When Mood Swings Attack

Remember when you felt like a superhero and the hustle and bustle of the day-to-day was your kryptonite. Do you find yourself looking back wondering how you ever managed to tackle the daily grind? You were once able to take on the world? nowadays, you can't take out the trash without having a complete meltdown.

You're not alone. Mood swings, irritability, and even depression are tell-tale symptoms of your hormones being out of whack. As early as your mid thirty's, hormones begin to decline. Add in daily stressors like a demanding job, financial pressures, family responsibilities, and it's easy to see how quickly we can become a ticking time bomb of emotions, ready to blow at any minute. Even the smallest of things can set you off. The worst part is that some of us take it out on the ones we love most. The best way to disarm your inner Jekyll/Hyde complex is to regain balance where it counts most - starting with your hormones.

The top 5 reasons you feel like you're losing it:

• Hormonal imbalance - Be it puberty, thyroid issues, peri-menopause or full-blown menopause or andropause (the male menopause), hormonal changes can put you on an emotional roller coaster. Hormone imbalance can happen during many stages of life, regardless of age, and one of the most troubling symptoms can be mood swings and irritability. It's important for women and men to keep hormone levels in check, especially those faced with age-related conditions, such as perimenopause, menopause and andropause (the male menopause).
• Weight gain - Fats cells convert testosterone into estrogen and estrogen influences the production of a hormone known as serotonin - a neurotransmitter that regulates mood. The more estrogen levels fluctuate, the greater the likelihood of mood swings and irritability.
• Stress - Be it at work or at home, stress is everywhere - there's no escaping it. The trick isn't to necessarily avoid stress, but to find healthy ways to cope with stressful situations. Stress prompts the release of a hormone known as cortisol. Cortisol is the body's "fight or flight" response to stress. While cortisol helps prepare the body for stressful situations, chronic stress can lead to the overproduction of cortisol and push us to our breaking point.
• Depression - It's natural for us to sometimes feel like we're stuck in a rut. But when this feeling lasts for weeks or months, chances are something isn't right. Unfortunately, there is no blood test capable of diagnosing depression. And while the causes of depression may vary, depression is most often attributed to hormonal imbalance. If you're one of the 17million Americans suffering from depression, it's recommended that you have your hormone levels tested to see if a hormonal imbalance is to blame.
• Sleep - Sleep is vital to the human body and quality of rest is equally important to the number of hours that we sleep each night. Have you ever woken up early after going to bed too late? The reason you wake up feeling fatigued, worn out and run down is because your body didn't have enough time to recharge its batteries. Although you may not feel like you accomplish much in your sleep, from a physiological standpoint, you're body is hard at work, completing a variety of biological processes. One of these processes includes the replenishment of serotonin. When serotonin levels are low, it's common to experience lethargy, feelings of worthlessness, depression, anxiety and irritability.

Fortunately, with some basic stress reduction techniques and lifestyle improvements in conjunction with bioidentical hormone therapy, you can find relief from the mood swing pendulum.