Hey, everyone!
I hope you're having a great week so far. I'm keeping my head down and staying focused until tomorrow afternoon when I get on a bus to Boston for a relaxing weekend in Maine with my family. The fall foliage has already peaked, but I'm sure there will still be some pretty fantastic "leaf-peeping!"
On a very different note, I've been listening to a lot of health-related podcasts lately, as well as keeping up with my regular blogs, and it seems like the "topic-du-jour" on the lips of all the "experts" is the role that hormones play in weight loss. Just about everyone is talking about it from Suzanne Somers to Dr. Oz and everyone in between. As a result, the word is getting out that diet and exercise are not the only factors at play in determining our health. This is very positive as there are numerous things that we can do to ensure that our hormones are working to help us achieve optimal wellness.
Our endocrine system is in charge of releasing all the different hormones into our blood stream in order to regulate the countless bodily functions that we perform everyday, voluntarily and involuntarily. These hormones' primary goal is to maintain homeostasis within the body, but certain environmental factors can disrupt the hormones' ability to do that. When hormone function is repeatedly interrupted, conditions such as insulin-resistance, a slower metabolism, and/or depression and anxiety can be the result. Improperly-balanced hormones are therefore responsible for a slew of health-related problems like diabetes, obesity, heart disease, and mental illness.
There are several external "disruptors" that interrupt normal hormone function, like lack of sleep, a poor diet, stress, and exposure to pesticides and other harmful chemicals. This great article from MindBodyGreen describes some common endocrine disruptors, where they can be found, and what can we can do to avoid them.
You may have also heard or read about the role of female hormones in weight loss. For women, the balance of estrogen and progesterone, the two primary "female" hormones, is key for fat loss. If the balance is off, it can affect the way these two hormones interact with other hormones like cortisol and insulin, resulting in weight gain. Estrogen counteracts insulin, while both estrogen and progesterone work against cortisol to prevent the accumulation of excess belly fat. Numerous environmental factors, particularly a diet high in soy, artificial flavorings, and processed foods affect our hormonal balance which results in weight accumulation in the least-favorable places (belly, thighs, hips).
As women age, the ratio of progesterone to estrogen naturally shifts, pushing the body towards estrogen dominance. "Estrogen mimickers" in our diet and environment facilitate this hormonal shift as the levels of hormones that keep women lean and block fat storage in the mid-section decline. Such hormones are DHEA, HGH and progesterone. To encourage our bodies to produce these beneficial hormones and reduce the risk of estrogen-dominance, it's tantamount to eat a diet high in vegetables (particularly "green-leafies) and estrogen-free protein (soy-free and organic whenever possible); get plenty of sleep; and incorporate intense exercise using weights and resistance to our routines.
If the role of hormones in weight loss interests you at all, I highly recommend this article. It is focused on female hormones and fat loss in women, but it also discusses how excess estrogen and the "estrogen mimickers" in the Standard American Diet (SAD) affect fat accumulation in men.
I hope you found this post interesting and that it gave you something to think about! If so, please leave a comment below. If you know of any other article about this topic, please leave a link!
Enjoy the rest of your week!
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