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Hormone Yoga Therapy: Balance your Hormones for Optimal Health

Hormone Yoga Therapy: Balance your Hormones for Optimal Health

by | May 22, 2020 | Fertility, menopause, Yoga

History of Hormone Yoga Therapy

Hormone Yoga Therapy is a form of yoga developed by Dinah Rodriguez, a Brazilian author and yoga teacher. Her aim first was to help women who are suffering from unwanted side effects of menopause. But soon she discovered, that the benefits serve all women suffering from any of the multitude of problems caused by hormonal imbalances.

In this post, we will cover everything you need to know about Hormone Yoga Therapy and how it can benefit you.

What is Hormone Yoga Therapy?

It is a holistic practice used to reactivate hormone production. As a result, it is said to improve and even eliminate hormonal imbalances.

HYT includes a fixed set of yoga postures, breathing techniques and visualisations. It draws primarily on hatha and kundalini yoga poses and practices.

Breath techniques (pranayama) alongside yoga poses activate the following glands: the hypophysis, thyroid, adrenal, and ovarian glands. The stimulation of these glands is increased by the application of mudras and bandhas alongside a Tibetan energy technique.

A bandha is also known as a body lock, whereas mudras are gestures with the fingers and hands. Both are used to help energy flow into certain parts of the body. 

Who is it for?

The therapy can reactivate glands and treat low or imbalanced hormones. It is therefore useful for women of any age, and specifically helpful for women who are:

  • experiencing a hormonal imbalance, for example: difficulty conceiving, menstrual disorders, ovarian cysts, vaginal dryness, and low sex drive.
  • looking for a preventative measure for the symptoms of peri- and menopause. Hormone levels start to drop at around 35 years old. 

Techniques used in Hormone Yoga Therapy

The techniques used in the therapy include: asanas (yoga poses), pranayama, mudras, bandhas, visualisation. We also work with the chakras. In order to stimulate the glands, we will practice dynamic asanas, along with powerful breathing.

Various types of breathing techniques are practiced during the class. To stimulate the glands, we use pranayama techniques involving strong abdominal breathing. For instance, breath of fire and full yogic breathing. Strong abdominal breathing moves the qi, prana, in the body and therefore improves circulation to the glands. 

These breathing techniques can also be used daily when you’re looking to find a little more calm or focus.

The practice consists of basic yoga poses and therefore you don’t need to have any experience in yoga to start the therapy! You will be taken step by step through each pose, as well as the breathing techniques.

Relaxation is also an important part. Students are led through the practice of yoga nidra, a relaxing, meditative style of yoga that takes you into a dream-like state. This, consequently, has huge benefits on your mental wellbeing and sleep.

What are the benefits?

This holistic therapy offers a host of mental and physical benefits for women of all ages, who experience hormonal imbalances. 

Managing the symptoms of the menopause

No woman should have to deal with the symptoms of menopause. HYT offers a natural and drug-free alternative to Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT).

In short, it can help alleviate the following symptoms of menopause:

  • Hot flushes
  • Urogenital dryness
  • Night sweats
  • Insomnia and sleeping disorders
  • Anxiety and sadness
  • Changes in periods
  • Osteoporosis prevention

Infertility

Infertility is often linked to low hormone levels and other hormonal imbalances. The therapy will therefore stimulate hormone-producing glands and consequently help with infertility problems.

Yoga is also a wonderful support to the stresses surrounding difficulties with conception. A regular hormone yoga practice, will promote a positive relationship with your body. As a result, you will learn to love and nurture your body rather than feeling frustrated with or negative about it.

Stress and anxiety

In addition, whether you are experiencing high levels of stress or anxiety, HYT can alleviate the symptoms and leave you feeling much calmer and grounded. Meditative relaxation and visualisation techniques teach you to focus less on your thoughts and more on the present moment. So, these techniques are incredibly valuable and you can practice them on your own whenever needed.

Premenstrual Syndrome (PMS)

Moreover, hormone yoga therapy, can lessen and even heal hormonal imbalances around the period, such as: tender breasts, cramps, mood swings, food cravings, digestion problems and others. It is the regular practice that increases blood circulation in the reproductive organs and balances hormones. As a result, it can help significantly with PMS problems.

