Hormonal balance is important for multiple functions in the human body. From hair to skin to weight loss and onset of lifestyle diseases, hormones play a huge role. Hormones are responsible for mood swings, hunger pangs, sugar cravings, quality of sleep, osteoporosis, thyroid, PCOS, irritability, and more. Emotional, physical, and mental health are also affected by hormonal imbalance.
An increasing number of women in their reproductive age are suffering from a hormonal disorder called Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS). One should try to prevent or reverse it as the disease can have several long-term health problems like diabetes, heart diseases, infertility, thyroid, cancers, hypertension, depression, and gestational diabetes.
The best way to reverse PCOS or hormonal imbalance is by focusing on four important pillars of holistic healing.
Food and nutrition
Our food and diet affects our hormones and is one of the prime risk factors for developing hormonal imbalance and lifestyle diseases. Eating less sugar and processed foods and more plant-based foods rich in fibre and antioxidants is an ideal diet for reversing PCOS.
Five specific foods that help reversal of PCOS are:
Coriander seeds: Soak two spoons of coriander seeds overnight in a glass of water. Strain it and drink the water first thing in the morning.
Guava Leaves: Take two-three guava leaves, boil them in one glass of water and reduces it to half. Strain and drink the water. This is super effective for regularising periods, reversing PCOS and for weight loss.
Cinnamon: Add a pinch of cinnamon with ginger, cumin seeds, mint and tulsi leaves to water and bring it to a boil. Drink the concoction once or twice daily.
Seeds: Highly packed in Omega-3, seeds like chia and pumpkin seeds are effective in reducing inflammation and improving hormonal balance.
Raw papaya: Add grated raw papaya to salads or consume raw papaya soup. Adding raw papaya in your diet can be a simple yet effective way to ensure hormonal balance.
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 are balanced naturally.
Sleep
Lack of sleep for even one day can result in hormonal imbalance. Ensure you get quality sleep every day to ensure hormonal balance in the body. Leptin or satiety hormone is suppressed because of lack of sleep. This is the reason you feel hunger pangs on the day you haven't slept well. Ghrelin or hunger hormone also increases when you don't sleep well.
Emotional health
Avoiding stress is 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 technique to avoid stress and anxiety is left nostril breathing. Practice this 30-40 times before sleeping.
The first step to reversing a disease or creating good health is right awareness and education. If we take care of these four pillars of holistic health, as a community we can reverse lifestyle issues.
(Karan Kakkad is a Nutri-genomics and Disease Reversal expert based in India. He is the Founder & CEO of Reverse Factor. To know more, visit www.reversefactor.in)
