Do you often feel like you're riding on an emotional roller coaster, with sudden ups and severe downs? It's not your imagination. Your state of mind is directly linked to your state of hormonal balance, and hormonal fluctuations can impact your mental and emotional well-being, as well as your physical health.
Your hormones set the stage for every single function of the body and brain. Neuroscientific research shows that the brain contains thousands of receptors for the reproductive hormones estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone, which regulate all cognitive and mental functions in both sexes and impact brain chemistry, mood, and mental health.
What Women Need to Know
Due to their reproductive cycles, women often experience frequent hormonal changes. These imbalanced hormone levels can have a profound impact on their physical and mental health during various phases, from puberty and pregnancy to perimenopause and beyond.
As women age, their ovaries and adrenal glands produce lower amounts of these reproductive hormones and then drop sharply in menopause, which begins around their late forties or even earlier. Studies point to low estrogen, in particular, as the likely culprit behind the dramatic decline in women's mental health.
Fluctuating levels of estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone, can trigger hot flashes, headaches, insomnia, mood swings, anxiety, irritability, and depression, exacerbating other mental and emotional conditions. As a result, you may experience insomnia, difficulty concentrating, memory lapses, bone loss, decreased energy, and low libido.
These lead to stress and cortisol spikes, which then trigger more hormonal imbalances. Cortisol inhibits the feel-good neurotransmitters like dopamine and serotonin that regulate your sleep, digestive functions, and moods. The result is often mental health disorders and emotional imbalances, from dementia to depression.
Suddenly, that roller coaster ride becomes a carousel spin in a carnival without a fun house. What can you do to get off this wild ride and get on board the train to better balance and emotional harmony?
Mental Well-Being Matters
The Women's Brain Health Initiative (WBHI) focuses on creating "evidence-based preventative health solutions to safeguard mental wellness, prolong cognitive vitality and combat brain-aging disorders that disproportionately affect women."
According to WBHI, over 70 percent of Alzheimer's and dementia patients are women. Their six pillars of brain health offer guidelines women can follow for preventative mental and cognitive well-being. These include exercise, mental stimulation, nutrition, sleep, socialization, and stress management.
Quality Support
CAITERA® is dedicated to your quality of life and can offer additional support. One immediate step you can take is to supplement your nutrition with a quality nutraceutical. Our doctor-formulated DIM'ME SOME™ provides an absorbable form of Diindolylmethane (DIM), a phytonutrient found in vegetables such as broccoli, Brussels sprouts, kale, turnips, radish, cabbage, and cauliflower.
DIM'ME SOME™ can help encourage hormonal balance by supporting more efficient estrogen metabolism.
Get on the right track to good health and happiness—visit our Shop to explore this and other wellness products.
Personalized Hormonal Help
Finally, if you feel your physical or mental health diminishing, know that you don't have to live with it. Our sister company, SottoPelle®, can help you find a skilled medical provider and create a plan to support your hormonal balance—the seventh pillar of brain health.
Sources
Sex hormones affect neurotransmitters and shape the adult female brain during hormonal transition periods. Frontiers in Neuroscience - 2015 Feb 20. Barth C, Villringer A, Sacher J.; 9:37.
Estrogen, brain structure, and cognition in postmenopausal women. Christina P. Boyle, 1 , † Cyrus A. Raji, 2 , † Kirk I. Erickson, 3 Oscar L. Lopez, 4 James T. Becker, 3 , 4 , 5 H. Michael Gach, 6 Lewis H. Kuller, 7 William Longstreth, Jr, 8 Owen T. Carmichael, 9 Brandalyn C. Riedel, 1, 10 and Paul M. Thompson.