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#139: How to balance hormones naturally and feel like yourself again
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Are you feeling off, tired, or not quite yourself lately? In this episode of the Kate Hamilton Health Podcast, we’re chatting about all things hormonal balance - what it means, why it matters, and how you can start supporting your hormones naturally.
I’ll walk you through the essential functions of your endocrine system, share common signs your hormones may be out of whack, and reveal how everyday factors like stress, diet, and movement can throw things off (or help bring them back into balance). Plus, I’ll give you simple, actionable tips to help you feel more energised, clear-headed, and in tune with your body - starting today.
Whether you’re curious about symptoms like fatigue, mood swings, or irregular cycles, or just want to better understand your body, this episode is your roadmap to hormone health made simple.
EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS:
[0:00] - Welcome to the Kate Hamilton Health Podcast
[1:40] - Understanding hormones and how they impact your body
[5:07] - What causes hormonal imbalances and how to spot the signs
[7:49] - Daily habits that support hormone balance naturally
[11:30] - One small change you can make today to start feeling better
Links & Resources:
If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, leave a review, and share it with friends who might benefit. For more health and fitness tips, follow me on Instagram and TikTok @katehamiltonhealth.
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Transcript
Introduction and Episode Focus
00:00:08
Speaker
Hello everyone and welcome back to another episode of the Kate Hamilton Health Podcast. So today's episode we are going to chat all things hormone balance. So this is going to be a solo one. I'm not chatting to anyone but myself or but to you.
00:00:23
Speaker
We are going to talk through hormones and I know there's so much noise online about this lately and balancing hormones and you know... PMS, PCOS, menopause, perimenopause. There's so much information out there. i um I do get as many people onto the podcast as possible to talk through these different topics.
00:00:44
Speaker
And I will be doing episodes, solo episodes on these in the coming weeks as well.
Understanding Hormones
00:00:49
Speaker
So for today, i just kind of want to talk generally around the topic of hormones and what they do in your body, what's going on in your body and what might cause things to to become imbalanced and what we can do a about it.
00:01:01
Speaker
So this will be a very general episode, but just give you some general tips and tricks. You know, if you're feeling a little bit off, what might be going on? Or even just, you know preventatively, you want to kind of keep an eye on things, making sure that you're you're kind of giving your body the best chance as possible to have as healthy a balance of your hormones as possible.
00:01:19
Speaker
And obviously, this is not replacement for medical advice. And we don't ever really know what's going on in our bodies unless we go to the doctor and we get... blood's done and we find out exactly what's low, what's high, what we're deficient in, whatever it is. but So this is just more a general lifestyle approach kind of viewing it.
The Endocrine System Explained
00:01:40
Speaker
So within our body, we have the endocrine system and the endocrine system is where our glands are. They're made up of glands and our different glands in our body is what produces our hormones.
00:01:56
Speaker
So I'm just going to talk through some of these glands now. Starting at the top of the body, we have the hypothalamus. This is the brain area coordinating hormone balance in the body. So this is up the top of your head.
00:02:08
Speaker
Your pineal gland, which is also in your brain, is responsible for controlling circadian rhythm and produces the hormone melatonin. So this is extremely important for sleep and, you know, regular sleep patterns.
00:02:21
Speaker
Your pituitary gland, which is also in your brain, is responsible for controlling the hormone releasing glands across the body. So like your brain really is the headquarters of it all.
00:02:32
Speaker
Then as we move further down the body, we have the thyroid gland, which a lot of people will have heard of, which is in the throat area, responsible for controlling the body's metabolism. Your thymus gland a little bit further down, which is near your heart, it's in your upper chest, responsible for producing a number of hormones that regulate our immune system.
00:02:51
Speaker
The adrenal glands down at our kidneys then, the hormone cortisol is produced here, which as we all know is our stress hormone. Our pancreas, this is where insulin is produced.
00:03:04
Speaker
Then our sex glands, if we're talking about females, we are talking about ovaries. This is where estrogen and progesterone are produced.
Chakras and Endocrine System Connection
00:03:11
Speaker
And what I really love about the endocrine system and the different glands, as a yogi,
00:03:18
Speaker
These very, very much align with the seven chakras. And this is why yoga is so effective, because it is a great way of balancing these glands and clearing them, putting a little bit of pressure on them, releasing the energy that will be stuck in the different glands.
