The Winter Solstice & Hormone Health: Honoring Nature’s Rhythm

The winter solstice marks the shortest day and longest night of our calendar year. As autumn has incrementally been giving way to winter, your energy has likely drawn inward. This can leave you craving cozy moments, hot tea, and slow cooking. This is your circadian rhythm calling you home. Many of our bodies’ responses to physical and mental stimuli involve hormones. That means, as winter approaches, your hormones are responding and operating in accordance with the natural cues of the season.

The Winter Solstice: An Ancient Ritual of Time and Survival

The winter solstice is strongly associated with survival, as it marks the deepest part of winter and corresponds to the lowest reserves of resources. After the winter solstice, the days begin to lengthen incrementally. Many ancient cultures used this event to represent the birth or renewal of sun-based deities, as this provided hope while also allowing them to gauge how long their winter rations would last more accurately. Taking a page from their books, we can see the winter solstice as a time of hormonal renewal and return to balance.

How Winter Impacts Our Hormones

Light and seasonal rhythms have a direct influence on our hormones through various mechanisms. The master clock in our brains, the Suprachiasmatic Nucleus (known as the SCN), responds to the cues it receives every day from the amount of light and the amount of dark. These cues then go on to regulate two of our most well-known hormones, melatonin and cortisol. These two boss-level hormones then influence a cascade of other hormones, such as serotonin, insulin, and even Luteinizing Hormone and Follicle-Stimulating Hormone. Shorter winter days can boost melatonin levels and lower serotonin levels, which in turn impact mood and energy levels.

Hibernation

Winter’s cold days with shorter daylight hours shift our hormones towards hibernation. Our Leptin levels often drop, signaling to us that we’re not actually very full. These lower levels signal to our bodies to eat more, allowing us to produce and conserve energy to sustain ourselves throughout the winter. The new daylight hours also increase our hunger hormone levels. This hormone is known as Ghrelin. As soon as the weather turns cold, our ghrelin levels start to rise, prompting us to increase our calorie intake to counterbalance the energy demands of keeping our bodies warm when it’s oh-so chilly outside.

Winter Solstice, Stress, and Adrenal Health

Shorter daylight hours and increasing holiday stress can put a significant demand on your adrenals. With less daylight comes a decrease in the production of serotonin and vitamin D, which can affect mood. Travel and holiday stress disrupts sleep and increases cortisol levels, which can interfere with estrogen and progesterone balance and exhaust the HPA axis. Winter is nature’s signal to us to slow down. This is the time of year that, instead of making other people’s holiday dreams come true, we really need to prioritize boundaries, rest, and ultimately support our nervous systems. This is crucial for avoiding burnout and allowing for downtime, which calms our >autonomic nervous systems.

Naturopathic Approach to Winter Wellness

One of the Seven Core Naturopathic Principles is to Treat the Whole Person <(Tolle Totum). This means that naturopaths view health and illness as interconnected, treating the unique physical, mental, emotional, genetic, and spiritual aspects of an individual. Essentially, this guides your naturopathic doctor to work with the body’s natural cycles in winter and embrace our inward energy. From this perspective, we recommend slowing down, enjoying warming and seasonally appropriate foods, while prioritizing restorative practices.

Easy Things We Can Do to Support the Nervous System and Hormones During the Solstice

Sleep and Circadian Support:

• Earlier bedtimes: As mentioned above, reduced daylight disrupts our circadian rhythms, making us feel more tired. Earlier bedtimes help compensate for our depleted energy reserves and enable us to achieve longer REM sleep. REM sleep is crucial for mood regulation, which is especially important in the winter due to our decreased Vitamin D and serotonin production.
• Morning light exposure: Getting morning light as quickly as possible upon waking (ideally within an hour of waking) helps signal to our brains to stop producing melatonin, leaving us feeling more alert and awake. This also helps establish our circadian rhythms, making it easier for us to fall asleep at night.

 Nutrition for Hormone Health in the Winter

• Warming, grounding foods: Focus on cooking winter-appropriate produce (roots, squashes, legumes) in low and slow heat. This helps nourish our bodies and support our digestion, which can often be lacking during the winter. Use warming spices like ginger and cinnamon, and healthy fats. This will help support digestion as well as blood sugar levels, which in turn promotes overall hormone health.
• Adequate protein and healthy fats: Focus on high-quality sources of protein, such as wild-caught salmon, pasture-raised eggs, and organic legumes, as well as healthy fats like avocados, nuts, seeds, and organic cold-pressed olive oil. This helps support hormone production, reduce inflammation, and stabilize blood sugar.
• Mineral-rich foods that support thyroid and adrenal health: In times of adrenal fatigue, it’s essential to make sure you’re eating mineral-rich foods. These foods include: Brazil nuts, seaweed, spinach, kale, pumpkin seeds, oily fish, sweet potatoes, beets, and whole, unprocessed grains.

Movement and Stress Regulation

Staying active both indoors and outdoors during the winter is beneficial for regulating mood through endorphins, obtaining natural light for vitamin D synthesis, aligning your circadian rhythm, and reinforcing social bonds. Throughout many cultures, the winter solstice was a time of coming together and sharing. Staying active in your immediate community is just as important as staying physically active. Go for walks with a neighbor or try out a yoga studio.

The Winter Solstice is a Time of Renewal

The Winter Solstice is both symbolically and literally the return of light. By marking the year’s peak of darkness (yin = inward energy), and the beginning of the return of the sun (yang = outward energy), we mimic nature’s patterns as we shift from our natural state of hibernation to a time of reflecting and setting intentions for a new year of growth.  It’s a powerful reminder to follow nature’s rhythms. The solstice’s peak darkness cues our bodies to remain in a state of deep rest.

Hormones thrive in rhythm, not constant stimulation. Being aware of our natural surroundings, such as the Winter Solstice, can help our bodies take in natural cues and support long-term hormonal health. If you’d like a more personalized approach to your hormonal health, we encourage you to call our front desk today to discuss becoming a patient.

References

• Gnocchi D, Bruscalupi G. Circadian Rhythms and Hormonal Homeostasis: Pathophysiological Implications. Biology. 2017;6(4):10. doi:https://doi.org/10.3390/biology6010010
• Cahill S, Tuplin E, Holahan MR. Circannual changes in stress and feeding hormones and their effect on food-seeking behaviors. Frontiers in Neuroscience. 2013;7. doi: https://doi.org/10.3389/fnins.2013.00140