Latest news with #hormones
The Guardian
2 days ago
- Health
- The Guardian
A hero among hormones: why cortisol is something to celebrate rather than stress about
Of all the hormones produced by the body, cortisol is the most misunderstood. It's essential to any number of biological processes, and yet commonly typecast as 'the one to do with stress' – an evolutionary adaptation for different times, wildly unsuited to modern living, something to reduce with meditation, reset with ice baths or regulate with red-light therapy. Personal trainers will tell you to avoid long runs in case they result in 'cortisol belly', while influencers diagnose 'cortisol face' as a sign of too much pressure in the office. To top it all, social media has recently seen the rise of the 'cortisol cocktail' – a combination of coconut water, orange juice, salt, and lemon that TikTokers claim can reduce stress and help with weight loss. But how much of this has any kind of scientific validity – and is worrying about your cortisol levels doing you more harm than good? The first thing to understand is what cortisol is, and what it actually does: and yes, that does include helping to manage our response to external stressors. In situations that the body perceives as fight-or-flight, it helps the body to produce immediate energy – as well as suppressing non-essential functions such as digestion or repair (we'll get to whether this is a bad thing or not shortly). 'Cortisol plays a vital role in blood-sugar regulation, by prompting the liver to produce glucose and helping ensure a steady supply of fuel to the brain and body,' says Hannah Alderson, a nutritionist, hormone specialist and author of Everything I Know About Hormones. 'It also helps modulate inflammation, keeping immune responses in check and preventing them from going into overdrive. It's key in how we metabolise fat, protein and carbohydrate.' It also regulates blood pressure, can act as a mood buffer, and kicks in to help fight infection if we're recovering from an acute illness. But one of its most vital roles is also its least talked-about. 'It's the hormone that gets us out of bed,' says Angela Clow, emeritus professor of psychophysiology at the University of Westminster. 'You get this burst of it in the morning, which is called the 'cortisol awakening response'. That's not a bad thing or a stress response – it's the body's way of waking up and promoting cognitive function. You've probably experienced a time when you have an early flight or a busy day ahead, and your body anticipates it and wakes you up without needing an alarm clock. That's cortisol priming your brain to be more alert and more active, preparing you for the day ahead.' Research published earlier this year confirmed that cortisol is already increasing from its lowest point about three hours before you wake up – putting to rest any idea that getting up itself is stressful for the body, and suggesting instead that rising cortisol levels are part of what gets us ready for the day. Like every other higher organism on the planet, we've evolved to live in an environment that's dark for (roughly) half of every day, and so our body needs a way to switch from restoration into activity, which seems to be one of cortisol's key roles. 'A very large proportion of the genes in your body are sensitive to cortisol,' says Stafford Lightman, a professor of medicine at Bristol Medical School and co-author on the recent research. 'And so cortisol has a daily rhythm, and that daily rhythm regulates multiple genes in multiple tissues; in your brain, your liver and your immune system.' As part of this process, cortisol levels gradually decline throughout the day, with periodic bursts approximately every 90 minutes helping to maintain proper bodily function. This certainly isn't a bad thing, but it does make gauging it difficult: you could take two measurements 30 minutes apart and get two wildly differing numbers. Under laboratory conditions, researchers take cortisol readings from blood or saliva multiple times a day to obtain a general picture of how volunteers' levels fluctuate and respond to stressors. At-home tests are much less useful: if you're only testing yourself once or twice a day, the only thing you might notice is that your levels are very high or very low. So what about the idea that the minor stresses of everyday life are constantly keeping our cortisol levels perilously high? One common characterisation of the way this might work is that our bodies, evolved to deal with sabre-tooth tiger attacks and flash floods, can't easily distinguish between those sorts of immediate, physical threats and more psychological ones – an argument on the school run, say, or a nasty email from a client. Social stressors, the theory goes, can be insidious: they're basically ever-present, especially if we're prone to catastrophise, and if our bodies' restorative systems switch themselves off every time we encounter them, we'll never have time for rest and repair. In baboon troops – which are very social and hierarchical – this effect is visible, with the lower-pecking-order males suffering with worse immunity and shorter lifespans, as their fight-or-flight systems are constantly prioritised over the rest-and-digest ones. But baboon lives tend to be genuinely far more stressful than human ones – if you're kicked out of the troop or can't find a mate, you're facing a genuine, near-immediate threat to your genes' survival, rather than just feeling a bit put out. There's speculation, of course, that our bodies can't make this sort of distinction, and that we still internally respond to having our birthday forgotten at the office like we would to banishment on the savannah. But is that really true? As it turns out, probably not. To test the effect of short-term bursts of stress, psychologists have developed all sorts of unpleasant laboratory procedures – from cold-water immersion to problem-solving under time pressure, to the Trier Social Stress Test, where volunteers are tasked with delivering a speech and mental arithmetic task in front of an unresponsive panel of evaluators. And the effect isn't as pronounced as you might have been led to believe. 'Trying to stress a human is really difficult,' says Lightman. 'Even plunging your hand into freezing-cold water has very little effect. If you've got a really important job interview that is going to govern the rest of your life, then yes, that's probably going to be stressful. But it's very subjective – some people, of course, actually like giving presentations in front of a crowd. With things like the Trier test, you might get a reaction the first time, and then you won't again – just understanding what the test is about is enough to destroy the effect.' This means you're unlikely to be suffering spikes in cortisol from the odd snippy Zoom call or altercation at the self-checkout – and, even if your body sees those situations as a threat to your wellbeing, there are other systems that kick in first. 