Every system in your body is important and necessary. Without your circulatory system, your heart doesn’t beat and your blood doesn’t flow, for example. However, you may never have considered the importance of your endocrine system.
Your endocrine system controls your hormones, and while you may think of hormones as being associated with puberty or the reason women have PMS, they are actually involved in virtually every function in our bodies. Digestion, sleep, metabolism, stress, and hair growth, are just a few of the processes that depend on hormones.
At Osteopathic Center for Healing, Neil Spiegel, DO, and physician assistant Jennifer Gularson have helped many patients who were dealing with hormonal imbalances. Those imbalances can cause a plethora of issues. But one thing that surprises many patients is the fact that getting their hormones balanced often results in both looking and feeling younger.
Hormones are essentially your body’s messengers. Your glands produce hormones, which travel to various parts of your body and tell your organs what to do. At any given time, you have more than 50 different hormones circulating through your bloodstream.
One example that may not cross your mind when you think of hormones is cortisol. Cortisol is associated with stress, but if you don’t have enough cortisol, you may have Addison’s disease. Type 2 diabetes is on the rise, but you may not be aware that it causes a hormone imbalance.
Lots of different things can cause hormone imbalances, including trauma, stress, eating disorders, medical conditions, and medications. Stress may be one of the most common causes of hormone imbalance.
Because hormones are involved in so many body processes, and because there are so many different types of hormones, the symptoms of an imbalance can vary widely.
A few of the telltale symptoms we see often include:
You may also feel hot or cold, or be sensitive to temperature in general.
If you consider that list of symptoms, it may not surprise you to learn that balancing your hormones can help you look younger. If you have thinning hair and excessively dry skin due to a hormone imbalance, your appearance is likely to change when the imbalance is corrected.
Similarly, if you feel very tired and struggle to sleep well because of a hormone imbalance, you probably don’t feel like exercising or being active at all. Plus, feeling exhausted can also make you feel older than you are. When you can sleep well and have a normalized level of energy, you’re going to feel better.
The main reason to pursue hormonal balance is so that your body can function optimally. But looking and feeling younger are certainly nice effects as well.
In order to determine if you have a hormone imbalance, we do blood work and check the levels of some of the most common hormonal “culprits.” Once we understand your situation, we can create a plan for treatment. That plan may include dietary changes, stress reduction, or medication.
If you’d like to learn more about hormone imbalances, book an appointment with us at Osteopathic Center for Healing in Rockville, Maryland. We’re happy to answer your questions and provide an individual evaluation.
