What the f*&.# is going on with my Hypothalamus? As strange as it may seem to you this was the first question that popped in my mind the day I start sweating in bursts. “Provably a lot” that was my quick answer.
If I a go back in time to 2006 when I had my brain broken due to stress, one of the side effects from the break down was my breasts started lactating, no like I had a baby but still lactating in a weird way…like lactating per se wasn’t weird enough, my “baby” was 11 years old at that time I was supposed to be as dry as it gets.
One of the hormones that the hypothalamus manages is prolactin. This is the hormone women need to make milk to breastfeed their babies. When you are not at that point and you start lactating the red flags are straight up but guess what? I did go to the doctor which told me “it’s probably nothing, maybe stress”. Well… Sir, yes I did have stress but I had not time to go further in the lactating investigation so I kept going and going and going until the day I wasn’t. Right now when I think about this and understanding how the different parts of our brain work, I can see my hypothalamus wasn’t going to make it easy with pre-menopause. Which by the way I didn’t see coming and I am mastering.
The hypothalamus is a small region in the base of our brain really close to the pituitary gland which supports. The hypothalamus is divided into three regions each one with a nucleus. These are clusters of neurons to perform vital functions such as release hormones. Oxytocin, reproductive hormones, thyroid-stimulating hormones, vasopressin which regulates water in the body and growth hormones. And those hormones manage vital functions in our body, some of them being:
* maintaining daily physiological cycles
- regulating body temperature
- controlling appetite
- managing of sexual behavior
- regulating emotional responses
When hypothalamus doesn’t function correctly because there is a head injury, excessive stress, menopause, genetic disorders, birth defects, tumors around it and surgery involving the brain can cause the hypothalamus act up developing further complications such are:
- Very high or low pressure
- Weight loss or gain
- Eating disorders
- Infertility
- insomnia
- Short stature
- Dehydration
To mention some of them.
If you pay attention to your life and read the list in this article, you will be able to identify when your hypothalamus was acting up by giving you a hard time. I had so many of these issues due to stress, brain breakdown, pre-menopause, weight loss and insomnia.
The good news is that you can improve and balance the hypothalamus function by eating and doing the right kind of routine.
Eating good fats helps with many things in our brain and healing and improving hypothalamus performance is one.
- Flaxseed oil
- Primrose oil
- Fish oils
- Olive oil
- Tahini
- Avocado
- Nuts and seed
Ensuring fun in your life will make other parts of your brain release the happy hormones, dopamine, serotonin, oxytocin. By just doing the things you love.
- Hug your loved ones
- Time in nature
- Paint
- Read
- Conversations with friends
- Etc.
Sleep is a very important routine to keep healthy, I have written about it in our last newsletter, check out the post in our blog, https://www.nourishthebraininstitute.com/blog/sleep-better-tonight-3-must-do-things-that-will-knock-you-out-in-a-good-way
Avoid alcohol or drugs that would keep you away from having a good quality of sleep our brain needs the sleep time to restore the rest of our body, if there is no rest, restoration won’t happen effectively.
Happy hypothalamus, happy life!!