00:03:35
Speaker
So anyone who's familiar with yoga will know, you know, the seven chakras, the crown, the third eye, the throat, the heart, the The solar plexus, the sacral and the root chakras. Okay, so they're the seven chakras and that's head down to toe again.
00:03:49
Speaker
So if we look at the crown chakra, which is at the top of our head, is in the same place as our pineal gland. Our third eye is in the same place as our pituitary gland. Our throat chakra is in the same place as our thyroid gland, our heart chakra, thymus gland, solar plexus, pancreas, sacral, ovaries or testes, and our root chakra, adrenal glands.
00:04:13
Speaker
So it's just interesting because a yoga flow and yoga postures, like, you know, are there it's such an ancient practice that's been around for a very long time that helps to regulate everything within our body. And it's just a really, really interesting observation.
00:04:28
Speaker
Obviously, you know, So we're going to talk more kind of down the actual endocrine system rather than we're not going to go down a yoga route. But I just wanted to kind of note those connections, if that makes sense.
00:04:42
Speaker
So hormones, what are hormones? So hormones are chemical messengers. And these chemical messengers must work together for you to experience good health.
Impact of Hormonal Imbalance on Health
00:04:52
Speaker
So when one hormone is imbalanced, it has a domino effect and it will knock all the other ones off too.
00:04:59
Speaker
This can have a huge effect, not only on how you feel, but also if we are talking about fat loss for effective fat loss, this can actually have a huge effect. So what causes hormonal imbalances?
00:05:11
Speaker
Before I get into what causes hormonal imbalances, I just want to say that I'm talking very generally here. I'm not talking about perimenopause. I'm not talking about PCOS. I am talking about, you know, someone who...
00:05:23
Speaker
is not a perimenopause yet, who might be experiencing hormonal imbalances, who has not been diagnosed or doesn't think that they have something along the lines of PCOS, that they're just a little bit off balance, a little bit flat and thinks, you that their lifestyle might be causing how they feel.
00:05:45
Speaker
So that's what we're talking about here when I talk about what's causing hormonal imbalances.
Causes of Hormonal Imbalance
00:05:49
Speaker
Obviously, if you think there's something going on, like, you know, you should always go to the doctor and just get checked out, get your bloods done, find out what's going on.
00:05:58
Speaker
ah A hundred percent. But what can cause hormonal imbalances is chronic stress. So a lot of us are walking around stress heads and we don't even fucking know we're stressed.
00:06:10
Speaker
It's just we're so used to it. We don't even know. Excess body fat can cause hormonal imbalances and inflammatory diet. So a lot of us, anyone who's eating a diet that's high enough in processed foods or alcohol, this is going to be inflammatory and can be causing strain on your hormones.
00:06:30
Speaker
a sedentary like lifestyle where you don't sweat often. So you're not getting your heart rate up, you're not sweating, basically. You're not yeah if you're that you're not moving your body and on a regular basis.
00:06:41
Speaker
This can cause some issues and toxins in the environment as well, which can feel a little bit out of our control. But let's just focus on what we can control.
Recognizing Hormonal Imbalance Symptoms
00:06:49
Speaker
So symptoms of hormonal imbalances might be feeling stressed,
00:06:54
Speaker
Acne, thinning or hair loss, constipation or diarrhea, deepening of your voice, breast tenderness, weight gain, irregular or painful periods, difficulty sleeping, facial hair, body hair,
00:07:09
Speaker
decreased sex drive, depression, headaches, changes in blood pressure, vaginal dryness, to name a few. A lot of these are going to be symptoms of perimenopause, different conversation altogether.
00:07:20
Speaker
But if you're experiencing some of those and you're like, Jesus, I'm only 31. hurt you one And, you know, I shouldn't be going through perimenopause yet, but my life is pretty, my lifestyle is pretty shit at the minute.
00:07:32
Speaker
Some of these things could be resolved by making adjustments to your lifestyle. Again, I always think before we we kind of resign it to fixing the lifestyle, it's always no harm to just go and get checked out and just make sure there's not something else going on because you could be deficient in something or too high in something as well. So that's also important.
00:07:49
Speaker
So how food and hormones are connected.
Diet and Hormonal Health
00:07:52
Speaker
So what you eat actually has a huge impact on your hormones. OK, so obviously the more processed foods you're eating, the more strain that's going to put in your body and on your hormones, the more healthy whole foods you're eating, the more invigorated your body is going to feel and your hormones are going to be in a much better place.
