Making Menopause Magical and Meaningful

One of the wonderful things about being a part of Women to Women for over thirty years is that I have seen so many women heal their bodies and their lives. Thousands of women overcome by disruptive symptoms such as joint pain, night sweats, digestive concerns, anxiety, depression, mood swings, or hot flashes, have gone on to restore hormonal balance and to feel like themselves again.

It’s incredible to see the physical transformation first-hand and watch them leave the clinic feeling good, often for the first-time in years. But more and more, I am seeing women transformed by menopause in other ways: emotional healing, the emergence of a new understanding of who they are and what they want, expression of dormant creativity, and even total reinvention.

I can’t tell you how inspiring it is to see women heal emotionally and physically and go on to create incredible amazing lives after menopause. So often we speak about menopause negatively, focusing on symptoms and discomfort and the physical challenges it brings. But menopause also brings a wonderful opportunity to get to know our bodies and ourselves in a much deeper way and to use the information we gain to chart a new course for the second half of our lives. How exciting is that?

Like all big opportunities, however, it’s not completely effortless: the mid-life transition of menopause brings with it some challenges and requires a little time and effort on our parts. But the pay off is so worth it! If you’re feeling down or discouraged about the state of your body and/or your life, I want to reassure that there is hope. You can get your symptoms under control. You can feel good again. You can turn your life around and create a new future by using this time to explore emotions and dreams you may have put on hold or buried away and forgotten long ago.

Before we can look at the emotional aspects, however, we need to deal with the physical ones. If you are not feeling well or not feeling like yourself, you won’t have the ability or the space or the emotional stamina to look deeply within yourself. Over the past three decades at Women to Women, we have seen the power of nutrition and lifestyle choices first-hand: now more than ever, food is medicine or poison, depending upon how you use it.

It’s important at all times, but especially during times of transition such as menopause, that we make the best choices we can to nourish and support our bodies and our lives. That’s why we encourage our patients to eat whole foods, organic when possible, and not packaged or processed foods. We also suggest to our patients that they try to cook at home as much as possible since restaurant food is often as bad — or even worse — than packaged and even fast foods.

Balance is key: aim for meals with healthy proteins, fats and fiber. That means grass-fed beef, organic free-range chicken, wild-caught salmon, bison, and whole and complete plant-based proteins like quinoa. We also need to consume healthy fats in the form of olive oil, avocados, grass-fed butter, and nuts along with lots of (organic when possible) fruits and vegetables.

We’ve shared with you before, however, that even adopting this healthy eating plan, it is very hard to get all of the nutrients we require from todays food supply, especially during a time of transition and hormonal imbalance such as menopause. That’s why even if you eat well – but especially if you do not – we believe every woman needs high-quality bio-absorbable nutritional supplementation like we offer in our multi-vitamin and omega-3 support products.

Most of our patients find that the right high-quality supplementation, along with some simple dietary changes such as cooking more and eating out less and making sure meals are balanced with protein, fat and fiber, brings significant and fast symptom relief. If your hormones are out of balance, additional plant-based support to restore that balance is also provided in our PMS and hormonal balance support systems to help speed relief and heal and restore balance. Quite frankly, we find the results to be amazing!

If you’ve read our previous newsletters on probiotics, you know that we also recommend a probiotic support product to all of our patients. If you have digestive concerns of any kind, this is definitely a must. But as we’ve seen from recent studies, the gut flora balance our bodies rely on for wellness can so easily be disrupted by antibiotics, stress, lack of sleep and poor food choices, so it’s important to ensure that your second brain, your digestive system, is in balance.

If you can make small dietary changes and then also add in some basic lifestyle shifts such as getting more sleep (start with 15 more minutes a night, then work up to 30 or 60 more minutes over time); finding ways to reduce and relieve stress (it may be physical such as yoga or tai chi or it may be more spiritual such as journaling, meditation or a hobby; I like using both); adding in more physical movement in our day (take a walk at lunch, take the stairs or simply make sure you stand up every hour); and looking to find exercise we truly enjoy doing (I’ve begun ballroom dancing and I love it! But many women I know have taken up training for a run or cycling charity event, started hiking again, or tried Zumba or boxing classes at the gym), you’ll be well on your way to feeling good again.

As women begin to feel better physically, at the clinic we often see that emotions they have buried previously may come to the surface. Perhaps feelings or issues from your childhood that you never fully addressed may emerge. While that may surprise you, it is a gift and a call from your body to explore them, feel them, release them and heal them so that you can experience greater physical and emotional health going forward.

Much like a physical symptom showing up that invites us to look upstream to see what actually caused it, (and it may be something very different than what it initially appears to be), an emotional memory or experience is your body’s way of shining a light and asking you to delve deeper to explore the root cause so that you can release the symptom or its expression.

For other women, it may be more of an opportunity to finally take some time for themselves: their career may be more stable, kids may be older, perhaps they are on their own or their relationship affords them more “me time” at this stage; it is a chance to ask questions about who and where they are now… and where they would like to go.

Is there enough joy and sweetness in my life?
What can I imagine myself to be?
What could I do with the second half off my life?
Who am I now? What do I want? How could I get there?

There are no right or wrong answers and unlike the pressure of an imminent graduation or wedding, there is no time constraint forcing an immediate decision or action. So finally, sometimes for the first time in a woman’s life, she can explore these questions openly, playfully, spiritually, enthusiastically and individually, focusing on herself, and see what comes up. It may be a little scary but mostly it is fun to imagine a variety of future possibilities, to take time to sit with what comes up and see how it really feels, and to focus on what lights us up and ignites us with passion.

I have seen so many women take the time to explore these questions and emerge from menopause clear and excited about where they would like to go — and then go off and create it. I admire and am inspired by these women reinventing themselves and their lives and using menopause as a time of transformation, healing and growth.

I invite you to consider menopause as more than just annoying symptoms but also as a wake up call to your physical body and to your spirit to look deeper and see what is really going on, what lies within that is calling for you to discover it, and to explore the possibilities for the second — and quite possibly best half — of your life.

Our menopause support products can help speed symptom relief so you are free to explore the gifts that menopause can bring. Our multi-vitamin, omega-3 and plant-based support products work together synergistically to heal and restore hormonal balance.

Stop suffering now! Hot flashes, night sweats, forgetfulness and brain fog can disappear! Order Women to Women’s Menopause Support Program today!
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To take our hormonal balance symptom quiz, click here.

Get Your Mojo Back Without “Pink” Viagra

Sexual desire is considered to be a life force in many cultures and feeling sexy and desired is a powerful part of being a woman. Fluctuating hormones during perimenopause and declining estrogen after menopause, however, can leave us wondering why we are feeling less interested in sex than we used to be.

