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Hormone

The Anxiety Summit – Foods to balance your hormones and ease anxiety

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Magdalena Wszelaki, founder of Hormones Balance, is interviewed by host of the Anxiety Summit, Trudy Scott, Food Mood Expert and Nutritionist, author of The Antianxiety Food Solution.

Foods to balance your hormones and ease anxiety (part 1)

  • Magdalena’s own journey with Graves’ disease, Hashimoto’s disease, adrenal fatigue, estrogen dominance and anxiety
  • How hormonal imbalances can cause anxiety: low progesterone, low/high estrogen
  • How over and underactive thyroid can cause anxiety
  • The adrenals and anxiety and depression

Foods to balance your hormones and ease anxiety (part 2)

  • How to test for hormonal imbalances
  • The foundation to all hormonal health being: healthy gut, healthy blood sugar levels and optimal liver health
  • Foods that support the production of the different hormones
  • Seed rotation for balancing estrogen and progesterone
  • The role of coffee in liver health, hormone metabolism and anxiety

 

In part  1 we discussed this 2015 paper: Sex hormones affect neurotransmitters and shape the adult female brain during hormonal transition periods.

Here we review the evidence from animal experiments and human studies reporting interactions between sex hormones and the dominant neurotransmitters, such as serotonin, dopamine, GABA and glutamate

The brain represents an important target for estrogen and progesterone effects.

major shifts in sex hormone levels seem to be paralleled by the incidence rates of mood disorders such as unipolar depression

A subgroup of women suffers from clinical level of premenstrual mood changes called premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD)… core symptoms include anxiety, irritability and depressed mood

Estrogen has been reported to have potent serotonin-modulating properties

progesterone and its neuroactive metabolites (allopregnanolone, pregnanolone) seem to facilitate GABAergic transmission

To summarize, neurotransmitter systems do not work in isolation and sex hormones act on multiple sites, highly intertwined with serotonin, dopamine, GABA and glutamate.

Magdalena shared these low estrogen symptoms:

  • Forgetfulness
  • Incontinence
  • Skin elasticity problems
  • Loss of muscle strength
  • Feeling really blah
  • Osteoporosis/osteopenia
  • Warm flashes and/or night sweats

Magdalena shared these low progesterone symptoms:

  • Tender breasts
  • PMS
  • Irregular periods
  • Puffiness and water retention
  • Mood swings and anger
  • Anxiety and sleep issues
  • Problems falling pregnant
 
In part 2:
 
Magdalena shared how the foundation of hormone balance is a healthy gut and talked about food intolerances, the microbiome, bone broths and quality animal protein.
 
I loved the discussion on using seed rotation for hormonal balancing: flax seeds and pumpkin seeds for the first half of your cycle and sesame and sunflower seeds for the second  half of your cycle/luteal phase (the cracker recipes are in the gift download – see below). 
 
Coffee does affect our hormones and here is a great guest blog post by Magdalena: 12 Ways Coffee Impacts Your Hormones 
If you had to give up either coffee or the internet for 2 weeks, which one would you choose? How about either coffee or sex for 2 weeks? If you’d rather relinquish anything to keep your coffee, you’d be on par with the majority of the people around you.
Be sure to check it out and try out her delicious Roasted Chicory Root Latte recipe.

I shared my recipe: Carob Cinnamon Delight instead of coffee – a calming hot beverage and mentioned rooibos tea how it’s A Functional Food in the Management of Stress (an interview from a prior anxiety summit)

Magdalena mentioned the EWG/Environmental Working Group’s Skin Deep site for checking your cosmetics – simply enter the name of the product in the search area.

We also mentioned Annmarie Gianni Skin Care, which is a natural skin care line made with organic ingredients that you can trust – and that actually work. This is the best and most natural skin-care line I have come across – anywhere! It’s organic, uses absolutely zero toxic ingredients and features gorgeous essential oils! You can try your Annmarie Gianni Skin Care sample kit here. 

 

Magdalena’s gift: How to Rebalance Your Hormones with Food and Recipes

magdalena gift image

 

If you are not already registered for the Anxiety Summit you can get live access to the speakers of the day here: www.theAnxietySummit.com 

Missed this interview or can’t listen live? Or want this and the other great interviews for your learning library? Purchase the MP3s or MP3s + transcripts and listen when it suits you.

You can find your purchasing options here: Anxiety Summit Season 1, Anxiety Summit Season 2, and Anxiety Summit Season 3.

The Hormone Secret and progesterone for anxiety

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Dr Tami Meraglia, MD, is the author of  The Hormone Secret. I had an advance review copy and read it on the plane coming back from San Diego and it’s fabulous!

Read on below for a wonderful sample snippet from the book:

Did you know that you have a natural anti-anxiety hormone?

Women have a hormone that is produced in the ovaries and the adrenal glands that is like Valium bathing the female mind.  It helps reduce anxiety and is known as the peaceful hormone.  It also helps us sleep soundly through the entire night.

What is this amazing hormone?  Progesterone.

Progesterone acts on the gamma amino butyric (GABA) receptors in the brain (the same receptors sleeping pills, anti-anxiety medication and even alcohols act upon), producing a calming effect.  GABA is the primary inhibitory transmitter in the brain.  If you wake between 2am and 4 am wide awake, you likely have a progesterone deficiency.

Progesterone also affects the elasticity of our skin, memory, is anti-inflammatory, is a natural diuretic and helps normalize blood sugar.  It also stimulates that cells that make new bone called osteoblasts.

Unfortunately progesterone leaves our bodies first and leaves us quickly.  You can have a low progesterone level as early as your late 20’s!  Many women think that their increased irritability, loss of enjoyment of life and trouble sleeping if from their 24/7 lifestyle but it is likely more often due to a progesterone deficiency

Here are 7 common symptoms associated with low progesterone:

  1. Anxiety
  2. Waking at night
  3. Fibrocystic breasts
  4. PMS
  5. Bone loss
  6. Low libido
  7. Infertility or irregular periods.

Here are 3 simple and natural things you can do to help your own body produce more progesterone:

  • Vitamin C.   A dose of 750-1000 mg has been shown in studies to raise progesterone in women.
  • Selenium.  200-400 mcg/day was shown to boost production of progesterone in an Italian study.
  • The spices turmeric, thyme and oregano are also useful for raising progesterone.  Use in cooking whenever you can.

Topical progesterone is also available over-the-counter.

If you find that it takes a bit more energy to keep your cool or that you are no longer sleeping through the night I encourage you to look to progesterone as a way to help.

I love Dr. Tami’s famous quote: “Remember, fine is a four-letter word.  You deserve to feel FABULOUS!”   I could not agree more – we all deserve to feel our absolute best all the time!

I do want to mention that we do differ in our food recommendations. I’m a Paleo eater myself and am recommending this more and more to my clients.   But I absolutely LOVE the hormone information in this book!  Just wait until you read about testosterone too – yes! And natural ways to boost your own production! And/or how to use small amounts for women!  It’s very different from what you typically hear.