Intake and Outflow: How They Affect Hormone Balance

In previous blog posts, I have addressed numerous issues relating to hormone balance and how hormones affect various body functions. I talk a lot about hormones because they are so important to human health. Furthermore, I see a lot of doctors and patients who do not give hormone balance its proper due, leading to unwise therapies that offer very little benefit to patients.

In this post, I want to address two specific things that have a profound impact on hormone balance: intake and outflow. By intake, I mean those things we take into her body via our diets, namely certain kinds of nutrients that are crucial to maintaining hormone balance. In terms of outflow, I’m referring to digestion and waste elimination.

There are about half a dozen things most of us can do to restore hormone balance without the need for drugs or other invasive therapies. Among them, intake and outflow are arguably the two most important.

Improve Your Intake

I have said it before, and I’ll say it again: proper nutrition is one of the most important things a person can focus on for overall good health. It is absolutely true that we are what we eat. And where hormones are concerned, our bodies depend on an ample supply of certain kinds of nutrients to control hormone production and function.

I treat patients all the time who are suffering from nutritional deficiencies without even knowing it. For example, anemia is very common in women suffering from menstrual cycle issues. Imagine their surprise when we are able to solve a lot of their problems simply by boosting their iron intake.

As for hormone balance, the most important vitamins and minerals to maintain balance are:

• Vitamins – A, C, and D, along with some in the B family
• Minerals – magnesium, iron, selenium, and zinc.

Nutritional deficiencies are usually the result of a combination of a poor diet and a secondary condition such as nutrient malabsorption, food allergies/sensitivities, long-term use of birth control, certain medications, excess caffeine or alcohol consumption, and long-term stress. The best way to solve these nutritional deficiencies is to improve the diet and address any secondary conditions appropriately.

Improve Your Outflow

Improving the outflow is something that makes most of us uncomfortable. Still, it is a necessary part of maintaining hormone balance. What you need to know is that excess hormones that can cause everything from PMS to uterine fibroids are designed to be flushed out of the system through the liver. But in order for everything to work properly, the digestive system has to be in peak operating condition. Now you know why gut health is so important.

Research has shown that bacteria in the gut has a direct impact on whether food is digested properly or not. Subsequently, it also has an impact on waste elimination. So it is important to maintain proper levels of gut bacteria to enhance digestion and elimination.

One of the best things you can do for yourself in this arena is to make sure you get plenty of fiber in your diet. Fiber helps to bind excess hormones to other waste materials so that they can then be expelled as designed.

Hormone balance is not something that happens by accident. It is affected by a lot of things, including intake and outflow. I encourage all my readers to learn as much about this as possible in order maintain the kind of hormonal balance that will result in overall good health.