Your hormones are special chemicals that are secreted by your glands, and they are responsible for controlling a lot of the activities going on in your body — from the metabolism of foods you eat to the regulation of your reproductive system. Your hormones also partake in controlling your cognitive functioning and emotions.
Because of the fact that your hormones are regulatory chemicals, any imbalance to it — too much or too little — can have profound effects on your overall health and wellbeing, all of which can be hard to ignore.
Women most especially are susceptible to hormonal imbalance as there are simply too many parts of their lives that cause fluctuations in the amounts of hormones secreted by their glands or coursing through their bloodstream. Some of the things that can wreak havoc to a woman’s hormones include menopause and being in the family way.
However, men and women alike can experience hormonal imbalance and the unfavorable effects it brings as it can also be due to a host of medical conditions. Some of which are obesity, diabetes and thyroid issues.
Even having some unhealthy habits can leave your hormones in shambles. Eating too much sweets, including processed foods in the diet, steering clear of healthy fats, failure to exercise regularly, exercising a lot, not getting enough sleep, cigarette smoking, excessive alcohol intake — all of these can throw your hormone levels out of whack!
Worried that all the weird things you are experiencing could be related to problems with your hormones? Then read on. The following are some indicators that you may be suffering from hormonal imbalance:
Mood Swings
As mentioned earlier, your hormones are also responsible for regulating your mood. It’s for this reason why fluctuations in your hormones can leave your emotions in a wreck. It is also very much possible for problems with your hormones to leave you with anxiety or a bout of depression.
Brain Fog
Other than your mood, improper levels of hormones in the body can also impair normal cognitive functioning. If your hormones are out of balance, you may keep forgetting stuff such as where you placed your wallet or the name of your gorgeous blind date the night before.
Acne
Beauty-conscious people know that acne is caused by skin inflammation due to bacterial infection. Are you aware that some cases of acne are due to hormonal imbalance? According to medical experts, the reason why acne that is related to hormone problems show up is low levels of the hormone androgen.
Weight Gain
Are you baffled why you continue to gain weight or can’t shed off excess pounds despite of your best efforts? It could be that your hormones are the ones responsible. The worst thing about the figure-wrecking effects of hormonal imbalance is it causes you to gain lots of belly fat, which is something that’s very hard to deal with.
Hunger
One more reason why you can get heavier and heavier if you have hormonal imbalance is this: you crave food a lot. That’s because certain hormones you have are role players in hunger and satiety. By the way, issues concerning the hormones can also give rise to a variety of digestive problems.
Low Sex Drive
Earlier, it was mentioned that your hormones participate in regulating your reproductive system. This is exactly the reason why improper levels of hormones can throw your sex drive out of the window. Women, particularly, experience this due to increased estrogen levels and decreased progesterone levels before their period.
There are a handful of other weird issues that can be linked to hormonal imbalance. If you suspect that you have such problem, it is a good idea to consult your doctor.
