroid hormones, progesterone, estrogen, even the normally happy, fuzzy, feel-good hormones serotonin and oxytocin. All of them, together or by themselves can cause a list of health issues longer than your list of gifts which even includes the person at your groomer who sweeps up the hair of your beloved Havanese:

  • Insulin overload
  • Low energy
  • Depression/anxiety
  • Fatigue
  • Insomnia
  • Mood swings
  • Heartburn, diarrhea, constipation
  • Overall aches and pains
  • Migraines
  • Low immune system
  • Low libido
  • High blood pressure
  • Even risk of heart disease

But before you get your tinsel in a tangle, we’re going to give you some help to keep the ho ho in your holiday.

On The First Day Of Christmas

Start ordering your Pumpkin Spice Latte decaf. “Unthinkable” you think. Well, a study conducted by researchers at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, links excess caffeine intake to a jolt of cortisol, which will not only cause you to experience increased stress and anxiety, but severely disturb your sleep. It also stresses the adrenal glands.

On The Second Day Of Christmas 1st/2nd Day of Kwanzaa/4th day of Hanukah

Party, just not so hardy. If you’re on the holiday party circuit and staying out for a go-go night, then awakening early for a go-go day, you’re setting yourself up for leptin dysfunction. When leptin levels are low, your appetite increases and your metabolism slows.

On The Third Day Of Christmas

Raise your glass only not as often. Alcohol raises cortisol (stress hormone) levels. If you’re already stressed out, alcohol takes a further toll on the body, exacerbating anxiety, low mood and headaches. Plus alcohol is stored as belly fat. And hormones aside, it’s not a time to get behind a wheel.

On The Fourth Day Of Christmas

Eat more protein. The thyroid can’t function properly without adequate protein. This leads to a slowing down of the thyroid, which you’ll feel as fatigue, sluggishness and persistent weight gain.  One way to resist unhealthy sweets and foods this season is to incorporate more protein into every meal. You’ll feel fuller, so you’ll eat less and cut down on all those elf nibble and Pin-perfect tidbits.

On The Fifth Day Of Christmas

Breathe deep. Whether you do yoga, meditate or simply take a 20-minute time-out for yourself, deep breathing into the lower and upper lungs has a calming effect on your body, telling it that it’s safe to focus on making sex hormones (estrogen, progesterone and testosterone) rather than stress hormones (cortisol and cortisone). Watch that low libido go.

On The Sixth Day Of Christmas

Disappear for a while…get a massage. Research has shown that massage has a direct impact on lowering the levels of stress hormones that create the “fight-or-flight” response, and can boost “feel good” neurotransmitters like dopamine, serotonin, endorphins and oxytocin.

On The Seventh Day Of Christmas                       

Resist the big binge-o-rama of non-stop food. The average person consumes nearly 6,000 calories during Christmas day. This might be why people gain an average of 6 pounds in the nine days between Christmas eve and New Year’s. Go into meals with a game plan. Don’t deprive yourself, but don’t go overboard either. (Like with 3rd helpings. Yes, you, you know who you are.)

On The Eighth Day Of Christmas

Sleep. Most people are wired during the holidays. So they rarely get their optimal 7.5 to 8.5 hours each night. And their sleep patterns are non-existant. Studies on sleep show that this can make you prone not just to emotional irritability, but to mild to moderate cognitive impairment and motor skill impairment. Think falling off ladders putting up tree toppers. Or toppling all those candles meant to light up the holiday, not light fires. (It happens.)

On The Ninth Day Of Christmas

Exercise. During the holidays, it’s tempting to throw your workouts by the wayside with the promise to start again after the New Year. If you can’t fit in a sweat session, even walking 30 minutes a day will do the trick. Regular exercise lowers the level of stress hormones. It also helps release endorphins and improve your sleep quality. Reduce depression. Elevate mood. Works wonders.

On The Tenth Day Of Christmas

Say no. You don’t need to buy every item on your kids’ lists which they have been adding to since last December 26. You don’t need to lead the caroling brigade while cooking up an endless storm. Ask Siri and Alexa to trim the tree. Stress depletes the calming, “happy hormone” progesterone. And maintaining a healthy level of progesterone is absolutely essential since it converts into other hormones as needed (including estrogen and testosterone) supporting natural hormonal balance.  

