When we think of hormone imbalances, we usually think of women being crazy before their period or as they’re going through menopause. However, men’s hormones get out of balance, too, and it’s one of the main causes of not sleeping well.


So for all the men out there, this is for you!


In this episode I’m going to explain the hormone imbalances that affect men and how to fix them so you can stop waking up at 3am. And I’ll tell you about my client John who was a big social drinker and how that affected his hormones and his sleep and how he was able to fall asleep easily and stay asleep all night in just a few months. 


If you enjoy this show, please take 1 minute to rate and review it so more people can find it and get the help they need.


Schedule a consultation to get started with the Complete Sleep Solution program so you can consistently sleep 7+ hours uninterrupted, naturally and permanently.


00:00 Understanding Hormone Imbalances in Men

01:39 The Role of Cortisol and Chronic Stress

03:34 Testing for Hormonal Imbalances

06:13 Addressing Estrogen Dominance

08:24 Client Case Study: Overcoming Sleep Issues

13:00 The Complete Sleep Solution Program

15:49 Conclusion and Next Steps


Episode Transcript


When we think of hormone imbalances, we usually think of women being crazy before their period or as they're going through menopause. However, men's hormones get out of balance too, and it's one of the main causes of not sleeping well. So for all the men out there, this is for you.


In this episode, I'm going to explain the hormone imbalances that affect men and how to fix them so you can stop waking up at 3 a.m. And I'll tell you about my client, John, who was a big social drinker and how that affected his hormones and his sleep and how he was able to fall asleep easily and stay asleep all night in just a few months. If you enjoy the show, please take just one minute to rate and review it so more people can find it and get the help they need.


Hello, everyone. Welcome. It is so good to talk to you today. Today, I want to talk about how hormones affect sleep, especially for men. So I have talked about hormones in general. I've talked about hormones for women. But today I want to talk about men specifically because I see a common pattern or patterns in my male clients that I think you will find very helpful.


And I know that a lot of times when people talk about hormones, they're talking about women, especially peri menopausal or menopausal women and men. I want you to know that hormone imbalance is a thing for you too, and it is likely affecting your sleep as well. So this is for you. All right. So when we are talking about hormones, what I am mainly talking about for men are going to be estrogen, testosterone, also progesterone and DHEA play a role too, but there can be a lot to do with the balance of estrogen to testosterone specifically.


Now, sometimes I will say I do see men with depleted hormones, same as women, like. estrogen, testosterone, progesterone are all low. And this is usually a sign or kind of the end result of chronic stress and inflammation. So whenever the body is stressed or inflamed, it is going to make and release a lot of cortisol to deal with that stress and inflammation.


And because cortisol and sex hormones are All steroid hormones, the body's going to focus all of its resources on making cortisol. And it's going to take those resources away from making the sex hormones. And so then those sex hormones become depleted over time. And that's because the body is always going to focus on what it sees as survival.


So it sees stress and inflammation as survival. And so we need those stress hormones like cortisol for survival. over reproduction, which is where sex hormones come into play or even digestion and immune function. So that's how all those systems get shut down when the body is responding to stress. Now I explained cortisol in other Episodes and live, so I'm not going to get into that here, but my point is that if your body has been under chronic stress and inflammation, that has led to depleted hormones and we need to find out where that stress and inflammation is coming from.


And so that is what the tests I use are looking for. So I use the Dutch test to look at hormones. The Dutch stands for dried urine tests for comprehensive hormones, and it tends to be a lot more accurate than blood work because you're taking five samples in 24 hours. So we see an average of your hormones in a day, instead of blood work, that is just that second in time when hormones do fluctuate throughout the day.


And with the Dutch test, we can easily see the balance of the hormones with each other, which is. super important. So a lot of times blood work might say, Oh, testosterone's in range, estrogen's in range, but if one is higher than the other, then they aren't in balance. And that can lead to different symptoms and issues.

So this test is really helpful because we get this, more holistic look at what's going on with your hormones and it also shows how the hormones are being broken down in your body, especially by your liver. So it gives me different insights into how different phases or parts of liver detox are working.


