Hormonal Imbalance – How Does It Start?

In industrial countries all around the world, there is a growing problem with regards to hormone imbalance. Science shows that one of the main causes is our chemically polluted environment. Research into the mating of wildlife has shown that animals are reproducing less and less and in many cases have such serious sexual deformities that they are unable to reproduce at all. It is only logical that humans are also affected, after all, we live in the same ecosystem.

A Modern-Day Problem – Hormonal Disruption

Our daily exposure to toxins, pollutants, preservatives, drugs, petrochemicals, pesticides, plastics and even our personal care products, all introduce foreign substances into the body that mimic the natural hormone, oestrogen. Wild animals, fish, bird-life and humans alike are being adversely affected in their hormonal and reproductive systems. So our polluted environment, a result of chemical toxicity and constant over-industrialisation, can contribute to an ongoing lifetime of hormonal disruption.

The introduction of xeno-oestrogens (foreign oestrogens or oestrogens unnatural to body chemistry), from all the many chemical pollutants introduced into our lives over the past six or seven decades, are having a terrible effect on the health of adults and children alike. Because these chemical substances have a long-lasting and devastating effect on both hormone production as well as the hormone balance of men, women, and children everywhere, this problem is causing an increasingly severe problem called oestrogen dominance.

As the years go by your levels of progesterone drop, and that reduction is increased with modern lifestyles that tip the balance of oestrogen vs progesterone. Add to that, if you take the Pill, are on HRT or have a high fat diet; and / or if you’re living in the city with all the petrochemicals in the air; or in farming communities with a high incidence of chemical sprays, herbicides, pesticides etc; or are exposed to dioxins (often hidden in the products in your home, from out-gassing plastics) – these all add to an even greater oestrogen dominance.

The most common side effects of too much oestrogen (oestrogen dominance) include:

• Water retention
• Mood swings
• Weight gain
• Zinc loss
• There is also 76% increase in the risk of cancer, when you are oestrogen dominant.

Oestrogen dominance also causes a myriad of modern world symptoms: Pre menstrual syndrome (PMS), bloating, decreased energy,  depression and mood swings, bloating,  heavy bleeding, foggy thinking, memory loss, miscarriage, fibrocystic breasts, auto-immune disorders, acne, breast enlargement in both men and women, breast tenderness, hot flushes, heavy menstrual flow, cramping, menstrual cramps, fluid retention, irregular period, migraines, carbohydrate cravings, fatigue, gallbladder disease, weight gain, uterine fibrosis, the loss of libido, depression, uterine fibroid tumours, impaired blood sugar control, thyroid dysfunction, endometriosis, excessive blood clotting, infertility, osteoporosis, endometrial cancer, breast cancer, ovarian cysts, and the list could go on and on.

If you experience any of the myriad of hormonal disruptive symptoms, then chances are, you may be oestrogen dominant. It is well known that the supposedly technically advanced, western world has a population that has a growing massive problem in oestrogen dominance issues which continues to escalate as they get older. Oestrogen dominance symptoms are often caused or made worse by excessive xeno-oestrogens but can also result from a lack of healthy progesterone.

So, are there solutions to this problem?

Wouldn’t it be great if you could just do something simple to balance out this growing issue of hormone imbalance. Science has discovered that we can naturally help the body lift its levels of progesterone and that this seems to counter oestrogen dominance. Progesterone is one of the hormones in our bodies that stimulates and regulates various functions, and it can be synthesized within the central nervous system.

Progesterone plays a major role in maintaining pregnancy – and there is some thought that it could be of benefit for women in danger of losing a foetus. The hormone is produced in the ovaries, the placenta (when a woman gets pregnant) and in the adrenal glands. It helps prepare your body for conception and pregnancy and regulates the monthly menstrual cycle. It also plays a role in sexual desire, is neuroprotective, and affects myelination of the nerves. It is also being investigated for its potential to improve memory and cognitive ability.

Other Benefits of Progesterone

• Progesterone is used to control persistent anovulatory bleeding.
• It is also used to prepare uterine lining in infertility therapy and to support early pregnancy.
• Patients with recurrent pregnancy loss due to inadequate progesterone production may receive progesterone.
• It raises epidermal growth factor-1 levels, a factor often used to induce proliferation, and used to sustain cultures, of stem cells.
• It increases core temperature (thermogenic function) during ovulation.
• It reduces spasm and relaxes smooth muscle. Bronchi are widened and mucus regulated. (Progesterone receptors are widely present in submucosal tissue.)
• It acts as an anti-inflammatory agent and regulates the immune response.
• It reduces gall-bladder activity.
• It normalizes blood clotting and vascular tone, zinc and copper levels, cell oxygen levels, and use of fat stores for energy.
• It may affect gum health, creasing risk of gingivitis (gum inflammation) and tooth decay
• It appears to prevent endometrial cancer (involving the uterine lining) by regulating the effects of estrogen.
• Progesterone plays an important role in the signaling of insulin release and pancreatic function, and may affect the susceptibility to diabetes or gestational diabetes.