I often see patients who are struggling with their libidos; changing sexual desire is one of the most common complaints women share with us at Women to Women. Many women come to us with physical symptoms that impact their interest in intimacy or diminish their pleasure, while others are experiencing emotional shifts or unresolved relationship issues that may make sex less appealing with their partners.

We often see that women who have not dealt with emotions from their past, be it from childhood or within their relationships, will find that these unresolved issues emerge and express, sometimes in new or surprising ways. Whether they are totally clear to you or completely catch you off guard, one thing is for sure: these emotions will not be denied and they will call to you for deeper exploration. Left unresolved, research shows that they will very likely impact your health as well as your sexuality.

Women, many of whom have enjoyed a healthy sex life until this point, often come to the clinic distraught and desperate to get their “mojo” back. They may even lament the fact that there is not a female Viagra, thinking perhaps that popping a pill would make their symptoms go away and make everything ok. (Ask any man on Viagra who experiences its high cost and the declining efficacy over time and he will tell you it’s not his preferred solution.)

While we’d all like a magic bullet, we know from working with our patients at Women to Women that there are no quick fixes. Desire can be restored but the most helpful thing to start with is diet and lifestyle changes, nutritional supplementation, and exploration of the relationship and emotional connection of the patient to her partner.

When you develop a symptom such as painful sex, diminished desire, or even surprising feelings and emotional reactions toward your partner, it is your body’s way of getting your attention and showing you what is really going on. Taking a pill to ignore the message may be convenient, but long-term, it’s much more effective to figure out the cause and treat it. In fact, that’s the only way to ensure your optimal health — and that of your relationship. Don’t get me wrong there are times that testosterone levels are low and adding testosterone can make a big difference for some women.

The New Female Viagra — How Flibanserin Works

As a health care practitioner who has been helping women to experience the best sex of their lives after menopause for over three decades now, I’ve been fascinated by conversations in the news recently about this new drug being called the “female Viagra” that pharmaceutical companies claim may potentially improve a woman’s libido.

After two rounds of rejection due to concerns about side effects and effectiveness, the drug has now been passed on to the FDA for potential approval later this summer.

Despite the current media attention, it’s not the first time pharmaceutical companies have tried to create a “Viagra for women.” In fact, that’s the approach taken previously by copying how Viagra works to increase blood flow to the genitals in men and trying to do the same for women.

This new drug, however, which was originally created as an anti-depressant, works on the largest female sexual organ instead: the brain. Researchers claim it increases dopamine and norepinephrine, the “excitatory factors for sex” and decreases serotonin, which can diminish libido.

The drug, flibanserin, is far from proven, demonstrating very mixed results, and it carries a number of side effects including nausea, dizziness and sleeplessness.

But that doesn’t seem to deter women who are clamoring for its approval.

One woman supporting the approval has claimed that her relationship with her spouse is better than ever but that her sexual desire has disappeared, leaving her husband to question whether or not they should get a divorce. She says that she’d risk any side effects “gladly.” She seems pretty clear on how far she will go for her relationship!

The way I see it, it’s just not that clear. There are so many ways to be loving and intimate in a relationship. Does desire need to be amped up in order to have a sexual relationship? She says that she has tried counseling and it has helped… but not enough. Is there is an emotional connection that might be missing on some level? Has she explored and treated the cause of her physical symptoms or is she reaching for a quick fix? It makes me wonder. Many physical issues may be at the root of the problem including adrenal dysfunction.

The Great Flibanserin Debate – Why It’s About More Than Sex

The debate about approval of this new drug, flibanersin, has become divisive and has turned into a much broader discussion around gender, sex and society; it’s one that we at Women to Women want to weigh in on.

The National Organization for Women, or NOW, feels that approval has not been forthcoming because there is a sexual bias against providing something to women to enhance sexual pleasure. They’ve gone on the record as saying that as a culture, men’s sexual health is extremely important but that women’s is not. There may be some truth to this as there may well be a sexual double standard in today’s society, but we think the reason approval has been a challenge thus far is so much more complex than that. And I am all for women having a libido, and enhancing their sexual enjoyment.

Other women’s groups are arguing that the primary considerations of drug approval should be safety and efficacy. The National Women’s Health Network, for example, has come out and said that the drug doesn’t work well, has some noted safety concerns, and has not been fully studied. They feel it’s about waiting to get a drug that really works — and is safe.

While we are not sure any drug can accomplish that when it comes to sexual desire because it’s not something that can be fixed with a pill, we definitely agree that if a drug is approved, it should be thoroughly studied first and should be proven to be effective — and safe – both over the long-term and in conjunction with other medications. This new drug does not meet those criteria.

Others are arguing that the campaign for the drug oversimplifies female sexuality and we couldn’t agree more: There is so much more to sexuality than the stress hormones dopamine and norepinephrine!

Some women (and men) who experience a waning libido at midlife don’t see it as a problem — at least not one worth taking a drug for. At Women to Women, we don’t think you should accept low sex drive as a new norm: we know it can be restored and that with some time and effort, you can experience the best intimacy of your life after menopause. So why settle? But we do agree a drug is not the answer.

And then there are those, and we are among them, who raise concerns that the pharmaceutical industry has a desire to take every circumstance and transition in life and turn it into a disease that needs a pill to fix it. This not only prevents looking at the true source of the problem, it creates a mentality that normal life transitions such as menopause are diseases.

The pharmaceutical industry then focuses on the convenience of popping a pill to problem solve instead of practicing what is now being called precision medicine: getting really precise about the root case and its effect and then treating the whole problem. Menopause is NOT a disease and a pill is NOT the answer: adjusting stress hormone levels artificially with a drug is NOT the answer to hormonal shifts that may just need some transitional support.

So while the debate in the news rages on about whether or not approval is warranted, whether the drug, flibanserin is effective and safe, or whether disapproving it is “sexist” because there is a bias against women’s sexuality as being a significant health concern, we find ourselves scratching our heads that someone could be willing to undertake drug risks without trying to understand what is going on within the body to cause this reaction in the first place.

How to Get Your Mojo Back

After more than three decades supporting women’s health and healing, we know that there are answers. When your body is out of alignment, it needs extra support. A high quality multivitamin along with an omega 3 supplement supports hormonal balance and symptom relief among our patients; even those who eat healthy diets of fresh local food find they need additional support during the menopause transition.

Diet and lifestyle changes such as stress relief, a good night’s sleep, exercise and movement, and a healthy balance of fresh fruits and vegetables along with high quality proteins and fats can further support this rebalance and accelerate relief, especially when combined with high quality nutritional supplementation.

We also recommend a probiotic supplement to restore the balance of healthy bacteria in your digestive system; it may not seem obvious that your digestion is connected to your hormones, but your ‘second brain’ plays a role in supporting all healthy body functions.