'It's not just cortisol that goes up in stressful situations,' says Dr Thomas Upton, a clinical research fellow who also worked on the recent study. 'There are other hormones – like catecholamines, your adrenaline and noradrenaline – that play key roles in the immediate part of the fight-or-flight response. This is what helps you 'fight the lion' and get yourself out of the situation, followed up by cortisol release if the stress is strong enough or long enough. What you're feeling in a very stressful situation like a jump scare is a rush of adrenaline that makes your heart pound and your mouth go dry and all the rest of it.' Brief, short-term stress is probably not doing you any harm, then. But does this mean heightened cortisol becomes more of an issue when you're continuously stressed over the long term – for instance, from worrying about a family problem or the mortgage – or even deliberately putting yourself through too many difficult workouts? 'That's a bit trickier,' says Prof Clow. 'If you just have a short burst of perceived stress, you will have a little burst of cortisol. That's fine: your body will speedily return to normal cortisol secretion. But if you're chronically stressed, repeatedly getting these bursts, that can affect the regulation of your underlying circadian pattern, which is regulated by your biological clock. So that, instead of having a healthy dynamic pattern of cortisol secretion over each 24 hours, you get 'flat-lining', which is not able to regulate other processes adequately.' Constant stress, then, is probably bad for your cognitive function and health. But cortisol is unlikely to change how you look, unless there are larger problems at play. 'If you had Cushing's syndrome, which is a rare condition where cortisol levels in the body are very high, for example due to a tumour of the adrenal gland, then yes, you might gain extra weight around the stomach, or notice that your face becomes round and puffy,' says Niamh Martin, a professor of endocrinology at Imperial College London. 'But that tends to be with very, very high cortisol levels.' And, while it's true that something like a long run can elevate cortisol levels over the short term, that doesn't mean there's any need to ditch your plans for a new personal best. 'Doing, say, a marathon is a massively stressful situation for the body,' says Upton. 'You need a cortisol response in that situation, and there's nothing wrong with it: if you didn't have that response, the results would probably be terrible. You might actually die.' The good news, then, is that you can happily ignore the most outlandish advice about keeping cortisol in check with cocktails or cold plunges. Unless you're suffering from a clear medical issue, you probably also don't need to worry about how your cortisol's changing on a daily or hourly basis. Several companies are working on methods for continuously monitoring cortisol levels as you go about your everyday life – but even these could do most people more harm than good. 'Something that we've seen with glucose monitors is that they create a lot of 'worried well' people who put one on, have their breakfast and say, oh hell, my blood sugar's gone up too much,' says Lightman. 'And then they start worrying about doing all sorts of things and make themselves ill. If you're an Olympic sprinter or something, continuous monitoring might be useful. But, among most people, there's so much individual variation that the range we call 'normal' is huge.' There's one more obvious question here, though: if cortisol isn't the culprit, why does stress seem to go hand in hand with poor health, immune-system disruption and weight gain? 'It's very difficult to unpick,' says Martin. 'For instance, many of us have a complex relationship with food – and there are behavioural reasons why we eat besides being hungry – so it's easy to blame cortisol if we notice that we're gaining weight, but it might also be that, because we're stressed, we're eating in a different way. Similarly, you might be having a tough time at work and that means you don't have time to exercise, or you're not sleeping well because you're stressed and that's negatively affecting your cortisol levels, rather than the relationship going the other way. Part of the issue is that we still don't fully understand the chronic stresses that modern life involves and what their impact is on our bodies over a long period of time.' So what does all this mean for you and your life – stressful or otherwise? 'I think the most evidence-backed approach is to treat cortisol as something like a bystander, rather than blaming it for any issues you're having,' says Martin. 'If you're chronically stressed, that's something to deal with for health reasons, but it's not necessarily a question of artificially finding ways to keep your cortisol down – it's more holistic than that. The most important thing is to look after yourself, rather than reaching for an expensive supplement or a cortisol cocktail or anything like that.' 'There are a few things that seem to help keep cortisol well regulated,' says Clow. 'The research suggests, for instance, that the earlier you wake – within reason – promotes a healthy and dynamic cortisol rhythm. So getting plenty of sleep and then getting up relatively early seems to be very good for you. There's increasing evidence that night-time light exposure inhibits your melatonin secretion, which liberates cortisol and allows it to rise while you sleep.' It's worth mentioning, though, that getting enough sleep – and on a regular schedule – might be more important. Physical exercise seems to keep cortisol well regulated but, if you can't face the gym, that's not necessarily a bad thing. 'Gentle exercise, like walking, stretching or pilates, can regulate cortisol far better than an hour-long Hiit class on an empty stomach,' says Alderson. 'Breath work is amazing and you can do it anywhere. Micromoments of joy are a lot simpler to weave in than grand gestures like week-long yoga retreats – and, even if they're not directly affecting your cortisol, they matter more than people realise. A laugh, a hug, a walk in nature: this stuff really matters.' Finally, it's important to remember that, even if modern living does occasionally nudge your hormones outside optimal levels, cortisol is on your side. Your body's stress response to most things should be good for you. Try to get some exercise every day, sleep on a regular schedule, and eat as sensibly as you can. Don't worry about the other stuff: you really don't need the stress.