• Progesterone is being investigated as potentially beneficial in treating multiple sclerosis, since the characteristic deterioration of nerve myelin insulation halts during pregnancy, when progesterone levels are raised; deterioration commences again when the levels drop.

• Progesterone has a role in skin elasticity and bone strength, in respiration, in nerve tissue and in female sexuality, and the presence of progesterone receptors in certain muscle and fat tissue may hint at a role in sexuality.

• Progesterone has a role in aging.

• Progesterone has a role in brain damage – Studies as far back as 1987 show that female sex hormones have an effect on the recovery of traumatic brain injury. If an injury occurred because of an accident, contact Cohen Law Group for legal advice to get the compensation you deserve.

• Previous studies have shown that progesterone supports the normal development of neurons in the brain, and that the hormone has a protective effect on damaged brain tissue. 

  The mechanism of progesterone protective effects may be the reduction of inflammation that follows brain trauma.

Is there a safe natural solution?

In 1939 it was discovered that an ingredient called diosgenin in the Mexican Wild Yam (Dioscorea villosa) could be converted easily and inexpensively into a molecule that is identical to the body’s hormone, progesterone. Thank goodness modern research has continually pointed to the many ways of improving one’s health naturally. Now we can avoid any disruption to our health without intervention by way of surgery or drugs or by those subsequently induced problems.

Has there been a body of evidence to support these claims?

The late Dr John Lee, has done extensive research over nearly 60 years in America. Lee found that the symptoms of the hormonal imbalance between progesterone and oestrogen and are easily rectified with the addition of progesterone boosters such as the Wild Yams which assist the body to self-regulate. This is made into a cream that can be simply rubbed onto the skin. Dr Lee has vehemently suggested since the 1980’s that both nutritional supplementation and natural progesterone creams derived from the wild yam are both vital to restoring a woman’s hormonal balance, and the ensuing years have proven this to be true. The addition of natural progesterone or a natural progesterone precursor seems to immediately begin to reverse the conditions mentioned earlier.

“STOP PRESS” – Heart Disease and Oestrogen Dominance Connection:

The world was stunned when findings of 2 major studies were released at the turn of the century. The first showed negative results relating to Heart Disease and Oestrogen. The second study, one of the largest ever undertaken was aborted after researchers found women taking HRT after menopause had a much higher % risk of : Breast Cancer (h26%), Heart attack (h29%), Stroke (h41%) and Blood Clots/ DVT (h100%) than those who didn’t take the drugs.

The trial, which was to last 8.5 years and involved 16,000 women aged 50–79 (who still had their Uterus), was halted in May ’02 because the “researchers were so concerned about risks to those involved”. These findings support the recent American Heart Association recommendations that pre-menopausal women seeking to lower risks of heart disease should not take “HRT”. These results were also published Journal American Medical Association (July 17.’02; 288:321-333).

WHO Reports – Effects of dioxins on human health

The World Health Organisation (WHO) see Dioxins as a major risk to our health. “Dioxins are environmental pollutants. They have the dubious distinction of belonging to the “dirty dozen” – a group of dangerous chemicals known as persistent organic pollutants. Dioxins are of concern because of their highly toxic potential.

Experiments have shown they affect a number of organs and body systems. Once dioxins have entered the body, they endure a long time because of their chemical stability and their ability to remain absorbed by fat tissue, where they are then stored in the body. Their half-life in the body is estimated to be 7 to 11 years. In the environment, dioxins tend to accumulate in the food chain, the higher in the animal food chain, the higher the concentration of dioxins.

Short-term exposure of humans to high levels of dioxins may result in skin lesions such as chloracne, patchy darkening of the skin and altered liver function. Long-term exposure is linked to impairment of the immune system, the developing nervous system, endocrine system and reproductive functions. Chronic exposure of animals to dioxins has resulted in several types of cancer. The developing fetus is most sensitive to dioxin exposure. The new-born, with rapidly developing organ systems, may also be more vulnerable to certain effects.

Some individuals or groups of individuals may be exposed to higher levels of dioxins because of their diets (e.g., high consumers of fish in certain parts of the world) or their occupations (e.g., workers in the pulp and paper industry, in incineration plants and at hazardous waste sites, to name just a few). Dioxin chemicals cause cancer, especially breast cancer. Dioxins are highly poisonous to the cells of our bodies.

Warning: Don’t freeze your plastic bottles with water in them as this releases dioxins from the plastic. We should not be heating our food in the microwave using plastic containers. This especially applies to foods that contain fat. The combination of fat, high heat, and plastics releases dioxin into the food and ultimately into the cells of the body. Instead, we recommend using glass, such as Corning Ware, Pyrex or ceramic containers for heating food (You get the same results, only without the dioxin). And this is a danger not just for you, but for your future unborn children and grandchildren, because of your chemical exposure.

Here is a booklet you can download to read with information and tips on Hormonal Balance

References:

See xeno-oestrogens: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xenoestrogen

Risks of dioxins: http://www.who.int/ipcs/publications/en/exe-sum-final.pdf

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