We also believe that it’s important to explore the emotions you are experiencing and use the transition time of perimenopause to examine your feelings, process them and to “speak your truth. “ Menopause is a time of release and clearing: it’s time to let go. Studies have shown that holding onto unresolved and unexpressed emotions will lead to the presence of physical concerns down the road and for many women, this catches up to them at menopause.

With a little time, attention and support, including some hormonal support if needed, you can experience a significant improvement in your health and wellness, restore that hormonal balance, and finally feel like yourself again… All without an untested drug that has numerous side effects.

At Women to Women, we have helped thousands of women alleviate their physical and emotional symptoms, restore a healthy sex drive and create the best intimacy of their lives. We can help you too.

To learn more about changes in sexuality around menopause, read our articles here.

To purchase our menopause support products, including multivitamin and omega 3 support, click here.

Chemicals in Our Cosmetics: It’s Not Pretty

As women, we all want to look and feel our best. We know the confidence that comes from within when we have a great hair day, our skin is clear and bright, and we feel beautiful. I see so many women at Women to Women struggling with hormonal imbalance or adrenal fatigue and my patients often tell me that it’s hard to look great when you are not feeling great.

That’s why we work together to get at the root cause of the symptoms and to actually treat them rather than just cover them up. To look and feel great, you need to be physically symptom-free so your hair, skin and body can radiate good health and you also need a healthy mood and emotional state as well.

At Women to Women, we work with our patients to resolve and clear the emotional and mood-based symptoms of hormonal balance as well as the physical ones. We also believe it’s important to remove emotional blocks and barriers and resolve any buried emotions; they may be hidden but often surface during menstruation or menopause as a gift from our body to us to heal them.

We know first-hand that women can restore their inner and outer beauty with good nutrition and lifestyle choices and some transitional supplementation support. Our Personal Products have helped thousands of women to do just that and we’ve witnessed many extraordinary transformations. Getting there, however, is a process that takes a little time and support.

During that time, we may need a little help and many of my patients turn to cosmetics and beauty products to help them look better. Unfortunately, the beauty industry is largely unregulated and many of the ingredients used in these products contain chemicals that can disrupt your hormones even further, make things worse, and lead to a number of health concerns over time including metabolic syndrome and even cancer.

That’s a high price to pay! But there are other options. Let’s look at what you need to know about chemicals in our cosmetics and why it’s important to make better choices.

Women are Exposed to 168 Chemicals A Day

A recent study by the Environmental Working Group (EWG) revealed that women use on average 12 personal care or cosmetic products a day and that those products contain as many as 168 different chemicals. While they may be in low doses, studies have shown that ongoing low-dose exposure and the cumulative effect it has over time can be as damaging or even more damaging than a single large dose exposure. And we are talking about 168 different chemicals: how they interact with each other has not been studied.

More concerning is that teenagers use an average of 17 products a day, putting their potential exposure on their developing minds and bodies at over 200 different chemicals.  If you’re wondering about your man, men use fewer products, but still get exposure to about 85 chemicals a day. Given that this exposure occurs over a lifetime, this is cause for concern.

We are now more focused on eating better foods and choosing organic, but the truth is that applying chemicals to skin enhances the likelihood of absorption into the blood: what we put on our bodies matters even more than what we are eating. (Just rub a piece of garlic on the bottom of your foot and see how long it takes until you taste garlic in your mouth!)

In fact, when EWG looked at the presence of chemicals inside the bodies of teenagers, they found 16 different hormone-altering chemicals, including phthalates and parabens. Just what a teenager needs: more hormone disruption!

One of the problems is that in the US, there is very little regulation of beauty and personal care products. Unlike in Europe where over a thousand of ingredients have been banned from personal care products, in the U.S., the FDA only prohibits eleven chemicals/chemical groups from use in products.  Instead, the industry is self-regulated by a review board, which in its 30-year history has only restricted 11 items from use, and even then, its decisions are not binding.

In addition, there are little to no labeling requirements for cosmetics and personal care products: companies can use the terms, “natural,” “hypoallergenic” and even “organic” with little regulation. In fact, organic personal care products may contain as little as 10% organic ingredients and may still contain harmful petrochemicals even though they claim to be organic.

We’ve known for some time that these chemicals can disrupt our body’s natural processes and interfere with our hormones, causing a number of health concerns. At our practice, we see the impact they can have on women’s menstrual cycles, including more severe PMS and menopausal symptoms. Now a new study concludes that exposure to beauty products can actually trigger early menopause.

Chemical Exposure Can Lead to Early Menopause

One of the most comprehensive studies ever done on menopause and endocrine disruptors shows that exposure to chemicals such as dioxins from pesticides, phthalates from fragrances, plastics, cosmetics and hairspray, and polychlorinated biphenyls can result in menopause as many as four years earlier.

The study took blood and urine samples from women over a ten-year period and analyzed them for chemicals such as pesticides and other endocrine disruptors. They also asked the women questions about health nutrition and menopausal status every two years. In total, the researchers found 111 chemicals present in their blood and urine and they showed that the women with the highest levels of the chemicals entered menopause on average between 2 and 4 years earlier than the women who had lower levels.

The study concluded it wasn’t simply exposure to the chemicals that triggered the body’s response; it was increasing exposure over time that led to the impaired ovarian function. When they looked at all women over 30, those with the highest levels of exposure in their blood and urine were 6 times more likely to be menopausal than the women with lower exposure levels.

While more studies will be needed before we can conclude with certainty that one causes the other, the link between the two has now been proven. Previous studies have already linked endocrine disruptors to disturbances and imbalances in reproductive hormones such as estrogen, so following that disruption through to its next logical impact, early menopause, makes sense. In time, I think we’ll also see verification of a comparable impact on the age that young girls reach puberty.

What is especially concerning is that it is very difficult for women to reduce their exposure to all of these toxins. Many of the environmental chemicals have half-lives that take decades for them to break down; even if they have been banned in the US in the 1970’s as PCB’s were, they remain in the air, soil and water. In addition, several of these substances are still in use in other countries and make their way into our air and food supply.

But many of them, however, are well within our control. There are things that we all can – and should – do to reduce our exposure including going “green” in our household products and choosing organic in our food and beauty product purchases.

Given that it is the exposure over time that adds up and makes a difference, every little choice that we can make to avoid adding to our toxic load may be one that keeps our hormones and our bodies functioning optimally over time.

