The PBCS Protocol: Lifestyle
If you’re not used to the holistic health approach, lifestyle practices may seem utterly unrelated to the health of your hormone system. But ensuring you’re following some lifestyle “best practices” is just as important as eating the right food!
Eliminate Toxins and Beat Stress with Exercise (and Yoga!)
Regular exercise is one of the best ways to support your body and rebalance hormones. By incorporating 150 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity per week, you will increase circulation of blood and lymph, which will naturally start to move and eliminate toxins via sweat and the bowels. Getting the bowels moving with regular exercise is a great way to eliminate excess estrogen (a must for anyone who’s been on hormonal birth control!)
Exercise will also increase muscle mass, which helps to prevent osteoporosis and increases insulin sensitivity (bye, bye blood sugar dysregulation!)
Another benefit of exercise, and especially all forms of yoga, is stress relief and cortisol reduction. And since increased cortisol levels can lead to progesterone (and, in turn, estrogen) imbalance, I recommend finding a weekly exercise routine that incorporates both high intensity workouts and mindful, restorative yoga flows.
Sleep: Reset Hormonal Rhythm
Sleep is probably the number one most overlooked piece of the hormonal rebalancing puzzle. A good-quality, 7- to 9-hour nightly sleep is crucial for your endocrine system to function optimally.
If you’re not sleeping well every single night, you’re hormones don’t have a fighting chance to restore balance and kick PBCS to the curb. Full stop. Sleep, and proper sleep hygiene, should be non-negotiable.
So what does proper sleep hygiene look like? In a nutshell…
A Dreamy Sleeping Environment:
Keep your bedroom a few degrees cooler than you typically like (for me, that’s around 17-18 degrees Celsius)
Make sure it’s pitch black (so invest in some blackout curtains if you don’t already have them)
Remove ALL visual and auditory distractions including phones, TVs, tablets, computers, digital alarm clocks, and anything else that shines annoying lights or might make noise.
Make sure your bedroom is as quiet as possible and use a white noise machine or fan if necessary.
Power Down Hour:
Dr. Michael Breus (a.k.a. the Sleep Doctor) writes about a concept I absolutely love: a pre-bedtime power down hour. A power down hour helps reset your circadian rhythm and naturally boost nightly melatonin levels, which makes falling asleep and staying asleep much easier.
For an hour (or two) before bedtime, put away all electronics and engage only in activities that get you primed for a good night sleep. This could be doing gentle yoga, reading, taking an Epsom salt bath, meditating, or spending some quiet time with your loved ones or pets.
You should also reduce your exposure to bright lights, especially those from electronics, as the blue light they emit will actually reduce natural melatonin production. In fact, if you suffer from insomnia (either intermittent or chronic), living by candlelight after 8 p.m. might be just what you need to restore your circadian rhythm. It sounds crazy, but it works.
Squash Social Jet Lag:
So you’ve heard of (and probably experienced) jet lag after taking a long trip over seas, but do you know about “social jet lag”? Social jet lag is just like the type you experience after a long flight, except way more common and frequent. Why? Because many of us experience it every weekend without knowing.
Let me explain:
When you stay up two to three (or more!) hours later on Friday and Saturday night than you typically would during the work week, come Monday morning, your circadian rhythm is disrupted, and your body is trying to catch up from several hours of missed sleep. If you do this every weekend and feel terribly tired and unfocused on Monday, chances are you’re experiencing social jet lag.
I know it’s not fun, but one of the best things you can do for your sleep cycle and circadian rhythm (and therefore, for your hormones) is to follow the same sleep schedule every single night. It doesn’t matter if that means sleeping from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. every night or from 12 a.m. to 7 a.m., just make sure you stick to it religiously, avoid the snooze button in the morning, and your circadian and hormonal rhythms will thank you.
Beware of Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals (EDCs)
Bad news—EDCs are everywhere; on the foods you eat, in the Tupperware you use, in your skincare and makeup, clothing, and the products you use to clean your home.
Exposure to xenoestrogens, chemicals that mimic estrogen in the body, increase overall estrogen levels and lead to estrogen dominance. (Other factors that increase estrogen are insulin resistance and being overweight.)
Pair any or all of these with prolonged use of the birth control pill, which also increases estrogen levels via a daily dose of synthetic estrogen, and you have yourself a big estrogen-fueled mess.
The result? Hormonal mayhem, systemic inflammation, and a sluggish liver.
My top three recommendations to reduce exposure are:
Consume only pasture-raised, grass-fed and finished, and wild meat, poultry, and fish. Conventionally raised, hormone- and antibiotic-fed animals are by far one of the biggest sources of EDCs
Switch to natural skincare, makeup, and body products. If it goes on your skin, it’s getting absorbed. Luckily, there are resources like the ThinkDirty app and the EWG’s Skin Deep Database that make it easy to know which products are good to use, and which ones to stay away from
Reduce use of plastics. Every piece of plastic that was ever made is still around today. Plastics are horrible for the environment and horrible for us—in fact, microplastics are now being found in babies, entering their delicate systems via breast milk. So sad ☹ To reduce your exposure to plastic, one of the most common EDCs, never store food or drinks in plastic containers and never ever heat plastic in the microwave.
Remember, knowledge is power. If you’ve been living a lifestyle that might be contributing to your hormone imbalance and PBCS, learning this stuff is the first step. Only then can you begin to make informed decisions and begin to live a healthier lifestyle!
For an overview of the PBCS Lifestyle, click the link below, which also contains a self-reflection section to help you begin to identify the areas of your life that you can improve upon and introduce more healthy lifestyle habits.
Click here to download the PBCS Lifestyle Key Takeaways and Self-Reflection PDF.