The Guardian
3 days ago
- Health
- The Guardian
A hero among hormones: why cortisol is something to celebrate rather than stress about
Of all the hormones produced by the body, cortisol is the most misunderstood. It's essential to any number of biological processes, and yet commonly typecast as 'the one to do with stress' – an evolutionary adaptation for different times, wildly unsuited to modern living, something to reduce with meditation, reset with ice baths or regulate with red-light therapy. Personal trainers will tell you to avoid long runs in case they result in 'cortisol belly', while influencers diagnose 'cortisol face' as a sign of too much pressure in the office. To top it all, social media has recently seen the rise of the 'cortisol cocktail' – a combination of coconut water, orange juice, salt, and lemon that TikTokers claim can reduce stress and help with weight loss. But how much of this has any kind of scientific validity – and is worrying about your cortisol levels doing you more harm than good? The first thing to understand is what cortisol is, and what it actually does: and yes, that does include helping to manage our response to external stressors. In situations that the body perceives as fight-or-flight, it helps the body to produce immediate energy – as well as suppressing non-essential functions such as digestion or repair (we'll get to whether this is a bad thing or not shortly). 'Cortisol plays a vital role in blood-sugar regulation, by prompting the liver to produce glucose and helping ensure a steady supply of fuel to the brain and body,' says Hannah Alderson, a nutritionist, hormone specialist and author of Everything I Know About Hormones. 'It also helps modulate inflammation, keeping immune responses in check and preventing them from going into overdrive. It's key in how we metabolise fat, protein and carbohydrate.' It also regulates blood pressure, can act as a mood buffer, and kicks in to help fight infection if we're recovering from an acute illness. But one of its most vital roles is also its least talked-about. 'It's the hormone that gets us out of bed,' says Angela Clow, emeritus professor of psychophysiology at the University of Westminster. 'You get this burst of it in the morning, which is called the 'cortisol awakening response'. That's not a bad thing or a stress response – it's the body's way of waking up and promoting cognitive function. You've probably experienced a time when you have an early flight or a busy day ahead, and your body anticipates it and wakes you up without needing an alarm clock. That's cortisol priming your brain to be more alert and more active, preparing you for the day ahead.' Research published earlier this year confirmed that cortisol is already increasing from its lowest point about three hours before you wake up – putting to rest any idea that getting up itself is stressful for the body, and suggesting instead that rising cortisol levels are part of what gets us ready for the day. Like every other higher organism on the planet, we've evolved to live in an environment that's dark for (roughly) half of every day, and so our body needs a way to switch from restoration into activity, which seems to be one of cortisol's key roles. 'A very large proportion of the genes in your body are sensitive to cortisol,' says Stafford Lightman, a professor of medicine at Bristol Medical School and co-author on the recent research. 'And so cortisol has a daily rhythm, and that daily rhythm regulates multiple genes in multiple tissues; in your brain, your liver and your immune system.' As part of this process, cortisol levels gradually decline throughout the day, with periodic bursts approximately every 90 minutes helping to maintain proper bodily function. This certainly isn't a bad thing, but it does make gauging it difficult: you could take two measurements 30 minutes apart and get two wildly differing numbers. Under laboratory conditions, researchers take cortisol readings from blood or saliva multiple times a day to obtain a general picture of how volunteers' levels fluctuate and respond to stressors. At-home tests are much less useful: if you're only testing yourself once or twice a day, the only thing you might notice is that your levels are very high or very low. So what about the idea that the minor stresses of everyday life are constantly keeping our cortisol levels perilously high? One common characterisation of the way this might work is that our bodies, evolved to deal with sabre-tooth tiger attacks and flash floods, can't easily distinguish between those sorts of immediate, physical threats and more psychological ones – an argument on the school run, say, or a nasty email from a client. Social stressors, the theory goes, can be insidious: they're basically ever-present, especially if we're prone to catastrophise, and if our bodies' restorative systems switch themselves off every time we encounter them, we'll never have time for rest and repair. In baboon troops – which are very social and hierarchical – this effect is visible, with the lower-pecking-order males suffering with worse immunity and shorter lifespans, as their fight-or-flight systems are constantly prioritised over the rest-and-digest ones. But baboon lives tend to be genuinely far more stressful than human ones – if you're kicked out of the troop or can't find a mate, you're facing a genuine, near-immediate threat to your genes' survival, rather than just feeling a bit put out. There's speculation, of course, that our bodies can't make this sort of distinction, and that we still internally respond to having our birthday forgotten at the office like we would to banishment on the savannah. But is that really true? As it turns out, probably not. To test the effect of short-term bursts of stress, psychologists have developed all sorts of unpleasant laboratory procedures – from cold-water immersion to problem-solving under time pressure, to the Trier Social Stress Test, where volunteers are tasked with delivering a speech and mental arithmetic task in front of an unresponsive panel of evaluators. And the effect isn't as pronounced as you might have been led to believe. 'Trying to stress a human is really difficult,' says Lightman. 'Even plunging your hand into freezing-cold water has very little effect. If you've got a really important job interview that is going to govern the rest of your life, then yes, that's probably going to be stressful. But it's very subjective – some people, of course, actually like giving presentations in front of a crowd. With things like the Trier test, you might get a reaction the first time, and then you won't again – just understanding what the test is about is enough to destroy the effect.' This means you're unlikely to be suffering spikes in cortisol from the odd snippy Zoom call or altercation at the self-checkout – and, even if your body sees those situations as a threat to your wellbeing, there are other systems that kick in first. 