Here are a few ways to avoid chemical exposure in your daily life:

  • Avoid plastics, especially in food packaging
  • Minimize microwaving and only do so in glass containers
  • Avoid handling cash register receipts
  • Choose organic health and beauty cosmetics and products that don’t contain pesticides and other chemicals. There are some great ones out there but you’ll have to read the labels.  Especially try to avoid “fragrance” or “parfum” which contains phthalates, and look to avoid parabens. The Environmental Working Group has a list that can guide you.
  • Try using natural remedies and products. Coconut oil is a great moisturizer for skin, nails, lips and hair.
  • Eat organic fruits and vegetables, grass-fed meat and wild caught fish. Minimize packaged, processed foods.
  • Take a high quality multivitamin such as the one we offer to keep your body and your immune system strong.
  • We now know that digestive microbes impact our overall health so we recommend that every woman take a probiotic supplement as well. You can learn more about probiotics in our article here.

There are a lot more things that we can do; at Women to Women, we’ve been talking about the harms of exposure to these products for decades. We have much more information on endocrine disruptors to share with you in our library at www.womentowomen.com.

To learn more about our hormonal balance support products and our nutritional supplementation in order to minimize the impact of chemical exposures, click here.

Hormone Disrupting Foods In Your Kitchen Now

Whenever I see a patient who is experiencing life-disrupting symptoms, one of the first things we talk about is her diet. At Women to Women, we have learned over the years that the old adage you are what you eat is so very true, especially during the transition before and after menopause.

When I ask my patients about their diets and begin to suggest some changes, sometimes women will tell me it’s too hard. But even small changes can make a big difference, and once they get started, they soon realize it’s not nearly as hard as they think.

Eating plenty of healthy proteins such as grass fed beef, bison, and wild caught fish, organic fruits and vegetables, and healthy fats such as grass-fed butter, coconut oil, avocados, and olive oil always makes my patients feel better. That’s because these “real” foods provide the nutrients a body needs to stay healthy, heal, and keep hormones in balance.

If you are experiencing especially uncomfortable symptoms, it may well be your diet is severely imbalanced; usually I find that it’s one of three main concerns. First, you may be eating too much sugar, which we talked about recently in a prior newsletter. Too much sugar will prevent estrogen, progesterone and testosterone from being balanced because balancing insulin will take precedence.

Or you may be eating too many packaged and processed foods that (in addition to sugar) contain unhealthy vegetable oils and artificial ingredients. These food choices are not only not providing the nutritional support your body needs, they are introducing other ingredients such as chemicals and substances that will impair healthy body function and hormone balance.

Or perhaps you have bought into the low-fat diet myth and you’re not eating enough good healthy fat, something the body (and especially the brain) needs to function optimally and stay in balance.

At Women to Women, we know that there is more to being symptom-free than just your diet, but we can’t overestimate how much of a role our food choices play. Every once in awhile, though, we’ll see a woman who is doing a good job eating healthy whole foods and still finds herself struggling with hormonal balance. That may be because many of the foods we eat contain ingredients that can disrupt our hormones and some of them may come as a surprise to you.

 

Chicken

Media headlines have told us not to eat red meat (something that has been misunderstood and misinterpreted; we’ll talk about this more soon). Many women have turned to chicken instead, thinking it’s a healthier protein choice. In fact, the biggest concern about the animal foods we eat is what those animals themselves are eating: when we eat animals and animal products, we take in whatever they have eaten or been exposed to because it remains in their fat cells. (That’s why animals eating a natural diet such as grass-fed beef, bison, pastured pork and wild caught fish make the best choices.)

A chicken’s natural diet is grass and bugs, a combination of healthy protein and grass that has soaked up the vitamin D and energy of the sun. It is extremely difficult to find a chicken or turkey that has been allowed to eat its original diet these days, unless you go to a small local farm and they sell it to you directly. Even organic chicken and turkey is raised on feed.

The problem is that the feed chickens receive contains soy which is laden with estrogen-like substances and is likely genetically modified, corn that is not food grade and contains GMOs, cereals often including wheat and GMOs, and processed oils such as canola oil. Poultry farms are not looking for high quality feed ingredients; they are looking for the cheapest possible protein and fat sources they can find.

Heavy use of soy means that you are ingesting high doses of estrogen, which can be especially disruptive to your hormone cycles. In addition, most chicken is raised on antibiotics in order to resist disease in the close quarters of a chicken farm. If you eat chicken or turkey, it is important that you choose organic.

Even free-range organic chicken (that just means they have some outdoor exposure), receives feed but at least the organic version is fed a vegetarian diet (not a chicken’s natural diet, but without animal waste products) that is without genetically modified ingredients (to the extent we know; most soy and corn today is genetically modified and not always identified as such) or toxic synthetic pesticides.

USDA organic chicken can also only receive antibiotics during their first day of life or if they fall ill, not on an ongoing basis as traditional factory farm chickens do.

If you eat a lot of chicken (or eggs), choose organic but look to reintroduce more grass-fed meat, bison and fish into your diet as well.

 

Soy

I just mentioned the fact that soy is a very common ingredient in chicken feed today and soy contains phytoestrogens which can mimic real estrogen: these substances may sit on the receptor sites of our cells, which were designed to take in estrogen, blocking the needed estrogen from entering and leaving it to wander around through the blood instead.

These estrogen-like substances can also impact the thyroid, which controls our hormones and may lead to suppressed thyroid function. Heavy soy consumption has also been shown to impact fat gain, muscle loss, infertility, mood swings and sexual dysfunction. Unfermented soy products such as tempeh and miso are fine, but tofu and soymilk products should be avoided. Try nuts and nut milks such as almond milk and raw milk and grass-fed cheeses instead.

 

Dairy

While we all need vitamin D to stay healthy, the best way to get it isn’t from dairy: it’s naturally from small doses of skin exposure to sunlight instead. (Fat-free dairy won’t enable vitamin D, which requires fat to be processed, to be absorbed anyway.) In order to maximize dairy output, cows are kept pregnant, resulting in high levels of estrogen that can not only wreak havoc on your hormones, but cause early puberty for your daughter, breast development for your son, and belly fat concerns for your husband. As with soy, higher levels of reproductive cancers are also found among heavy dairy consumers.

Americans consume enormous amounts of dairy products, especially cheese, so we can all look to cut back. If you must consume dairy, be sure it is organic or preferably grass-fed. Most European cheese comes from grass-fed cows so there are lots of inexpensive choices. Nut milks such as almond milk also make delicious substitutes.

 

Licorice

If you love licorice or licorice-derived products such as fennel, Pernod, and anise, you should know that licorice has estrogenic properties so high they are even stronger than contraceptives (but please do not use licorice as birth control!) In fact, licorice is currently being evaluated for possible anti-testosterone drug purposes. So if you have a licorice addiction and you are experiencing symptoms of hormonal imbalance, you might want to cut back on your habit and see what happens.

