In this week’s episode of The Whole Circle Podcast we talk with Dr Mariza Snyder all about how to balance your hormones the natural way.
Oh boy, this is one of our all-time fave episodes. We could have talked to Dr Mariza for hours upon hours upon hours and just soaked up all her knowledge and wisdom. It still blows our minds that at our ages we are still learning so much about our bodies that we had no idea about. This really is a MUST LISTEN for all women!
Who is Dr Mariza Snyder?
Dr Mariza [mah-REE-suh] is a women’s hormone doctor, functional practitioner, educator, Amazon best-selling author, wife, and Wellness Advocate. She is passionate about helping people to become more empowered with simple healthy habits. She loves to empower women and their families to feel and live their best lives through plant-based, whole-food nutrition, essential oils, easy-to-follow habits, and mood-boosting remedies.
Dr Mariza’s story in a nutshell
In her own words:
Eleven years ago, I was chronically sick, feeling wired and tired, and experiencing a sensation of constant overwhelming from the combination of both work and going to graduate school to become a practitioner. I never seemed to have enough energy to get through the day. I was juggling too many responsibilities and suffering from some major consequences. One day, I looked up and didn’t recognize the tired stranger in the mirror. I didn’t feel like myself anymore.
Like many women I know, I was being held captive by crazy unbalanced hormones and overwhelmed with life. I come from a lineage of hormone imbalance and grew up watching my mom suffer from mood swings, lack of energy, and sleepless nights. During my mid-twenties, I was chronically tired, 35-pounds overweight, constantly cranky, and oftentimes feeling super unsexy. I felt like I had lost control of my body while doing all of the things that I thought were “right” for me at the time. Caffeine became the key to surviving each day.
I realized that I needed to change my lifestyle if I wanted to feel like my old self again. I started with simple changes. I began eating more plants and cooking at home. Leafy green vegetables became a staple in my diet. Green smoothies provided a simple daily habit that produced the necessary energy to start my day without caffeine. Then, I focused on yoga, dance, and fun exercises that I enjoyed. My stress level decreased and my energy increased, the excess weight started to melt off, and I began to feel like myself again. Over time, I explored more healthy habits: positive journaling, hiking on nice days, and using essentials oils and whole food supplements to keep me and my family healthy.
I reclaimed my life and my body! On my journey, I learned that 80% of what we do on a daily basis dictates the life that we live later. I want that life to be rich, healthy and filled with amazing experiences. In my 10 years educating on healthy lifestyle habits, I have helped thousands of women to lose weight, sleep better, lower cortisol levels, and reclaim their lost energy. I have seen women transformed both emotionally and physically…and get the body that they have always longed for.
What do hormones do in our bodies?
Hormones are chemical messengers in our bodies. They release chemicals through our endocrine glands all day every day. These chemicals really run our bodies from reproduction, growth, cognitive function, mood support, insulin regulation, metabolism, breath rate, body temperature, immune system, metabolic system, stress response system, survival system and so much more.
When it comes to understanding our hormones, it’s important to realise that our hormones are intentionally trying to sabotage us. They’re not choosing to become imbalanced, there is a driving force or root cause behind the imbalance that we need to figure out.
What are some common reasons for our hormones to become imbalanced?
Dr Mariza has identified roughly 7 main root causes of hormone imbalance:
- Environmental toxins such as the persistent pollutants in our food, water, air, what we put on our bodies, especially women with beauty products which are endocrine-disrupting (eg. lotions, creams, perfumes, shampoo and conditioner etc.). One of the biggest reasons your thyroid can become hyperactive or inactive is due to toxins.
- Heavy metals found in food, water or topically. There can be exposure to heavy metals in a lot of places and whilst each exposure can be minuscule, it accumulates over time to become a big problem in the body. Heavy metals disrupt our metabolism, brain function especially when it comes to mood and gut permeability issues that can lead to autoimmune deficiencies.
- Nutrient deficiencies. For healthy function, our bodies require essential amino acids, vitamins, minerals, antioxidants. So, if there are deficiencies, especially in women, of zinc, magnesium, activated b vitamins, omegas and vitamin d then it generally shows hormonal imbalance in women.
- Gut dysbiosis and gut permeabilities which is an inflamed gut or inflamed bowel or a very permeable epithelial layer in the stomach and in the small intestine where particles are going into the bloodstream, the immune system is hyperactive and reacting to that and potentially accidentally targeting the wrong tissues. A perfect example of this would be Hashimoto’s Disease where the immune system accidentally targets healthy thyroid tissue because it has mistaken it for something else. The gut is so often one of the root causes. It is very rare that Dr Mariza sees someone who doesn’t have gut health issues as being a root cause.
- Trauma. Whether it’s severe childhood or adult trauma such as PTSD or micro-traumas that can add up over time, traumas can manifest into disease inside the body.
- Chronic perceived stress. This is the most common cause that we can control, but which we are the most unaware of which is where the body goes into a state of perceived stress 30-50 times a day and we are completely unaware of it. This is where our bodies are constantly in survival mode.
- Pathogens, known as opportunists, they are bacteria, viruses, candida, mould, parasites etc. can trigger gut dysbiosis, inflammation, unhealthy immune response, nutrient deficiencies.
From all the options listed above, a person could be dealing with 1, 3 or all 7. Dr Mariza would prioritise what would need to be dealt with first and go from there.