'It's not just cortisol that goes up in stressful situations,' says Dr Thomas Upton, a clinical research fellow who also worked on the recent study. 'There are other hormones – like catecholamines, your adrenaline and noradrenaline – that play key roles in the immediate part of the fight-or-flight response. This is what helps you 'fight the lion' and get yourself out of the situation, followed up by cortisol release if the stress is strong enough or long enough. What you're feeling in a very stressful situation like a jump scare is a rush of adrenaline that makes your heart pound and your mouth go dry and all the rest of it.' Brief, short-term stress is probably not doing you any harm, then. But does this mean heightened cortisol becomes more of an issue when you're continuously stressed over the long term – for instance, from worrying about a family problem or the mortgage – or even deliberately putting yourself through too many difficult workouts? 'That's a bit trickier,' says Prof Clow. 'If you just have a short burst of perceived stress, you will have a little burst of cortisol. That's fine: your body will speedily return to normal cortisol secretion. But if you're chronically stressed, repeatedly getting these bursts, that can affect the regulation of your underlying circadian pattern, which is regulated by your biological clock. So that, instead of having a healthy dynamic pattern of cortisol secretion over each 24 hours, you get 'flat-lining', which is not able to regulate other processes adequately.' Constant stress, then, is probably bad for your cognitive function and health. But cortisol is unlikely to change how you look, unless there are larger problems at play. 'If you had Cushing's syndrome, which is a rare condition where cortisol levels in the body are very high, for example due to a tumour of the adrenal gland, then yes, you might gain extra weight around the stomach, or notice that your face becomes round and puffy,' says Niamh Martin, a professor of endocrinology at Imperial College London. 'But that tends to be with very, very high cortisol levels.' And, while it's true that something like a long run can elevate cortisol levels over the short term, that doesn't mean there's any need to ditch your plans for a new personal best. 'Doing, say, a marathon is a massively stressful situation for the body,' says Upton. 'You need a cortisol response in that situation, and there's nothing wrong with it: if you didn't have that response, the results would probably be terrible. You might actually die.' The good news, then, is that you can happily ignore the most outlandish advice about keeping cortisol in check with cocktails or cold plunges. Unless you're suffering from a clear medical issue, you probably also don't need to worry about how your cortisol's changing on a daily or hourly basis. Several companies are working on methods for continuously monitoring cortisol levels as you go about your everyday life – but even these could do most people more harm than good. 'Something that we've seen with glucose monitors is that they create a lot of 'worried well' people who put one on, have their breakfast and say, oh hell, my blood sugar's gone up too much,' says Lightman. 'And then they start worrying about doing all sorts of things and make themselves ill. If you're an Olympic sprinter or something, continuous monitoring might be useful. But, among most people, there's so much individual variation that the range we call 'normal' is huge.' There's one more obvious question here, though: if cortisol isn't the culprit, why does stress seem to go hand in hand with poor health, immune-system disruption and weight gain? 'It's very difficult to unpick,' says Martin. 'For instance, many of us have a complex relationship with food – and there are behavioural reasons why we eat besides being hungry – so it's easy to blame cortisol if we notice that we're gaining weight, but it might also be that, because we're stressed, we're eating in a different way. Similarly, you might be having a tough time at work and that means you don't have time to exercise, or you're not sleeping well because you're stressed and that's negatively affecting your cortisol levels, rather than the relationship going the other way. Part of the issue is that we still don't fully understand the chronic stresses that modern life involves and what their impact is on our bodies over a long period of time.' So what does all this mean for you and your life – stressful or otherwise? 'I think the most evidence-backed approach is to treat cortisol as something like a bystander, rather than blaming it for any issues you're having,' says Martin. 'If you're chronically stressed, that's something to deal with for health reasons, but it's not necessarily a question of artificially finding ways to keep your cortisol down – it's more holistic than that. The most important thing is to look after yourself, rather than reaching for an expensive supplement or a cortisol cocktail or anything like that.' 'There are a few things that seem to help keep cortisol well regulated,' says Clow. 'The research suggests, for instance, that the earlier you wake – within reason – promotes a healthy and dynamic cortisol rhythm. So getting plenty of sleep and then getting up relatively early seems to be very good for you. There's increasing evidence that night-time light exposure inhibits your melatonin secretion, which liberates cortisol and allows it to rise while you sleep.' It's worth mentioning, though, that getting enough sleep – and on a regular schedule – might be more important. Physical exercise seems to keep cortisol well regulated but, if you can't face the gym, that's not necessarily a bad thing. 'Gentle exercise, like walking, stretching or pilates, can regulate cortisol far better than an hour-long Hiit class on an empty stomach,' says Alderson. 'Breath work is amazing and you can do it anywhere. Micromoments of joy are a lot simpler to weave in than grand gestures like week-long yoga retreats – and, even if they're not directly affecting your cortisol, they matter more than people realise. A laugh, a hug, a walk in nature: this stuff really matters.' Finally, it's important to remember that, even if modern living does occasionally nudge your hormones outside optimal levels, cortisol is on your side. Your body's stress response to most things should be good for you. Try to get some exercise every day, sleep on a regular schedule, and eat as sensibly as you can. Don't worry about the other stuff: you really don't need the stress.
