by Dr Mariza Snyder

Sleep Issues

Your Hormones for Sleep

Melatonin

Melatonin affects a woman’s menstrual cycle, including its regularity and onset of menstruation, as well as the start of menopause, by aiding in the timing and release of female reproductive hormones.

A structured bedtime routine helps keep melatonin levels on an even, predictable schedule, but this is often hampered by the blue light emitted by our electronic devices – it tricks the brain into thinking it’s not nighttime and so the melatonin levels don’t increase as they should.

Shutting off your electronics for at least an hour before bedtime will greatly aid your ability to fall asleep.

Estrogen

Estrogen levels naturally fluctuate during a menstrual cycle, which is why many women have sleep issues on the day before their period arrives, when levels are the lowest. As estrogen levels decrease during perimenopause and menopause, this can compound sleep issues. One of the reasons for this is estrogen’s influence on how well the tissues and bones can absorb magnesium, which is an important component for sleep regulation, as it aids in melatonin processing. Less estrogen means less efficient magnesium metabolism.

Cortisol

Normally, cortisol levels should decrease in the evening just as melatonin is increasing, remain low throughout the night, and then gradually begin to increase in order to wake you up in the morning. It should come as no surprise that cortisol affects your ability to enter into restful and sustained sleep.

Ghrelin, Leptin, and Insulin

The “hunger hormones” need you to sleep in order to balance your natural appetite.

Ghrelin stimulates hunger patterns, and sleep regulates these levels, so sleeping poorly will actually make you feel hungrier. Likewise, leptin inhibits hunger in order to regulate body weight; when its levels are regulated at night during sleep, we don’t get hungry while we rest.

  • If you aren’t getting proper amounts of quality sleep, it’s easier to gain weight, as your hunger levels won’t be properly balanced.
  • The body should follow a natural pattern of rising and falling cortisol and insulin levels so that we wake up hungry and properly nourish our body.
  • Insulin aids in controlling glucose levels, as well as regulating carbohydrate and fat metabolism. Allowing these hormones to do their job during sleep helps their normal function during the day.

Prolactin

Produced in the pituitary gland, prolactin is a hormone that influences over 300 bodily functions, most notably immune system function. Higher levels are released during sleep, so if you’re not getting enough sleep, this can mean a weakened immune system.

Preferred Essential Oils for Sleep:

Click on these for more information plus some blends to make
Bergamot
Cedarwood
Clary Sage
Lavender
Vetiver
Ylang Ylang

Emotions: Balancing Anxiety, Depression, and Mood Swings

The Three Ps: PMS, PMDD, and Perimenopause

During perimenopause, your estrogen and progesterone levels decline, causing a hormonal imbalance that can trigger panic attacks, mood swings, feelings of worry, and depression. Ignoring these symptoms may cause them to linger when you enter menopause.

Cortisol. You already know what too much cortisol does to the body. Chronic worry, stress, and anxiety can chisel away at us until we become a fraction of what we could be. Factor in traumatic events, or emotionally taxing illnesses, and it’s no wonder we find ourselves feeling overwhelmed.

The Science Behind the Scents

There are three main ways essential oils an affect your emotions, depending on their primary constituents:

  • uplifting/energizing
  • calming/soothing
  • grounding/balancing

Monoterpenes such as limonene, alpha-pinene, terpinene, and cymene powerfully affect mood by cleansing and stimulating emotion.

Under the monoterpene umbrella of limonene are soothing essential oils like Black Pepper, Spearmint, and Dill, as well as uplifting citrus oils such as Bergamot, Wild Orange, Tangerine, Grapefruit, Lemon, and Lime.

Alpha-pinenes are known for their restorative powers, including Frankincense, Juniper Berry, Helichrysum, Cypress, and Rosemary.

Sesquiterpenes such as caryophyllene, zingiberene, and alpha-cedrene do wonders for soothing the emotions, as they promote balance and mental clarity.

The caryophyllene found in Vetiver, Copaiba, Melissa, and Ylang Ylang soothes frazzled emotions, as do the zingiberene found in ginger and the alpha-cedrene in Cedarwood.

Alcohols such as santalol, linalool, geraniol, and menthol fall into the categories of clarifying, calming, energizing, and stabilizing, as they stabilize mood and emotions.

Menthol energizes emotions, so this is where Peppermint shines.

