There Are 5 Hormones That Affect How You Age. Here's How To Eat To Support All Of Them

Aging is on a continuum, and no longer just an ever-declining slippery slope. Forty may be the new 30, while 60 now looks and feels like 40. Our capacity and understanding of how to slow the aging process and harness our chemistry has left us with an opportunity to live vital and active lives far past those of our ancestors.

For women, aging is compounded by the state of our hormones and the fluctuations that sometimes can dictate our mood, energy, and weight. Despite leaps in knowledge, many women today struggle with the simple inability to connect with themselves, to understand the issues of their bodies, and how to feed, sleep, and even exercise for themselves, let alone an understanding of hormones or hormone balance. I like to look at the importance of women staying connected to themselves and set out to help women connect back to themselves and their hormones through a concept called "power typing"—understanding what your body needs by knowing your power type, which I wrote about in my new book, Super Woman Rx.

The beauty hormone, estrogen make women, well, feel like women. From smooth skin to shiny hair, estrogen helps us feel feminine, alive, and vibrant. Too much estrogen, however, and we become prone to estrogen dominance, replete with migraines, tender breasts, and sometimes, endometriosis, ovarian cysts, and fibroids. Too little estrogen, and then our hair falls out, our bones become weak, and our skin loses elasticity. Maintaining estrogen levels in balance is an anti-aging strategy that works.

The brain hormone, progesterone, in balance keeps our cognition sharp and our sleep sound. So many women suffer from restless sleep or trouble focusing without realizing that unbalanced progesterone may be at the root. Track your energy and moods against the cycle of progesterone—if you find yourself exhausted as you approach the last week of your cycle, you may be low in progesterone.

Maintaining balanced insulin levels prevents unnecessary weight gain and belly fat that is commonly associated with aging. As our metabolism slows, insulin gets more stubborn, requiring fewer calories and more help with the digestive process.

The stress hormone, cortisol, can accelerate aging faster than any of the hormones listed so far. A little cortisol spike can keep us moving, but large swings in cortisol are the result of chronic stress that propels the body toward an inflammatory mode. Inflammation then becomes the trigger for so many different diseases, including cancer, diabetes, and autoimmune illnesses.

Your thyroid controls your metabolic rate, hair, skin, and mood (someone gave this hormone way too much power)! Slight shifts in this hormone can take any person from bright and lively to dull and exhausted. Monitoring thyroid levels a few times a year and finding the right level for you is key.

What to eat to balance your thyroid: Boost your thyroid by taking in a few Brazil nuts, which are high in selenium, a critical thyroid mineral. It's also good to add in some iron-rich red meat one to two times per week to help wake up a sleeping or underactive thyroid.