Researching Hormones, and More…
February 9, 2010 by mrsgojigirl
Filed under Nourishment
Wow! There is so much information to be learned on the internet, geez!
There is definitely a point of being overwhelmed… At some point when you learn what is toxic for you, what to avoid, and where to avoid… I’m inspired to just be out in the woods away from everything. Ultimately, that’s our goal. To build a house out on 20+ acres of land in the mountains of Vermont… For now, we just live in the mountains of New Hampshire. At the end of April, our lease is up, and we’re hoping to find the perfect place to live in Vermont.
So, back to my research. This morning I found myself wrapped up in Progesterone/Estrogen research once again. I’ve been doing research on this subject for over a year now, and I always seem to find more information on it every time. Lately, I feel like my health is going exactly where I’ve always wanted it to be, and progressing every day. The biggest factors in this progress, I most definitely attribute to gaining control of estrogen dominance and maintaining a healthy amount of progesterone.
There have been a couple of other things along the way, but that has always been my central issue. Around a year ago, I started researching estrogen dominance and found that everything I had been dealing with for years was on the list of symptoms! Imagine my surprise… I had a sneaking suspicion that my issues were hormone related, but never understood more than that. Mostly everyone told me I needed a liver cleanse and that would clear my skin up, well guess what. That didn’t work! I did numerous liver cleanses over the course of three years and every time my skin got worse. Come to find out, there’s actually a theory that the little green stones our liver supposedly releases are just hardened olive oil. Ha, well no wonder!
I was fortunate enough to have a few blood tests back in the fall of 2009, which showed pretty low progesterone. Since then I’ve been using a natural (and organic) progesterone cream, as well as eating foods that help, and taking herbs that help, which I think have made the complete turnaround happen in my life. I do know that some people don’t agree with using progesterone cream, especially at my age, but when you have 20+ years of correcting to work on, that’s the road I chose. The progesterone in this specific cream is made from wild yams, so I feel comfortable using it. It is also the only 100% organic brand that I have found. Organic Excellence Progesterone Cream.
I’ll be receiving a Vitex Oil in the mail this week, and planning to experiment with that. I may switch over completely or use both, we’ll see what my body is feeling. Anytime I feel my hormones starting to get out of balance again, one of the following things happens: sore breasts, skin breakouts on my face (deep painful cysts), depression, mild weight gain, and PMS (cramps). These are mostly all gone mostly all the time, but every now and then something creeps back for a visit, but it’s usually brief. These things usually only happen if I miss a few days of my herbs or miss a few days of the progesterone cream. I guess my body is still regulating out all those years of massive estrogen overload. You may be thinking, what estrogen overload is she talking about? Well, I grew up vegetarian and vegan back and forth, which meant soy products every day. In addition to that, any non-organic foods or substances are full of pesticides which act as xenoestrogens in our body (chemical estrogen). I also dyed my hair from age 15 to age 22. Yikes! That’s a lot of chemicals in the scalp… Chemicals in the dye act as xenoestrogens as well. Growing up performing also meant I used plenty of hairspray and gel, commercial makeup, etc. Using any plastic products, microfibers rub off into the skin and are absorbed as xenoestrogens – yuck! Then going on a raw-vegan diet, eating nuts and seeds, which are full of phytoestrogens. So you see, I had become quite estrogen dominant, and actually progesterone-deficient. It is possible to be estrogen dominant and still be producing adequate amounts of progesterone, just depends on all of your factors.
Here are a few websites to check out for more information on estrogen dominance, and progesterone production:
Dr. John Lee’s Official Website
Natural Progesterone Advisory Network
Great Info about Progesterone and Progesterelle
Women to Women (menopause and estrogen information)
Those are just a few and once you start poking around, you’ll there is much more information to be found.
I will not go ahead and say that I’ve completely healed myself of all of my personal health challenges, nor am I a healer or an expert, because there is more to learn. But, I will say that I have made a huge amount of progress, and continue to do so. Everything is a journey, everyone’s personal health challenges are a journey, and we are so individual. Because hormonal balance has been my main health concern in this life, it has become my main focus and research fascination.
