Hormonal Imbalance

Just about every yoga pose you do has an impact on the hormonal (endocrine) system in your body – making yoga a fabulous way to support this system and keep your hormones healthy. With focus and intention, we can use our yoga practice to keep our hormones balanced, and to help address common symptoms of hormonal imbalance. How do we recognize when our hormones are out of balance? The symptoms of hormonal imbalance make a long and varied list, including: weight gain, irregular monthly cycles, PMS, low back ache, low libido, insomnia, fatigue, mood swings, thyroid imbalances, fertility issues, hot flashes, poor immune function, anxiety, depression, and blood sugar imbalances, among others. If any of these sound familiar, you are not alone. Many people have come to accept these kinds of symptoms as almost “normal” – just the way things are. But in fact, they can all be linked to hormone imbalances.

By choosing yoga poses that work to balance the entire endocrine system, as well as poses that target specific glands in the endocrine system, we can help to bring the hormonal system back into balance. When the hormones are balanced, many of these symptoms can be alleviated. How can yoga help the hormonal system? By doing a targeted daily yoga practice, we can help regulate our cycles, improve our sleep, boost our immunity, improve our energy levels, control weight gain, and make us more stress-tolerant, just to mention a few of the potential benefits. The key is to understand something about the endocrine system, and what each gland is doing for us. Then, we can choose to incorporate into our daily practice yoga poses that target specific glands and hormones, depending on what symptoms we are experiencing. In addition, we can choose a practice that helps activate the parasympathetic nervous system, providing general stress reduction. While each of the glands in the endocrine system has specific functions, and can cause specific symptoms if out of balance, it is also important to note that the entire endocrine system is just that – a system. As such, one gland that is out of balance is likely to affect other glands in the system, as well. So, while we can choose yoga poses that impact specific glands, it is also important to do the kind of yoga practice that helps to keep the entire system balanced. How do we know which part of the endocrine system to focus on, in order to help with a specific symptom?

First, we need to understand something about the major glands that make up the endocrine system, what their functions are, and how they might affect us if they are out of balance.

Ovaries & testes: These are, respectively, the female and male reproductive glands, which produce hormones including estrogen, progesterone and testosterone. These hormones control the reproductive processes, as well as impacting things like energy levels and sex drive. These are located just above the pelvic floor, very low in the abdomen. If these hormones are out of balance, you may experience symptoms such as mood swings, irregular monthly cycles, fertility issues, low libido, and hot flashes. Legs-up-the-wall pose source https://www.yogamate.org/exercise-detail/legs-up-the-wall_viparita-karani/1292(viparita karani) is a good pose for supporting the ovaries & testes.

Pancreas: This gland is located on the left side of the body, behind the stomach. Its main jobs are to regulate blood sugar, and to help with digestion. The pancreas secretes insulin, which helps offset high blood sugar levels, and glucagon, which helps boost blood sugar if it gets too low. If the pancreas is out of balance, you may experience high or low blood sugar, pre-diabetes, or PCOS (polycystic ovarian syndrome). Twisting poses source https://www.yogamate.org/exercises/twist-6 help balance the pancreas.

Adrenals: The adrenal glands sit on top of the kidneys, in the low back area. The adrenals produce the so-called “stress hormones”, including adrenaline and cortisol. The adrenal glands’ main roles have to do with survival - putting the body into “fight or flight” mode, when we are in danger, and regulating how the body converts fats, proteins and carbohydrates into energy. If we are under constant stress, the adrenal glands eventually get depleted, leading to symptoms such as chronic fatigue. In addition, the adrenals impact the function of many other glands. This is because they are concerned with survival – so if the body doesn’t have enough nutrients or energy to support all the glands’ requirements, the adrenals win out – to the detriment of other glands such as the thyroid and the ovaries. Twists and forward bends help balance the adrenals.

Thymus: This gland sits in the center of the chest, and produces hormones and T-cells that support the immune system. A low-functioning thymus can lead to poor immune function. Heart-opening poses such as cobra pose (bhujangasana)source https://www.yogamate.org/exercise-detail/cobra_bhujangasana/1221 support the thymus gland.

