Hormone imbalance/estrogen dominance is a very common condition and is the root cause of many undesirable symptoms. It affects us emotionally and physically, playing a role in depression, anxiety, memory issues, metabolism, growth, weight gain, digestion, sleep, and reproduction.
So what causes estrogen dominance?
The primary causes of estrogen dominance for both men and women are diet, environmental toxins, and stress. For children it’s mostly environment and diet, although kids are prone to stress much earlier these days.
What we eat is a huge contributor to estrogen dominance. White four, refined carbohydrates (factory food), sugar, caffeine, alcohol, grain-fed meat, dairy, plastic food and drink containers all alter and destroy the endocrine system.
A diet high in carbohydrates, processed foods, and sugars will increase blood sugar levels and insulin. This can lead to an increase in fat cells. Fat cells produce estrogen and estrogen produces fat cells. We can have a nice little estrogen factory brewing in areas where we store extra fat. You will see this often in woman’s hips, thighs, breast and butt..
Diet is one contributor to men developing “man boobs”. Insulin resistance will convert testosterone into estrogen with the help of enzymes. So men, if you start noticing your testosterone plummeting, check your blood sugar and insulin levels.
To protect us, we should be eating organic. Conventional food is contaminated with toxic pesticides, which are hormone disruptors.
Non-organic meat and dairy have added hormones. Conventionally raised meat is spiked with hormones to make the animal grow faster and have a higher fat content. When you eat these foods, you are consuming the toxic hormones along with the meat and dairy.
- ENVIRONMENTAL TOXINS
Common everyday chemicals are found in plastics, skin care, cleaning products, cosmetics, herbicides, and pesticides. They contain toxins called hormone or endocrine disruptors. One group of hormone disruptors called Xenoestrogens mimic the natural estrogen in your body, which prevent your hormones from doing their jobs. Xenoestrognes are found in pesticides, herbicides, plastics and body care products.
Many fancy skin care products (the ones that say “de-aging”) contain added estrogen. Skin care is not regulated very well, so they can get by with just enough to plump up the skin and increase your estrogen levels.
There are men’s products on the market that contain added testosterone. This impacts our teenagers! Increased acne and anger have been a result of too much testosterone for these younger guys.
Sad, but true, birth control pills will not only increase estrogen in your body, they have also been found in the water and soil where our food is grown.
We are living is a sea of estrogen!
When your brain perceives anything stressful (physical or emotional), it tells the adrenal glands to produce cortisol. Cortisol uses the same precursors as hormones, that is, they use cholesterol. If there is a high demand for cortisol, e.g.: chronic stress, then all the precursors that are needed to make hormones are used up making cortisol. There is in fact a name for this: it is called “Pregnenolone Steal”. Cortisol is stealing from your hormones;
This is very common for women with low progesterone. Years of stress have created high cortisol and low progesterone. With men, it shows up as low testosterone. Both of these lead to estrogen dominance.
As your body ages, you are more dependent on your adrenal glands for hormone production. A life of stress will show up in your hormones making you feel unwell and, for women, can make menopause very difficult.
When you balance and restore your hormones many of these symptoms can be alleviated and you will feel back to your old self again.
Before any treatment, I like to take a saliva hormone test. It’s important to identify what hormone is off, what the ratio of estrogen to progesterone is and where your cortisol levels are.
For cortisol, I measure the amount 4 times during the day: when you first wake up, where it should be the highest; before lunch, before dinner and right before bed, where it should be low, but not too low. This really tells a story of how your body is dealing with stress, blood sugar, energy and even weight.
With the results of hormones and cortisol, we get a picture and, along with your symptoms, we can proceed to make a plan of action to get you back feeling great.
I want to empower you to take control of your health, and feel your best!