Living in a Sea of Estrogen

Estrogen-1024x682

Estrogen is not a single hormone. It is a class of hormones and hormone like compounds that have estrogenic properties.

There are human estrogens, animal estrogens, synthetic estrogens, phytoestrogens, and xenoestrogens.

The three human estrogens are estradiol, estrone, and estriol, and belong to the steroid hormone family.

"Estrogen dominance" is a term coined by Harvard physician John R. Lee M.D. It describes a condition where a woman can have deficient, normal, or excessive estrogen but the body has little or no progesterone to balance its effects. Signs and symptoms of estrogen dominance include:
•Speeds up the aging process
•Weight gain around middle
•Allergies
•Autoimmune disorders
•Breast cancer
•Breast tenderness
•Cold hands and feet as a symptom of thyroid dysfunction
•Decreased sex drive
•Muscle and joint pain
•Depression
•Dry eyes
•Early onset of menstruation
•Uterine cancer
•Fat gain in abdomen, hips, and thighs
•Fatigue
•Fibrocystic breasts
•Foggy thinking
•Hair loss
•Headaches
•Hypoglycemia
•Increased blood clotting
•Infertility
•Irregular menstrual periods
•Insomnia
•Memory loss
•Mood swings
•PMS
•Ovarian cysts
•Pre-menopausal bone loss
•Sluggish metabolism
•Thyroid dysfunction
•Uterine cancer
•Uterine fibroids
•Water retention and bloating
Causes of Estrogen Dominance Syndrome

Besides the natural hormonal fluctuations of menopause, certain lifestyle choices and conditions can also contribute to estrogen dominance syndrome, especially a low-fiber diet, overloading the liver with internal toxins, and absorbing toxins from the environment.

Overloading the Liver

The liver is a filter of sorts. It detoxifies our body, protecting us from the harmful effects of chemicals, elements in food, environmental toxins, and even natural products of our metabolism, including excess estrogen.

Anything that impairs liver function or ties up the detoxifying function will result in excess estrogen levels, whether it has a physical basis, as in liver disease, or an external cause, as with exposure to environmental toxins, drugs, or dietary substances.


•Estrogen is produced not only internally but also produced in reaction to chemicals and other substances in our food. When it is not broken down adequately, higher levels of estrogen build up.

In like manner, the estrogen dominance syndrome can be evoked in women by too much alcohol, drugs, or environmental toxins, all of which limit the liver's capacity to cleanse the blood of estrogen.

Environment

We live in an estrogenic or feminizing environment. Certain chemicals in the environment and our foods, one of which is DDT, cause estrogenic effects. Although banned in 1972, DDT, like its breakdown product DDE, is an estrogen-like substance and is still present in the environment.

Chlorine and hormone residues in meats and dairy products can also have estrogenic effects.

In men, the estrogenic environment may result in declining quality of sperm or fertility rates.

In women, it may lead to an epidemic of female diseases, all traceable to excess estrogen/deficient progesterone.

In industrialized countries such as the United States, diets rich in animal fats, sugar, refined starches, and processed foods can lead to estrogen levels in women twice that of women of third-world countries.

We are constantly exposed to xenobiotics (petrochemicals), xenohormone-laden meats and dairy products, forms of pollution, and prescriptions for synthetic hormones (such as the 'The Pill' and Premarin).

It isn't too surprising that estrogen dominance has become an epidemic in industrialized countries. Over exposure to these potentially dangerous substances has significant consequences, one of which is passing on reproductive abnormalities to offspring.Estrogen "deficiency" that is quite often used as an explanation of menopausal symptoms or health problems is not supported by sound research. When a woman's menstrual cycle is functioning normally, estrogen is the dominant hormone for the first two weeks and is balanced by progesterone, which is the dominant hormone for the latter two weeks.

After menopause, estrogen is still present and continues to be manufactured in fat cells. Most menopausal women have too little estrogen to support pregnancy, but sufficient amounts for other normal body functions. Few women are truly deficient in estrogen; most become progesterone deficient.

If estrogen becomes the dominant hormone and progesterone is deficient, excess estrogen becomes toxic to the body. Progesterone has a balancing effect on estrogen.