00:08:08
Speaker
ah Different hormones respond to different foods. For example, highly processed sugary foods will have a negative impact on the hormone insulin, for example. Too much coffee will have a negative impact on cortisol, which negatively impacts your sleep through dysregulated melatonin.
00:08:23
Speaker
So, you know, like that it's like you can see that it is a domino effect really, but we will go through all of this in a little bit more detail in coming episodes as I kind of dive into different areas a little bit.
00:08:34
Speaker
more deeply and we'll take it from there.
Lifestyle Factors for Hormone Balance
00:08:37
Speaker
But for now, what I want you to just think of, I want you to just do a little kind of review of your lifestyle. How is your stress?
00:08:47
Speaker
How is your sleep? How is your food quality? Are you eating regularly? Are you eating enough? Are you eating too much? Are you eating too much processed food? Are you eating enough whole foods?
00:08:59
Speaker
You know, thinking about all of these things. Are you moving your body every day? start there. Okay. Because it can be absolute magic when we and you make these small changes can make a huge difference. so not always, as I said, and I keep, I will keep saying it through this episode.
00:09:13
Speaker
If you think there's anything else underlying there, just go get checked out. Like I will, I go to the doctor once a year, get bloodstun anyway, just to make sure you everything's okay, that I'm not deficient in anything. There's nothing popping up in my bloods or my blood pressure that I need to keep an eye on.
00:09:30
Speaker
So, you know, like keep it's really important to to do those regular checks as well. But doing this lifestyle kind of review will be hugely helpful. And then for now, just do this.
Healthy Habits for Hormonal Balance
00:09:41
Speaker
Stick to as much healthy whole foods as you can. reduce the processed food you're eating and I'm not saying get rid of it altogether but like thinking about that 80-20 rule 80% good quality healthy whole foods 20% or less of like the processed foods and keeping yeah keeping that balance in place you know and and that'll slip we're all human but just keeping an eye on that and pulling it back to that Drinking plenty of water. Last episode was all about water. I went through all the reasons why we need to drink enough water.
00:10:12
Speaker
Hydrate, hydrate, hydrate. So important. Prioritize your sleep. Like the older we get, I know it says the older you get, the less sleep you need. I think that's bullshit. I don't know. I'm pushing 40 and I cannot function on less than seven hours sleep. I just can't.
00:10:26
Speaker
I'm just an emotional mess. Now, I know every individual is different, but it is scientifically proven that we need seven to nine hours sleep as an adult's.
Encouragement and Listener Engagement
00:10:36
Speaker
Whether it's seven or whether it's nine will depend on the person, but you really do have to prioritize it. Set up that healthy sleep routine, get the phones out of the beds. That's the one thing I'll say.
00:10:44
Speaker
So when you go to bed, you're going to sleep and make sure the quality of the sleep that you're getting is as good as possible and move your body every day. It really doesn't need to be complicated. Just go for a walk every day.
00:10:55
Speaker
If you hate walking, go for a swim, go for a cycle, go to a dance class. It doesn't matter. I always say walk because it's the most, it's the one that doesn't cost anything. and You don't need a bicycle to do it. You know that for most people, it'll be the easiest, most accessible one, obviously.
00:11:12
Speaker
Depending on any limitations that people have, there then other forms of exercise may be what needs to be done. It totally depends on the person, but just move your body every day, whether that is the gym, whether that's walking, whether it's classes, whether it's yoga. We're not meant to be sedentary.
00:11:27
Speaker
Move your body every day. Start there. And if you do that every day from when you've listened to this episode to when we zone in a little bit more closely into the different hormones, the different kind of issues that arise, see if it's made a difference, you know, and I always love hearing these things.
00:11:44
Speaker
So if you found this episode helpful, again, this is short, sweet to the point. I like to keep the solo episodes short enough because, you know, you must all be sick of listening to me at this stage, to be fair. So I like to keep a short to the point for you to be able to take something actionable from this.
00:11:58
Speaker
I hope you found it helpful. Please do share it with your friends, get it in your WhatsApp groups, pop it on your stories, tag me and do leave a comment below if you enjoyed because I do read them. I really do enjoy hearing what you thought of the episodes and if you found them helpful or not.
00:12:14
Speaker
And thank you so much as always for listening. And i will talk to you all next time.