When most women think of hormones, they think of estrogen. That’s the culprit in weight gain, mood swings, and hot flashes, right?
Actually, a cornucopia of hormones affects our weight and well being, and getting a true handle on the unruly symptoms of PMS and menopause requires finding balance among all those hormones.
That’s the view of Dawn Cutillo, whose BeBalanced Hormone Weight Loss Centers offer natural options for those who have tried everything else (www.bebalancedcenters.com). It’s all about naturally lowering and balancing stress hormones, while also balancing blood sugars to control insulin, “your biggest hormone ever.”
“When you do those two things, you have a hugely positive impact on the sex hormones,” says Cutillo.
What is hormone imbalance?
It all starts with stress, that constant in our daily lives. The body needs adequate levels of cortisol, the stress hormone.
When assaulted by stress, the body raids stored progesterone to make more cortisol. Suddenly, the body has too little progesterone in proportion to estrogen, creating “estrogen dominance” that leads to weight gain and the symptoms of PMS and menopause.
What’s the connection? Progesterone is a fat burner and diuretic that also aids in controlling mood and sleep. When estrogen takes center stage, the nasty symptoms take over—weight gain, fluid retention, mood swings, and insomnia.
“When we raise progesterone and lower cortisol, that’s natural hormone balance,” says Cutillo.
Why we gain weight
Cutillo calls herself a “wounded healer,” sent on a search for the root causes of her weight and skin problems when traditional solutions didn’t work. She learned that human beings and other creatures are programmed for survival. Body fat is like fuel in a reserve tank, ready for consumption in case of starvation. Women were blessed with higher reserves, needed during pregnancy and nursing. That’s why a bear can sleep all winter and survive on its body fat.
Of course, humans aren’t bears, no matter how many winter days we dream of hibernating. And before food became plentiful and processed, it was actually meant to drive up our weight, blood pressure, and cholesterol in the summertime, to generate warmth and provide reserves of fat and liquid during the lean winter months.
“The problem is, we never have a winter,” says Cutillo. “We eat like it’s summer all the time.”
Which leads us back to hormonal imbalances. “We are constantly feeding that sugar side of us, and we’re constantly messing up our blood sugar, which messes up our cortisol, which messes up our sex hormones. Stress and sugar are the key.”
Making an impact
Losing weight requires lowering sugar intake to balance blood sugar and, in turn, balance insulin and cortisol. The first step involves remaking the diet, back to the whole foods the body was meant to consume—meat, vegetables, fruits, and starch. Meanwhile, a natural homeopathic supplement available through BeBalanced can stimulate the brain to release stored body fat for fuel.
BeBalanced uses, sound-wave therapy to promote stress reduction, hormone balance, and deep relaxation in short sessions that are “almost like a two-hour nap in twenty-three minutes.”
Cutillo doesn’t recommend intense exercise such as jogging as women get older. In human evolution, “nobody ran unless they were being chased.” Instead, weight training, yoga, Pilates, and nonlinear exercise like dancing build muscle while keeping the joints limber.
Maintaining weight loss
Of course, the Holy Grail of weight loss is keeping the weight off. The key is hormonal balance, says Cutillo.
In maintenance mode, the remade diet stays largely intact. Meats, vegetables, and two fruits a day are acceptable, with refined-starch carbs limited to one a day on weekdays (but treat yourself to those breadsticks when you’re out on Saturday night).
“Carbs mess with blood sugar, and when you mess with blood sugar and insulin, you’re going to affect cortisol, and you’re going to affect your sex hormones,” says Cutillo. “When you imbalance your sex hormones, you’re always going to gain weight.”
Alcohol also wreaks havoc on blood sugar, so it should be seen as an occasional treat instead of the go-to stress reliever.
“You can’t be having a glass of wine every day at 4 o’clock,” says Cutillo. “Maybe you’re doing it because you want to relax. Why not come home and put on [a] relaxation CD?”
Relaxation and resistance training continue to lower stress and strengthen muscles. In the BeBalanced system, the body also achieves hormone balance through the use of skin creams. One with natural USP progesterone raises progesterone levels, putting them in balance with estrogen (remember that estrogen can’t be allowed to dominate). Since the body urinates out any excess progesterone, there’s no danger of getting too much.
Another option, herbal cream from BeBalanced helps repair the stress-responding adrenal gland and prompts the body to make its own cortisol without stealing from progesterone stores.
The hormonal balance approach isn’t hormone replacement therapy, says Cutillo. Nothing is “shoved into you.” The nonmedical concept “resonates with women.”
“There are 45 million women in menopause. They’re all wanting something, and their doctors aren’t giving it to them.”