Such an interesting task! I became interested in hormones when I noticed some imbalances in myself. I’d like to understand how the interaction between different hormones affects our mind and body and how our state of mind and feelings influence our hormones as well. We need hormones to be in balance to feel good. And we clearly feel each deviation in our bodies. But it is so confusing with the symptoms and indications: it could be so similar and opposite at the same time. How to understand and navigate through it- that is the question.
Our hormones are connected through a few axles:
OAT-ovarian, adrenal, thyroid
HPA- hypothalamus, pituitary(hyphophysis), adrenal
HPG- hypothalamus, pituitary, sex glands
We can study each axel and we will come to the same conclusion. We control our hormones when we can control our mind and stress, which can be physical, emotional, or mental. Those axles show us how stress(adrenals) influences the production and balance of sex hormones (estrogen, progesterone, testosterone ), thyroid hormones, and hormones produced in the hypothalamus, pituitary, and pineal glands.
If we are living under permanent stress, even if we don’t recognize it, not only adrenals but also thyroid and other system functions will be affected. That happens because hormones like cortisone, estrogen, progesterone, testosterone, thyroid hormones, and others have to fight for receptors and unfortunately the cortisone will win, at least in the beginning.
If we are living under an excessive amount of the stress hormone cortisone for a longer period of time until the adrenals become exhausted, we enter the next phase: adrenal fatigue. Then if we have an imbalance in progesterone-estrogen rate which should be (200:1), we can use bioidentical progesterone without result because our adrenals are in fatigue. In many cases, we can get much better results with thyroid treatment when we first normalize the adrenal function.
If we continue living in this imbalance we can start to accumulate fat or lose too much weight, get foggy thinking, memory, and cognitive impairment, feel tired and wired, depressed, get digestion problems, and generally, lose stamina, feel overwhelmed, and we can’t manage stress at all…
And what’s worse, we fail with efforts to navigate with supplements, because the hormone system is so delicate, and depending on so many factors; what would benefit one person with similar symptoms, could damage another…
There is no available blood work or clear diagnosis to get the answers to such adrenal dysfunction. Very few complementary medicine physicians have the competence and knowledge about this task at all. We try to find a way to get rid of tiredness and all those conditions. We are searching for some supplements like vitamins, minerals, or adaptogenic herbs or glandular. But given at the wrong time and quantity it can damage our adrenals and create more imbalances in the hormone system.
Anyhow, as we are left to self-navigation we fail all the time…What can we do? First thing: we have to focus to break this circle of hormone imbalance by making our adrenals stronger. The best way to start is at the hypothalamus/pituitary/ adrenal axel.
Hypothalamus, Pituitary, and Pineal glands have a nice name in Taoism – Chrystal Palace. They are regulating all hormones in the body and that has been known for thousands of years. In all world traditions through centuries we can find spiritual, body, and mind practices – prayers, meditation, mindfulness, qigong, yoga, breathwork… We can choose from any tradition and endless sources…
The simple truth is that deep meditation and a state of extended consciousness activate all those glands – our Chrystal palace, that connect us to our spirit and make it so good for our health! Just do