Ancestral Health for Women — Sarah Ballantyne, H.B.Sc., Ph.D., Stacy Toth, B.A. (AHS14)
Channel: AncestryFoundation
Date: 2014-08-12

Ancestral Health for Women in the Modern World: the HPA Axis Meets the HPT and the HPG Axes

The evolutionary biology perspective has proven to be an invaluable tool in creating dietary guidelines for the optimal human diet. However, we are learning that there may be stark differences between optimal nutrition for women versus men. In particular, the female body responds differently to changes in macronutrient ratio as well as meal timing due to links between the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis and both the hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal and the hypothalamic-pituitary-thyroid axes, in part due to the combined roles of leptin and cortisol. Women may experience adverse health effects, including hypothyroidism and hypothalamic amenorrhea, in response to low carbohydrate diets and intermittent fasting.

Abstracts and information about the Ancestral Health Symposium can be found at www.ancestralhealth.org/ahs14-program.