Health Through Hormonal Balance

HEALTH: A Balancing Act Between Estrogen and Progesterone

Discover the secrets to youthful aging by taking some very simple steps towards regaining your health once again. You can use the word ’HEALTH’ as a mnemonic reminding you of these SEVEN great tips for reconnecting with a greater sense of well being.

Health has been defined as "a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being
and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity" according to the definition
in use by the World Health Organization (WHO) since 1948.

Health is all about balance and I would like to share Sarah's story with you so that you can understand just how these concepts apply to your life as well.

Sarah is a 45 year old executive which presented to my office complaining of hot flashes, night sweats, extreme fatigue and an inability to achieve restful sleep at night. She also had low sex drive, crazy mood swings, weight gain & thinning hair. Overall, Sarah felt like quite the mess and needed help to begin feeling healthy once again. Here was our discussion..

"Sarah, there’s very simple ways for restoring your sense of health & balance. It’s just a matter of testing for which hormones have gone out of balance & then restoring them to more youthful levels so you can regain that sense of HEALTH and youthful living once again."

"If you will allow these 7 letters to guide you in remembering these ways in which you can begin healing your hormonal imbalances in the perimenopausal years, you'll be feeling much better very soon."

Here is what I taught Sarah about her HEALTH that day..

H is for The Hormonal Balancing Act
E is for Eating Whole Grains, Seeds & Nuts
E is also for Eating Fruits, Vegetables and for Exercising
A is for Avoiding Junk: Sugar, Caffeine, Tobacco & Alcohol
L is for Less Animal Proteins & Less Stress
T is for Taking Adequate Amounts of Soy, Vitamins & Minerals
H is for Hormonal Supplementation

Let those 7 letters guide you to remember the many ways you can begin to heal your hormonal imbalances during the perimenopausal years.

H is for The Hormonal Balancing Act

For the past 200 years we’ve transitioning through agricultural & hunting communities into industrialized, modern, urban, and big city lifestyles.

Along with the shifts in the way that we live have come transformations in how we make, process, store & distribute food. Modern ’supermarkets’ have since replaced the ’farmer’s markets & produce stands’. Our foods must be resilient to store for longer periods of time, this requires processing & preserving them with tons of sugar, salts & artificial ingredients. The process gave birth to a menu that many have come to accept as normal - the modern, instant & microwaveable meal.

The processing of our natural foods to prolong shelf life requires extracting that which would make them perishable. Unfortunately, those are the very ingredients which hold all nutritional value. Our diets now consist of an excess of calorie dense foods like animal fat, partially hydrogenated vegetable oils and refined carbohydrates while lacking in the whole grains, fruits & vegetables.

To make matters worse, food and agriculture are BIG business, and that goes for the animals bred for our food supply as well. To make the most profits, these stocks must be fed a fatty meal, pumped full of steroids, antibiotics and hormones to sustain them in the best of health during the worse of conditions. These are the very same products which we will consume through ingesting this produce. If you want to avoid these toxic xenoestrogens (substances which act like harmful hormones in our bodies) you must reduce your consumption of animal protein and only choose organic, grass fed and free range meats.

E is for Eating Whole Grains, Seeds & Nuts

This is where your healthy (complex) carbs and Vitamin B1, B2 & B3 are found, in the whole grains like:

Millet,
Barley,
Buckwheat,
Corn,
Oats,
Rice,
Rye, and
Wheat

You will also get important minerals like magnesium, zinc, iron, potassium, calcium, phosphorus, copper & selenium from these whole grains. The wheat germ (the perishable portion that gets removed in processing for longer shelf life) is a rich & natural source of vitamin E. Magnesium is also necessary for the prevention of PMS, perimenopausal symptoms, menopausal osteoporosis, heart disease and over 300 enzymatic reactions.

Without adequate amounts of Vitamins E & B your estrogen & progesterone levels go out of balance because the liver needs these to eliminate the excess estrogens. This creates a state of estrogen overload in your body, setting the stage for PMS, perimenopausal symptoms & breast tenderness. These vitamins are also very important for good brain functioning and mood regulation.

Fiber is also found in these grains and helps to regulate the amount of bowel movements that you have. This is important to rid the body of excess estrogens because estrogen gets reabsorbed by the gut if your bowel movements become infrequent. High fiber diets means less PMS and less painful periods.

