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Hormones Hormonal Imbalances Whether a young teen girl, one of greater than 4,000 women turning menopausal each day, or a post-menopausal women, you may be dealing with symptoms of hormone imbalance. For some, they have significant hormonal imbalance yet are unaware of the symptoms and thus leaving their bodies compromised and susceptible to long term health challenges. We as women are fairly well educated about breast health and bone health (osteoporosis) yet, many are still very unaware of the risks of heart disease – our number one killer. For years we have been prescribed hormone replacement to reduce our risk of heart disease, yet, the startling results of the WHI initiative have shown us that there are significant health risks associated with synthetic hormones. As a result, women became suddenly frantic. Although the once 5 Billion dollar Prempro industry dropped significantly after the WHI, Prempro continues to be a 1 Billion dollar industry. Millions of women are still using these dangerous "one size fits all" synthetic hormones because they do not know where to find customized natural solutions. And…what about women across the age span? Many are dealing with hormonal imbalances without adequate solutions. Unfortunately, not only has the Pharmaceutical industry failed to deliver, the Nutraceutical or nutritional arena has also offered one size fits all therapies. In the 90's we were presented with a plethora of knowledge regarding Estrogen Dominance or the Excess estrogen syndrome. The pioneering work of Dr. John Lee and others opened the gates for many women to increased hormone understanding and better treatment. However, suddenly a new panacea, natural progesterone creams (or sometimes called Wild Yam cream) arrived. The result was a subsequent widespread use and… misuse of Natural hormone creams. Many women did not realize they were actually applying Bio Identical Hormone Therapy (BHRT). Many did not realize the potential for negative effects of natural hormone creams. Hormones - what are they and how do they work? They are a product of living cells that circulate in body and produce a specific effect on the activity of cells remote from its point of origin. They are messenger proteins that have a stimulatory effect on cellular activity. Additionally, hormones deliver communication from one target organ to a cell to cause a desired function or response. Hormone pathways are very complex and interrelated biochemical pathways. They are so confusing it's mind boggling. It reminds me of our freeways in Atlanta called "spaghetti junction." To keep things very "simple," we can say that we have 2 basic types of hormones Life saving -Insulin, Thyroid ,Cortisol Life enhancing Sex hormones (progesterone, estrogen and testosterone) To simply the pathways you could say: Cholesterol forms pregnenolone which is the Hormone Health precursor. Pregnenolone can go down 4 main pathways to form: Progesterone, Androgens(commonly known as Testosterone), Estrogens & Cortisol The balance of these hormones determines our Hormone Health. All four of these hormones are essential. If everything works well, then you can enjoy health and all the functions your hormones do (feeding your organs and promoting healthy tissues, skin, vaginal secretions, heart, breast, bone health etc). We need appropriate physiological levels of our hormones throughout our life to accomplish this! Additionally, our endocrine system (the system that creates hormones) requires good nutrition to provide the co-factors and enzymes necessary for the conversion down the hormone pathways. Proper hormone metabolism and good cell receptor sensitivity are also critical so the hormones can reach their final destination- our target organs and tissues. This…is often referred to as "functional" medicine. When it comes to our hormonal pathways and complex biochemistry I like to use the analogy of traffic. Just as with the traffic we face daily, many things can happen that can slow, block your travel time and sometimes prevent you, from reaching your desired destination on time. With our hormones, if a desired route is blocked, it may impact the levels of our hormones or the function of your hormone sensitive tissues. For instance: If our progesterone pathway is blocked, it will definitely impact other hormones. You cannot impact the level of one hormone without impacting the others. In our cities, Poor conditions, that will impact the flow of travel are High volume demands / rush hour accidents Weather Road construction Short off ramps Poor signage (here in Atlanta you just can't seem to find your way out of the city) In our bodies, our hormones won't flow or function properly if we have poor nutrition Poor cell receptor sensitivity Poor hormone metabolism Nutrition Nutrition is Critical to hormone metabolism for several reasons. There are hundreds of biochemical reactions that occur between the conversions of one hormone precursor to the next (Like a chain reaction or domino effect). For Progesterone to be converted to into Estrogens or Androgens/ Testosterone, there