Thyroid/parathyroid: These glands sit together in the throat area. The thyroid hormones affect metabolism, as well as body temperature. Thyroid imbalance is quite common, and symptoms include: mental fuzziness, fatigue, weight gain or loss, hair loss and fertility issues. One example of a pose which supports the thyroid gland is plow pose (halasana) source

Pituitary: The pituitary is a pea-sized gland located at the base of the brain, behind the forehead, about where the eyebrows meet. Despite its small size, it is sometimes called the “master gland”, because it makes many hormones which control the hormone output of other glands. For example, some of its hormones regulate the ovaries, the testes, the adrenals and the thyroid. So, if the pituitary is not functioning well, this can have a variety of symptoms. Child’s pose is one way to support the pituitary. Pineal: This tiny gland sits in the middle of the brain, and affects cycles and circadian rhythms, including sleep/wake cycles and the way we adapt to seasonal cycles. Its main hormone is melatonin. Imbalances in the pineal gland can cause insomnia, and also depression. One example of a pose that supports the pineal gland is headstand (sirsasana).source

Hypothalamus: The hypothalamus acts as an intermediary between external (sensory) input and our internal reaction to that input. It communicates information to the pituitary gland, which decides what hormones to release based on this information. The hypothalamus is located very close to the emotional center of the brain, so it is easily impacted by stress. What causes our hormones to be out of balance? The short answer to this question is: lifestyle.

Once in a while, there may be a physical cause, such as a tumor or growth on one of the endocrine glands. But most of the time, hormonal imbalances are caused by lifestyle imbalances, including unmanaged stress, poor diet, and environmental factors. For instance, if we are constantly under stress, and lack tools to manage that stress, our adrenal glands can become depleted. If we eat a diet high in carbohydrates and sugar, our pancreas can be overworked. If our daily diet doesn’t include the essential nutrients we need to produce hormones, then our whole hormonal system can be impacted. If we take in environmental toxins through our food, our cosmetics, the air we breathe and the water we drink, our hormonal system can be impacted by the increasingly prevalent endocrine disruptors in these toxins. If we don’t exercise enough, our lymphatic system can’t move the toxins out of our bodies.

How can yoga help? Yoga’s role in stress reduction has been well-documented through a number of scientific studies over the years. Doing a calming daily yoga practice with a focus on stress reduction is a good start on helping to balance the adrenal glands which, as noted earlier, can affect many other glands if they are overworked. Be aware, however, that not all yoga practices are stress-reducing. Some vigorous practices may cause your body to release endorphins – those “feel-good” hormones associated with “runner’s high”. But, at the same time, they may actually be stressing the body, and adding to the load on the adrenal glands. (Running has been shown to actually increase the levels of the stress hormone cortisol in the bloodstream).

Near the yoga studio where I teach in Seattle, a homeless street artist used to sit on the sidewalk and sell his wares. I would often talk with him on my way to my class. Then, a new yoga studio went in on his section of the street, advertising a brand of hot and vigorous yoga. A few months later, as I stopped to talk to my artist friend, he said, “You’re a yoga teacher aren’t you?” When I replied “Yes”, he said, “Well, let me ask you something. I see these people going into this new studio here, and when they come out, they look worse than when they went in! I thought yoga was supposed to be good for you?” This guy had no scientific knowledge, but he had time and the artist’s power of observation. This kind of yoga may have other benefits, but it is not designed to help reduce stress and balance your hormonal system! Instead, if we want to address hormone imbalances with yoga, we should have a practice that includes poses for each of the main endocrine centers, and is also calming to the central nervous system. In addition, if we know that we have particular issues related to one or a few hormones, we can also target certain glands in our practice. For example, the thyroid gland is one that is frequently out of balance, and we can choose poses that specifically help to nourish and balance the thyroid. Poses that open or compress the throat, or cause vibration in the throat, are all helpful for this. To focus on the thyroid gland, then, we might choose to do poses such as bridge pose, plow pose, fish pose, and some ujayii breathing or chanting. In the Yoga for Healthy Hormones sample routine offered here on the YogaMate website, we are choosing poses that address the key glands in the endocrine system, as well as stress reduction, to give an all-over hormonal-balancing practice.

More information about poses for specific conditions is available on my website http://www.yogaforhealthyhormones.com/. The endocrine system and the chakra system: From a yogic perspective, it is also interesting to note that the endocrine system is very closely aligned with the chakra system (yogic system of energy centers in the body). If you draw a map of the body showing the location of the seven major chakras, and juxtapose a drawing of the endocrine system, you will see that each major chakra contains one, or sometimes two, endocrine glands. Given the pervasive influence of hormones on our physical, emotional and mental health, it makes sense that these glands would be aligned with the chakras, which are also “power centers”, and also impact us at the physical, emotional, mental and spiritual levels.

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Hormonal Imbalance