At Women to Women, we’ve been helping thousands of women to restore their hormonal balance over the last 3 decades. We’ve seen first-hand how important diet and nutritional supplementation are to relieving your uncomfortable symptoms and enabling you to finally feel like yourself again. That’s why in addition to good eating habits, we recommend every woman take a high quality multi-vitamin to ensure she gets the support her body needs during times of transition or imbalance.

We also suggest a high-quality omega 3 supplement to ensure your body (and your brain) receives the healthy fat required for optimal functioning; it’s hard to get the nutrition we need from our food supply today and healthy fat options are not easy (or cheap) to find.

The good news is that with some diet and lifestyle changes, coupled with high-quality nutritional support, your body can heal and you can alleviate your symptoms. We have helped so many women to finally feel good again. We can help you too.

To read our article on healthy diet click here.

Check out our hormonal balance product system here to get on the fast track to feeling good again.

Endocrine Glands And Hormones

by Marcelle Pick, OB/GYN NP

The glands and hormones of the female endocrine system

Woman Holding The World In The Palm Of Her HandThis particular table lists the key endocrine glands which are commonly found in females as well as the hormones they naturally release, in addition to many of the diffuse endocrine organs plus tissues that are in your body and their related hormones. It is important to note that this list isn’t complete. Many of the hormones are not yet well understood and there is much more that needs to be discovered. However, knowing that Mother Nature usually has it right, we can be sure that our hormones play a significant role in our wellbeing.

Key Female Endocrine Glands and Their Hormones

(a partial listing) 

Gland/Organ            Hormone(s) released
Hypothalamus
  •  thyrotropin releasing hormone
  •  release inhibiting hormones
Pituitary
  •  thyrotropin/thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH)
  •  adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH)
  •  luteinizing hormone (LH)
  •  follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH)
  •  growth hormone (GH)
  •  prolactin
  •  melanocyte-stimulating hormone (MSH)
  •  oxytocin
  •  antidiuretic hormone (ADH, or vasopressin)
Pineal
  •  melatonin
Thyroid and parathyroid
  •  thyroxine (T4)
  •  triiodothyronine (T3)
  •  calcitonin (CT)
  •  parathyroid hormone (PH)
Thymus
  •  thymosin
  •  thymopoietin
  •  thymopoiethymic factor
Adrenals
  •  epinephrine
  •  norepinephrine
  •  testosterone
  •  estrogen
  •  dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA)
  •  aldosterone
  •  cortisol
  •  corticosterone
Pancreas (Islets of Langerhans)
  •  insulin
  •  glucagon
  •  somatostatin (also secreted elsewhere)
Ovaries
  •  estrone
  •  estradiol
  •  estriol
  •  progesterone
  •  testosterone
Placenta
  •  human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG)
Breasts
  •  estrogen
 

The endocrine system (A partial list of organs and tissues that secrete hormones)
Tissue/organ Hormone(s) released
Adipose tissue (fat)(Note that with development of abdominal obesity, adipose tissue actually  functions as a key player in the endocrine system).
  •  leptin
  •  adiponectin
  •  resistin
  •  plasminogen activating inhibitor–1 (PAI–1)
  •  estrogen
  •  and others
Skin
  •  vitamin D3 (cholecalciferol)
Stomach and Small Intestine
  •  gastrin
  •  secretin
  •  cholecystokinin
  •  ghrelin
  •  motilin
Liver
  •  25–hydroxycholecalciferol
Kidneys
  •  erythropoietin (EPO)
  •  1,25-dihydroxycholecalciferol
  •  rennin
Heart
  •  atrial naturetic hormone
 

You will see that several of the hormones, organs, and tissues that are listed above are discussed in great depth throughout our website. Make sure to browse our Health Library if you are looking for a complete listing of all of Women to Women’s articles on female hormonal balance.

 

Estrogen Dominance – Is It Real?

by Marcelle Pick, OB/GYN NP

Topics covered in this article:

  • Dr. John Lee and the original theory of estrogen dominance
  • Why “estrogen dominance” is misleading — and a new understanding
  • Symptoms of estrogen dominance
  • Effects of xenoestrogens
  • Phytotherapy — a gentle approach to a complex issue
  • What you can do

Most conventional doctors still tell women that menopause — and all premenopause, perimenopause and menopause symptoms — result from a drop in estrogen production. In their view the solution is estrogen supplementation, or Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT), usually with synthetic hormones.

In contrast, many alternative practitioners believe that women have too much estrogen, leading to a condition known as “estrogen dominance.” The late healthcare pioneer Dr. John Lee broke new ground when he claimed that estrogen dominance was the real cause of premenopause and menopause symptoms, especially in younger women. In his view the obvious solution was to rebalance the ratio of estrogen to progesterone through progesterone supplementation.

This idea has led to the marketing of hundreds of brands of progesterone cream and other natural products designed to boost progesterone — all promising a quick fix and miraculous results in curing premenopausal and menopausal symptoms.

Unfortunately, both of these views are simplistic and misleading for women, because they overlook how dynamic all your hormones are — including DHEA, estrogen, progesterone and testosterone.

Let’s focus today on the concept of estrogen dominance, the incredible claims being made for the efficacy of progesterone, and how well your body is equipped to restore the dynamic dance between these hormones when it gets the support it needs.

How do estrogen levels work and what is estrogen dominance?

Estrogen and progesterone are two of the primary female sex hormones. During a normal menstrual cycle, they take turns driving the process of maturing and releasing an egg and preparing the uterus for possible pregnancy: estrogen rises in the first half of the cycle, peaks at ovulation, then falls in the second half as progesterone rises. Progesterone is released by the rupturing of the egg follicle during ovulation. Testosterone too is secreted in “surges” around the time of ovulation, perhaps as Mother Nature’s way to increase our interest in sex, and again before menses. If there is no pregnancy, you have a period and the whole cycle begins again.

menstrualcycle_060809

* Adapted from information at McGill University and the University of Wisconsin.

When estrogen, progesterone and testosterone are doing their jobs, they work well together. How much or how little of each hormone is made at any one time relies on a complicated feedback system between the brain: specifically the hypothalamus and the pituitary gland, which release LH (luteinizing hormone) and FSH (follicle stimulating hormone), the ovaries, and the adrenal glands. Stress and diet affect that feedback system and so directly impact your hormonal balance.

Phytotherapy — The Key To Hormonal Balance?

by Marcelle Pick, OB/GYN NP 

So many women I talk to are afraid to try herbal remedies because they’re uncertain about safety. They think that because a pharmaceutical drug has been studied in a laboratory, regulated by the FDA and prescribed by a doctor, it has to be safe. But the truth is that conventional medicine is responsible for 255,000 deaths per year in the United States, and almost half of those are from adverse reactions to prescription drugs.

