Why is Hormonal Balance so important in achieving an excellent quality of life?
Hormones act upon every single cell in our bodies. For women, the impact of hormonal balance is significantly real. They affect our skin, our moods, our mestrual cycle, our libido, our reproductive system, our vitality, to name a few… when they are out of synch, our health suffers in many, many ways.
In Western medicine, hormone imbalances are often said to be unexplainable. I remember when I questioned my doctor about why I had uterine fibroid, he said “we know they are there, but we don’t know why they are there.” In Western medicine, doctors can order blood tests to check your hormone level and can confidently say, “Your progesterone level is low,” but they cannot or will not explain why.
What is Traditional Chinese Medicine’s view on hormone imbalance?
One of the very fundamental views in TCM concerning hormone balance is the duality of “Yin” and “Yang” – the opposite forces that relate to each other. In TCM, pure “Yin” is substance, nourishment, yumminess, gooey, stabilizing, grounding, building and cooling. Pure “Yang” is motivating, stimulating, drying, heating and lightening. However, nothing that exists is pure Yin or pure Yang. Ultimately, it is the balance of “Yin” and “Yang” that keeps your body function at the optimal level and achieves sustained health, beauty and happiness.
A woman’s sex hormones are very “Yin” in nature and stress hormones are very “Yang” in nature. Sex hormones like estrogen and progesterone build and nourish a woman, her fetus, her tissues—including her breasts and uterus—while her stress hormones simulate her, motivate her to get out of the way of danger, and can be both a cause and a result of ambition and drive.
When Yin and Yang, and the hormones that represent them, are out of balance, our bodies suffer, in the same way that adding or subtracting even a few degrees to our normal body temperature causes problems.
What’s the most common health complaint caused by hormone imbalance?
The dominant issues depend on a woman’s stage of life. Beginning during the puberty years, women can experience late menstrual cycles, painful periods, absent periods, scanty or irregular periods, infertility, breast health, hot flashes, mood swings, menopausal symptoms, osteoporosis, heart disease, etc. etc. etc. and most of these problems arise from the women’s nature as more sensitive, and emotionally-oriented human beings. This most often leads to women outspending their emotional, physical, financial, and spiritual resources.
We drive ourselves so hard that we sacrifice the Yin—the grounding, nourishing aspects of our lives. This leaves Yang to be the dominant force for many of us and we find ourselves panicked, sleepless and generally anxiety-ridden. These chronically high levels of stress hormones results in imbalance and, subsequently, disease.
Just like sugar, constant, low-grade stress can set off a negative chain of events in the body. Stress robs the body of various nutrients, and the average, present-day diet does not compensate for that loss. Without proper nutrition, the body — especially the gut — starts to break down. Research has shown that 80% of our immune response is determined by the integrity of our gut, leading to impaired intestinal function that is likely to trigger frequent lingering colds, possible weight gain, and hormonal imbalances such as estrogen dominance and accelerated cellular aging that can potentially lead to cancer.
Why Traditional Chinese herbs are the best solution for treating hormone imbalance?
Traditional Chinese herbs have 5000 years of history in treating the root cause for the symptoms and signs of hormonal imbalance and have stood the test of time and proven to be safe and effective for hormone imbalance. For thousands of years, ancient TCM herbalists believed that our “Spleen Chi (Energy)” is essential to have a healthy reproductive system and well-balanced hormones, especially for women. “Spleen Chi” is the Master of the entire digestive system and manifest how your entire body functions. Our ability to achieve our highest genetic potential is directly impacted by the foods we eat and the ways we handle stress in our environment. A strong “Spleen Chi” will enable your body to absorb the nutrients from what you eat and drink in the most optimal way.
