Our bodies are so amazing! When they get the right fuel, they can start to function properly, despite years of abuse!

VITAL HORMONES TO KNOW ABOUT:

You may have heard your parents or grandparents say: “Early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise.” If we go to bed late at night the effects soon become obvious, we’re cranky, irritable, tired and depression can set in. In this state of mind, we are not able to manage stress, and soon our physical, mental and emotional health goes spiraling down.

A friend recently turned her 3-month bout of depression completely around by going consistently to bed by 9 PM, waking by 5 AM and getting out in direct sunlight for an early morning walk as soon as the rays came out. It was astounding to her that these simple solutions could so profoundly affect her health! However, this makes perfect sense when you understand that serotonin, our mood hormone, is not sufficiently produced with continual late nights. In addition! Your body also produces serotonin when you can get into direct light within 20 minutes of waking!

Melatonin is another important hormone that is produced only in the hours of darkness. So having your sleeping quarters completely dark is crucial! Many like to have night lights, but this disrupts the body’s biological clock and significantly reduces hormone production. Start putting these simple little things into practice and you will find that when you’ve gotten your full production of melatonin in the night, you will feel energetic and ready to get up and go in the morning!

Then there is a hormone called epithalamion. This one is so important for kids to know about! This hormone increases learning capacity. Deficiency of this hormone can be most noticed in children who are allowed to stay up late. Not only can they be cranky, tired and even depressed at school, but they will show difficulty in understanding simple mathematical equations and retaining what has been taught in the classroom. And believe it or not, this hormone does not need to diminish as you age! In fact, epithalamion slows down the aging process!

The human growth hormone is released during deep sleep. Interruption of this sleep will stop the release of this hormone. Reducing your sugar intake and also vigorous exercise are some simple, and powerful natural ways to activate the human growth hormone. Studies have also shown a major increase of HGH levels when fasting for just 24 hours!

Then there is arginine vasotocin. This one affects how deeply we sleep and is obtained through our diet. Although this hormone is plentiful in many dairy products, those living on a plant-based, whole foods diet can obtain it through certain seeds. Pumpkin seeds are known to contain one of the highest concentrations of arginine. Other seeds with high levels are sunflower, sesame and watermelon. Whole grains are also a rich source of this hormone. Grains with an especially high amount are brown rice, buckwheat, oats and corn.

Some other culprits that decrease hormone production are:

• Stress
• Caffeine
• Alcohol
• Late evening meals

It’s amazing how many suffer from insomnia (one in three adults worldwide) but could actually do something about their situation if they only understood better how the body operates! If you suffer from this disorder, here are a few easy things you can do:

• Get a regular sleeping schedule going and stick to it. Remember:“early to bed, early to rise.”
• Circulation of fresh air by cracking a window can be very helpful.
• Get on a regular exercise program 3-5 days a week!
• Take a warm bath.
• Try to stay away from sleeping pills and alcohol. They keep you from the healing benefits of rapid eye movement sleep.
• Many like to eat before going to bed but this is not healthy. Your digestive system needs rest too and some hormones don’t even get released if the body is busy digesting food!
• Taking an evening walk, and also drinking a hot cup of herbal non-caffeinated tea is often helpful.

But rest doesn’t just have to do with getting a good night’s sleep. During the day we use up energy at work and with other activities, and the body needs time to repair! When a person overworks by working long hours without any rest, it is much easier to become restless and irritable. The opposite is also true, too much rest and not enough work will do the same. We can feel like we are not accomplishing anything in life and that can contribute to unhappiness and depression. We need to have a proper balance.

So many suffer from poor health because they just don’t know how their body functions and that there are simple, natural, low-cost solutions. “Knowledge is power” is certainly a true statement. So, take some time to know how your body functions and begin to take charge of your life!

Sandy K Workman
SK Director of Brand Development