Don’t get me wrong, modern medicine has saved millions of lives. But there are so many ways to heal our bodies naturally and with fewer side effects, especially when we take a closer look at the plant world.

Phytotherapy — the use of medicinal plants to heal and restore balance — is an age-old tradition that is slowly gaining more interest in the United States. And in my opinion, it’s been a long time coming. Plants hold truly amazing healing properties and some of the most exciting research is being done around how plants can act to naturally balance hormones. As we learn more about the underlying mechanisms of phytotherapy, science has been able to increase its effectiveness, while maintaining the gentle side effect profile herbal remedies are known for.

When you look at the numbers, it’s clear that the majority of the world’s population today relies on botanical medicine and a plant-based diet for survival. But in this country there continues to be so much fear around efficacy, safety and regulation. I know my patients need and deserve more information on this subject. So let’s take a closer look at phytotherapy and how it can gently and effectively restore health and hormonal balance.

What is phytotherapy?

Phytotherapy is the use of plants, either in whole food form or in the form of standardized extracts and supplements, for healing purposes. Its roots trace all the way back to the beginnings of time and still stand strong in much of the world today.

It’s not surprising that the study of plants for medicinal purposes led to what we now know as pharmaceuticals. Most of the drugs conventional practitioners prescribe today have roots in the plant world. The difference is that pharmaceutical companies change the chemical structure of the compound not only to specialize and magnify its actions, but also to patent the medication and sell it as their unique product. Since plants found in nature can be used and sold by everyone, phytotherapy is more accessible to the general world. It is also, in most cases, much gentler on our bodies than pharmaceutical medications.

What I like about phytotherapy is that it’s used to prevent health concerns as well as treat them — which to my mind is much more in line with a functional approach to healing. Sadly, conventional medicine has moved into the dangerous habit of treating symptoms as they arise instead of looking at an individual’s whole health picture. Phytotherapy uses cell signaling to affect our bodies early on in the processes of disease and imbalance, which is ultimately far less disruptive to the system. For this reason the results often last longer. What’s particularly fascinating is the way phytotherapy works in conjunction with the endocrine system.

Phytotherapy: at home in your endocrine system

Your endocrine system is basically the command center for your hormones. It consists of numerous small organs scattered throughout the body — such as the pituitary gland, thyroid, adrenal glands and ovaries — as well as diverse tissues such as the gut, breast and skin. These various glands secrete hormones that take action in the brain, liver, heart, bone, skin and blood vessels as well as the reproductive organs — in other words, everywhere.

The word endocrine is used to define a cellular response to a hormone that originates from an endocrine gland located in another part of the body. Basically, hormones are messengers. They carry instructions from the brain and endocrine glands to other parts of the body. Plant molecules can also communicate these messages. In fact, they do so extremely well.

Responses within your cells that originate from the plant world are known as phytocrine. And phytocrines are the bioactive molecules in plants that share features with our own hormones and “connect” with our endocrine system. Phytocrines can be broken down into three broad categories:

  • Phytohormones structurally resemble the body’s native hormones, and can weakly or temporarily bind to hormone receptors in the body, promoting or countering actions similar to the hormones in your system.
  • Phytohormonogenics gently encourage the body’s tissues to generate more of their own native hormones.
  • Functional mimetics of hormones mimic hormone functions and can cause the same physiological response of the hormones native to your body.

It’s amazing to me that plants can interact so intimately with the hormones we make in our bodies. But if you think about it, we evolved alongside the plant world. So it makes sense that our bodies are fluent in their language. The other important aspect of phytotherapy is that the cells of your body and the plant molecules can communicate — which separates this kind of therapy from many prescription drugs.

Phytoestrogens — a misleading term

The word phytoestrogen literally means “plant estrogen.” But phytoestrogens are not estrogen. They do not behave the same way as our body’s own estrogens or like estrogen replacement drugs (ERT).

This is something many women — and their healthcare practitioners — are confused about. They worry that taking soy or red clover or other isoflavones will increase estrogen in their bodies, putting those with a personal or family history of breast or other cancers at increased risk.

The National Cancer Institute currently defines the word “phytoestrogen” as an estrogen-like substance found in some plants and plant products. They also state that phytoestrogens may have anticancer effects.

Phytoestrogens are part of the phytohormone class described at left, which means they structurally resemble the body’s native estrogen. Their chemical structure is such that it allows them to weakly bind to an estrogen receptor, potentially blocking excess estrogen, or, when estrogen is low, quieting the system’s need for estrogen. But they are not estrogen.

Here’s what we think is most important for women to understand: the phytoestrogens used and recommended today in botanical and nutritional medicine do not increase endogenous estrogen production in the body. And there are no studies confirming that phytoestrogens increase the risk for cancer.

In fact, new research suggests that phytoestrogens commonly used in nutritional and botanical medicine may protect women from breast and other cancers.

Phytoestrogens may also decrease the risk of heart attack and stroke, and protect your bones. A 2007 study in the Annals of Internal Medicine confirmed that the phytoestrogen genistein protects against bone loss. All of this while calming the symptoms of menopause! Scientists are discovering more benefits of phytoestrogens every day, and we plan to write more about this in the future, so stay tuned.

The adaptogenic effect — a more efficient and safe way to restore balance

In communicating with the plant molecules in herbal therapies, your body can oftentimes get what it needs — and only what it needs. Instead of slamming the system with large doses of medication — what I call the sledgehammer effect — your cells talk to the plant molecule upstream of the disease process to communicate what and how much they need. We call this an adaptogenic effect, meaning our bodies can respond to and use plant molecules in various ways, depending on how much and in what proportions we have of our own hormones on board and how smoothly we’re regulating and metabolizing them. So there is an astounding back-and-forth dynamic between plant cells and human cells that a man-made substance could never mimic.

Stronger pharmaceutical drugs do their work later, or “downstream” in the physiological process, leaving little to no opportunity for the body to communicate its needs. This can sometimes leave the body with too much or too little of the hormone or medication on board, which can ultimately leave the body more vulnerable.

Think about caring for a house plant. If you had a set amount of water to give your plant every time it needed water, on certain days it would most likely end up with too much or too little. Plants, like our cells, are living things and depending on the air, the sun and the soil they’re growing in, they may need more or less water on any given day. These factors, like our own internal and external environments, are constantly changing. We can grow healthy plants when we water them based on their needs, and they communicate those needs to us by how much water they suck in or let pool above the soil, by the texture and color of their leaves. It’s a give and take process, depending on the plant, as opposed to a standard “prescription.” Phytotherapy works in a similar way with our bodies. Like the plant caretaker, it watches and listens to our cells to gauge what is needed so your body has the right amount of the hormone in need.