Seeds that are good for you include:

Flax,
Pumpkin,
Sesame, and
Sunflower

They’re high in protein, essential fatty acids, important minerals like magnesium, zinc & copper and Vitamins A, D & E. The essential fatty acids (like, omega 3 also found in fish oils) are also important to your estrogen & progesterone balance.

Nuts that are good for you include:

Almonds,
Brazil Nuts,
Cashews,
Chestnuts,
Coconuts,
Soy,
Hazelnuts,
Peanuts,
Pistachios,
Pecans, and
Walnuts

These contain proteins & fats essential to normal cell & hormone functions. They are high in Vitamin E, potassium, magnesium, calcium, iron & zinc but avoid the ones roasted in oils, fats, salt & additives. Only eat a handful as a daily high protein, energy snack because they are also high in fat.

E if for Eating Fruits, Vegetables and Exercising

Try consuming only organic products as these are grown without the pesticides, chemical fertilizers and additives used by large, commercial farms. These farms ’super size’ and alter your foods to make them LOOK more appealing. They over plant the land while growing our crops in mineral depleted soil. These products are more susceptible to pests & to disease, thus requiring more fertilizers & pesticides. Great for commercialism, toxic for you.

Non-organics must be washed off thoroughly with soap & water, but be sure to rinse that soap off thoroughly because it is also unhealthy for your body.

Fruits are nature’s perfect food packed with Vitamin A, C, B & E, calcium, magnesium, copper, manganese and other trace minerals. Limonene in citrus prevents cancer and Quercetin in grapes prevent cardiovascular disease & strokes. Vitamin A (beta carotene) is a potent antioxidant preventing cancers brought about from free radical formation, but current evidence suggests smokers should avoid this supplement (another great reason to set that QUIT date soon).

Vegetables are also part of a ’good carbs’ diet & supplies essential vitamins & minerals while being low in fats and protein. They are a great source of fiber and do not stimulate the overproduction of insulin like bad junk carbs would. They nourish, detoxify, restore gut flora, support proper hormone levels & decrease your cancer risk with minimal caloric & fat intake.

Make sure to eat them raw or steamed. If you overcook them or peel their skins, you will lose most of the vitamins and minerals that you need to get from them.

The green ones have chlorophyll, great for intestinal nourishment & liver detoxification. The green, leafy ones are the most nutrient rich of all being very high in Vitamin A, C minerals like magnesium, potassium, calcium & folic acid (a B vitamin).

The cruciferous family (broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower & brussel sprouts) have special anti cancerous properties. They contain Indole-3-carbinol to help with excess estrogen metabolism.

Exercise has musculoskeletal benefits to increase muscle mass (which increases calorie burning) and makes strong bones. It helps the heart function better, it helps lower your unhealthy cholesterols (LDL, triglycerides) while raising your good ones (HDL). It also reduces tension, stress & anxiety and gives you greater longevity.

A is for Avoiding Junk: Sugar, Caffeine, Tobacco & Alcohol

Refined sugar is not RAW sugar that carries Vitamin B, fiber & enzymes essential for processing them through the body. You can not consume enough Vitamin B to process junk, refined sugars therefore this creates the B Vitamin deficiency that is so prevalent in our country.

Remember that you need this vitamin to process estrogens through the liver. It is also critical to your nervous system, while helping you cope with anxiety & stress. Sugars increase PMS symptoms, so it is best to avoid it and take extra B vitamins to balance your hormones much better. They also raise your insulin levels leading to hypoglycemia and ultimately to diabetes. Sugar also creates huge mood swings, aggression & cravings. When you overload with the junk food & the big gulps, your insulin levels overshoot and spike, and this creates incredible injury to the cardiovascular system over time. Do this enough and you will burn out your pancreas (the organ that makes insulin) becoming an insulin dependent diabetic over time.

AVOID: White (processed) Bread, Pasta, Potato, Rice and Alcohol. This is your new mantra..

Trouble losing weight? Lose the inflammation in your gut & get tested for food allergies, avoid unnatural food processing including gluten, and this will help you restore your hormone levels back to where they belong. Also avoid:

Caffeine which blocks absorption of vitamins & minerals, like calcium & iron,

Carbonated sodas which contain phosphorus that steals calcium from bones leaving them brittle & osteoporotic, and

Alcohol which damages the liver, keeping it too busy processing & eliminating the load to detoxify the rest of the body, including riding off the excess estrogens. Also, the alcoholic has a poor diet overall which creates vitamin & mineral deficiencies needed for hormones to function properly. A glass of wine (4 oz.) is acceptable, the grape skin contains reservatrol, a good cardiovascular protectant. But you can get this from grape juice, grapes or a good supplement as well without injuring your liver in the process.