Yahoo
21-07-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Are You Self-Sabotaging Your Hormone Therapy?
If you've been navigating the ups and downs of estrogen in midlife, you've probably heard the names: estradiol, estrone and estriol—the three main types of estrogen in the body. But new research is turning the spotlight onto another form of estrogen that may play a bigger role than previously thought—2-hydroxyestrone, sometimes referred to as a 'protective' estrogen. In a recent study published in Menopause: The Journal of The North American Menopause Society, researchers looked at how a naturally derived supplement called 3,3′-diindolylmethane (DIM), a compound found in vegetables like broccoli and Brussels sprouts, may help shift estrogen metabolism in a beneficial direction. Specifically, they found that DIM supplementation increased levels of 2-hydroxyestrone while reducing levels of 16α-hydroxyestrone, a form of estrogen some studies have linked to increased breast cancer risk. More from Flow Space Why Midlife Women Are More Likely to Experience This Painful GI Condition So what does this mean for your hormones, your health and your hot flashes? Here's what experts say you should know about DIM, 'good' estrogens and the future of hormone support in midlife and beyond. That 'Natural' Supplement Might Be Messing With Your Hormones DIM is a compound your body produces when you digest cruciferous vegetables like broccoli, kale and cabbage. It's been turned into a supplement and heavily promoted online as a way to 'detox' estrogen, clear hormonal acne or 'balance' hormones during perimenopause and menopause. But in supplement form, you're often getting much higher doses than you'd ever get from eating vegetables, and that can affect how your body processes hormones like estrogen. 'I like to say estrogen is a 'use it and lose it' hormone meaning you want to get the benefit of the estrogen, but you don't want it lingering in the body longer than it needs to because then it starts to accumulate and cause issues,' Dr. Stephanie Wallman, medical director at The Lanby, tells Flow Space. 'For menopausal women, who don't have much naturally cycling estrogen, there is not as much estrogen around and therefore do not require DIM to help move estrogen out of the body.' In other words, if you're using DIM during menopause, it may disrupt hormone balance rather than restore it, especially in women already dealing with fluctuating or low estrogen levels. And for women using hormone therapy, you may be undermining your own treatment without realizing it. That could explain sudden changes in how you feel—like hot flashes returning, mood dips or other symptoms flaring up again. Some experts also caution that while altering estrogen metabolism may reduce certain risks (like estrogen-sensitive cancer), the long-term effects of sustained DIM use—especially in high doses—haven't been well studied. 'Each woman is programmed through their genes and environmental factors to process (detoxify) estrogen differently,' says Wallman. 'If a woman is predisposed to hold on to estrogen more or to process it through a less desirable pathway, this will still happen during menopause.' Other Side Effects of DIM You've probably seen the promises: DIM will 'balance your hormones,' 'detox estrogen' and 'support healthy metabolism.' But what's actually happening under the surface is far more nuanced, and for women in midlife, it's worth a closer look. For starters, DIM doesn't remove toxins. 'Detoxify sounds appealing, but it's not a scientific term here,' Dr. Neha Pathak, chief physician editor at WebMD, tells Flow Space. 'DIM doesn't remove anything from the body, it just changes how estrogen is broken down.' That might be helpful in some cases, but it's not inherently good or bad; it depends on your body, your symptoms and your overall hormonal profile. When estrogen is metabolized, it can take different 'routes' in the body. Some metabolites—like 2-hydroxyestrone—are considered gentler and possibly protective, while others—like 16α-hydroxyestrone—may be more active or linked to cancer risk. DIM pushes metabolism toward the former. But experts caution that we don't fully understand what those changes mean in the long run. 'It's more complex than just 'good' or 'bad' estrogen,' says Pathak. 'We still have a lot to learn about what these changes really mean for long-term health.' Another gray area? Cancer prevention. While some studies suggest that certain estrogen breakdown patterns are associated with a lower risk of breast cancer, there's no strong evidence that taking DIM as a supplement will actually reduce your risk. 'That's still a big question mark,' says Pathak. 'We don't know if trying to manipulate estrogen metabolism in this way leads to better outcomes.' Talk to Your Doctor Before Mixing Supplements with Hormone Therapy Many women start taking DIM often without realizing it could impact their hormones in significant ways. And many never bring it up with their doctor. But that silence can be risky, even if you're not on hormone therapy. 'DIM works very well and has become very popular among supplements that women try on their own,' says Wallman. 'But it can also cause side effects that are not so obviously tied to taking DIM, so I certainly recommend that doctors understand what DIM is—and what you can expect to happen when someone starts using it.' The issue is that DIM doesn't behave like a harmless vitamin. It influences how your body breaks down estrogen, sometimes shifting the balance of estrogen metabolites in unpredictable ways. That might be helpful in some situations, but it could also affect mood, sleep or energy levels, and even change how other medications or hormone therapies work. 'In my practice, no one walks out without me knowing everything about their hormones, so I'm certainly asking about DIM,' says Wallman. 'But many practitioners are not—and they should be.' Before adding anything new to your wellness regimen, talk to your healthcare provider, ideally someone who's experienced with menopause, perimenopause or hormone health. The goal isn't just to get a green light, it's to make sure the supplement actually makes sense for your body, your symptoms and your treatment plan. Pathak, suggests bringing a few key questions to your appointment: Do I really need this? Could it affect other medications or supplements I'm taking? Can I get similar benefits from diet instead? How will we track if it's helping—or doing more harm than good? Because while DIM may support healthy hormone metabolism in certain situations, it's not a one-size-fits-all solution. Your needs in midlife are unique—and so is your hormonal landscape.
