Melatonin & Your Hormones

Melatonin seems to be everybody’s favorite sleep aid but you may be less aware of just how important melatonin is for hormone regulation. Your entire endocrine system relies on rhythms and routine in your life so that it secretes just the right amount of each hormone, at the right time for you to fall asleep and stay asleep, have a regular period, wake up and sustain energy throughout your day, and on and on. That routine is strongly influenced by your environment and especially the light and darkness your are exposed to throughout the day.

Melatonin is made in the pineal gland (and minimally in the gut and immune cells), which is this super ancient part of your brain that responds too light. For it to be secreted appropriately, which means as you’re winding down your day and while you sleep, we really need to be respecting the natural laws of sunlight. Ancestrally, humans wouldn’t have been exposed to light beyond the moon at certain times of the month and fire light, which means primarily red light and some full spectrum light as the moon became more full. Electronics and artificial light operate with a much higher percentage of blue and green lights, with far less of a full spectrum of light, which tells our pineal gland it’s daytime and prevents the full potential of melatonin production. Low melatonin can lead to sleep issues but it can also affect sex hormone balance as well as our immune function, specifically related to cancer cell growth. It’s also been show to increase weight gain post menopause  because of it’s affect on estrogen receptors.

As we experience these darkest days of the year and beyond, there are some really great ways to adjust your environment to support melatonin production and ultimately happy hormones.

1. Choose incandescent lights over LED

2. Use candle light (ideally, beeswax) after dark

3. Install blackout curtains and sleep with an eye mask

4. Cover electronic lights with black electrical tape

5. Use salt lamps or red lightbulbs in lights you may need to turn on during the night or early morning

6. Install blue light blocking screen protectors or use glasses when using electronics after dark. 

Now Is The Perfect Time To Reverse Your PCOS

To watch the live FB video that this information is pulled from, head here!

Have you been having irregular or totally absent menstrual cycles? Maybe, hair loss or acne? Or maybe you’ve been trying to get pregnant for months and it’s just not happening. Or you’re worried about how easily you’ll be able to get pregnant in the future.

I know what that is like because I’ve been there, not to mention worked with so many women experiencing the exact same thoughts and symptoms.

I was diagnosed with PCOS when I was in my early twenties after struggling for years with severe symptoms. I hadn’t had a period in two years, my hair was falling out, there was acne all over my jaw, and I was depressed and feeling really, really poorly about myself; I went to several doctors who told me that I should get used to my symptoms and that there really wasn’t anything I could do besides going back on hormonal birth control.

For some reason I just knew that that wasn’t the right thing for me. I had been on hormonal birth control before and I didn’t like who I was, not to mention there were so many side effects—instinctively I knew that that wasn’t how a young woman was suppose to feel, so I kept asking around. Finally, I was put in touch with a naturopathic doctor, and as soon as I sat down he seemed to know exactly what was happening on a foundational level. He then ran a few tests and confirmed that I had PCOS when a lot of other doctors didn’t take the time to understand what was going on.

And within four months I was cycling again, my skin was clearing, and I was generally feeling better about myself; I was nourishing my body and really giving it what it needed instead of just trying to mask symptoms with the birth control. The best thing about it was when I was ready to get pregnant, about ten years after all of this, I was able to do so really easily; I knew my body was healthy and fertile, so as soon as the timing was right, it happened, and now I have a beautiful daughter.

This is a huge part of why I’ve decided to help hundreds of women with PCOS and other hormonal imbalances, helping to restore their cycles, and their fertility; I’m so grateful to be able to share this message and guidance with other women so that they too can heal and reverse their PCOS, living the lives they know they’re mean’t to live.

We get there by working to individualize a plan.

To support the gut health, thyroid health, rebalance the adrenal glands, all the while reducing inflammation, which is always present in PCOS. The other two things that are emphasizing stress management and treating the emotional aspects of a person and of this particular diagnoses or constellation of symptoms.

The typical approach of dealing with PCOS is through hormonal birth control pills and blood sugar stabilizing medications. Once on those, you stay on them until you’re ready to get pregnant, and once you come off of them, you just hope that that your body is going to naturally bounce back, though more often than not, it doesn’t. At this point, you’re either encouraged to take other medications to help you get pregnant or to rely on pretty invasive and very, very expensive infertility treatments like IVF or IUI.

Unfortunately, those medications simply mask the symptoms and don’t address the underlying issues, which are a lot of what I was speaking about before: your gut health, adrenal health, how you manage your stress, and how your inflammation levels are at the moment. And that doesn’t even address all the side effects you might be experiencing because of those medications.

What I choose to do instead is to really dig deeper, rebalancing your body on a foundational level and making it so you don’t experience those symptoms anymore because your hormones, gut, and adrenals are working as they should and you’re living more in balance with the natural rhythms.

Like I mentioned before, this condition is something that I’m really passionate about because I’ve been there myself. I think it’s really important that we start working on that level so that you can start feeling better while pursuing your dreams; whether that’s starting a family or starting a business, you’re worth it, and this is one of the best ways that I know how to make that happen.

So, if you are interested in learning more, you’re welcome to message or email me or go ahead and book an appointment here.

I’m so excited to share this with you and I really look forward to hearing from you!

Progesterone and estrogen: your monthly hormone cycle

You probably know something about estrogen and progesterone but what is actually going on with all your hormones and what does that have to do with your symptoms? In case no one has ever walked you through your monthly hormone rhythm, read on, loves!

So, day 1 of your cycle is the first day you bleed and begins the follicular phase of your cycle. That’s when follicle stimulating hormone (FSH) rises in order to start forming a mature follicle (containing an egg) in your ovary. The egg, inside the follicle begins releasing estrogen, which restarts the development of the endometrial lining of your uterus (which is much of what is shed each month when your bleed). As estrogen rises, so does luteinizing hormone (LH) and when it is high enough, LH stimulates the egg to be released at ovulation. Ovulation should happen around day 15, give or take a few days.

Once ovulation happens, you’re in the luteal phase of your cycle. The follicle that just released and egg becomes the corpus luteum, which is what produces progesterone. The endometrial lining of uterus responds to progesterone by preparing for implantation of the egg (increased blood vessels and such). The presence of progesterone is what increases basal body temp after ovulation. If no pregnancy occurs, LH drops, progesterone drops, and prostaglandins are released that end the life of the corpus luteum and stimulates bleeding, once again. If implantation occurs, human chorionic gonadatropin (hcg and what turns a pregnancy test positive) is released and tells your pituitary gland to continue producing LH, which goes on to tell the corpus luteum to keep producing progesterone for about 7 more weeks, until the placenta can take over.

And it’s as simple as that. You can see how uncovering where and why an imbalance is happening can take some detective work. Is it the ovary? The pituitary? None of this story even touches on how the thyroid, adrenal glands or liver play a role. And then there’s the physical and energetic circulation of the reproductive organs to make things a little more complicated.

If you’ve been trying to figure out why your cycle is a little cray and you’re not getting anywhere, it’s probably because there’s so much to consider and it can be hard to do on your own. And I promise, birth control is not going to fix it. Find a practitioner that will listen and understand the complex and beautiful creature you are.

If you’re interested in working with me, I’d love to help.