On The Eleventh Day Of Christmas

Cut out your expanded consumption of sugar. (We’re not saying to red light the pecan pie or tell those yummy gingerbread men to take a hike. Just be rational. Eating an excess of sugar-laden foods, can mess with your gut, which messes with your cortisol, which makes you crave more sugary foods. Sugar not only creates highs and lows in mood and energy, it disrupts the hormone insulin, which in turn impacts all other hormones in your body. Not so sweet.

On The Twelfth Day Of Christmas

Increase your “me time” under the mistletoe. Researchers have found that expressed affection, of which kissing is a prime example, was directly related to lowering the stress hormone cortisol throughout the day. Kissing activates the brain’s reward system, releasing neurotransmitters like oxytocin, “the love hormone. It also raises testosterone which increases sex drive. (Oh joy, oh joy…)

On any day of Christmas, ask Dancer or Prancer for a lift (OK, so maybe just take a Lyft) to see the hormone experts at Denver Hormone Health. Instead of worrying about all the gifts you’ll have to return, focus on returning your hormones to the levels they need to be And don’t say you don’t have the time. With just few simple tests the hormone professionals at Denver Hormone Health can determine if your hormones are unbalanced and know exactly how to get them where they are supposed to be. So put down the Pfeffernüsse and make an appointment with Denver Hormone Health now.

Helping you feel your best, is their gift to you.

YOU CAN THANK THANKSGIVING FOR YOUR HORMONES GOING HAYWIRE

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Thanksgiving…we wait 365 days for the opportunity to eat ourselves into a food coma. Today, Thanksgiving has become the Super Bowl of eating like a horse, unable to ever rein it in. “Unbuckle Our Belts” has become the Thanksgiving Day anthem.  The bar flies open. We eat before we eat. Platters of calorie-laden treats tempt us even before we even pull a chair up to the table. And that’s where the real feast begins; ta-da…the main event. An obscenely huge turkey with its everyone-will-fight-over greasy, crisp turkey skin. Thick, thick creamy gravy; a virtual bacchanalia of butter. Bowls of sugar laden cranberry sauce. Mounds of potatoes. (Oooo those tiny little marshmallows) Gobs of green bean casserole. But wait, oh wait, don’t stop there. Dessert! Caramel apple snickers cake, chocolate bourbon pecan pie, triple cream pumpkin cheesecake (be still, my stomach.) all topped with endless mounds of whipped cream. Oh happy day. Right? Thanksgiving might be something you celebrate, but for your hormones, it’s a yearly hard-core smorgasbord of gastric misery.

WHAT’S GUT GOT TO DO WITH IT?

The gut is the body’s largest hormone-producing organ, releasing more than 20 different peptide hormones. These gastrointestinal hormones (or gut hormones) constitute a group of hormones secreted by cells in the stomach, pancreas, and small intestine that control various functions of the digestive organs. Is there a link between hormones and heaving food uncontrollably into your body? Without question. And how they link up is enough to make you want to give the whole binging thing up. But, of course, who would ever even consider such a thing? Thanksgiving really gets you in the gut in endless ways. At some point of packing it in, your gorge gauge explodes releasing levels of these hormones that can make you nauseous and make your body work harder, the digestive overload requiring the heart to pump more blood to the stomach and intestines. It’s a digestive disaster.

A NICE BIG HEAPING OF HEARTBURN. (AND WORSE)

After about 1,500 calories (and the average for a typical Thanksgiving meal is 3,000) the gut hormones go wild. Imbalances of these hormones can influence the movement of food through the intestines—some by speeding the process up, causing diarrhea, gas (gross) and abdominal pain; and others by slowing things down, causing bloating and constipation. And that burning that seems to crawl up your esophagus and out of your mouth in a belch that’s more like a roar? That’s acid reflux and it is not a comfortable condition. This acid reflux or Gerd as it is often referred to can actually make people feel like they’re having a heart attack and send them rushing to the hospital. On Thanksgiving, there’s an emergency room overload.