are many steps involved. Each step requires proper nutrition and hydration. Our Standard American diet with it’s overcooked, over- processed foods have been either grown in poor / contaminated soils or have been sitting in storage for weeks or longer before we eat them. This does not provide us with adequate nutrition (phytochemicals or plant-based chemicals) needed to create the co-factors and enzymes required to feed our hormone system. Dehydration is another critical nutrition factor for our hormone health covered in more detail later. Hormone cell receptor sensitivity Another principle of hormone health I want to elucidate is cell receptor sensitivity. Have you ever been told that your lab results were perfectly normal or "within normal limits"... yet you know something was wrong? It may be due to a poor functional response at the cellular or tissue level. Here's an example that might help. It is apparent that almost 70% of the country is now overweight and as a result has what we call "insulin resistance". Basically, their body's insulin receptors are no longer sensitive to their own insulin. They may have enough circulating insulin, but the cells are not getting it! The same holds true for our hormones- we may have enough or even very high levels of circulating hormones, yet. we may be very symptomatic because of poor cell receptor sensitivity. For example, I had a client not long ago with significant symptoms of testosterone deficiency, yet her testosterone level was 4 times normal. Functionally, her circulating testosterone was not reaching the target cells and organs and doing what it is intended to do. Thus... she was miserable with symptoms of testosterone deficiency. Now I want to share other insults that might be impacting both your cell receptor sensitivity and your hormone metabolism: Hormone Imposters. Hormone Imposters Hormone imposters come in many names, here’s just a few- Environmental hormones Endocrine disruptors Xenoestrogens (Xeno) strange, guest, or foreign We are exposed to these imposter hormones everywhere! We eat them, we drink them, breath them, use them at work, at home. They are in the garden & soil in the form of pesticides and herbicides. Imposter hormones are in our dairy, poultry, beef and many other food products. They are hidden in plastics and…in our personal care products. Hormone Imposters can bind to specific receptor sites (like a lock and key) inside the cell and cause Normal hormone response Abnormal hormone response No response / blocked receptor Synergistic response / totally new response Even hormones themselves can have an effect on the opposing hormone receptor sites. We call this an agonistic or antagonistic effect. My client who had the high testosterone found that that her estrogen and progesterone were very low as a result of too much testosterone. Whether, synthetic, natural or plant based hormones, like phytoestrogens, the effect may be to create a normal, blocked or synergetic response at the receptor site. One example is that of progesterone creams. If the progesterone level is not monitored and it is too high it can not only lead to insulin resistance, the precursor to diabetes and heart disease, but can also down-regulate or block the receptor sites of estrogen and testosterone. This is why some women have felt much worse when using hormones creams. Again, we are exposed to these imposter hormones everywhere. We slather them on babies and all over ourselves for years. The result….clogged up hormone receptors sites & clogged up pathways resulting in abnormal hormone responses, increased symptoms and long term health implications. Hormone Metabolism Now, let's focus on hormone breakdown or metabolism. Hormones can breakdown into healthy or unhealthy substrates. For instance, estrogen can breakdown into 2 hydroxylation- the healthy pathway or 16-alpha hydroxylation- the unhealthy pathway. Unfortunately, this pathway can cause breast cancer. Here's a short list of things that may cause estrogen to travel the unhealthy pathway. Dehydration and low fiber, high fat diets impact hormone metabolism. Even Rx drugs can impact hormone receptor functions and hormone metabolism. For instance : Statin drugs, diuretics, some heart medication, and medications for reflux, can all cause hormones to metabolize down the unhealthy pathways. In summary, this is a big take home message from my mentor. "Whether we take them, make them or are exposed to them, we need to eliminate them daily." Let me repeat that whether we take them (synthetic or Bio-identical hormones), whether we make them, or are expose to them (imposter hormones) we need to eliminate them daily. Personally, I recommend that women have their health providers check their hormone metabolism by getting their 2:16 The Solution Now, I had an interesting journey discovering how to heal my body. I learned on my personal health journey (my Endocrine/ hormonal crisis) that just taking a prescription or a supplement was not the answer. My personal intuition that all you have too, told me that I needed to heal my body, one step at a time. In my search to restore my