Hormones and Aging Gracefully

One of the biggest barriers to aging gracefully is hormonal imbalance. Even if you eat right, exercise, stay out of the sun and do absolutely everything right to keep your skin looking young and your body feeling good, you are still going to see signs of premature aging if your hormones are out of whack. In fact, when you decide to stick to a nutritious diet and an exercise regime to keep your body fit, you need to think about how these things will affect your hormones. It's important to make sure that any diet or exercise regime you choose to follow will not interfere with your body's normal hormone production.

As we age, our hormones change. Most people are familiar with the changes that happen to women as they age. Sometime in their 40's or 50's, most women go through menopause - a stage in which their bodies stop producing important hormones. But not as many people realize that men go through similar hormonal changes that are just not as famous for abruptly changing. Men's hormones diminish slowly, over a period of many years. In their 50's or 60's, men often see evidence of the decline in the form of failing health, overall weakness, and other symptoms that are very similar to those experienced by women during menopause.

Medical science has progressed significantly to make it possible to replace many of the hormones that are lost due to the aging process. Replacing lost hormones does wonders for helping both men and women maintain a youthful health into old age. Women and men can both avoid many of the trials and tribulations of menopause or "man-opause" by doing hormone replacement therapy with a qualified physician. Bioidentical hormones offer people the opportunity to use plant-derived hormones that are identical in structure and function to those that are produced in the human body to restore and maintain health. Often, bioidentical hormone doctors will help their patients develop diet and exercise plans that will complement their hormone replacement treatments to achieve the very best results possible.

If you're working on staying young as long as possible, you may want to tune into your hormones and do what you can to maintain a healthy hormone balance. As you age, you may need to solicit the help of a medical doctor to keep those hormones balanced, but know that many of the aches and pains and inconveniences associated with the aging process can be diminished considerably through the judicious use of hormonal treatments.