Yahoo
21-07-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
My Neck Was Aging Faster Than My Face. Here's What I Did to Slow the Process Down
Who doesn't want to hear the words, 'You have beautiful skin'? I'd certainly longed to think that way about myself since my pre-teens when my hormones went haywire and my face paid the price. I can remember the first confidence-busting blemish. Sometime between when I headed to middle school one morning and departed that afternoon, a microscopic zit had groundswelled into a bump the size of a pencil eraser. With a dance just hours away, I did what any other teen might do; descended into my friends' basement bathroom and gouged at the eyesore. That moment would begin my obsession with my skin, with no pimple surviving my close inspection under a magnifying mirror. As I evolved from college student to beauty reporter/writer/editor, I even had one on my office desk (and believe me, I extracted a few things while sitting at it after hours writing about celebrity skincare routines) until the pandemic forced me to work from my couch. Then, like many people, I actually found comfort in a consistent routine. But let's be real, I also grew older, and I presume I won the battle with my hormones. However, age has brought forth new unflattering issues. Yes, from my forehead to my neck, my skin is pristine: even and smooth, and glows like no other, I'm told. But, when I began to notice lines along my neck, that teenage panic set in again. Like any beauty editor would, I assessed my regimen, and raided my medicine cabinet. I'd already been in the habit of drawing my skincare down to my neck, but now I reached for neck-specific products, hoping something would soften the look of these newfound lines. Nothing worked. Next: I called my dermatologist, Dr. Anna Karp, who I like to think of as part doctor, part therapist. (She reminds me that even babies have other smile lines among other helpful things.) In spring 2025, I sat in her chair to discuss my new area of concern, and it turns out my timing was impeccable. In October 2024, Allergan Aesthetics scored a major FDA approval milestone when the company's Botox Cosmetic injectable became the first and only one approved for the use in the jaw and neck to temporarily improve the look of platysma muscle (otherwise known as the vertical lines that run from the jaw to the neck) in adults. When Dr. Karp explained the development to me, I felt so seen. I am not alone. Dr. Karp says there's an uptick in curiosity, noting that more patients 'are interested in this 'Nefertiti lift,' which uses Botox Cosmetic along the lower jaw and platysma muscle to soften the vertical bands.' She posits this is likely the result of factors such as tech neck. That struck a chord with me. Though I have covered beauty, and as a result slathered lotions and potions all over my face, ahem, more than 15 years, the end result of testing was writing endless reviews while hunched over a laptop much like I am now. Another factor was something I have labeled 'Zoom scrutiny,' ie: the effect of watching, nay, analyzing your own face on screen during meetings. Never miss a story — sign up for to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories. Dr. Karp made me make an 'eek' face. It reminded me of when a general practitioner makes you say, 'ahh.' This way, she said, she could get a closer look at how my neck contracts. She then explained I'd be a good candidate for Botox Cosmetic in the platysma because I showed early signs of skin laxity and some dynamic movement of the platysma muscle contributing to lower face heaviness. While my bands had not entered moderate territory (those with moderate to severe bands are ideal candidates, she says), Dr. Karp added I'd still be a good candidate to try the cosmetic treatment because in addition to helping soften neck bands, treating the platysma with Botox Cosmetic can also help improve the contour of the jawline, and create a more lifted, youthful appearance in the lower face. 'The goal is a smoother, more elegant neck and enhanced definition along the jaw,' she affirmed. Like any fabulous doctor would (visit to find a trained provider; prices vary by provider), Dr. Karp also explained what the treatment would not do. For instance, I also have horizontal lines, which this would not improve. Additionally, it would not tighten skin. I live my life by a tight schedule, so I asked about a timeline. She said it was possible I could see results in as little as a couple of days, with full results visible at about the two week mark. Results from the temporary treatment could last for up to four months. Dr. Karp then presented the bottle of Botox Cosmetic for my treatment. Like all new bottles, it contained 100 units (a standardized measurement) of the neurotoxin. She injected 16 units in my jawline and 20 units in my neck, a typical amount for treating platysma bands, she explained. is now available in the Apple App Store! Download it now for the most binge-worthy celeb content, exclusive video clips, astrology updates and more! I promise, it didn't hurt. It felt more like a quick pinch than anything else. And it was over in what felt like a minute. Now I had to wait — and see. A few days passed. And a few more. And at first I wasn't sure if I could notice a difference, and then I kind of forgot I'd done anything at all. It was different than when you get a facial and have that instantly gratifying sculpted silhouette (which only lasts a few hours, I might add). At times, I'd spot myself talking and think my neck appeared smoother, but, was it really? Then, exactly three weeks to the day that I had the treatment, I sat with two very discerning friends at dinner and one said, 'Your skin always looks this great, but what did you do to your…' As her finger drew a virtual circle around my neck, I exclaimed, 'I got Botox!' and told them both about the experience. Then, I asked what specifically they noticed, to which one replied, 'the area just looks more…snatched.' And with that I called Dr. Karp's office and booked my next appointment. Read the original article on People