The geraniol found in Geranium and Rose has clarifying properties for the emotions, while linalool both clarifies and calms, found in Coriander, Cilantro, Basil, Lavender, Petitgrain, Clary Sage, and Bergamot. More mood-stabilizing essential oils are those with santalol (Sandalwood), cedrol (Cedarwood), and patchoulol (Patchouli).

Aldehydes such as cinnamaldehyde, geranial, and neral calm the emotions and settle the mood while protecting the mind and body. Protective essential oils like Cinnamon and Cassia boast cinnamaldehyde, while sooting Melissa and Lemongrass primarily contain geranial and neral.

Ketones such as carvone, camphor, and menthone calm moods and promote mental concentration. Peppermint also has menthone in it, which energizes moods, while Dill and Spearmint have carvone, which also invigorates and energizes emotions.

Esters such as methyl salicylate, linalyl acetate, and neryl acetate aid in calming moods and restoring emotions while supporting hormones at the same time. Restoring essential oils like Wintergreen and Birch have methyl salicylate, while Helichrysum is composed primarily of neryl acetate. Lavender, Petitgrain, Clary Sage, and Bergamot calm the emotions with their primary constituent of linalyl acetate.

Emotional Triggers

Because our emotions are embedded in our physiological makeup, it makes sense that certain sights, smells, and experiences can trigger emotional releases.

All these pent-up emotions can clog your emotional pathways, preventing you from feeling truly free.

Essential oils allow your body and mind to release these pent-up emotions by stimulating your emotional brain via the limbic system. That is, you can feel the result of their aromas before you can mentally understand why you feel the way you do.

Every emotion, from anger to fear, anxiety to failure, grief to worthlessness, can be released by using the corresponding essential oil.

A positive affirmation paired with an essential oil can be a powerful combination in releasing these pent-up emotions.

Cognitive Issues: Memory and Concentration

Your Hormones for Cognitive Issues

Cortisol and Chronic Stress

  • Increased cortisol may enhance the ability to consolidate short-term memory, but it has the opposite effect on accessing, contextualizing, storing, and retrieving long-term memories.
  • High levels of cortisol contribute to anxiety and depression, synapses are lost in the prefrontal cortex, the area that houses short-term memory, thus allowing for communication throughout the brain.
  • Synapses process, store, and recall information, but prolonged stress combined with age can make them shrink and disappear – what’s called a “weathering of the brain.”

As a result, your brain has to work harder to create and sustain memories, and even harder to retrieve them.

Thyroid Issues

Both hyperthyroidism and hypothyroidism can affect the ability to concentrate and to form and retain memories. This is often referred to as “brain fog.”

Estrogen and Progesterone

Normal hormone function allows estrogen to help regulate cortisol levels, which in turn support healthy neurotransmitter functioning: this means estrogen helps you effectively make decisions while supporting short-term memory.

(Many estrogen receptors are found in the hippocampus, and the prefrontal cortex contains many estrogen receptors, where episodic and working memory take place.)

Likewise, progesterone protects the brain by allowing increased blood flow to support mental function. It also helps keep free radical damage at bay.

When these hormone levels drop with age, memory loss and cognitive impairment naturally result; less estrogen means less ability to regulate cortisol. This causes problems with short-term recall and verbal tasks.

Emotional Triggers for Cognitive Issues

The simplest way to explain how emotions affect your memory appears in what can be called “clouding”.
When significant emotional events occur close to or simultaneously with other events and/or information, the emotions cloud the details, causing an altered state of remembrance.

Your current mood also affects your ability to remember details, so a pleasant mood will more often tone the memory as pleasant as well.
The stronger the emotions, the more likely you are to remember specific details about an event. Obviously, this means that mental disorders such as depression or anxiety will also cloud your memories.

When intensely stressful or fearful experiences take place, our bodies respond by releasing cortisol to help us handle the situation.
In the same instance, however, oxytocin is also released, thereby intensifying the memory. The two hormones work together in the formation of deep-seated, emotionally traumatic long-term memories that may help us to avoid a similar situation in the future.
Whenever the memory is triggered, however, cortisol levels also spike, causing the body to almost “relive” the moment and experience the same stressful emotions. This is the basis for anxiety, panic attacks, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Benefits of meditation:

1. Reduce stress
2. Controls anxiety
3. Promotes emotional health
4. Enhances self-awareness
5. Lengthens attention span
6. May reduce age-related memory loss
7. Can generate kindness
8. May help fight addictions
9. Improves sleep
10. Helps control pain
11. Can decrease blood pressure
12. You can meditate anywhere

