Balanced Blood Sugar for Healthy Periods
Blood sugar regulation is perhaps the most underrated piece of the hormonal balance puzzle.
Often overlooked, mismanaged blood sugar can very well be the underlying root cause of your hormonal problems. In order to understand why blood sugar regulation is crucial to balanced hormones and symptom-free periods, lets first take a look at the hormones involved, insulin and glucagon.
When you eat a meal, your body breaks it down to simple sugars, primarily glucose. Some glucose is used directly by the brain, but the rest is managed by insulin. Insulin is a storage hormone released by the pancreas, and its job is it to shuttle glucose from the blood into the cells (to be used as energy for tasks like growth, repair, and movement).
Some of the leftover glucose goes to the liver where it is converted and stored as glycogen. The rest is stored as fat.
If you wait too long between meals or didn’t eat enough to begin with, your blood sugar dips and the pancreas responds with the hormone glucagon. Glucagon signals the liver to convert stored glycogen back to glucose and release it into the bloodstream to bring your blood sugar back up.
This feedback system ensures your brain, heart and muscles get the gas they need to do their jobs. Insulin and glucagon work as a team.
Your body is SMART. It has an innate system of checks and balances to keep your blood sugar regulated.
however, your body recognizes extreme highs and lows as stress.
Signs of blood sugar imbalance:
You’re cold and clammy between meals.
You crave carbohydrates or sweets.
You become irritable, “hangry”, or lightheaded if you miss a meal.
You are experiencing weight loss resistance or it is difficult for you to lose weight.
You experience excessive thirst or frequent urination.
You have low sex drive.
You are easily fatigued.
You struggle with anxiety, depression, and or panic attacks.
You’ve been diagnosed with PMS, PCOS, or other hormonal disturbances.
In response to this stress, your body (more specifically, the adrenal glands) pump out stress hormones, primarily cortisol and adrenaline. Cortisol’s main job is to increase glucose in the blood to provide the energy you need to keep you safe.
It also raises blood pressure, lowers immune function, shuts down GI function, and fertility. Essentially all functions unnecessary for immediate survival shut down. This is because you need all available energy to fight or flee from the “perceived threat,” to literally keep you safe.
Your body doesn’t know the difference between a predator, a monster boss, or imbalanced blood sugar for instance – it is all perceived as stress.
If you’re constantly under stress, or putting your body under stress by not actively balancing your blood sugar, your levels of glucose, insulin and cortisol will be constantly elevated.
Overtime this can lead to insulin resistance (when your cells become desensitized to the action of insulin), estrogen dominance, PCOS, and a slew of other hormonal issues as a result.
I advise my clients to attempt to balance their blood sugar like their lives and hormones depend on it, because they do!
References
Tantillo, M. (2019). The Period Fix [eBook].
Read the rest of this article, including Balanced Blood Sugar Dietary Guidelines from The Period Fix by Meg Tantillo BSN, RN posted on our friends blog at Food Period.
Megan Tantillo, DNP is the founder and clinic director of Holistic Health Code helping women and families live well.