Yahoo
18-07-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
A Guide to the Newest Innovations in Midlife Hair Thinning Treatments, From Red Light Therapy to PRP
I've never had an abundance of hair, so seeing it get thinner in the past 10 years has been fairly depressing. I attributed breakage to weekly blowouts, but post-Covid and post-office life, I'm no longer paying for those high-heat, hair-pulling salon sessions. My hair still isn't getting any thicker or healthier. Talking to girlfriends my age, I have come to accept that hair shedding is a common hair condition to develop in menopause. I've also decided to take some action. I'm fortunate that I don't have Androgenetic Alopecia, which is severe hair loss, so I don't need anything drastic (yet). But like many of us, I am not sitting on a pile of money, so I can't throw thousands of dollars at my thin hair, either. I'm going easy first—but there are lots of interesting innovations in hair restoration to explore. Why Does Hair Thin in Midlife? When talking about what causes menopausal hair loss, the simple answer is fluctuating hormones. It's the same thing that everyone tells postpartum women: Your hormones are going crazy, so your hair is going to fall out more rapidly. In menopause and perimenopause, it's the natural dip in progesterone that can especially mess with your tresses. Other factors might also hit hard in midlife. 'Individuals face hair loss due to medical treatments, stress or illness in addition to hormonal shifts,' says Jennifer Donovan, owner of Le Shag salon in Kingston, NY, which has a dedicated program for hair restoration. 'Post-COVID, many clients have reported unexpected hair concerns—from thinning to changes in texture—often linked to heightened stress or long-term effects of illness.' Experts also point to diet, so critical to hair growth. We could eat chips and drink cocktails in our youth without beauty consequences, but not anymore. Jay Smalls, a Los Angeles-based trichologist (a healthcare professional who specializes in hair and scalp health), has his clients cut down or give up on processed food, alcohol and smoking as the first step to combating hair loss. 'Our bodies don't need hair as a core biological component. We just want hair!' says Smalls, whose company, sells products for aging hair, and he sees clients individually as well. If our diets lack diversity by the time we hit middle age, Smalls says, our bodies de-prioritize hair growth. Why is Hair Loss Treatment Having Such a Moment? 'People are taking better care of themselves now with so much information being made available. You also have celebrities who are willing to talk about their hair loss issues,' says Ashley Person, a hair stylist in New York City who works with many women (and celebs) over 40. 'I believe women are more comfortable because fewer people are keeping it a secret.' (See: Ashley Tisdale and her alopecia, for example.) There are a ton of remedies available, so to keep this simple, I'll go from the easiest and least-expensive options to the most invasive, expensive — and innovative — medical procedures. This isn't even an exhaustive list of all you can do, just an overview! Step One: Reduce Stress Why it works: Stress can push hair growth into a resting phase, and if stress continues, hair might fall out, as described by the National Institutes of Health. Cost: You can tackle stress for free. 'If you have no money, . Your cortisol levels are the biggest culprit of future hair loss,' says Smalls. Pro: Banishing stress helps you sleep and eat better, too. Con: Easier said than done, right? No one can magically change the outside stressors in life. But you can be in charge of how you react to them. Step Two: Eat Better and Consider Supplements Why it works: Your body needs a rich array of nutrients and protein to make hair. A Mediterranean diet, as described in our authoritative guide to thinning hair, is among the best for midlife. Experts also point to supplements to give hair added nutrients. And then: 'Water water water!' says Donovan. 'Hydration is key.' Cost: Your food costs might change as you buy lean meat, fruit and vegetables, but eating better doesn't need to break your budget. What might add to your monthly outlay are supplements. I'm currently on Nutrafol (winner of 'best supplement for healthy hair' in our annual Flow Space Wellness Awards) and that's costing about $75 a month through three-month deliveries. Pro: We all know that most people look better when they eat better. Con: Theoretically, eating clean should be easy. But it's hard to be disciplined when others are having burgers and fries. It's also tough to make switches when you really like sugar (like me) or your life regularly includes alcohol. Neither of those are great for hair. Step Three: Protect and Nurture Your Scalp—And Reconsider Hair Dying Why it works: We obsess about the skin on our face, yet the skin on our scalp is right there too, and takes more of a beating because it directly faces the sun and harmful UV rays. It also takes the brunt of salon treatments, like hair dye. The scalp can not proliferate hair, Smalls says, if it's always working hard to repair itself. 