Book Nook: The Women's Guide to Hormonal Harmony - How to Rebalance Your Hormones, Master Your Metabolism, and Become the Boss of Your Own Body

Why Lacey Dunn, MS, RD, LD, CPT, wrote the book, The Women’s Guide to Hormonal Harmony: How to Rebalance Your Hormones, Master Your Metabolism, and Become the Boss of Your Own Body to help explain to readers what's going on with their bodies and why. I had a chance to review the book, which is written to give women tools and confidence to improve their health. 

The book covers a variety of hormone-related issues, including disorders of thyroid, gut, and hormonal imbalance. It touches on the best "diet" plans (nutrition guides) depending on what's going on.

One thing I liked is that it was designed to help readers determine a certain type or cause based on symptoms - instead of all things being lumped together, readers can distinguish between one of several types of imbalances. This can help readers determine not just what healthy eating is in a generic sense, but what's even more particularly important for their own needs.

Obviously for some conditions and symptoms you should consult a medical professional, but this book can act as a starting point or a complement to more detailed care. It helps distinguish between common and normal, and explains a great deal about how hormones work together in your body.

You can learn more in this interview

Why are people often unaware of the different roles hormones play in our well-being?

You don’t know what you don’t know! Sadly we are not taught about the importance of our hormones, or even what they are or what they do when we go through schooling, or even when we go to our doctors, including the OBGYN! Women deserve to know about their hormones, what they work and interact, and also how they change throughout their lives. This starts with getting the importance out! Women are put last in the media. They are commonly dismissed for their symptoms and hormonal imbalances as just being “tired”, “a working mom”, or “needed to just exercise more and eat less”. It’s a medical gaslighting problem that prevents women from learning about their hormones, their bodies, and optimizing them!

Women often know that their hormones play a role in their symptoms during periods, but how can they know what's normal and what's not?

Just because a symptom is common, does not make it normal. Your periods should not put you in crippling pain, require medication to get through, or involve excessive bleeding and blood clots. Though every women has her own “normal” period, and this will change based on age, body size, and even genetics, a normal period should be 3 to 7 days long, with a menstrual cycle length of 24-35 days. Period blood loss should be equal to 25-80mL (equal to 3-4 tampons or 2 menstrual cups) and should be a mild cranberry to a bright red color.

You may miss a cycle, spot one month, or have heavier or lighter bleeding for a month or two. Sometimes, this may be “normal”, as it’s your body reacting to some type of stressor in your life. However, if you miss two cycles in a row, spot regularly, or go more than 2 months with significant changes to your menstrual cycle (especially if you notice increased pain, bleeding, or blood clots), you should see a health professional. 

What role do hormones play in maintaining a healthy weight?

Our hormones act as a metabolic thermostat in our bodies, helping to either increase or decrease our metabolic rate. Essentially they control how we maintain our body weight! If our hormones are out of whack, this can result in reductions in our metabolic rate, which can cause us to gain weight, or prevent us from losing weight. If our thyroid is not functioning optimally, this can down regulate our BMR (basal metabolic rate), which means we burn less calories at rest than normal. If our estrogen levels are too high, or too low, this can cause us to have issues with insulin sensitivity, which means we can have trouble using the carbohydrates that we eat for energy, leaving us sluggish, tired, as well as prone to weight gain. Our hormones set us up for success or create trouble when it comes down to maintaining our weight and feeling/looking our best!

Lacey Dunn, MS, RD, LD, CPT, founder of UpliftFit Nutrition and host of the UpliftFit Nutrition podcast, is a functional medicine dietitian with a fiery passion for helping women feel and look their very best. People call her the “Hormone Fairy Godmother,” as her one mission in life is to help women go from surviving to thriving. Dunn specializes in all things hormones, thyroid, gut, and metabolism and incorporates on-going education into her daily life.

 

Connect with Lacey Dunn, MS, RD, LD, CPT on Instagram @faithandfit, Twitter @laceyadunn, and Facebook @LaceyDunnRD. Visit www.upliftfitnutrition.com and listen to UpliftFit Nutrition on most podcast hosting platforms.