I was giving a keynote presentation to a group of dynamic women as part of a Women’s Retreat at Champneys. They were a mix of homemakers, businesswomen, professional women, charity patrons, mothers, travellers … All significant spouses of the World President’s Organisation (WPO).

My talk was focused on optimising the health and wellbeing of Women In Transition. The planned 40-minute talk quickly turned into a 2-hour one as there was a lot of information to share with plenty of discussions, engagements, AHA moments and fun.

We went through the common hormonal imbalances that cause the common challenges women go through each passing year e.g.
– weight gain, brain fog
– difficulty sleeping, loss of libido
– skin aging, less resilience to stress
– increase risk of sickness, loss of energy
– lower mood

…. How to recognise the warning signs and what we can do to prevent and treat them naturally.

I will not be able to give you the whole presentation here in the blog (some of the information however will be available in my upcoming book The Hormonal Acne Solution) but I would like to share with you the summary I shared with the women.

Here are my Top 5 Must Do to balance hormones, feel happier and younger. In no particular order, they are ….

1. Live Clean

This will be so much easier when spring is almost here. Time for a spring clean. What can you do to eat, breath, drink, wash, move and sleep cleaner? Look at the products you are using and the food you are buying – are they organically sourced? Do they have chemicals or artificial hormones which can poison your own hormonal system, causing Oestrogen Dominance (too much of the bad oestrogen). Your oestrogen (the female hormone) is what I call the Diva hormone – it gives you hips, boobs and makes you feel and look like a woman. However, if you have too much Oestrogen or too much Diva, it can results in weight gain, irritability, endometriosis, fibroids, worsening PMS or Perimenopause or increase risk of breast cancer. You can view a list of Xeno-Oestrogen (artificial hormones) on the site of The National College of Natural Medicine.

2. Take your Omega 3

This is one of my favourite supplement. If I would choose only one to have, it would have to be my Omega 3. It’s a powerful anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidant. It reduces hot flushes by 40%, reduce sun damage by 50% and reduce heart disease. I would recommend taking 1000mg Omega 3. My favourite brands are Udo’s Oil, NutriAdvance (Eskimo-3) and BioCare, all don’t taste like fish.

My favourite store is Nutricentre which is an online store that houses all the best brands I know. If it helps, you can enjoy a 15% discount if you call the customer service on 0208 752 8450 and quote the code ZZTLO015.

3. Boost your Progesterone

My favourite hormone – this is Oestrogen best’s friend, The Calming Hormone. It’s produced in the 2nd half of the cycle and stabilises the uterus wall ready for implantation. Between 35 years old, your Progesterone level starts to wane and low progesterone results in heavy periods, painful breast, PMS, adult acne, irritability and feeling bloated. A few natural ways to boost your progesterone is eating 2 eggs a week, hanging out with your girlfriends, eating your dark green vegetables and taking your Vitamin C (between 600-1000mg/ day).

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A good way to check is to take your blood levels on Day 21 of your cycle (Day 1 is the first day of your period) and the ratio of Progesterone to Oestrogen should be between 100-500 (ideally 300). Anything less, you probably have low progesterone.

4. Limit your Coffee and Alcohol

Coffee increases the stress hormone, Cortisol which in high amounts for long periods of time can cause sugar cravings, inflammation and high blood pressure. Alcohol increases Oestrogen metabolism – one glass of wine increasing the risk of breast cancer by 11%. So I would recommend limiting your caffeine intake to at least 2 cups a week, if at all and to 2-3 glass of wine a week. This will reset your hormones so you stop craving for sugar and shift those extra few pounds that you may be holding on to.

5. Fix what’s irritating you

Holding on to frustration, anger and grudges is stressful. This will increase the stress hormone cortisol which causes all the stresses I mentioned above. In traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), holding anger can lead to heart burn, stomach problems, heart disease and even cancer…. Not to mention angry looking wrinkles. So be aware of it, resolve it, laugh at it or let it go.