Supplements That Support Cognition

Curcumin is found in turmeric, a popular Indian spice used in both Eastern medicine and Ayurveda. Curcumin’s ability to increase blood flow to the brain and body reduces inflammation, which may be why it has shown promise in the treatment and prevention of a number of inflammatory brain-related disorders such as Alzheimer’s and dementia – amazingly showing results in some studies in under an hour’s time. It also helps to boost memory, balance mood disorders, and lower stress levels. As a spice, you can use it in your cooking, but it needs to be linked with a healthy fat. Choose high quality, organic curcumin free of additives and fillers.

Matcha Green Tea has been used for thousands of years in Chinese healing and offers incredible support on many different levels. More potent than regular green tea, matcha delivers 100 percent of its nutrients and benefits because it’s made from the entire tea leaf. With ten times more antioxidants than green tea, matcha helps to rid the body of free radicals that attack at a cellular level. One cup of matcha tea provides L-theanine, an amino acid that boosts mental clarity, as well as epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG), a polyphenol that works synergistically with L-theanine to support and increase brain health.

Rhodiola Rosea is an adaptogenic herb that can help to fight the body’s stressors and revitalize overall wellness. It helps to increase focus, fight fatigue, and enhance your mood.

Vitamin B12 is an essential vitamin necessary for energy production and many other supportive tasks, such as immune function, blood formation, DNA synthesis, and digestion. Deficiencies leave you feeling weak and easily fatigued, contributing to symptoms like muscle weakness, lack of focus and concentration, mood issues, and lack of motivation.

Vitamin D, which people commonly are deficient in, can easily be obtained with fifteen to twenty minutes of direct sun exposure each day, as well as through diet and supplementation. Vitamin D helps brain health by supporting the creation of new neural pathways, and also increases natural levels of dopamine and serotonin, which are essential for keeping your mood balanced and favorable; without them, you may be left depressed and fatigued. More drastic deficiency in this vitamin can contribute to severe health issues, such as cancer, depression, or hypothyroidism.

Self-Care Rituals for Cognitive Issues

Even though inhaling Rosemary essential oil can drastically improve your memory by at least 75%, there is no one easy fix for supporting overall cognitive function. Instead, as with everything else, ensure that your brain gets what it needs with your attention to proper nutrition, sleep, stress management, and a lower toxic load.

Exercise Your Mind Ritual

Inhaling Rosemary or Peppermint before your start a puzzle, or diffusing your favorite brain-boosting blend, can help you to focus and solve the puzzle in record time. Lastly, consider meditation five to ten minutes a day to strengthen your brain power and reduce stress.

Essential oils for cognitive support:

Rosemary
Basil
Bergamot
Lemon
Lime
Wild orange
Juniper Berry
Lavender
Frankincense
Peppermint

Digestive Issues

  • One deep breath from a bottle of Peppermint oil eases nausea, opens respiratory pathways, and awakens the senses.
  • One drop of Peppermint massaged into the abdomen relaxes tense digestive muscles and releases the knots in the stomach contributing to loose stools or constipation, while simultaneously supplying a beneficial aromatic experience.
  • Two drops of Peppermint taken internally in a veggie capsule alleviates severe digestive distress and promotes healthy functioning of the whole system. And that’s just one essential oil.

The Why Behind Digestive Issues

Your Second Brain

  • Containing more than thirty neurotransmitters, the gut influences our emotional makeup more than we realize.
  • Your gut produces 95% of your serotonin, which functions much like a neurotransmitter and keeps your moods and digestive system running smoothly.
  • When there is an imbalance, however, this can cause problems like irritable bowel syndrome or depression.
  • With most of your immune system focused on the gut in order to flush out bad bacteria and foreign invaders, it’s no wonder that the second brain plays such a large role in physiological functioning.

 

The Other Gut Influencers

The first step in reclaiming your gut health is to get your stress levels under control.

Antibacterial Cleansers: Just use soap and water, reserving antibacterial solutions for emergency situations when you aren’t able to suds up.

Diet: You are what your eat; what you fuel your body with directly affects your gut microbiome. When you focus on an organic, plant-based, whole foods and high-fiber diet with grass-fed animal protein, you help keep your gut functioning by supporting this microbiome and enabling proper nutrient absorption.