So then I know what to recommend. to suggest now. And then the other tests are going to look for other sources of stress and inflammation. So I use the GI map to look at gut health, to see if there are pathogens, to see if the beneficial bacteria are depleted, to see how strong your immune system is. in your gut, which is where 80 percent of our immune system is in the body.


I look at mineral balance and heavy metals. So heavy metals can be another source of inflammation and stress in the body and cause your body to have to focus on making cortisol. I also look for blood sugar issues for possible mold toxicity, looking for any sources of stress and inflammation in the body and in the mind, if that is applicable for you.


So that we can get your body to not have to focus on making so much cortisol and it can instead focus on making the sex hormones. So that's what I'm looking for when sex hormones are depleted. And I have had a few men whose sex hormones were really depleted. And I did recommend low dose over the counter hormones to help them boost those hormones.


And they didn't need to do it forever, but just a few months really helped the body get back in balance again while we dealt with the other imbalances that were affecting sleep. And then they didn't need to take hormones, um, that low dose forever. Now, another really common pattern I see in men is what is called estrogen dominance.


So this is when estrogen is higher than testosterone in men. And what this can cause is, um, it can cause bloating. It can cause weight gain, headaches. brain fog, mood swings, being weepy and emotional or irritable. It can lead to low libido, sugar cravings, blood sugar issues, and sleep disturbances. So this is a pretty common pattern that I see in men.


And so that's why I really wanted to talk about it today. Now, what the main cause of estrogen dominance is liver detox issues. So when your liver isn't detoxing properly, and that's because toxins have built up in the body and there's more than the liver can handle, the liver isn't able to break down hormones like it's supposed to either, especially estrogen.


And so estrogen recirculates and builds up in the body and becomes a lot higher than testosterone and leads to these symptoms. So usually what I'm looking for here is, is, um, liver function and how that can be leading to estrogen dominance.


Now you also could be getting too many estrogens from the environment, like in your diet, if you're eating a lot of soy foods or by using certain personal care products and things like that, that might be high in estrogen. So that's something else I'm looking for. It could be, again, this is back to liver, but your liver isn't making enough or your gallbladder isn't making enough bile to help, uh, you know, get the toxins out of the body.


If your gut isn't healthy and there's more pathogens than good bacteria, um, or even poor diet and nutrient deficiencies can also lead to this estrogen dominance. So I'm looking for all the possible reasons why this might be happening so that we can get to the bottom of it. And I want to tell you about my client.


We'll call him John, who came to me because he was having a really hard time falling asleep. Um, so it could take him hours to fall asleep. And then he was also waking up early in the morning, so he was not getting enough sleep. And this had been. bothering him for years and decades, but had gotten worse.


And so that's why he finally reached out to get some help. And so he had this pattern of estrogen dominance where his estrogen was almost at the high end of the range and his testosterone was even below the ideal range. So it was very, Um, prominent mismatch there or imbalance there and sure enough, he definitely had liver detox issues, which I could see from the Dutch test.


He was also a big social drinker. So, you know, sometimes my clients come to me and they're like, I don't drink. So I, I'm sure I don't have liver detox issues. Well, we're exposed to lots of different toxins and chemicals that our body has to break down. And even pathogens in the gut can, they create a lot of toxins that the liver has to deal with.


So liver detox issues are something that almost every single one of my clients needs to address, but especially for someone who's drinking a lot, like it's just adding more fuel to the fire, right? Like there were other reasons why his liver wasn't detoxing properly, but drinking a lot of alcohol was not helping.


Now I will say he didn't have to stop drinking completely. I did recommend that, but he had a really hard time with that. Very social person, and he lives in the town of Jackson where I live, but I think this is like this everywhere, right, where social activities involve alcohol, and it's just kind of how the world is, unfortunately.


And so, We just walked through navigating how to deal with that, how to drink less while not having to give it up completely and then how to monitor and evaluate and see if that was enough. And luckily it was. He never had to quit completely. But we did talk about if he was going through a time where he wasn't being that social, like not drinking at home and taking a break there.


And so that was enough to get him over the hump and get his body back in balance enough to where he could sleep normally. Um, I also want to say that not drinking isn't enough to just cure your insomnia. And I talked to a lot of people who have stopped drinking because we know that alcohol affects our sleep.


