Hormones have a huge influence on how you feel, both emotionally and physically. They can impact the way you sleep, the way you react to situations, and even how you experience pain. They can also change your energy levels, libido, and mood.
In this article, we explore the link between hormones and how your body is feeling. We explore the different hormones that affect our mood and how we can achieve hormonal balance.
What is Serotonin?
Serotonin is the hormone that stabilises our mood, happiness, and sense of well-being. It is often referred to as one of the ‘happy hormones’, as it is a powerful neurotransmitter required by the brain and body to feel happy. Some research even suggests that the chemical is linked to living longer.
Serotonin affects our body in many ways, such as:
- Regulates and boosts your mood and memory
- Controls appetite and sexual urges
- Inhibits pain
- Produces healthy sleep patterns
When we have low oestrogen levels, such as during perimenopause, we can also have lower levels of serotonin. This is because oestrogen increases the production rate of serotonin. Depression, anxiety, and nervousness are all common symptoms of the menopause, which could be caused by lower levels of serotonin being produced.
Up to 90% of serotonin is found in the gut. When your gut health is poor, less serotonin is produced due to an increase of bad bacteria in the gut. Research shows that healthy gut bacteria increases serotonin through the gut-brain axis.
How Can We Increase Serotonin?
Improving gut health is vital for increasing serotonin levels. We share in more detail how to improve gut health in our article here, but eating high-fibre foods such as fruit, vegetables, oats, barley, and legumes can help us to have a healthier gut. All of these foods are low in bad fats.
Additionally, our supplements Happy Greens and Happy Turmeric are great options to restore live and active probiotics to the gut.
Another way to increase serotonin is through exercise. Regular exercise can get you out of your head and into your body, with movement having antidepressant effects. It can also encourage better sleep. Want an extra boost? Exercise outside on a sunny day. Bright light has been proven to increase serotonin levels, so making sure to get outside and in the sun everyday can help to keep levels more balanced.
Hormones and How You Feel
Hormones are the messengers that travel through the bloodstream to start, stop, speed up or slow down physical and chemical processes across all body systems.
The ovarian hormones have an effect on many neurotransmitters in the brain. This is specifically in the interaction among oestrogen, progesterone, testosterone, serotonin and dopamine. All of these neurotransmitters (the body’s chemical messengers) influence our emotions and how we feel. We share with you how these hormones affect the nervous system.
Oestrogen
This hormone moves through the bloodstream and is needed for puberty, the menstrual cycle, pregnancy and maintaining normal cholesterol levels. During your period oestrogen levels begin to fall, and then rise during the middle of your cycle.
How does it affect how we feel?
When well balanced, oestrogen can act as an antidepressant and can make us feel energised.
Having too much, however, can increase anxiety, agitation, irritability, emotional lability, panic attacks, obsessive-compulsive tendencies and phobias.
Too little creates mood swings, memory loss, inability to focus, irritability, fatigue, depression, stress and anxiety.
Progesterone
This hormone helps to both regulate your monthly cycle and get your uterus ready for pregnancy. After ovulating, if there is no fertilised egg, progesterone levels drop and menstruation begins.
How does it affect how we feel?
Progesterone is the hormone that is calming. It also balances mood and libido.
When we have too much of this hormone we can feel sedated and depressed. When we have too little, we can experience mood swings, insomnia, and feel restless.
Testosterone
Testosterone is a male sex hormone produced in women’s ovaries in small amounts. How does it affect how we feel?
Healthy and balanced testosterone levels can make us feel energised and be libido-enhancing. When we have an excess of testosterone we can feel aggression, impulsive behaviour, and hypersexuality. Too little can result in reduced sexual desire, hot flushes, sweating, lethargy, fatigue and depression.
Serotonin
An excess of serotonin can result in confusion, agitation, restlessness, headaches, rapid heart rate and blood pressure changes. Not having enough of this hormone can alternatively make us feel depressed, anxious, impatient, negative, unable to focus.
Dopamine
This hormone sends chemical messages to the brain. It plays a big role in how we feel pleasure, how motivated we feel, and can also regulate body movements.
How does it affect how we feel?
When well-balanced, dopamine can make us feel focused, increase mental alertness and mood, and heighten feelings of pleasure and relaxation.
When out of balance, levels that are too high can create mania, insomnia, anxiety, high energy, high libido and sociability. Alternatively, when we do not have enough we can feel anxious, irritable, tense, withdraw socially, feel fatigued and have low motivation levels.
If levels are low, some natural and easy ways to increase dopamine are to eat less saturated fat and consume probiotics and protein. Getting enough regular high-quality sleep can also keep dopamine levels well-balanced.
Natural Treatment For Menopause Mood Swings
Ultimately your internal health and balance impact on your body's ability to regulate hormone levels. What you eat, how much sleep you get, regular exercise, managing stress and proper hydration have a direct effect on hormonal control.
When hormonal control goes awry, natural medicines can be used as a catalyst to stimulate the body to regulate its own levels. It's no use prescribing one or another hormone when in reality, the body should be producing and regulating its own levels. The hormonal system is far too complex to manipulate with hormones. The body must do this itself, and Happy Hormones can be used as a tool to restore normal controls.
