Think of your hormones as chemical messengers throughout your body. They continually communicate information to every area of your body, responding and adapting constantly to its complex needs. Your endocrine glands produce hormones: pancreas, thyroid, adrenals, and ovaries or testes. Hormones perform essential functions, communicate, and relay key warnings thereby ensuring that your systems run smoothly. However, a number of factors can disrupt hormone levels resulting in an imbalance with an impact on:
- Disease
- Prescription drugs
- Diet
- Stress
- Changes in health
- Age
- Environmental factors
Many people attribute their symptoms to stress or just a part of life. Over time, chronic stress can cause an imbalance in your hormone, which becomes the underlying cause of many symptoms. In this case, you will need the appropriate testing, evaluation, and treatment to return your hormones to normal levels.
Finding and correcting a hormone imbalance early helps maintain health, longevity, and energy while helping to prevent chronic disease.
Most common signs of hormonal imbalances
Skin and hair changes
The quality and health of your skin and hair are directly related to your hormones. Your hormones must work together to produce a glowing complexion. When even one hormone is off-balance, you may develop skin problems such as dryness, acne, fine lines, wrinkles, and rosacea. For instance, thyroid abnormalities may cause dry hair or skin, thinning hair, hair loss, and brittle nails.
Weight gain and weight fluctuations
Research shows that hypothyroidism, or low thyroid function, affects one in five women and one in ten men. Unfortunately, doctors fail to diagnose the condition in over 50% of the cases. The thyroid hormone impacts nearly every cell in the body and regulates our entire metabolic rate. Therefore, excess weight can often point to a slow and underactive thyroid gland, which in turn has caused metabolic processes to slow down.
Members Only Content
To continue reading please subscribe to WellnessPlus by Dr. Jess MD
Be your own best doctor with our comprehensive suite of online health coaching tools.