And so they're hoping that that is going to solve the problem. But by the time your body's out of balance enough to not be able to sleep, there are other imbalances going on besides just liver detox issues. And so not drinking probably isn't enough to get you over the hump. Um, if you're dealing with chronic sleep issues.


So not only did John had liver detox issues, he had high cortisol at bedtime. Like I could see that on the Dutch test also looks at the cortisol pattern. So no wonder he was having such a hard time falling asleep because instead of going down at bedtime, his cortisol went back up. So we needed to address why that was happening.


And it partly had to do with his liver. It partly had to do with blood sugar. It partly had to do with the gut. Um, he did have a lot of bacterial overgrowth in his gut. So that was something that we needed to address. He also had mineral imbalances. and heavy metals, especially aluminum. So again, that's another source of stress that we also needed to address.


Um, so by looking at all the pieces in his puzzle, he started sleeping better really quickly. And by just a few months in, he was falling asleep easily and staying asleep all night. He had pretty quick results and he didn't even have to give up alcohol completely. So even though that might be ideal to give your body a break from alcohol, he didn't even have to do that.


He just had to cut it down somewhat, which I helped him with as we worked together. So that's just one example of how hormones, even in men, can have a big impact on sleep. And then we need to look at all the other things that are impacting sleep as well, so that You can start sleeping better as quickly as possible.


And that is what we help you with in the complete sleep solution program. So my team and I work with our clients for six months and you have 12 sessions over six months. So it is a private program where. You know, every session is talking about you, your test results, your plan, helping you implement the plan, helping you walk through certain changes that we might be suggesting that you make, such as cutting down on alcohol.


It includes four different lab tests that will show exactly why you aren't able to sleep. So you don't have to lie awake at night wondering why you aren't sleeping. We're going to find out using the science of lab testing. So I'm looking for hormones. I'm looking at cortisol. I'm looking at liver detox.


Um, we're looking at gut health, especially pathogens in the gut. We're looking at mineral imbalances. We're looking for heavy metals. And looking at neurotransmitters and then we're also assessing for things like blood sugar issues and mold toxicity and how your genes are acting up. So it's, it's a very holistic look at everything going on in your body and your life so that nothing has been missed.


So if you've worked with a functional medicine doctor or naturopath and haven't gotten better, it's just because something has been missed. It doesn't mean that you can't get better. It just means no one has identified all the different reasons why you aren't sleeping and helped you fix that. And the way to get better quickly, as quickly as possible is to address all those things at the same time.


So instead of doing one thing at a time, like say you go to someone who specializes in hormones or who specializes in gut health, or you do a detox cleanse or something like that. If you aren't addressing all the puzzle pieces at about the same time, it's going to be really hard for your body to get back in balance because everything is affecting everything else.


Like your hormones are affecting your gut and your gut is affecting your hormones and you can see how your liver is affecting all of those things. And then when your gut isn't healthy, your minerals get out of balance and heavy metals build up in the body because they do some of the job of minerals, even though they're toxic.


And so everything in the body is connected. And so that's also why, you know, I talked to so many people who have been to endocrinologists and gastroenterologists and all the specialty doctors, and they also haven't gotten better. And it's because no one's looking at the big picture. of what's going on in the body and how everything is connected.


So that is really what is key. And that is what we will help you with in the Complete Sleep Solution program. So the first step is to schedule a consultation with me and we will talk about What's going on with your sleep, what's going on with your health, what you've tried so far. I'll explain why what you've tried so far hasn't worked yet.


And then we'll talk about how the complete sleep solution program works and the steps that you can take to improve your sleep and your health as quickly as possible. It's really a health restoring program. So even though I'm focusing on sleep, I'm looking for imbalances in the body. that are affecting sleep because a healthy body sleeps well.


So once you get back in balance enough to be able to sleep normally, you're also restoring your health for the long term, which is going to give you a much better chance of living a long and healthy life without getting many of the chronic diseases that tend to plague people in old age in this day and time.


So, we're not only fixing your sleep, we're also restoring your health for the long term. All right, everyone, thanks so much for listening, and I will talk to you soon.

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