I saw a patient the other day who was on Estrasorb, a patented topical bioidentical estradiol product that can be extremely helpful for some women during a period of hormonal imbalance. When I checked her estrogen levels, she was five times higher than normal! And this is a topical lotion. I wondered where she would be if she’d been taking conventional oral HRT. For some women Estrasorb works wonders, but others react differently. This is where conventional medicine often falls short, because it treats all women with hormonal imbalances relatively similarly. When in reality, we are all different and require different treatment. Phytotherapeutic agents give your body a chance to say something before it is forced to accept — or reject — a treatment.

Phytotherapy and menopause

Since opening our doors at Women to Women, we have been drawing on the healing power of herbs to safely help women with hormonal imbalances. Especially when layered overtop a foundation of healthy lifestyle and dietary choices, phytotherapy can gently help women reverse hormonal imbalance and maintain better equilibrium in menopause. With its adaptogenic effects, phytotherapy can help normalize, strengthen, and protect your system from many stressful events in menopause.

Using herbs for menopausal symptoms is becoming more popular in the wake of the Women’s Health Initiative revealing dangerous side effects of conventional hormone replacement therapy. Naturopathic physican Tori Hudson writes in her article, “Menopause Botanicals”:

Botanical therapies for menopause symptoms are taking an increasingly important role. Many women are determined to utilize therapies that are herbal or nutritional, natural hormones, or lower dose hormones in combination with botanicals, in order to create a risk to benefit ratio that they feel comfortable with.

Dr. Hudson also reminds us that using herbs for menopause isn’t a new concept. She explains that “many herbs have been used traditionally by herbalists and women for decades and in some cases centuries to address menopausal symptoms. Although many of the traditionally used plants lack clinical studies for this purpose, the empirical evidence and tradition is strong.”

Here are some of the plants that have been widely used for menopausal symptoms.

  • Black cohosh (Actaea racemosa) a plant native to Eastern North America, has been used by women all over the world for generations to help with hormonal balance. It is thought to act as a functional mimetic, primarily by binding to opioid receptors in the brain to affect tissues in the body.
  • Red clover (Trifolium pratense) is rich in phytoestrogens including lignans, coumestans, and isoflavones. As I described above, isoflavones can weakly bind to estrogen receptors in the body. This makes red clover a helpful herb for menopausal symptoms.
  • Chastetree (Vitex agnus-castus) has active molecules that may affect our neurotransmitters, particularly dopamine, which acts in the brain and other parts of the body. Recent studies are showing that properties of this herb may mimic the soothing actions of progesterone.
  • Kudzu (Pueraria lobata) is a member of the pea family and is native to Asia. Much like red clover, it contains phytochemicals that function in a protective fashion. These include five major isoflavanoids that can bind weakly to estrogen receptors, quieting the body’s need for estrogen during times of hormonal imbalance.
  • Passionflower (Passiflora incarnata) has strong Native American roots and contains natural monamine oxidase inhibitors (MAOI’s), which are known to have antidepressant and anti-anxiety properties.
  • Ashwagandha (Withania somnifera) is an herb with aphrodisiac and mood-stabilizing properties. Recent studies suggest this Ayurvedic herb can act in an adaptogenic fashion when androgen levels are low, activating the hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal axis to increase the production of androgens.
  • Wild yam (Dioscorea villosa) is native to North America and has been used for both menopause and menstrual-related symptoms. Research suggests that it acts as a functional mimetic of progesterone.
  • Soy (Glycine max), like red clover and kudzu, is a member of the legume family and contains phytoestrogens. It has been extensively studied and found to be supportive for improved insulin regulation, weight loss, bone health, and nail, skin and hair health. It has also been shown to decrease frequency and severity of menopausal discomforts, particularly vaginal dryness, hot flashes and night sweats.

Even though these remedies have been used around the world for centuries, unfortunately many women remain skeptical.

Bad press for herbs and menopause

You may have heard negative news about certain herbs for menopause. One of the biggest complaints I hear is that they don’t work. In my opinion, this argument arises for two different reasons: first, the desire for a one-size-fits-all cure and second, our own impatience. The honest truth is that the-one-size-fits-all cure for menopause simply doesn’t exist. If I know one thing from working with women all these years, it’s that menopause looks different in every single one of us. While one woman may have hot flashes and insomnia, another may have anxiety and fuzzy thinking or mood swings and night sweats or any combination of these symptoms. And though the root cause of your hot flashes is hormonal imbalance, the specific hormones that are high or low are unique to each woman, and vary over time.

We each have different needs when it comes to restoring and maintaining balance. So it stands to reason that what works for one woman may not work for another. This is one of the reasons why I recommend a phytotherapeutic agent that includes more than one herb. In this way, diversity gives you the benefit of trying several plants in small doses, instead of trying one at a time in larger doses. Science also suggests that combination formulas work in an adaptogenic and synergistic way to restore hormonal balance within a range of variable circumstances.

A diverse phytotherapeutic agent offers lower doses and a gentler approach, but can also take more time to be effective. In this country we’ve gotten so used to medicine taking effect immediately. If it doesn’t work within a few days (or even minutes), we may toss the package in the garbage and look for something else. Phytotherapy often requires more time to have an effect than most pharmaceuticals. This is because it is gentler than the drugs manufactured today — and I don’t think this is a bad thing. The more gently our bodies are coaxed from hormonal imbalance to balance, the better. Shock isn’t good for any system.

Returning the power to your hands

When my family and I were in Belize a few years ago, we went on the howler monkey tour in the low-lying tropical rain forest for which Belize is famous. What I found so amazing was that our tour guide knew which trees and plants cured which disorder by watching the monkeys. He would say, “Oh that one must have diarrhea, that one must have indigestion, this one is having trouble sleeping.” We’ve shared this intuitive wisdom about medicinal plants with our primate cousins since the dawn of the ages, but only recently have we in the United States begun to reawaken to its power. Today, scientific advances are providing a much better understanding of why phytotherapy works and the quantity and form of the plants that act most reliably and safely.

What conventional medicine does is takes something that’s oftentimes soft and gentle and makes it into a sledgehammer. Pharmaceutical companies do this because they want to make sure a drug works and they want to make sure it works for the “average” person in their studies. In part this also has to do with creating something foreign enough to the human body that they can “own” the rights to it in order to make money. But it also stems from the very real problem that we all face in medicine. And that is that most practitioners today cannot spend more than five to seven minutes with each of their patients, which makes the one-size-fits-all approach even more appealing.

At Women to Women, we spend whatever time it takes with our clinic patients and find that individualized medicine works best. But I know that in most places this is an anomaly. That’s too bad, because it leaves so many women with limited options. A trial of gentle phytotherapy may offer a woman the chance to naturally find her own balance in health.