KEEPING YOUR HORMONES HEALTHY IS GRAVY

If you’re like most people, it’s a good chance that you’re going to regret what you shoveled in. That’s why it’s a smart idea to make an appointment ahead of time to see the hormone professionals at Denver Hormone Health. No one in the Denver area knows more about the effect unbalanced hormones can have on your body.  Their skill and expertise match their care and understanding (which is something you’ll appreciate when it comes to discussing your holiday carb-o-bliss and fat-frenzy.) With simple tests, the hormone specialists at Denver Hormone Health can tell where you where your hormone levels stand and what exactly you should do about it. With their help Thanksgiving can be a fabulous feast instead of something you just can’t stomach. Contact Denver Hormone Health now. It’s something you’ll be more than grateful for.

HORMONE DISRUPTORS; JUST WHAT DO THEY DISRUPT?

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Hormones are the chemical messengers that swim throughout our bloodstreams signaling every cell and organ what they are supposed to do to keep our bodies working the way they are supposed to. It’s not just that hormones are key to keeping us healthy. We simply couldn’t live without them. When something interferes with or disrupts how they function, we’re beyond out of luck. Endocrine disruptors (EDs) or hormone disruptors, are our bodies worst nightmares. These disruptors can cause cancerous tumors, birth defects, and other developmental disorders. Any system in the body controlled by hormones can be derailed by hormone disruptors.

CHEMICAL TRAINWRECKS

There is no end to the tricks that endocrine disruptors can play on our bodies:

  • Increasing or decreasing production of certain hormones
  • Imitating hormones
  • Turning one hormone into another
  • Interfering with hormone signaling
  • Promoting premature cell death
  • Competing with essential nutrients
  • Binding to essential hormones
  • Accumulating in organs that produce hormones

Can’t you simply avoid these man-made monsters?  Regrettably, no. They’re everywhere. They’re in our food (that supposedly healthy fish you ate), personal care products (that shampoo promising to leave your hair healthy and shining), cosmetics (not so beautiful), pharmaceuticals, pesticides (well, we all know those are baddies), plastics (that healthy H20 you pay more than a buck a bottle for), soil and even water. Worst of all; they can hang around for years.

EVEN THEIR NAMES SOUND NASTY

Here are the worst of the worst:

  • Organophosphate Pesticides
  • Ethynylestradiol
  • Fire Retardants (PBDEs)
  • Phthalates
  • BPA
  • Perchlorate
  • Arsenic
  • Mercury
  • Dioxin

THEY DO A BODY REALLY BAD

Specifically, endocrine disruptors like these may be associated with:

  • Sexual development
  • Impaired immune functions
  • Cognitive, behavioral, and other brain development problems
  • Learning disabilities
  • Severe attention deficit disorder (ADHD)
  • Deformations of the body (including limbs)
  • Various cancers, including cancer of the breast, prostate,
  • Thyroid conditions
  • Lower IQ
  • Obesity
  • Diabetes
  • Cardiovascular disease
  • Insulin resistance
  • Spontaneous miscarriage
  • Changes in hormone levels

GET THE LEAD OUT

Yikes! Isn’t there something you can do? To a point:

  • Clean up old paint
  • Get a good water filter
  • Avoid canned foods when you can
  • Eat fewer animal products
  • Choose fragrance-free creams, cleaning products and laundry detergents
  • Go organic
  • Use a vacuum cleaner with HEPA filter
  • Eat sustainable seafood like wild salmon and farmed trout
  • Skip non-stick pans
  • Use containers like glass, steel, ceramic and aluminum
  • Try to avoid stain and water-resistant coatings on clothing, furniture and carpets

ATTACK BACK

Oh yeah, sure, real easy to follow some of the above suggestions. Like maybe near impossible? Besides, no matter what you do, it’s really not going to do the trick. What you can do, is stay on top of your hormone health. And the best and smartest way to do that, is to see the hormone experts at Denver Hormone Health. Keeping your hormones from hurting you, is a delicate balance. At Denver Hormone Health, they know everything there is about hormones and keeping them in balance to keep your life in balance. Because of their experience, they are more apt to recognize hormone imbalance symptoms you may be experiencing than your family doctor. They approach your overall health with a more trained eye. They start with a detailed evaluation. Then simple tests tell them exactly where your hormone levels stand.  This allows them to create a unique, individualized and comprehensive plan to get your hormones functioning at their optimal best. Which will allow you to feel your absolute best. Hormone disrupters aren’t going anywhere. If anything, they are increasing and becoming more invasive. Which means you need to be more aggressive in keeping their affects at bay. Call Denver Hormone Health for an appointment now. And don’t let anything disrupt you from doing it.