health, I read numerous books, and sought the advice of many professionals (both western medicine and holistic / complementary) .And…what I found I want to share with you. Some of you reading may have been fortunate to start on the fast track to health with the 5 step health program wellness program that I follow: Hydrate, Exercise, Cleanse, Nourish and Target! If you have already begun these steps, then you are already on your way to healthier hormones, if not, then continue reading to learn how to jump start your Endocrine engine! Step 1 Hydrating First of all, we know that good, clean, filtered water is very important for our health. Water helps flush out the wastes in our body & nourishes each organ. It is also critical for our hormone function. I remember when I was not feeling very well and I called my Doctor to sort things through. The very first question he asked ....are you drinking enough water? Hmmm…think it’s important? For the average female...we should be getting at least 2 liters of water per day. Not coffee or soft drinks or alcohol...water, good clean water. Oh by the way…use a polycarbonate bottle (like a Nalgene). Regular softer plastics release those icky xeno-estrogens or hormone imposters when they get hot. Don't drink that bottled water if it’s been sitting in your car! The water is important, yet the source and container are equally important. Step 2 Exercise / Walking Exercise certainly has an impact on our hormones. First, when we are overweight. we are more likely to have estrogen dominance. You see Fat is like a magnet to estrogen and like a viscous cycle estrogen attracts fat. We need to exercise and lose those extra pounds. Secondly, exercise has been shown to increase the 2-hydroxylation of estrogen- That’s the good hormone pathway. So lace up those shoes and get Exercising. Step 3 Cleansing & Detoxification Did you know...that women with high fiber diets actually excrete more estrogens in their stool? That may not be a dinner conversation, yet… if you want to eliminate those extra hormones you are exposed to every day increase your fiber to 25-30 grams per day! The challenge is…most Americans are only consuming 12 grams of fiber per day. It is extremely difficult, even when very conscientious get 25 gms in our diets, thus I personally supplement with fiber, and likewise recommend my patients to. I prescribe, what I feel (after considerable research) one of the best cleansing & detoxification systems in the world today. Our digestive system needs regular cleansing to relieve us of toxins and to the accumulated stool that clogs up our entire system. This clogging process is called "putrification". Now that is putrid! In addition, to cleansing out our gut…our "Endocrine engine "needs us to focus on things that may be "clogging up the filters". You can also do simple things like cleaning out your kitchen and bathroom cupboards of toxic cleansers and toxic personal care products. Replace them with botanical, natural formulations to help prevent the exposure to those nasty hormone imposters. Step 4 Nourishing As I have mentioned earlier, our Endocrine system and hormone pathways require significant high quality phytochemicals to produce the enzymes and co-factors necessary for our hormone signals to travel the long journey from one organ to another! I recommend nutritional supplements for those that are searching for a simple solution to the significant nutritional inadequacies in our standard American diet. This unique blend of 24 fruits and vegetables, cold processed to preserve their photochemicals, bolsters our lacking Standard American Diets. The additional vitamins and minerals will dramatically help co-factors and enzymes in your hormone biochemical pathway. Essential Fatty Acids, commonly known as EFA's are also critical nutritional component of hormone health. The Omega 3 Fatty Acids are known to produce Prostaglandins which have an anti-inflammatory effect. Additionally, these fatty acids help ensure proper transport of hormones across membranes and improve cell membrane function. Fish Oil is a great source of Omega 3 fatty acids, while Flax Seed is a great source of Omega 3, 6 & 9. Additionally, Primose Oil & Borage Oil, (other Omega 6 fatty acids are known to dramatically impact hormonal symptoms. I prescribe EFA's to all of my patients, particularly after my personal response Just a quick side note- if you have a strong personal or family history of cardiovascular disease, I would recommend both Fish Oil and EFA's. For more info see the article under News/Articles Step 5 Targeting Hormone Health Again, after doing significant research and learning about "functional medicine" (your body functioning properly at the cellular level) I knew that I had to heal my Endocrine Engine by the steps mentioned above. Then…I was ready for some "high grade oil" ;) I knew that my hormone situation was not identical to my sisters, my friends, my colleagues and the woman next door. Thus…I was searching for customized solutions. The unique, natural customized solutions I personally use may also help you get your Endocrine Engine humming again!