Optimal Hormone Levels

Hormones are the most powerful molecules in our bodies, controlling the function, growth reproduction, metabolism, and repair of every cell. Our bodies require optimal hormone levels, just as they require optimal levels of essential vital nutrients: vitamins, fats, amino acids, and minerals.

Hormone levels are generally optimal in our early twenties but begin to decline at a rate of 2% per year after the age of 30. Hormone levels decline because our glands and the parts of our brain that control our glands deteriorate with age. This age-related hormone loss is natural, but it is not adaptive; it is destructive. It is one of mechanisms of aging.  It is Mother Nature’s way of cancelling us out by deterioration and death.

Hormone loss has been shown to contribute to many of the disorders and diseases that we suffer as we age – diabetes, atherosclerosis, high blood pressure, fatigue, loss of muscle strength, osteoporosis, autoimmune diseases, cognitive decline, increased cholesterol levels, loss of libido, depression, and some cancers. Many have additional non-age-related hormone insufficiencies or imbalances due to hypothalamic-pituitary dysfunction, endocrine gland failure, hormone resistance, and metabolic disorders.

Women are more so affected by hormonal disorders because their complex hormonal system is adapted to produce and feed babies; not to optimize their vitality as it is in men. Women lose vital sex hormones in perimenopause and menopause, and they have a much higher incidence of thyroid insufficiency and cortisol insufficiency (fatigue, aches, anxiety, depression, allergies, and autoimmune diseases).

Progesterone, estrogen, and testosterone are three sex hormones whose names are known by women and are extremely important when considering hormone optimization.  There are also further hormone optimization considerations. 

Each day nearly 200 hormones and hormone-like substances course silently through your body, acting as chemical messengers secreted by nine major endocrine glands (adrenals, thyroid, parathyroid, ovaries, hypothalamus, pancreas, thymus, pituitary, pineal) and other organs.  These hormones affect every cell in your body, helping to determine whether you’re hot or cold, hungry or full, calm or stressed, alert or sleepy, and naughty or nice.  Whether you’re asleep or awake, hormones also build bone, regulate your menstrual cycles, and direct myriad other essential functions. 

So keeping your hormones in balance, in an optimized state, is vital for day-to-day good health.