Hormone Balance and Herbs

Hormones are profoundly important chemicals. They dictate so many physiological and emotional processes - growth and metabolism, fertility, mood, libido, even our ability to love and connect.  

Hormone balance is essential to good health.

But so many people in the western world struggle to keep hormones levels healthy and balanced. Often these people aren’t even aware that many of their common health problems can be attributed to these imbalances - problems like weight gain or weight that’s hard to get off, especially around the midsection; lethargy, depression, mental fog; PMS, cystic breasts, prostate enlargement; reproductive cancers; infertility in both sexes and of course, low or even non-existent libido.  

So what is the culprit for these pervasive imbalances?

Largely it comes down to understanding how stress (psychological, physical and environmental) functions in the body over time. Our central nervous system dictates so much of our biological rhythms, functioning in two modes: fight or flight, and feed and breed. When we’re in consistent low grade stress over time - running around trying to get everything done, drinking a lot of coffee, sleeping poorly, eating poorly, failing to take adequate time for rest and play - our nervous system is catapulted into a persistent fight or flight state.  This in turn signals our endocrine system to produce stress hormones - hormones like cortisol and adrenaline.  

Stress of all kinds is the most egregious threat to hormone balance.

These hormones are useful in combatting acute stress but over time they accumulate and wreak quite a bit of havoc, including the aforementioned side effects, but they also compete with the production of sex hormones - like testosterone, estrogen, progesterone - hormones that (in the right quantities) make us lean, energized, fertile, keep us youthful, and give us libido. 

People also aren’t typically aware that there is so much we can do herbally to support hormone balance. The body longs for balance and healing, and when we give it the necessary ingredients to do so, it re-regulates, reducing the effects of stress and the production of stress hormones, and increasing the production of sex hormones, bringing us back into balance.  People have been using herbs for this very purpose for millennia, and in cultures where herbs with these hormone-balancing properties are used regularly (especially those with an affinity for reproductive health) we see enhanced sexual vitality, fertility, and healthy aging. 

For those struggling consistently to connect to libido, hormonal balance is a wonderful place to work from to help the body rebuild sexual energy while deeply nourishing the very system that provides it.