Hormones play a powerful role, not just in a woman’s reproductive system, but also in her overall health and wellbeing. So, it’s important that the hormones stay in a delicate balance. If one dominates the other, or if chronic stress, inflammation or other factors occur, a woman’s hormones can go out of whack and lead to a domino effect of negative health conditions. To rebalance hormones, a gentle detox can do the trick.

Kathryn Cardinal, an herbalist and fertility awareness educator, believes the body has remarkable detoxification processes, which help remove both external and internal toxins. Therefore, Cardinal doesn’t recommend extreme juice cleanses or fasts. instead, Cardinal advocates for something a bit gentler.

But how does a detox rebalance hormones?

When the liver doesn’t manage blood sugar efficiently, the adrenal glands turn on the stress response, leading to an increase in cortisol production (the stress hormone). And to produce cortisol, the body basically steals progesterone.

Without enough progesterone in the body, an estrogen dominance can occur, and this can lead to a whole slew of problems, including hypothyroidism (under-performing thyroid), PCOS, PMS cysts, and more.

But stress isn’t the only thing interfering with a woman’s hormonal system. Environmental toxins found in both food and beauty products – all of which are put on or into the body. The liver works hard to clear away these substances, and if it can’t keep up with everything, hormones will eventually go out of balance.

When hormone imbalance occurs, the female body is already under a lot of stress, which is why Cardinal encourages gentle detoxes to help stimulate and support the body’s natural detox mechanisms.

Her tips including drinking lots of water, consuming many cruciferous veggies, as well as low-glycemic fruits. These are just some of the ways to detox toxins and excess hormones naturally and safely.