The Natural Hormone Makeover: 10 Steps to Rejuvenate Your Health and Rediscover Your Inner Glow

By Phuli Cohan, M.D.

Summarized with permission of Wiley (www.wiley.com). All rights reserved.
All rights reserved.

Skip to Page: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8

Sex Hormones Part 1: Perimenopause and Progesterone

Low Progesterone

Also known as the pregnancy hormone, progesterone is calming and sedating. Progesterone is the first hormone to fall as women age.
It regulates the menstrual cycle, reduces PMS symptoms, deepens sleep, lessens anxiety, reduces blood loss during menstruation, protects against blood clots, helps to maintain bone strength, enhances sleep, and prevents uterine fibroids and ovarian and breast cysts from forming. It also prevents hyperplasia and cancer from forming.

• Natural progesterone is made in a woman's brain throughout her lifetime. In menopause, even though blood levels of progesterone fall to very low levels, brain levels fall by only 50 percent.
• Natural progesterone improves insomnia, anxiety, depression, and mood changes associated with PMS symptoms. It protects the brain from degenerative diseases. Natural progesterone acts as a diuretic, reducing bloating and weight gain. Synthetic progesterone acts conversely and is associated with fluid retention, acne, weight gain, and migraine. Synthetic progesterone causes inflammation in blood vessels. Natural progesterone does not.
• Synthetic progesterone increases heart-disease risk factors. Natural progesterone does not.
• All large hormone studies clearly show an increase in breast cancer when using synthetic progesterone. No studies using natural progesterone show this.

If you don't have enough progesterone, you will most likely notice PMS symptoms. You'll have some combination of breast pain and swelling, moodiness, depression, hand and ankle swelling, pimples, or even constipation before your period.
Topical progesterone skin cream or lotion promotes a good night's sleep and tends to have fewer side effects. Progesterone can also be taken orally, vaginally, and injected.

Here are some remedies to improve progesterone levels and liver metabolism of hormones:

• Chasteberry (vitex agnus-castus) has been used for hundreds of years for women's health issues such as infertility, breast pain, heavy bleeding, and PMS symptoms.
• Milk Thistle or Lipotropic to support the liver.
• B vitamins can alleviate symptoms of PMS and are also used for treating moodiness and depression.
• Essential fatty acids (omega-3 and omega-6 oils).
• Adrenal extracts and herbs such as Panax Ginseng, Siberian Ginseng, Rhodiola, and Ashwaganda help to balance the adrenal glands.
• Dong quai has an estrogen-regulating effect.
• Vitamin E has been shown to reduce fibrocystic breast symptoms. In general, antioxidants such as vitamin E support hormone production. Studies have also shown vitamin E to be effective in reducing breast pain and hot flashes.
• Magnesium is needed for nearly every energy-producing function in your body, and it is vital for helping your system cope with stress.

Sex Hormones Part 2: Using Bioidentical Estrogen and Testosterone

Some general facts about estrogen:

• Our own natural estrogen is not simply one hormone; it is a family of hormones - some weak, some strong, some sexy, some protective, and some dangerous.
• All hormones work together in a carefully balanced system. Estrogen is stimulating to our mind and our cells and has a tendency to promote blood clotting. Progesterone naturally opposes estrogen. It is calming, limits cell growth, and lessens blood clotting.
• Even if you don't take estrogen, your body continues to make it. All women face a risk of developing breast cancer whether they use estrogen or not.
• The more overweight you are, the more estrogen you will make, increasing your risk of developing breast cancer, gallbladder disease, and blood clots.
• Your estrogens can interconvert into either active, dangerous metabolites or benign breakdown products depending on your genes, diet, and environment.
• As you enter menopause, your ovaries stop producing the strongest estrogen, estradiol, but your body produces higher levels of a weaker, potentially carcinogenic estrogen, estrone. This change is responsible for most of the symptoms of menopause.
• Low estradiol levels result in an increase in heart disease, bone loss, dementia, depression, sexual dysfunction and hair thinning.

Symptoms of Low Estrogen

Low Estradiol means low serotonin, causing headaches, depression, fatigue, a lower sex drive, insomnia and hot flashes.

Other symptoms may include migraines, sharp menstrual cramps, dry eyes, dry mouth, cough, constipation, joint pains (particularly the thumbs), frequent urination, urinary and vaginal infections and poor bladder control.

Fine lines begin to appear on your face, particularly around your mouth, eyes and forehead. Breasts tend to shrink and sag and feel less responsive sexually. A woman's estradiol is the primary hormone responsible for her libido, or sex drive. In general, low estrogen can make you feel dried up, tired, hot, irritable, unattractive, and depressed.

Menopause

Once you are in menopause you are more prone to breast cancer, weight gain, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, heart disease, bone loss, memory loss, hair loss, dry skin, and wrinkles.

Is Taking Estrogen Safe?

