Hormonal balance is very important for multiple functions in the human body. From your hair to skin quality, the ability to lose weight and onset of lifestyle diseases, hormones play a huge role in determining our overall quality of health. You will be surprised to know that hormones are responsible for your mood swings, hunger pangs, sugar cravings, quality of sleep, osteoporosis, thyroid, PCOS, irritability and much more. Emotional, physical and mental health are all affected by our hormonal imbalance.
An increasing number of women in their reproductive age are suffering from a hormonal disorder called Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS). According to the latest statistics, in India one in every five young women is said to have PCOS. If not monitored in time, the condition can have serious health impacts. PCOS is definitely a lifestyle disorder. One should try to prevent or reverse it as the disease can lead to a lot of long-term health problems, like diabetes, heart diseases, infertility, thyroid, gynaecological cancers, hypertension, depression and gestational diabetes.
The only way to reverse PCOS or any other hormonal imbalances is by focusing on four important pillars of holistic healing.
1. Food & Nutrition: Our food & diet directly affects our hormones and is one of the prime risk factors for developing hormonal imbalances and lifestyle diseases. Eating less sugar & processed foods while more of natural plant foods that are filled with fibre & antioxidants is an ideal diet for reversing PCOS. 5 specific foods that can help in reversal of PCOS are -
A. Coriander seeds - Soak 2 spoons of coriander seeds overnight in a glass of water. Strain it and drink just the water first thing in the morning.
B. Guava Leaves - Take 2-3 guava leaves, boil them in one glass of water till it reduces to half. Strain it and drink the water. This is super effective for regularising periods, reversing PCOS and even weight loss.
C. Cinnamon - Add a pinch of cinnamon with other herbs like ginger, cumin seeds, mint & tulsi leaves before boiling and have that concoction one to two times in a day.
D. Seeds - Highly packed in Omega-3, seeds like chia & pumpkin seeds are very effective in reducing inflammation and improving hormonal balance.
E. Raw Papaya - Add grated raw papaya as a salad before meals or have raw papaya soup. Adding raw papaya in your diet can be a simple yet effective way to ensure hormonal balance.
2. Physical Activities: A simple and consistent effort of regularly walking a minimum of 10,000 steps a day can go a long way in ensuring hormonal balance and reversing PCOS. Include exercise in your daily routine and you will see that your hormones will be balanced naturally.
3. Sleep: Lack of sleep for even one day can result in hormonal imbalance. Make sure you get quality sleep every day for ensuring hormonal balance in the body. Leptin or satiety hormone is suppressed because of lack of sleep. This is the reason you feel too many hunger pangs on the day you have not slept well. Ghrelin or hunger hormone also increases when you don't sleep well.
4. Emotional Health: Avoiding stress is so important to ensure hormonal balance. Elevated levels of stress for long periods of time can be harmful for your hormones and overall health. Hence one should practice meditation, yoga or mindfulness to ensure that we stay more in the present moment. Another simple technique to avoid stress and anxiety is left nostril breathing. Try and practice this 30-40 times before sleeping.
The first step to reversing a disease or creating good health is right awareness & education. If all of us can take care of these four pillars of holistic health on a day to day basis, then as a community we all can reverse lifestyle issues like PCOS and stay healthy & happy.
(Karan Kakkad is a Disease Reversal expert based in India. He is the Founder & CEO of Reverse Factor. To know more call 8100550660 or visit www.reversefactor.in)