More to come in future posts about hormone balance.
Please feel free to share any comments, experiences, questions, or thoughts. All are appreciated, and thanks for listening!
Blessings all-ways,
Goji
I have acne and sore breasts before my period. I think something is a miss with my hormones, but when I tried using progesterone cream I got worse. Any thoughts? Also, what are your preferred herbs to use?
Wow! Thank you for this post. I’ve been doing my own research as I have really horrible PMS, its just ruining my life. I’ve known I’ve been low on progesterone (as per blood tests) only thing is my body is really sensitive and all the progesterone creams and pills I’ve tried make me worse. I will give the one you mentioned a try. Also, you brought up Vitex, which I have been reading about in Brigitte Mars book The Sexual Herbal. I’m going to give that a try too. I really like Standard Processe’s Chasteberry but it doesn’t help me 100%. Thanks again for this great post.
Zoe & Patricia, yes I’ve read/heard (and experienced myself!) that the progesterone cream or any progesterone supplement will make things worse if you don’t improve the estrogen intake. This can be anything from the xenoestrogens around in our environment or in food, or an overload of phytoestrogens in our food.
For me it took a closer look at the rest of my diet, about 2 months for the progesterone to make a huge difference (in my skin and in my PMS cramping).
Hope that helps!
Thank you GojiGirl, I’m not a soy eater. I eat a raw flexitarian diet. Mostly it’s raw vegan with some supplemental high quality animal products like grass fed beef. I live in Chicago and wouldn’t doubt my environment has a lot to do with it.
Zoe, also about the herbs. Vitex or Chaste Tree Berry is one great herb that helps our hormones to balance out. Vitex especially helps with progesterone production. My current favorite Gaia Herbs Vitex Elixir (alcohol tincture). Another great duo is red raspberry and nettle tea. I do my best to drink at least 1 quart of this daily. These herbs need a 6 hour infusion time to get the maximum nutrients. I usually will pour hot water over the herbs in a quart sized mason jar, leave overnight, and drink in the morning. Sweetened with a little stevia, this is a delicious drink. Wild yam is another one to use for progesterone production, I would use it in an alcohol tincture form.
I see the most benefit from eliminating sugars in my diet and eating copious amounts of fats, with coconut being my primary source as I am still working on eliminating my sensitivity to dairy. Any tips on that? Goat kefir in small amounts I can do. I see the difference for sure. I’m leaner, my face gets better and no sore breasts. Interestingly, I just had an experince where I had consumed a lot of tahini for the first time in a long time and the next day my breasts were so sore. So I am seeing expriential validity of this hormone stuff.
Much love!
Hey Melina!
Many people who have a dairy sensitivity are not sensitive to: colostrum (either fresh or dried), raw butter, or raw cream. When I say “raw” – I mean fresh, grass-fed, from the farm, never been heated. In fact, my husband and I just drove to our local farm, played with and pet the calves (all gorgeous jersey cows), and picked up our goodies. It is nice day here in New Hampshire, so all of the animals were out on the pasture, digging under the snow to get more grass.
Thanks again GojiGirl. I just subscribed to your newsletter. I remember seeing you at some of the Chicago-based David Wolfe events. I appreciate your flexitarian attitude. Rock on GojiGirl.
What type of hormone testing have you found to work, saliva or blood testing. there is a great debate regarding this as well. Love the blog….and hope to meet you and Frank soon
DivineNectar (nice name
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At the time for what I was going through, blood tests were required. I have yet to try out the Saliva tests from Dr. John Lee’s site, but I’m definitely curious. Let me know if you try them out, I’d love to here feedback!
Update:
Yes! I am now happily consuming (all raw and grassfed) kefired colostrum, eggs, butter, kefired goat milk, and delicious divine thick raw cream (my fav).
I’m also trying pemmican for the first time in the near future using some yummy recipe tips from your man Franky G!
I feel better, look better and have more consistent long-burning energy ; )
<3
Great! Thanks so much for the info! Will be looking into this more myself as I have major skin issues. Which are probably hormonal, since they seem to fit the symptoms! Love!