Essential oils for hormones
Dr Mariza is an expert in the field of using essential oils to re-balance and keep your hormones balanced. What better way to do it than the natural way. Not a pill in sight, nothing toxic or synthetic just nature. It’s music to our ears!
In Dr Mariza’s opinion, the best way to use essential oils is via topical application (applying them to the area of concern) or aromatic use (breathing them in). Essential oils can help with menstrual regulation, reducing inflammation, reducing stress levels, etc. You can also use essential oils to make your own no-tox cleaning products which are amazing for your health as well as amazing for the health of the environment.
Then there’s plenty of essential oil options for sleep support, mood support, cravings, trauma, gut support, endocrine system support and when it comes to the umbrella of hormone support, essential oils can tackle so many of the areas.
Essential oils for menstruation
Heavy Flow
Dr Mariza recommends using Lavender or Clary Sage, as Clary Sage is phenomenal for slowing down the heavy flow and menstrual cramps. She also recommends using Yarrow | Pom. Specifically, with women who are perimenopausal or women who are dealing with a heavy flow, Yarrow | Pom can really slow that down. Clary Sage and Yarrow | Pom are progesterone boosters which means that they ease out the seesaw between oestrogen and progesterone. You can apply these topically (diluted with fractionated coconut oil) to the uterus and ovaries. Dr Mariza’s Superwoman Blend is perfect for this which you can find here. This blend is best to use about 6 days prior to getting your period as well as after ovulation to ensure your progesterone levels stay increased.
Cramps
The 5 essential oils Dr Mariza recommends for menstrual cramps are Clary Sage, Lavender, Peppermint, Frankincense and Copaiba. You can make up a little roller bottle with 5 drops of each. You can also play around with the ratios if you want more cooling then add extra peppermint. It’s very versatile to suit the individual. Apply it to your lower back, ovaries, uterus, lower abdomen. This blend is also really for any general type of pain you have in your body too, as well as ovulatory or endometrial pain.
Are essential oils still useful if you’re taking the pill?
The pill suppresses your reproductive system. If you’re experiencing certain symptoms such as mood swings, bloating, funky menstrual cycle etc. these are all side effects of taking the pill. Whilst essential oils can help manage the acute symptoms of the side effects of taking the pill, they won’t be getting to the root cause. Dr Mariza says it’s not even worth testing your hormone levels whilst on the pill because you’re being pumped with fake hormones so you won’t be getting a true indication of where your hormone levels are at because it’s not really your system at work, it’s synthetic hormones at work.
How can aromatic use of essential oils help our hormones?
It seems weird to think that just breathing in essential oils can actually help our hormones … something deep inside our body… how does it work?
Essential oils are plant-based chemical constituents which means that our own biochemistry is highly responsive to them. When you breathe them in they go to multiple olfactory receptors in our bodies. The first port of call is our limbic brain and limbic system which controls our nervous system which is responsible for our survival/fight or flight mode. Our sense of smell is a powerful tool, if something doesn’t smell right, we don’t even think about it, we react on it straight away. The same goes for essential oils, the power of smell means that we can use essential oils for emotional support, stress support, cognitive function, alertness, energy, sleep all of which are overarching issues that a lot of people are dealing with that are related to our hormones.
Our bodies are so intelligent that we can take a compound from an essential oil and make another compound out of it to really benefit our cellular system. It is really complex in the way our bodies leverage these chemical constituents from essential oils. When we breathe them through the olfactory receptors of our lungs, they go straight into the bloodstream. From there, our bodies make intelligent decisions about what to do with that specific chemical constituent. What we know is that we metabolise them within about 3 hours, so we get all that benefit from the essential oils.
Can you diffuse hormone supporting oils around children?
Whilst Dr Mariza doesn’t know the answer with 100% certainty, what she does know is that essential oils are adaptogenic and our bodies are going to make decisions based on these adaptogenic qualities. So, for example, if you are diffusing Clary Sage for its hormone benefits to you and you have little children also breathing it in, Clary Sage is also an amazing oil for sleep, stress and mood-boosting so by breathing it is usually you are going to benefit from it via mood support and neurological than specifically impacting the ovaries. Especially given that it is being used in a diffuser where it is more heavily dispersed than if it was applied topically.
The Essential Oils Hormone Solution Book
We cannot recommend this book highly enough. We have read it and absolutely love it. It is a MUST resource for all essential oil lovers, especially women.
The Essential Oils Hormone Solution offers a step-by-step program to reset your body through focused and deliberate changes in daily self-care rituals, aided every step of the way by high-quality essential oils.
With over 100 targeted essential oil recipes and lifestyles recommendations, you will be able to easily implement solutions for your specific needs, allowing you to not only balance your hormones, but also reduce cravings, get deep, restful sleep, manage and mitigate stress, improve mood and irritability, banish the worst symptoms of PMS, improve focus and concentration, boost libido, and increase energy and vitality.
Where else can you find Dr Mariza and her amazing books?
Books: https://www.drmariza.com/books/
Website: https://www.drmariza.com/
Podcast: https://www.drmariza.com/podcast/
Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/drmarizasnyder/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/drmariza/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/drmarizasnyder
Subscribe and Review
We would love for you to subscribe to our podcast show and leave a review PRETTY PLEASE of this podcast >>> here
Jo and Tracey x
Leave A Comment