Hormones 101

Now we're gonna look at hormones through the lens of Eastern medicine, and I'm gonna incorporate a little bit of Western medicine terms just because that's more familiar for most people. So in Eastern medicine, we look at hormones in terms of how they interact with each other rather than just what each individual hormone does, and in order to really understand hormones, we have to look at holistically how hormones interact with each other to create balance for the whole body. So I'll use the term yin and yang from Chinese medicine. There are similar terms in Ayurveda, but these are more common and familiar. So, the basic idea is that like increases like, opposites balance. This is a basic principle of healing in Eastern medicine. So we look at yin and yang. We can see that these are opposite qualities, but they join together to create balance for the whole. So in the hormonally female body, we look at these in terms of female stress and sex hormones. These are the yin and yang of the female hormonal system. Our stress hormones are primarily adrenaline and cortisol. They have more of a yang masculine quality. I use the term masculine not in a literal sense but because they have more of that energetic of being fiery and active, which is how we refer to more of the masculine energy in Eastern medicine. They're more related to the sympathetic nervous system, the energy of action and moving and a healthy aggression. The qualities of stress hormones are energizing, activating, and also reducing, and some example activities are driving your car, making deals, playing sports, multitasking, drinking coffee, eating spicy food. That's not an exhaustive list. Those are just examples, and you can see the energetics of those activities and how they have more of this fiery, active, yang quality. Now, our sex hormones, the predominant hormones are progesterone and estrogen. These are more yin or “feminine” energetics. They're related to the parasympathetic nervous system, and the qualities of these yin sex hormones are nourishing, building, and lubricating. This is where we are restoring our body and nourishing and building the body. Example activities are sleeping, meditating, getting a massage, eating oatmeal, and resting. And again, those are just examples, not an exhaustive list. So, I'm gonna talk in particular about cortisol, because cortisol plays a big role in stress for women. It increases when adrenaline does, but it stays active longer, and it has obviously positive effects on the body. It controls metabolism of carbs, fats, and proteins. It actually has initially an anti-inflammatory effect on the body. It plays a role in fighting infection, blood sugar balance, immune response, thinking, and other health functions. But in excess, it becomes problematic because this is the most yang hormone, and remember, yang energy is depleting over time. In our sex hormones, the role of estrogen is it's the most yin juicy hormone. So, if you think of cortisol as being the most yang depleting hormone, we can think of estrogen being on the opposite end of the spectrum, being the most yin juicy hormone. It's responsible for the development of female sexual characteristics, stimulates the growth of the uterine lining, and it's in every tissue in the body that needs lubrication and nourishment. Progesterone prevents estrogen from creating too much mass in the body. It holds the uterine lining in place, and it's a balancing force. So, we think of estrogen as building and progesterone is there to help keep estrogen in check or help to produce more estrogen when needed. And if we relate this to the nervous system, I wanna relate to it in terms of those yang and yin qualities. So, we think of the sympathetic nervous system, that place where we take action, healthy aggression, drive, and focus. Under threat, we're in that fight-or-flight response in the sympathetic nervous system, and that's related more to those yang qualities of our stress hormones. They act. They move. It's an outward-moving energy. There's a fiery, sharp, mobile quality, and it can be reducing, inflaming, and depleting over time. In the parasympathetic nervous system, in safety, we're experiencing more rest-and-digest activity, sleeping, winding down, and really recuperating and rebuilding the body. And under a threat, we can respond more with a freeze, fawn, or fit-in response. And that's more related to the yin qualities that I'm referencing here in this module. Our sex hormones are more yin. Rest, digest, restore it, and move inward is more of a yin quality. Yin is more heavy, moist, and stable, and it's more nourishing and lubricating. So that's Hormones 101. In the next module, I'm gonna talk about why these are important, why the nervous system and hormones are important, how we can start understanding stress and how it impacts the female body. And be sure to check out the guide in your course hub.