Week 7 "Balancing Chemicals and Hormones to Turn Back the Clock" was as jammed packed with excellent info. We talked hormones, prevention, PCOS, stress, multivitamins and more. Oh boy!

Hormones & PCOS

First and foremost we learned that Rose takes the holistic approach to this too. Pills aren't always necessary, which is exactly what Western medicine (ie: your doctor) would instantly prescribe. It's actually much easier to prevent hormonal imbalance or balance them out naturally on your own.

Many of us, especially women, unknowingly suffer from Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS). This syndrome is caused by sugar overload or low blood sugars and is most often the cause of dreaded acne. Some of the signs of PCOS are: weight around the midriff, sugar cravings, acne, irritation and being tired after eating. If you have any or all of these (which is exactly what was wrong with yours truly!), your body is most likely storing sugar as fat and it's causing PCOS.

To prevent PCOS, Rose dished on a six step "Protocol for Prevention." These steps include diet, exercise, supplements, a lime-aid fast, and a Clearvite 21 day detox. But you'll have to ask Rose yourself for all of the juicy details (which supplements, where to get Clearvite, etc.). While I didn't do the Clearvite detox, I did all of the other steps and believe me, it feels great not craving a Dairy Queen Blizzard at 10pm every night!

Stress

Next we moved into the four types of stress and how to keep them in check. Stress is actually the number one factor for hormonal imbalance. Some stressors like structural stress (Read: injury), mental stress (Read: your job) or emotional stress (Read: Births, deaths, moving) are very much out of our control. But the one that is in our complete control is nutritional stress which, if you've been reading previous weeks, you know is really taxing on your body.
Here Rose went back over a bunch of the nutritional stressors (like wheat and alcohol) that are so easy to cut out. She also suggested other coping methods like regular massages (hint: massage schools are often $30 or less!).

Lastly, she talked about the hyper canvas part of our brains (the place most affected by stress) and some supplements, multivitamins, teas, and topical treatments that help calm this part of our brain. Things like adaptogenic herbs, like those found in ginseng are totally soothing and you can get it in capsule or tea formula.

Birth Control

In the last section, we discussed the controversial birth control pill. It ages the body more quickly, causes depression, makes our bodies hold onto weight, knocks out progesterone (the anti-aging youth hormones in our bodies), and more. Rose even showed us a case of death that is linked directly to the pill. Scary stuff! So frightening in fact that I immediately got off the pill and, I am not even kidding you, feel better and happier than I have in a long time; good feelings I didn't even know I was missing because I was on the pill for so long! I also lost a few lbs of water weight within days as a bonus.

So I'm feeling fine and I'm ready to share the last section of the program with you; Week 8's lesson with you on "Psoriasis Remedies and Anti-aging Nutrients to Apply on Your Skin." Stay tuned!