Lifestyle Change & Hormone Therapy: Two Important Pieces of Your Treatment Plan


By Carrie Levine, CNM, MSN & Dylan Lim, PharmD Candidate 2018


minor aches and pains, increased gas and bloating and mood and sleep disturbances. If you fail to listen to these messages, they will continue to get louder until you are eventually forced to listen.


Y The way to hormone balance is different for every woman.


Nothing clarifi es this more than the fi ndings of the Women’s Health Initiative: You cannot put all women on the same dose of the same medicine and expect everyone to feel well. The one- size-fi ts-all synthetic hormone therapy of the 1990s proved to be both ineffective and unsafe.


Diet and Exercise Typically, when talking with women about hormone balance,


it’s about a continuum of options. The continuum starts with doing nothing, which is always an option. Hormone imbalance for some women is tolerable. Whether tolerable or not, nutrition and exercise should always be discussed at length. Eating lots of vegetables, limiting simple carbohydrates like bread, cereal, and pasta, and getting adequate protein, either from organic animal or plant sources, promotes hormone balance.


Managing Stress


Managing stress in healthy ways, i.e. without alcohol and drugs and other addictive substances and behaviors, has a direct effect on hormone balance. Ovaries are the primary produc- tion site of hormones. The adrenals, small glands right above the kidneys, primarily make cortisol and other stress hormones. However, the adrenals secondary job is to make sex hormones. Therefore, women who have had complete hysterectomies and postmenopausal women still have some hormone production. If our adrenals are burdened by stress and are consumed with full- on, 24/7 stress hormone production, they can’t effi ciently make the sex hormones. When the adrenals aren’t focused on making stress hormones, they can effi ciently make the sex hormones and thereby minimize the symptoms of hormonal imbalance. So, take a walk, pray, meditate, see a friend, have a nap. Your adrenals will thank you and you will help your hormones balance.


12 Essential Living Maine ~ May/June 2017


our body is an amazing machine. When things are not right, your body will give you subtle messages that it might need your attention. Messages such as feeling a little run down,


Alternative Modalities Once nutrition, exercise, and healthy stress management strat-


egies have been addressed, there are a variety of other modalities that offer women relief from symptoms of hormone imbalance. Among the options are acupuncture and Chinese herbs. There are also many botanical remedies and supplements for hormone bal- ance. Some remedies and supplements are supported by clinical data. Nutrients that have clinical data supporting their effi cacy in balancing hormones include indol-3-carbinol, omega-3-fatty acids, resveratrol, and probiotics.


Pharmaceutical Intervention If the latter interventions miss the mark and a woman is still struggling with her quality-of-life, then oral contraceptive pills or bio-identical hormone therapy (BHT) are an option. Research supports the safety of bio-identical hormone therapy that is given through the skin, for the shortest duration of time necessary, and at the lowest therapeutic dose.


Individualized Hormone Therapy Hormone therapy should not be approached with a “one size


fi ts all” mentality. Pharmaceutical compounding* with bio-identi- cal hormones is a great way to break free from traditional hormone therapy and tailor medication to your specifi c needs. Dosage form, strength, allergies, and even fl avor preferences can be adjusted to provide you the best medication experience possible. Compound- ing allows for greater control of delivery to specifi c target areas and the rate your body receives therapy. It also provides alterna- tives to less irritating options through hypoallergenic bases and dye-free formulations.


Choosing an appropriate dosage form is as important as


choosing the correct hormone. As previously stated, topical BHT has been shown as the safest method of delivery. Creams, oint- ments, and gels are all common forms of topical delivery. Topical application minimizes negative systemic effects of oral medication and reduces the likelihood of adverse skin reactions through the options of hypoallergenic or natural bases.


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