More benefits of HYT

Other imbalances where HYT can help:

  • Insomnia
  • Painful periods
  • Incontinence
  • Hypertension
  • Carpal tunnel syndrome
  • Hypothyroidism
  • Polycystic ovaries
  • Low libido
  • Depression and emotional instability
  • Absence/loss of menstruation (amenorrhea)

In addition, here are a few other ways that HYT can help with:

  • Balance the immune system
  • Balance the autonomic nervous system
  • Improve circulation and healing
  • Weight loss
  • Increase flexibility
  • Balance emotions
  • Develop an awareness of a healthy diet and lifestyle

When you should avoid HYT

Certainly, there are some conditions for which HYT is not suitable. Therefore, contact a doctor if you have, or have ever had:

  • During pregnancy
  • Cancer that is hormone related
  • Psychiatric problems
  • Severe hyperthyroidism
  • Severe hypertension
  • Large myomas/fibroids
  • Women who have had appendicitis but still have the appendix
  • Advanced endometriosis
  • Undiagnosed abdominal pain
  • Recent surgery
  • Severe cardiovascular diseases
  • Advanced osteoporosis

In conclusion, Hormone Yoga Therapy offers a natural alternative to Hormone Replacement Therapy. Most importantly, when practised regularly, it can alleviate symptoms of hormonal imbalances. As a result, Hormone Yoga Therapy will help you feel your best again!

Hormone Yoga Therapy Online Workshop

Join me for the next online workshop to learn and discover the hormone yoga exercise series by Dinah Rodrigues. A flow connecting you deeper to your feminine power. Tune in with your natural rhythms and make your hormones work for you.

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What are low AMH levels or Anti-Mullerian hormone and how does it affect fertility?

What are low AMH levels or Anti-Mullerian hormone and how does it affect fertility?

by | Feb 14, 2019 | Chinese Medicine, Fertility, home, Yoga

Low AMH levels detection

Many women come to see me for a fertility consultation after being diagnosed with low AMH levels by their gynaecologist.

This can be devastating news as they then believe that they have little or no chance at all of falling pregnant naturally, and also have a reduced success rate of artificial insemination (AI) or in vivo fertilisation (IVF). Furthermore, they often believe that their only option to conceive may be through the use of a donor egg.

What is the AMH hormone and how can it be measured?

The Anti-Mullerian hormone (AMH) is secreted by cells in developing egg sacs within the follicles of the ovaries. Each woman is born with an ovarian reserve which is the total number of eggs that she will ever produce in her life. With age, the ovarian reserve of a woman naturally decreases until she reaches menopause and consequently, the AMH levels diminish as well. Therefore, the AMH level reflects the number of eggs carried through the maturation process and will always be looked at on an age-based scale.

The AMH level test can be done on any day of the menstrual cycle. The higher the AMH level, the more eggs a woman has, and consequently her chances of falling pregnant are increased.

Some patients have decreased or very low AMH levels and therefore fewer eggs, this condition is called diminished ovarian reserve (DOR).

Can women with low AMH level or diminished ovarian reserve still conceive?

To better understand this, we need to look closely at the process of follicle maturation. Before follicles develop, they are microscopic in size and are named primordial follicles. Even though they do not produce detectable amounts of AMH, they are still in the tissue of the ovaries.

After a maturation process of approximately 10 months in the ovaries they develop large enough to appear in the ultrasound imaging and are called antral follicles. At this antral follicle size, they begin to produce quantifiable amounts of AMH.

If AMH levels are very low or undetectable, it does not necessarily mean there are no eggs left in the ovaries. However, it will tell us if there are fewer than normal, depending on the age of the woman concerned.

Therefore, women with very low or undetectable AMH levels still have a chance to conceive without an egg donor. The younger the woman, the better the chance of conception. 

pregnancy low ahm level chinese medicine

Which factors can contribute to reduced AMH levels?

  • Vitamin D deficiency
  • Ovarian or cyst surgery
  • Endometriosis
  • Environmental toxins
  • Smoking and drinking alcohol regular
  • Overweight (BMI >25)
  • Accelerated aging due to lifestyle
  • Low blood circulation to the ovaries
  • Poor nutrition
  • Hormonal imbalances
  • Chemotherapy medications
  • Autoimmune disorders
  • Genetic factors

How can Acupuncture and Chinese medicine help with low AMH level

In my practice, we will embark on an investigation to work out any underlying causes for your low AMH level. As a result some nutrition and lifestyle changes may be necessary. And, although the egg quantity can’t be changed we can certainly improve egg health significantly and also create better health conditions.

Regular acupuncture sessions and herbal treatment are said to:

  • promote and increase blood flow to the ovaries
  • result in healthier eggs with higher fertilisation rates
  • create an optimal environment for the egg to mature properly
  • support you physically and emotionally in your process
  • improve correct hormone functions
  • maintain a healthy pregnancy and prevent miscarriage
  • helps optimal uterine lining
  • increase stress response
  • lower high levels of cortisol

Diet in Chinese medicine is another very important factor. The nutrition advice differs from person to person due to their given Chinese medicine diagnosis. However, some general advice exists for improving the chances to conceive.

Women with low AMH level should:

  • eat mostly whole foods and eliminate processed foods
  • eliminate sugar which can cause inflammation and other health issues
  • consume protein from vegetables, white meat and fish
  • reduce or avoid completely red meat
  • reduce coffee and black tea

Yoga – Can it improve fertility in women with low AMH levels?