'The scalp ages six times faster than the skin on our face,' Smalls says. 'We scratch our scalp. We don't use sun protection. And if you start dying your hair at 30, in 10 years, at age 40, you'll start to see the results of all of that chemical exposure. Whatever you did five years ago is still showing in your hair now.' (Gulp.) Cost: It doesn't cost much to wear a hat or other hair covering when you're in the sun. And you save money if you stop highlights and hair dye, though those are hard beauty habits to give up. (Talk to your stylist. I have a friend who embraced her natural gray and it looks stunningly beautiful! But I have yet to give up my highlights so I'm not one to talk.) Topical scalp medications, like Minoxidil, are another way to go and have been around for years. You can buy an Amazon Minozidil Treatment for $25; the online reviews are mixed but mostly positive. can help and good ones cost in the ballpark of $50 a month. In our Wellness Awards, many experts recommended Davines Naturaltech Energizing Superactive Treatment, and I am trying it now (it tingles in a good way). Smalls sells a serum called To the Root that aims to neutralize free radicals from sun exposure and deliver antioxidants to encourage growth. There are also scalp spas. Person turned me on to RejuvaScalp which targets dermatitis, psoriasis, and other scalp conditions through deep-cleaning and massage stimulation. Pro: Protecting our scalp is smart, and serums are cheaper than hair coloring treatments. Con: Many of us, myself included, are addicted to our highlights. Growing them out is a commitment. Step Four: Try Hormone Replacement Therapy Why it works: The loss of estrogen and progesterone as we age has a profound effect on hair. Talk to your primary-care doctor or your ob/gyn about whether hormone replacement therapy (HRT) or menopause hormone therapy (MHT) might be right for you. 'If you can start low-level HRT earlier rather than later, you'll notice changes,' Smalls says. I have found it to be true; my hair has gotten noticeably better one year into HRT. Cost: It depends on what your doctor prescribes and what insurance covers. I'm on an estrogen patch and progesterone pills, and even with my insurance, I probably pay $100 a month. But I have friends whose insurance covers everything. Pro: Replacing lost hormones through medicine can have benefits beyond helping your hair. I have more energy and sleep better on HRT, and the skin on my face looks healthier. Con: Not everyone likes the idea of ingesting hormones. And while my ob/gyn is a huge proponent, my primary care doctor wants me to only stay on HRT for five years. Step Five: Consider a Hair Topper or Extensions Why it works: Anything mentioned up until now will show positive results over time. But clipping in a hair topper or something like a fake ponytail can provide immediate gratification. There are also elaborate ways to weave in extensions. 'As part of my salon's advanced offerings we have a stylist trained in the InvisaBlend system,' Donovan says. 'With that, we feed individual human hairs into existing thinning areas. This allows the client's own hair to grow while adding density. It's a breathable system that allows all serums and topical treatments to fully reach the scalp for better hair growth.' Cost: Adding fake hair or human-hair extensions can cost a little or a heck of a lot, depending on what you're looking at. I went down a rabbit hole of trying to price the ones that look super natural and the services are a minimum of a thousand dollars, and often more, plus you need maintenance. Pro: I can't get enough of the Cinderella stories behind these. Check out @thelaurenashtyncollection (out of South Carolina) or @hairdreaming (out of LA). The before and afters are both compelling and demystifying! Step Six: Red Light Therapy or Medical Treatments Why it works: With low-level red light therapy, or a medical treatment like platelet-rich plasma therapy (PRP — and also nicknamed the 'vampire facial'), you're taking bigger steps to stimulate blood circulation and hair growth. Low-level red-light therapy is the less drastic measure. We've reviewed plenty of red-light panels for your face and also a red light therapy hat for hair growth. The good tools get expensive, and results take time — the hat is to be used for 10 minutes a day for 16 weeks, and then three or four times a week forever after that. PRP is more intense. It involves a blood draw, a centrifuge, and injecting active stem cells into your scalp. Johns Hopkins describes how it can be used for things like injuries and wound healing in addition to male-patterned baldness. But women try it, too, including, apparently, Gwyneth Paltrow. Cost: According to Smalls, red-light therapy devices can cost anywhere from $30 to $500, but the cheap stuff might not be legit or useful. PRP or any medical treatment can — or certainly should — run you thousands of dollars. If someone is offering it on the cheap, beware, says Smalls. 'You need to do it with a trusted provider. I compare it to Botox. It's something you'd only want to get from a really trusted medical professional,' Smalls says. More from Flow Space FDA Experts Call for Rethink on Menopause Hormone Therapy Warnings
