Perfect Hormone Balance for Fertility

Chapter One Hormone Balance: The Foundation of Fertility I have no doubt that the rising incidence of hormone imbalance is behind the steady rise in infertility. Our diet, lifestyle, and work habits have all changed in ways that invite or even create these imbalances. Because of our busy schedules, we gravitate toward fast foods and prepackaged meals that are high in unhealthy carbohydrates and fats. Eating poorly can easily lead to hormonal chaos, reducing your chance of conception or increasing your risk of pregnancy complications. We've also become less active, and some of us, completely sedentary, and we accept stress and a lack of sleep as a part of life. Yet better food choices, regular exercise, adequate rest, and stress-reducing activities can improve your health enormously and enhance your ability to conceive. We are also exposed to a growing number of chemicals each year through our food, air, water, cleaning products, gardening chemicals, and personal care products. Some people are also exposed to more chemicals at work. Fertility and hormone specialists have become increasingly concerned about these chemicals because many have the ability to disrupt your own hormone functions, which in turn can affect your fertility. These chemicals also may contribute to miscarriage or compromise the health of your baby. But in many cases you can restore hormone harmony through simple changes in your lifestyle, and, in so doing, you will improve your fertility, your health, and your well-being. THE HORMONE DANCE Your hormones are constantly shifting based on what is happening in your body on any given day. Each organ and each system has its own agenda, sending out hormonal signals to alert the others and elicit their cooperation. For instance, your digestive system calls upon your circulatory system for more blood flow after a meal to help distribute fuel and nutrients throughout your body. On the other hand, if you're under stress, hormones will shift your blood flow away from your digestive system and direct it to your muscles to prepare you for dealing with the danger at hand. Your brain's hypothalamus is at the helm, listening in on all the hormone cross talk and prioritizing messages, so that you're not falling asleep when you sit down to eat, perspiring when your body temperature is low, or menstruating when a fertilized egg is trying to implant in your womb. Your brain also initiates many bodily events, often in response to what you're experiencing or what's going on hormonally. If you're frightened, your brain sends hormonal messages that override other biological functions like sleepiness or hunger. When you're sexually aroused, your brain sends hormones that signal your body to prepare for intimate acts. If you're determined to complete a task, your brain sends pick-me-up hormones to fend off fatigue. And if your body doesn't have enough stored calories to support a pregnancy, your brain blocks signals to your ovarieseffectively preventing ovulation. The hormone-brain connection is the key to understanding why achieving hormonal balance is necessary to improve your chances of conception and having a healthy baby. It is equally important for couples who have had a baby but are having difficulty conceiving again, a condition called secondary infertility. Many of these couples have developed a hormone imbalance since the delivery of their last child. The imbalance is what is keeping them from becoming pregnant again. Before jumping into treatment, these couples need to consider the importance of their hormones and how their diet, weight, lifestyle, or health may have changed in the intervening years. Because there are so many hormones, and many that have similar jobs, I like to group them together based on their functions. Each of the four groups I haveGreene, Robert A. is the author of 'Perfect Hormone Balance for Fertility' with ISBN 9780307337405 and ISBN 0307337405.