Supplemental estrogen, even in the slightest amounts, in a woman who doesn't need it, or who has no progesterone to balance it, can lead to many serious side effects.

When a woman complains of even the slightest menopausal type symptoms, conventional medical doctors will recommend a prescription of estrogen.

It is irresponsible and dangerous for doctors to be routinely prescribing estrogen for any type of pre-menopausal or menopausal symptom, and this practice can have tragic consequences.

Functional Medicine University

What is Nutritional Consulting?

Nutritional consulting has trended into the mainstream for good reason. This form of consulting provides invaluable advice pertaining how one should eat, the frequency at which one should eat and which types of foods are ideal for one's...

5 Herbal Teas for Anxiety

Do you suffer from stress and anxiety? If you're looking for herbal tea remedies to help with anxiety symptoms, we've listed them below. Green Tea This Eastern remedy for stress is packed with antioxidants and a compound called...

Is Nutritional Counseling Right for Me?

A nutritional counselor can help you master a balanced diet, which is one of the most important factors of good health. Whether you want to manage a chronic illness like diabetes or lose weight, changing your eating habits can be the difference...

How To Tell If You Need A Chiropractor

Chiropractors treat issues of the musculoskeletal system, focusing primarily on the spine. Their practice is founded on the belief that subluxations in the spine are responsible for pain or health issues in the body. Chiropractors are trained in...

5 Benefits of Nutritional Counseling

Bookstores and blogs are filled with nutritional advice and diet plans, but unfortunately, not all of these recommendations are based on tested nutritional science. Seeking out a basic counseling seasons with a dietitian or another nutritional...

Has your Sunscreen Estrogenized You?

    What are the side effects of parabens? Parabens, man-made preservative chemicals, are used by manufacturers in a variety of domestic products, such as cosmetics, sunscreens, lotions and moisturizers, shampoo, shaving,...

Vaxxed Movie Review

In 2013, biologist Dr. Brian Hooker received a call from a Senior Scientist at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) who led the agency’s 2004 study on the Measles-Mumps-Rubella (MMR) vaccine and its link to autism.The...

The Seven Deadly Operations

Just seven medical procedures account for 80 per cent of all deaths and complications from emergency medicine.Around 15 per cent of patients will suffer complications—often requiring another hospital visit—and just over one per cent will die...

Missed by Many Doctors

The most under diagnosed health problem in the West, parasites may be responsible for a multitude of conditions from joint pain and chronic fatigue to many general disorders of the gut and immune systemThe most under diagnosed health problem in the...

Could Your Digestive Problems be SIBO Symptoms?

Small intestinal bacterial overgrowth (SIBO) is an increasingly recognized condition in which there is an elevated number of bacteria in the small intestines. The small intestine normally contains relatively few bacteria, but with SIBO, bacteria...

Dirty Electricity

Dirty Electricity: A form of electro pollution—refers to the high frequency voltage transients in the electrical wiring inside buildings produced by computers, dimmer switches, etc. These contaminate the standard 60 hertz electric current and...

Daylight Saving Time Tied To Strokes

For most people, daylight saving is an inconvenience. For some, it could be a question of life and death.Researchers from the University of Turku in Finland looked at 10 years of data concerning stroke-related hospitalizations and in-hospital...

Allergies and Antibiotic Use

A study conducted at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit, Michigan shows that children given antibiotics in their first six months of life have an increased risk of allergies to ragweed, pets, grass, and dust mites. They also have an increased risk of...

Cancer Risk of CT Scans

Every year, Americans are exposed to potentially unsafe levels of DNA-altering radiation through medical imaging such as CT scans.An astonishing 72 million CT scans are performed annually in the United States, which is about one scan for every...

The Food We Eat Changes Our Genes

New evidence has emerged this week that supports the idea that nutrition can cause—and reverse—most diseases. Scientists have discovered that almost all of our genes are affected by the food we eat, and change according to the nutrients that are...

The Silent Killer

The deadly effects of even slightly elevated glucose are fatally misunderstood.One reason for this calamity is physicians who continue to rely on obsolete blood glucose ranges. These doctors fail to recognize that any excess glucose creates lethal...
Page: 12345 - All