How can we keep healthy hormone levels while balancing our busy schedules?
We spoke with Dr. Erika Schwartz, a leading expert on Bioidentical Hormones, who practices in NYC. Dr. Erika told us, “Hormones are at the core of our energy, mood and overall sense of living a healthy life. They change at every stage of life and, when not in balance, we don’t feel like ourselves. 
Dr. Erika’s Tips for Hormonal Balance
Tip 1: Develop a Plan — take the first step toward better health by finding answers to important questions about general health and well-being. On my website, http://www.drerika.com, take my simple quiz to help you develop an all inclusive plan for optimal balance.
Tip 2: Sleep—it will keep you looking and feeling young! It is important to make sure you get a full 8 hours of sleep every night. Here are a few simple tricks you can try to help you fall asleep faster and stay asleep through the night.
— To relax before you go to sleep, try taking three deep breaths into your belly. Hold to the count of 5 and exhale through your mouth to the count of 5. The exercise switches you from a sympathetic-fight and flight system, to a parasympathetic-relaxed system.
— Do not eat anything sweet at night. It stops you from being able to relax and gives you bad dreams. Sweets translate into rapid fluctuations in insulin and the result is erosion of your body systems at night instead of relaxation and peace.
— If you find yourself still only getting one good night’s sleep a week (catching up on rest on the weekends, for example), you may need to consider having your thyroid and hormones examined for abnormalities that can affect your sleep patterns.
Tip 3: Change your diet to fit your age. With aging, your body cannot process foods the way it did its 20’s. As a result, nutrients don’t get absorbed into the body as well. As you age, consider eliminating dairy, cutting back on alcohol and complex carbohydrates, sugar substitutes, soda, and caffeine. You can also take probiotics to help nutrients absorb into your system. These little changes in diet can provide big results, making you look and feel better!
Tip 4: Exercise—even if you hate to work out. It’s important to know that cardio and strength training will increase hormone production, helping you maintain optimal health while looking and feeling young. Just 30 minutes a day will take off one year, every year—essentially halting the aging process. Yoga and pilates are great to keep your shape, but you’ll still need cardio to really minimize the signs and symptoms of aging.
Tip 5: Try bio-identical hormones. If it is advised to take hormones to balance your system, I recommend only taking bio-identical hormones, as they mimic your body’s natural hormones and are safer and more effective at balancing your system than birth control pills and/or antidepressants. Bioidentical hormones are the juice of life. No matter how much skin cream you slather on your face, botox injections you or plastic surgeries you have, if your hormone levels are low due to age or surgical removal, you won’t look and feel as young as those with full, healthy hormone levels.
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Over the past 30 years, Dr. Schwartz has personally cared for more than 100,000 patients and treated more than 15,000 patients with various formulations of bioidentical hormones. Through www.DrErika.com, she is helping to improve the healthcare system by teaching people to take care of themselves, building a community of intelligent people who are following common-sense approaches to wellness and are committed to staying healthy, feeling young by taking charge of their lives and living their Best Health and Best Life now.
Great tips! I have to work on that sleep and exercise thing.