Hormones have a profound effects on your mental, physical and emotional health.

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Hormonal ups and downs can wreak havoc on your life.  They can affect your mood, your weight, your food cravings, even your desire for sex.

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These chemical messengers play a major role in controlling your appetite, weight and mood, among other things.

Normally, your endocrine glands produce the precise amount of each hormone needed for various processes in your body.

However, hormonal imbalances have become increasingly common with today's fast-paced modern lifestyle. In addition, certain hormones decline with age, and some people experience a more dramatic decrease than others.

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With many of my female clients today suffering with the effects of hormonal imbalance and hormonal changes during their 20's, 30's, 40's and 50's. Many having heavy and painful periods, planning a pregnancy, and wanting to conceive naturally, having babies and stages of Menopause also effecting every stage of a women's health and well-being are all affected by a healthy hormonal balance and response in the body. I know from my own personal experience due to my own hormonal imbalances for years that I have had to manage and work with.

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Many of my clients are going through Perimenopause or Postmenopausal stages and it can be a difficult time. The Menopause process takes place over years, menopause is commonly divided into these two stages.

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Perimenopause is the time a woman begins experiencing menopausal signs and symptoms, even though she is still ovulating. During this normal process of four years or more, hormone levels rise and fall unevenly.

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Postmenopause is once 12 months have passed since a woman’s last period, she has reached menopause. The ovaries produce much less estrogen and progesterone, and they don’t release eggs. The years that follow are called postmenopause.

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Signs and Symptoms of Perimenopause and Postmenopausal:

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While every woman experiences menopause differently, the most common physical and emotional changes include:

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• Irregular periods

• Decreased fertility

• Vaginal and urinary changes; like dryness and incontinence

• Hot flashes

• Dry skin and headaches

• Insomnia and other sleep disturbances

• Night sweats and heart palpitations

• Changes in appearance, primarily fluid weight gain

• Emotional and cognitive changes including mood swings, depression and forgetfulness

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Massage therapy has the unique ability to improve many of these symptoms

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Problems our Body Faces

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Stress can wreak havoc on your hormones. This havoc can come in the form of bad PMS, heavy bleeding, stubborn acne, irritated mood or low mood, and much more.

 

Two major hormones affected by stress are cortisol and adrenaline.

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Cortisol is known as "the stress hormone" because it helps your body cope with stress over the long term.

Adrenaline is the "fight-or-flight" hormone that provides your body with a surge of energy to respond to immediate danger.

However, unlike hundreds of years ago when these hormones were mainly triggered by threats from predators, today they're usually triggered by people's busy, often overwhelming lifestyles.

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Unfortunately, chronic stress causes cortisol levels to remain elevated, and creates Hormonal imbalances which can lead to excessive calorie intake and obesity, including increased belly fat. Elevated adrenaline levels can cause high blood pressure, rapid heart rate, heart disease and anxiety and other health problems. However, these symptoms are usually fairly short-lived because, unlike cortisol, adrenaline is less likely to become chronically elevated.

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Your hormones are involved in every aspect of your health. You need them in very specific amounts for your body to function optimally.

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Despite the fact that aging and other factors are beyond your control, there are many steps you can take to help your hormones function optimally.

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They are also important for our fertility. And I know most women, women like you, WANT to have children and healthy pregnancies.

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Massage is one of the ways that can help to balance the bodies production and regulation of Neurohormones which are produced by the nervous system and affect an individual’s behavior and general well-being. Recent studies have solidly concluded that massage can help balance mood levels by moving your body toward homeostasis (a naturally balanced state)

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Massage also elevates the levels of dopamine, a neurohormone released by the hypothalamus gland that makes you feel good and can also raise the availability of serotonin, a neurohormone that regulates behavior in terms of emotions, irritability and cravings for sex and food.

Those low in serotonin often have difficulty sleeping and tend to suffer from depression and obsessive-compulsive disorders, not to mention lower sex drive and overall irritability.

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Massage can increase the availability of growth hormones which promote cell division, and is involved in tissue repair, regeneration, and healing.

Here are some more health and well-being benefits that massage can have on the body and mind:

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