Here are some guidelines to using herbal medicine that our patients have found helpful along the way:

  • Know your body. We are all different, and I’ve learned through many years of practice that there is a subset of the population (upwards of 30–40%) who detox at a slower rate than the rest of the population. This group is generally highly sensitive to most therapeutic agents and needs a lighter dosage. If this is something you’ve learned about yourself, honor that and vary your dosages accordingly.
  • Monitor your progress. Though negative interactions and side effects are relatively sparse with herbal remedies (most of the truly harmful herbs have been eliminated from the herbal pharmacopoeia), we always recommend monitoring yourself carefully when trying any new therapy.
  • Don’t take herbs and drugs in the same sitting. This can change the rate at which a drug is absorbed. In other words, take them at different times of the day, and ask your healthcare practitioner if you need to know what time to take your regular medications. Always be sure to update your healthcare practitioner on what you are taking.
  • Look for standardized extracts. Although some may argue that using standardized extracts takes away some of the whole-herb qualities and strays from the roots of herbal medicine, we feel that standardized extracts can help decrease some of the unpredictability of using plants for healing. Now you certainly don’t have to choose them — particularly if you are well-versed in the use of herbs or have a professional herbalist or naturopath you can consult with — but standardized extracts provide pure isolated active components of the plant at guaranteed levels. This is particularly useful when you are looking for the known target range of efficacy of an herb.
  • In diversity there is strength. Finding a phytotherapeutic remedy that combines a range of plant constituents is oftentimes more effective in quelling symptoms than a single herb.
  • Have patience. In most cases, using herbal remedies takes time to build up an effect in the body. This is because they do their gentle work at the source of the imbalance and it may take time to heal metabolic pathways that have been off-balance for many years.

A gentler way to health

Phytotherapy continues to amaze me. As I talk every day with my patients and friends in the world of functional medicine, we are learning more and more about how phytochemicals speak to our bodies. They can help boost digestion, cool an overactive inflammatory response, rebalance hormones, build immunity, facilitate stable blood sugar, improve adrenal reserve, detoxify the liver, slow our heart rates, tone our blood vessels, conserve our bones, soothe our nervous systems, restore a healthy sleep cycle, and live longer happier lives. I could go on and on. But in the end, drawing on the gentle healing qualities of plants allows us to reconnect and reintegrate ourselves with the natural order of things. And it’s been working for centuries.

So instead of hitting a small nail with a sledgehammer, the way so many prescription drugs do, I advocate using a small hammer for a small nail, allowing your whole system some relief. We have a saying in medicine that I’m sure you’ve heard before: Primum non nocere, meaning “First do no harm.” To my mind, phytotherapy is much more in line with this promise than the widespread use of prescription drugs, and I’m willing to bet that using a gentler approach to healing would cut down on the amount of harm we do in medicine, making our promise one we can truly keep.

Is It Me Or My Hormones? – About The Book

Is It Me or My HormonesThe good, the bad and the ugly about PMS, perimenopause and all the crazy things that occur with hormone imbalance

A simple, clear, accessible 28-day plan to help you balance your hormones and feel like yourself again from a health-care professional who has helped hundreds of women – including herself – do just that!

Hormonal issues were a big part of my life, starting in my teens and especially in my early 20s. When I became a nurse practitioner, I discovered that I was far from alone. Many of my patients struggled with difficult PMS, painful periods, or challenging perimenopause, the transition into menopause that typically begins in the early or mid-40’s and continues until menopause finally takes over. My patients were also dealing with endometriosis, fibroids, polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS), and premature ovarian failure (POF) and other fertility issues. Many women felt, as I did, that hormonal issues were playing far too big a role in their lives. We all longed for a straightforward solution. As I got more information about functional medicine, I realized that many if not all of the symptoms could be resolved. I found that as I made dietary and lifestyle changes I became symptom free.

My own experience brought home the huge role hormones play in how we feel. Now when I see women every day with concerns, questions, and frustrations about their hormones, I really get it. And when I hear women tell me that their hormonal struggles shape their lives-that they plan their months around mood swings and cramps, or that perimenopause is making them feel old before their time – I get that, too.

Hay House Publishing
Order it now at Hay House

The Stress Response

by Marcelle Pick, OB-GYN NP 

Adapted from Is it Me or My Hormones?

In recent years, the word “stress” has taken on such negative connotations, but from the body’s point of view, it only means any type of demand or challenge that requires the body to expend extra energy. Getting up from your seat and walking across the room is a minor stressor, for example, because it requires more effort than remaining seated. Dinner with a sexy new romantic partner—thrilling as that may be—demands more energy than eating a bag of potato chips while sprawling on the couch. Mobilizing energy and expending it on a chosen task—rising to the occasion, in other words—is an essential part of what makes life interesting and rewarding.

But the stress response was never meant to be a permanent condition. The human body is designed to respond readily to challenges—and then to release and relax. We even have two complementary aspects of our autonomic nervous system to help us maintain that balance. The autonomic nervous system is the aspect of our peripheral nervous system that controls the activities of our organs, glands, and various involuntary muscles, such as the cardiac and smooth muscles.

  • The sympathetic nervous system mobilizes energy, preparing us to meet challenges of all types. Through a number of glands and organs, including the adrenals, it causes our heart to beat faster, our blood to pump more vigorously, our blood pressure to rise, our breath to come faster and deeper, and a number of other effects designed to help us face any demanding situation.
  • The parasympathetic nervous system stores energy, allowing the body to rest up and prepare for the next challenge. It causes our heart rate, blood pressure, and breathing to enter into a more relaxed state, and it also supports digestion and immune function so that our bodies will be in top condition next time life throws us a demand.

The Destructive Effect Of High Cortisol Levels

by Marcelle Pick, OB-GYN NP

Professional businesswoman holding coffee cup looking thoughtfulWhat is cortisol?  In it’s normal function, cortisol helps us meet life’s challenges by converting proteins into energy, releasing glycogen and counteracting inflammation. For a short time, that’s okay. But at sustained high levels, cortisol gradually tears your body down.  Cortisol is one essential we can’t live without.  But too much of a good thing is not healthy.

Sustained high cortisol levels destroy healthy muscle and bone, slow down healing and normal cell regeneration, co-opt biochemicals needed to make other vital hormones, impair digestion, metabolism and mental function, interfere with healthy endocrine function; and weaken your immune system.

Adrenal fatigue may be a factor in many related conditions, including fibromyalgia, hypothyroidism, chronic fatigue syndrome, arthritis, premature menopause and others. It may also produce a host of other unpleasant symptoms, from acne to hair loss. The really good news is that is easily treatable.

For more information, read our numerous articles about Adrenal Health in our Health Library.

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