How Yoga Can Help Balance Hormones

Claire Andréewitch, founder of Ad CAELIA, naturopath and yoga teacher, teaches us today how yoga can help balance our hormones.

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Last Sunday I gave my first yoga workshop for hormones. An absolutely fascinating subject that began to interest me a few years ago when I developed hypothyroidism (the thyroid does not produce enough thyroid hormones and this has an influence on general metabolism, sleep, temperature, hunger regulation etc), following a long period of stress. Today I want to share my experience, and Above all, inform you that we have all the keys in hand to promote the good health of our hormones. naturally. I myself got over it, by actively fighting against stress with meditation, by favoring relaxing activities as often as possible, with a good diet, yoga... no more hypothyroidism! Rest assured, there will be other workshops on the subject , but here is already a little introduction!

Hormones influence our lives from in utero and throughout aging and affect absolutely every aspect of our physical and mental health; energy/fatigue status, body size, indoor temperature, skin/hair health, fertility, mood, disease risk etc etc….

We can naturally balance our hormones through a healthier lifestyle, and this mainly involves:

• Stress reduction
• Healthy eating
• Sleep
• Physical activity
• Avoidance of toxins (pesticides, pollution, cosmetics, household products, etc.)

These things are essential for balancing our hormones, but I would like to focus on one of the most powerful (and natural!) tools for balancing our little messengers: Yoga.

Let me explain: already, Yoga as a practice in general is deeply balancing and harmonizing for the body, mind, spirit; balancing on all levels! This is done firstly through deep breathing, regular and calm. When breathing becomes more harmonious, everything else follows! The nervous system, the heart, the digestive system, the lymphatic system (linked to our immune system), our muscles relax and we also begin to harmonize the endocrine system. It is the system that controls and regulates the functioning of our hormones through certain glands, organs and tissues.

SO Just by focusing for a few moments on calm, deep breathing (abdominal and preferably through the nose) we begin to balance our hormones. With calm breathing we bring calm to the body, we reduce the stress level by calming the adrenals for example (glands that secrete stress hormones such as cortisol). A cortisol level that is too high promotes inflammation in the body and reduces our immune defenses.

Yoga practice is known to support and strengthen the immune system. This involves lowering stress levels, releasing tension, improved circulation, a more efficient purification system (nothing better for detox than yoga.) When the immune system is healthy, it's the same for our hormones; the endocrine system and the immune system are one.

More specifically, the practice of yoga for hormones stimulates the glands and organs of hormone secretion, to restart proper functioning, or like other more calming postures soothe certain glands . Let's take as an example Sarvangasana posture (the candle); this posture stimulates the thyroid by its compression, balances the entire glandular system by the change of gravity, and also the circulatory system, the nervous and digestive system. By the influx of fresh blood to the brain we improve concentration, memory and fight against fatigue - the brain is refreshed.

If we take the Balasana posture It calms the adrenals, stimulates the pituitary gland (a gland that acts like a conductor to stimulate the production of other glands), and the nervous system. Other postures stimulate the thymus (Ustrasana-camel or Dhanurasana-the bow), the ovaries (Bhujangasana-cobra or Paschimottasana – pincers), the pancreas (Gomukhasana-cow's head or Halasana-the plow).

There is a third and very important aspect of our yoga practice that supports the health of our hormones and acts to prevent disorders ; It's the purifying effects that certain asanas (postures) and certain pranayama (breathing techniques) have on our organism. Indeed, yoga has a very important detox effect, and helps the purification system – in particular the liver which is our main purification organ, to better rid the body of toxins and also of hormone residues which need to be eliminated to balance the level of hormones circulating in the blood.

If practiced at least 3 times a week, yoga for hormones very effectively reactivates the production of our hormones and promotes the balance of hormones in general = our general well-being! After a few months of practice, we can often reduce the frequency of sessions, everything depends on the symptoms and the person in question of course. The practice often allows us to stop possible hormonal treatments and therefore simultaneously avoid their side effects!

Love, C