This health tip affects everyone, but especially women. If you wake up in the morning feeling like you're in the middle of a steam bath, welcome to the world of night sweats and hot flashes. These are caused by imbalances in your hormones, which also cause irregular menstrual cycles and poor health in general.

We live in an estrogen dominant society. It is everywhere--in the food we eat, the water we drink, and in the grass on which we walk. Synthetic estrogens from plastics, pesticides, and petrochemicals confuse the whole body.

Take the following steps to minimize or eliminate these problems:

1. Use only healthful personal care products, such as lotions and makeup without petrochemicals.

2. Avoid plastic as much as possible. Never eat or drink hot things out of plastic or Styrofoam.

3. Get a shower filter to eliminate the chlorine from the water.

4. Avoid sugar.

5. Take up to 12 milligrams of iodine daily.

6. Take one tablespoon of fish oil per day.

7. Have your spine adjusted regularly to prevent the effects of stress and subluxation on your nervous system.

Often when a person lives an on-the-go lifestyle, they will choose foods that are low in nutrients and high in toxins such as sugar and trans fats. This, combined with the stress of daily living, causes the adrenal glands to become fatigued. There is a constant over-demand to create hormones to handle every day stressors. Because of this, the adrenal glands will not be able to secrete hormones that are needed for sexual and life requirements because they are only making the hormones to handle the stress.

Because of adrenal gland fatigue you will experience difficulty maintaining optimal hormone levels. With adrenal gland fatigue it will be impossible to now to maintain optimal hormone levels--testosterone and progesterone will go down, and your thyroid will be affected.

A few tips to help your adrenal gland are:

1. Be sure to get a proper amount of sleep. Seven to nine hours is usually required, and it is best if you're in bed by around 10:00 P.M.

2. Include an apple a day in your diet, and include lots of healthy nuts (Raw NOT roasted or salted). This will give you the extra protein and fats you need.

3. Exercise regularly.

4. Be sure that your nervous system is functioning at 100% and that you are not subluxated, especially in the lower back or lower neck areas, which affect the adrenal and thyroid glands.

Over the next few weeks I would like to talk about three of the leading factors of poor health. These all begin with the letter S, and in combination, they are devastating to your organs and emotional well being. These three leading factors are subluxations, sugar, and stress. All three of these increase as we enter into the holiday season.

Have you ever heard of the term "comfort food"? This is another way to describe massive amounts of carbohydrates. Chocolate is one of the most commonly consumed items, and it can become addictive, causing highs and lows. Combined with stress and other sugars creates chaos in the body.

Many people crave sugar. Stress, subluxations, and the consumption of sugar cause an increase in excretion of minerals causing deficiencies, especially chromium and magnesium.

Rarely do I meet someone who eats enough greens and raw vegetables in their diet. I recommend a green salad daily or at least five apples and beets or greens 4 to 5 times a week.

Lastly, to increase your resistance to the effects of sugar, increase the amount of protein you eat. Remember vegetables do have protein, and also include some good fats, this includes supplementing with fish oil and adding avocados to your salad. Take these steps to prevent these S's from destoying your health. More next week