In addition, research has show that increasing tryptophan levels in your diet will support serotonin production. The highest levels of tryptophan are found not in turkey but in seaweed (like crustaceans – lobster, shrimp, and crab), wild game (rabbit, lean beef, goat), chicken (and turkey), fish ( tuna), eggs and beans/lentils.

Prebiotics and Probiotics: Prebiotic fiber has the ability to nourish the healthy bacteria in our microbiome and keep them thriving. Probiotics help to replenish the destruction of good bacteria. Adding a variety of fermented foods that contain probiotics can make a profound difference in your gut health.
Look for fermented foods like kefir, sauerkraut, kombucha and kimchi.

Sleep: Most digestion takes place while you’re sleeping, so getting a restful night’s sleep will allow your body to complete all of its daily cellular processes.

Self-Care Rituals: Nurturing your mind and body with self-care rituals will enable your body to de-stress and will greatly help improve your digestive issues.

Your Hormones for Digestive Issues

The Cortisol-Stress Connection

Excess levels for prolonged periods of time can cause the digestive system to shut down in favor of dealing with the particular stressor at hand.

Entrenched stress directly aggravates the trillions of healthy gut bacteria. It also weakens the lining of the gut, leaving it susceptible to leaky gut, nutritional deficiencies, autoimmune disease, and more.

The Serotonin-Gut Connection

  • Nearly all your serotonin is produced in your gut, imbalanced levels will affect your mood, sleep, libido (excess levels decrease sexualdesire), and overall health.
  • If those levels are low or altered, serotonin can also trigger depression.
  • If you have been prescribed antidepressants, many of these drugs inhibit the uptake of serotonin in both the enteric nervous system and the central nervous system.
  • This causes a misdirection of serotonin to a localized area of nerve cells that eventually become desensitized to the onslaught, and your digestive system effectively gets stuck.
  • It is no surprise that a huge complaint from those beginning antidepressants is nausea and diarrhea, followed by constipation.
  • Interestingly, it has been found that those who don’t have those symptoms aren’t taking their medication correctly.

The Insulin-Digestive Connection

Produced by the pancreas, insulin allows the mitochondria to convert glucose into usable energy.

When you eat, carbohydrates are converted to glucose and sent into the bloodstream, causing blood sugar levels to increase; in turn, this triggers the pancreas to produce insulin in order to direct the glucose where needed.

  • Exocrine cells produced by the pancreas allow digestive enzymes to be released through ducts directly into the small intestine.
  • These enzymes break down foods into nutrients so that the smaller nutrient molecules can be effectively absorbed into the bloodstream via the intestinal walls.
  • The pancreatic enzymes rely on may other enzymes in order to properly digest food.
  • The problem occurs when pancreatic hormones aren’t able to do their job of balancing blood sugar, often because of improper diet, overeating, obesity, sugar addiction, and heavy use of alcohol.
  • In addition chronic stress detrimentally affects pancreatic function.

Increased blood sugar levels can cause constipation or diarrhea, as well as nausea and digestive distress – and an inability to properly absorb the nutrients we need.
You would think that means weight loss,but the opposite is true.
Excess belly fat and obesity often develop because the body cannot rid itself of excess amounts of sugar, inhibiting proper cellular function.
This causes compromised circulatory and immune issues, making you more susceptible to illness.

Emotional Triggers for Digestive Issues

Thanks to the brain-gut connection, it should be no surprise that emotional triggers affect your digestion.

When we begin to pay more attention to our gut instead of becoming irritated and more stressed about symptoms,we can begin to get to the root cause of our digestive issues.

Rather than being physical in nature, digestive problems may truly be emotional in origin.

  • We all know the clenched feeling we get deep in our bellies whenever stress kicks in or anxiety reigns.
  • This may cause some of us to starve ourselves for fear digestive upset will start, but for many more of us, it triggers cravings and urges us to binge on comfort food.
  • It’s no wonder that our insulin levels get fatigues, stress levels remain chronic, and the ability to regulate our moods greatly suffers.

Essential oils for digestive issues:

Peppermint
Ginger
Cardamom
Clove
Fennel

I find essential oils very helpful and supportive.

Each year I learn more about Essential Oils, and I find ways to incorporate them into my Wellness week.

If you haven’t experimented as yet, or you have just started to get into Essential Oils, I recommend to grab this book The Essential Hormone Solution and find some blends that can help support you.

Kerrie Fatone