L is for Less Animal Proteins & Less Stress

Animal Proteins (meat) is very dense protein & takes a long time to digest. It is important that you reduce the amount of red meats. If you must have it, only eat the organic meat, which is often called ’free range’ meaning that the animal is allowed to graze on chemical free grass and has not ben pumped up with antibiotics or hormones. Also try fat free milk & cheese. Try veggie cheese instead of dairy cheese.

Vegetarians have half the incidence of coronary artery disease. They have a lower incidence of high blood pressure, obesity, high cholesterol, arteriosclerosis & cancer.

Osteoporosis increases with meat consumption because it causes high amounts of calcium to be lost through the urine. Calcium is needed to neutralize byproducts made from animal proteins through your digestive process. This is why the American diet requires so much calcium.

Plant protein comes from unprocessed grains, beans, nuts & green leafy vegetables. Eat a wide variety of each. If you eat a wholesome diet and add organic eggs or milk this should provide you with a balanced, nutritious diet.

Stress directly alters your hormones in an undesirable way. Long term, it raises your estrogen levels and this contributes to the perimenopausal symptoms, hot flashes, bleeding irregularities and increased risk of cancers.

Identify the stressor, learn better time management skills, eliminate unrealistic social expectations & develop your stress coping skills.

The effect of many forms of stress is a direct result of your response to it. Coping skills need to be reviewed and relearned.

Learning to say "NO" is a good skill to develop and needs to be reinforced often.

You see, life will go on even if you donÕt get involved. Learn to delegate. Learn to accept help & support. Pray. Meditate. Relax & Breathe.

Each of the above is a topic unto itself. Look into ways that work for you and MAKE the time to heal.

Relationships. Build strong ones. Do not allow poor communication & stubbornness to destroy your relationships. It’s about forgiveness. Forgiveness heals relationships, but mostly it heals the person which forgives by lifting the stress of bitterness & resentment right off of their shoulders.

T is for Taking Adequate Amounts of Soy, Vitamins & Minerals

Soybean has estrogen-like substances that can act like estrogen inside the perimenopausal womanÕs body and alleviate lots of unpleasant symptoms. It is packed with phytoestrogens (plant estrogens) and isoflavins which give you the good benefits without the bad side effects of estrogens.

Cancers of the breast, uterus and prostate are lower in countries that use soy regularly. Whole soy foods include, hard tofu (better than soft), tempeh, soybeans, soy milk & other products made with soy. Soy pills are unproven.

One caveat, eating large quantities can block absorption of minerals, like calcium, magnesium, iron & zinc. Asians bypass this ill effect by consuming their soy in a mineral rich fish broth. Eating fermented soy (like tempeh & miso) also prevents the blocking of these minerals.

You need about 60-80 milligrams of soy isoflavins to get the benefits. A typical Asian diet consists of about 160 milligrams of soy isoflavins, or approximately one pound of tofu per day.

As you transition into a healthier diet, you will need to add a good mineral supplement to your daily intake. Make sure it contains a generous dose of the B vitamins (including folic acid), Vitamin A, C D, Calcium, Magnesium, Boron, Manganese, Zinc and Selenium, among others.

H is for Hormonal Supplementation

Synthetic Estrogens are not the only choice when you are considering replacement therapy. But never take any hormones without testing for deficiencies first. The best test you can have is salivary testing because it reflects the level of hormone available inside of your cells (which is actually where your body needs it). ALso, be sure to have your physician monitor your levels periodically or if you have changes in the way that you are feeling.

The goal of hormone therapy is:

To correct deficiencies,
To maintain or improve your quality of life,
That there should be no disruptive side effects,
That there should be no increase in heart disease or cancer risks, and
That treatment should actually prevent degenerative diseases.

We will review the many choices on using bio-equivalent hormone replacement therapies and/or natural alternatives to hormones in future issues.

If you are suffering from less than optimal health, or for help with choosing high quality nutraceutical grade formulas and detoxification programs to boost your weight loss program and to get the most out of your nutrients & foods get in touch with us today.

Stop suffering with less than optimal health or poor performance. There is a better way. Contact Us To Make An Appointment Today.

Recommended Reading:
The Youthful Aging Center Bookstore