Betsy says she's living in hormonal hell. I'm starting to have hot flashes and my doctor wants me to take hormones because my mother had osteoporosis. In a way, Betsy is right. Hormones regulate puberty, fertility, pregnancy, and menopause. When our hormones send us into a frenzy, they can do more than urge us to sidle up to that cute cowboy at the bar or to eat another handful of chocolate-covered almonds.
Hormonal imbalance can contribute to diseases like endometriosis and breast or prostate cancer.
However, it's not only our natural hormones that can wreak havoc with our lives. As if this wasn't already confusing enough, now there's another aspect to hormones that we must learn to take into consideration if we're going to stay healthy ourselves as well as raise healthy families. Certain man-made chemicals, many of which are found in the household products we use regularly and in the foods we consume every day, are under suspicion. We are exposed to these compounds through the air we breathe, the food and water we ingest or absorb through our skin. Called Hormone Disruptors , these particular compounds can mimic our natural hormones, creating imbalance, or they can alter the way our natural hormones are supposed to work in the body.