Upsy-Down-osis
Hormones, Part 1
When my kids were little, I
watched my fair amount of kid TV shows.
The Wiggles didn’t bother me too much. JJ the Jet Plane was okay, but I couldn’t stand more than
one episode at a time. Bob the
Builder was okay; I liked their approach toward animals. Dora the Explorer, on the other hand,
nearly drove me to drink.
One of the episodes that stuck
with me was a JJ the Jet Plane episode in which one of the airplanes couldn’t
fly straight. She would fly up,
lose her balance, get dizzy, and fly all over the place. She had “upsy-down-osis.”
I thought about upsy-down-osis
again when I had a fluttering of PMS-related hormones. I was happy, then I was sad, then I was
angry, then I was happy again. Oh
my gosh, I thought to myself, I have upsy-down-osis!
Because that’s how I feel when my
hormones are all over the place: I
feel like an airplane that can’t stabilize its altitude. I am in distress, my altimeter is broken,
oxygen masks are starting to drop from the overhead compartments, and I can’t
stabilize emotionally (and sometimes physically).
My patients report similar
symptoms: crying at Hallmark
commercials. Wanting to leave
their partners, each month, like clockwork, starting on day 21. Feelings of self-hatred, worthlessness,
like you are not good enough.
Uncontrollable sugar cravings that come on like a lightbulb. Insomnia. And fatigue that gets worse and worse until the day before
your period when you are sure that you’re dying of some disease…and then you
start your period and go, “Oh.
Yeah. That’s what it was.”
But I don’t have to explain this
to you. You know exactly what I’m
talking about. Yes, you say, it’s
hormonal imbalances. It’s
PMS.
So what can we do?
Well the long answer is take care
of yourself, minimize stress, avoid sugar, exercise, and meditate to balance
your hormones. But I know what
you’re going to say. “Yeah, sure. That’s not an answer; that’s a
lecture.” Because the truth is
that although we can all make improvements—myself included—we all need a little
help!
So here’s the short answer.
Recently Dr. Sara Gottfried wrote
a book called The Hormone Cure. It’s a brilliant opus about each one of
us and exactly what is wrong with our hormones. Some parts of it are so insightful that my head almost
exploded when I read it. Some
parts of it are very scientific (she is, after all, an MD who went to Harvard
AND MIT!), and she actually invites you to skip those parts if you want to (I’m
a science nerd, so I inhaled those parts). I think every woman should read this book and use it as a
resource because Dr. Sara is brilliant and the information is really helpful.
Here’s a link to buy the book:
AND Dr. Sara has an answer for
all of us! She has actually teamed
up with supplement companies and created her own special hormone balancing
shake.
Now, honestly, I really don’t
ever promote other practitioners (especially western MDs). However, I tried Dr. Sara’s shake, and
I have to say that this stuff is amazing.
It tastes okay. And it made
a huge difference in my mood, the state of my nervous system, and my whole
body. And that’s why I’m actually
endorsing it and telling everyone about it: because I think it’s pretty phenomenal.
So here’s the link to Dr. Sara’s website,
if you’re interested in her hormone balancing shakes:
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