The following Mark's Daily Apple article was written by Mark Sisson.

And is narrated by Tina Lehman.

Nine ways to normalize your hormones.

There are straightforward pharmaceutical methods for altering specific hormones,

and as I showed in last week's testosterone replacement therapy post, they can really help.

But a safer intervention for your overall endocrine environment is a systemic one.

Some might call it a scattershot approach in that one input

affects multiple endocrine targets. I'd say that's the whole point. Today I'm going to give you

some tried and true methods for helping you normalize your endocrine health. These are things that

apply to everyone as far as I can tell. They won't fix every problem, but they're good places to start.

Whether you're a postmenopausal woman, a 21-year-old bodybuilder worried about over training,

or a thyroid patient, these interventions can't hurt and will probably help.

Number one, get your sleep in order.

When you sleep poorly, everything falls apart, including the normal function and patterns

of testosterone, thyroid, and growth hormone.

Sleep loss itself alters the activity of the master endocrine organ, the pituitary gland.

So following good sleep hygiene is non-negotiable.

Sleep in a cold, dark, quiet room. Get plenty of bright natural light throughout the day,

especially the morning, and limit bright light after dark, especially blue and green lights.

Sun lamps can help if actual natural light is unavailable during the day. Blue blocking,

goggles or glasses can help at night. Use seasonal variation of daylight as a rough barometer for how

much sleep to get. In the summer, when it's lighter longer, you can probably get by with

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