We now know how vital hormone balance is to women’s wellness. Your hormones are how your brain signals essential messages to your body regarding mood management, energy levels, stress responses, and sleep cycles. Understanding hormones and their reach of impact is especially important for women who are experiencing symptoms like fatigue, irritability, and mood swings - all of which stem from hormonal imbalance.
Did you know the endocannabinoid system (ECS) supports your central nervous system? This means the ECS plays a substantial vehicle in hormonal regulation. This blog shares how your endocannabinoid system balances cortisol and serotonin levels to stabilize your mood, energy, and sleep habits.
The endocannabinoid system’s role
The endocannabinoid system is a complex neuromodulatory network of receptors, enzymes, and endocannabinoids throughout the body. It has one focus: homeostasis. The ECS facilitates communication between your nervous and immune systems and hormone production to keep critical physiological processes running smoothly. The two most important hormones affected by the ECS are cortisol and serotonin. These two work in tandem to balance various aspects of your mental, physical, and emotional health.
How the ECS balances cortisol production
Cortisol, or the “stress hormone,” is produced by your adrenal glands in response to stress. In certain situations, this stress response is helpful. Say you’re driving, and you notice a deer crossing the road. The sight of the deer triggers cortisol production, which sends you into fight or flight mode. As a result, you can act quickly to avoid hitting the deer. What just happened? The sudden release of cortisol enhances your focus, energy, and reaction time to perceived danger.
However, many people experience consistently high levels of cortisol production, even when no imminent threat exists. Experiencing chronic stress for prolonged periods can have detrimental impacts on your mental and physical health. Too much cortisol can manifest severe medical diagnoses, such as insomnia, high blood pressure, and general anxiety disorder. Your ECS engages with receptors in your brain and adrenal glands to harness excessive amounts of cortisol to restore your central nervous system balance.
How the ECS regulates serotonin
In contrast, serotonin, the “bliss molecule”, is also linked to emotional regulation. Some indicators of low serotonin are depression, anxiety, and irritability. Your endocannabinoid system releases endocannabinoids that influence serotonin production. Hence, your ECS enhances serotonin’s ability to signal messages to the brain and body, promoting a clear mind and a better mood.
Cortisol and serotonin levels need to balance out for your body and mind to:
- Manage stress and anxiety. Harmonizing cortisol and serotonin helps you deal with immediate challenges and disarm your stress response when it’s no longer needed.
- Process highly emotional events. When these two hormones’ production levels are in sync, you are less likely to feel irritable or depressed. This is because the checks and balances of serotonin and cortisol encourage emotional stability for improved overall emotional regulation.
- Experience better quality sleep. When your cortisol levels are high, it can easily disrupt your sleep patterns. Moreover, inconsistent sleep patterns lead to poor sleep quality, which means your circadian clock won’t be able to perform critical restoration processes, such as repairing tissue damage and performing memory consolidation.
- Regulate immune and metabolic functions. Another risk of cortisol imbalance is unintended changes in appetite and immune function. This might cause unwanted weight gain, high blood pressure, and make you more susceptible to environmental hazards.
- Increase energy and focus. When your cortisol and serotonin levels are balanced, your mood levels out, dissipating brain fog. Subsequently, your ability to stay alert and focused throughout the day improves.
The first step is understanding hormones and their role in your body’s physiological functioning. Now that that’s out of the way, let’s talk about optimizing these functions with natural support aids for your endocannabinoid system. Ladykind is a wellness brand focused on elevating women’s health education and providing robust organic solutions that are as safe as they are effective.
With that said, Ladykind’s two award-winning tinctures, the Rise Up Daily Mind-Clearing Tincture and the Wind Down Nightly Mind Relaxing Tincture, were explicitly formulated to tackle hormonal imbalance from the inside out. To experience the therapeutic benefits of star ingredients like cannabidiol and Ayurvedic herbs, purchase the bundle package, Rise & Rest. Enjoy 20% off your purchase with discount code RISEANDREST20 at checkout.
