Dawn Cutillo: Are Your Hormones Making You Crazy?

As you get older, you might notice that you're losing sleep, your hair is thinning, and your waist is getting thicker. What's going on? Dawn Cutillo is a holistic health practitioner and the author of "The Hormone 'Shift'," and she stopped by "Daily Shot" with some answers.

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How do you know if you're premenopausal? "Basically, you feel like you have PMS every day," Dawn says. "You start to gain weight, you have problems with your mood, you can't sleep as well … and then you get the hot flashes." That shows you may be starting to enter "the change."

Hot flashes result from dips in estrogen levels, and they're a sign that "the ovaries are starting to shut down," Dawn explains. But what triggers these unpleasant episodes is actually falling blood sugar — something to keep in mind when you're about to have caffeine or a sugary snack.

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Still, Dawn says there is one way to ease the effects of shifting hormones: Raise your progesterone. "Progesterone is a hormone that will balance, and if you raise your progesterone, your body will start making estrogen on its own," she explains. "Progesterone is the hormone that keeps us thin, that keeps us in a good mood, that keeps us calm, and it helps us sleep."

You don't have to be menopausal to benefit from progesterone, either. Dawn recommends a natural hormone cream that puts progesterone in your system to help with cramps, cravings, and thinning hair. All these, she says, are side effects of stress for women regardless of age.

To learn more about the effects of stress on our hormone levels, check out this episode of "Daily Shot."