There are two major risks of using any form of estrogen, natural or synthetic:

• Excess blood clotting
• Excess cell stimulation leading to fibroids, cysts, and possibly cancer.

These risks are unlikely to occur if you put estrogen on the skin rather than take it orally, use a natural form, and supplement it with natural progesterone.
The author recommends using compounded skin lotion, although there are many other ways to take it, for the following reasons:

• Compounded products allow your hormones to be put in a paraben-free base.
• Compounded products can vary the concentration so that small amounts are needed.
• Using lotion is easier, faster, and less messy to apply.
• The most important reason: you are able to adjust the dose to your symptoms.

How Long

Menopausal women often ask how long they should stay on hormones. You should use them as long as you have symptoms. Most women stop having symptoms by their sixtieth birthday, but we are all different. Over time, if your other hormones are balanced, you should need less estrogen and progesterone or possibly no sex hormones at all.

Skip to Page: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8

This book summary may not be copied or distributed in any form without the permission from HealthBookSummaries.com. HealthBookSummaries.com assumes no responsibility for the use or misuse of this material. Always work with a qualified health professional before making any changes to your diet, prescription drug use, lifestyle or exercise activities.

New Summaries

Browse All »

20 Things You Need to Know About Vitamin B12 Deficiency 18 Things You Need to Know About Vitamin D and Cancer The War on Bugs By Will Allen Mad Sheep: The True Story Behind the USDA's War on a Family Farm By Linda Faillace Spiritual Nutrition: Six Foundations for Spiritual Life and the Awakening of Kundalini By Gabriel Cousens, M.D. Cholesterol & The French Paradox By Frank Cooper The Complete Master Cleanse: A Step-by-Step Guide to Maximizing the Benefits of The Lemonade Diet By Raymond Francis with Kester Cotton Never Be Sick Again: Health is a Choice, Learn How to Choose It By Raymond Francis with Kester Cotton The Lost Language of Plants: The Ecological Importance of Plant Medicines for Life on Earth By Stephen Harrod Buhner The ADD and ADHD Cure: The Natural Way to Treat Hyperactivity and Refocus Your Child By Jay Gordon, M.D. The Amazing Liver and Gallbladder Flush: A Powerful Do-It-Yourself Tool To Optimize Your Health And Wellbeing By Andreas Moritz The Revolution Will Not Be Microwaved: Inside America's Underground Food Movements By Sandor Ellix Katz The Natural Hormone Makeover: 10 Steps to Rejuvenate Your Health and Rediscover Your Inner Glow By Phuli Cohan, M.D. The Cure: Heal Your Body, Save Your Life By Dr. Timothy Brantley Cancer is Not a Disease - It's a Survival Mechanism By Andreas Moritz Beyond Medicine: Exploring a New Way of Thinking By Dr. Keith Scott-Mumby Virtual Medicine: A new dimension in energy healing By Dr. Keith Scott-Mumby The Food Mood Solution By Jack Challem Perfect Health: The Natural Way By Mary-Ann Shearer The Anti-Aging Solution: 5 Simple Steps to Looking and Feeling Young By Vincent Giampapa, M.D, Ronald Pero, Ph.D. and Marcia Zimmerman, C.N. The Thrive Diet: The Whole Food Way to Lose Weight, Reduce Stress, and Stay Healthy for Life By Brendan Brazier Health Begins in the Colon: The Ultimate Guide for Cleansing Your Colon, Body, Mind & Home! By Dr. Edward F. Group III, DC, ND, DACBN Keep Your Brain Young: The Complete Guide to Physical and Emotional Health and Longevity By Guy McKhann, M.D., and Marilyn Albert, Ph.D. The Sunfood Diet Success System By David Wolfe Reverse Heart Disease Now: Stop Deadly Cardiovascular Plaque Before it's too Late By Stephen T. Sinatra, M.D. and James C. Roberts, M.D., with Martin Zucker Fight for Your Health: Exposing the FDA's Betrayal of America By Byron J. Richards, CCN JavaTrekker: Dispatches from the World of Fair Trade Coffee By Dean Cycon, Founder & Owner, Dean's Beans Organic Coffee The Vitamin D Cure By James E. Dowd, M.D. and Diane Stafford Shrink Yourself: Break Free from Emotional Eating Forever! By Roger Gould, M.D. Astaxantin - Natural Astaxanthin: King of the Carotenoids By Bob Capelli with Dr. Gerald Cysewski Green for Life By Victoria Boutenko The Genie in Your Genes:Epigenetic Medicine and the New Biology of Intention By Dawson Church Appetite for Profit: How the Food Industry Undermines our Health and How to Fight Back By Michele Simon Selling Sickness: How the World's Biggest Pharmaceutical Companies Are Turning Us All into Patients By Ray Moynihan and Alan Cassels The Biology of Belief: Unleashing the Power of Consciousness, Matter and Miracles By Bruce H. Lipton, PH.D Natural Health Solutions: And the Conspiracy to Keep You From Knowing About Them By Mike Adams