Women affected with low AMH levels can increase their fertility with yoga. Through my diagnosis based on Chinese medicine, I know which meridians (energy pathways connected with the inner organs) are concerned and I can offer specific yoga poses which strengthen these meridians.

Hormon yoga for fertility will also help to:

  • reduce anxiety, worries and stress
  • improve the blood circulation to the ovaries and uterus
  • improve flexibility in the hip and pelvic area
  • can help to improve or heal underlying responsible conditions

A customised set of yoga postures is a real booster for conceiving more easily and can afterwards result in a healthy pregnancy and good delivery.

These articles could be interesting for you as well:

How to improve your fertility naturally

A Cold Uterus: How it influences menstruation, fertility and pregnancy

Chinese medicine: How the Kidneys influence your Fertility

Female Sexuality & Chinese Medicine: Solving Sexual Problems Naturally

Coffee – Is it Good or Bad for your Health?

 

How would it feel to free yourself from your symptoms? Ready to change and invest time and energy to get to the root of your problem? Then book your session now. I am looking forward to meeting you.

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6 Benefits of Going on a Yoga Retreat

6 Benefits of Going on a Yoga Retreat

by | Nov 24, 2018 | Yoga

1. DEEPEN YOUR PRACTICE

Whether you are a beginner or already an advanced yoga practitioner, a yoga retreat is a great option to bring you to the next level. You become aware of new muscle groups and joints while exploring new areas of your body. Yoga retreats offer you an exciting way to discover new postures and teachings which widen your horizon and develops your own personal unique yoga practice.

2. DETOX YOUR MIND

Mind full or mindful? Our mind in everyday life is running constantly and unconsciously, making it difficult to control our thoughts. Paying attention to what you think is the first step to a more fulfilled and happier life, as you can’t have negative thoughts and lead a positive life at the same time. While on a yoga retreat you are away from your everyday life, in a favourable environment, having the possibility to slow down, to meet new people and to get the distance which is often needed to see things anew. Integrating meditations in the yoga retreat schedule supports the process.

benefits of going on a yoga retreat

3. CONNECT WITH NATURE

You are nature – not separate from – but an integrated part of it. We are made up of all the same elements that make up the planet. Most yoga retreats are located in secluded natural locations. The perfect way to get out of the busy and stressful life and to connect again with nature. Go for a walk, breathe fresh air, expose yourself to sun, discover new plants and trees and feel the positive energy around you. Watch the stars during the night, become fascinated by the universe and its immense dimensions which were founded millions of years ago. Be carried away by the sound of water, which soothes your soul and is the fundamental basis of all life. The calmness and peace of nature helps you to deeply relax and connect with your inner self.

4. CREATE A MINDFUL EATING HABIT

Make sure that the yoga retreat you pick, offers fresh, local and healthy food. Eating foods that were naturally grown works wonders for your health and overall well-being. You can find new inspiration for trying new ways to prepare your food at home and regular eating times prevent you from snacking in between which can have amazing effects on your digestion and weight. Often we eat our food unconsciously, not even tasting it really and are driven by different emotions. Long mealtimes help you to develop a mindful eating habit which means eating with the right intention while paying attention to it.

5. REST, RELEASE AND RENEW

We rarely take the time to fully rest. Constantly busy doing something, planning the next date and being one step ahead. If you take the time to listen to your body, it prevents you from getting sick, a burn-out, depression and other illnesses that result from disconnecting with yourself. Taking time out to release and renew each day is essential to living well.

6 benefits of going on a yoga retreat

6. MEET LIKE-MINDED PEOPLE

Finding your own tribe, surrounding yourself by people who want to share the same passion can be a great motivator. Especially in a world which is driven by superficial relationships on social internet platform, it can be life-chaging to turn LOLs into real life laughter, seeing other peoples faces, their hand gestures, hearing the emotion in someone’s voice. Connecting with people in reality can help you to get more support in the processes you’re going through. Together we are stronger and can achieve more.

TIME-OUT?

Are you ready to cultivate a new habit with a good deal of health benefits without breaking the bank? Why not book yourself a spot on our upcoming spiritual yoga retreat in South Portugal in October?

About the author Carina Greweling

Carina is a state-approved naturopath from Germany who studied after her exam Chinese medicine, Craniosacral therapy and Bach flowers and deepened her knowledge of meditation and yoga while she was living in India. She trained in traditional Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga in Mysore, at the world famous BKS Iyengar Institute in Mumbai and also at the Yoga Institute Mumbai, the oldest Yoga school in the world. Her experience is therefore influenced by many different styles of yoga. In regular workshops and yoga retreats she proposes to gain deeper knowledge and inspiration about a healthy body and mind. She also gives online consultations.

Contact Carina

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