You may not know this, but Estrogen dominance is on the rise.

Part of my role as a health and wellness coach is to look at hormone tests every day. And everyday, I see more and more estrogen dominance when I start investigating my clients’ hormone imbalance.

Many times, this imbalance gets overlooked on a standard blood test. It’s not only the cause of irregular menstrual cycles and PMS symptoms, but it can be related to issues like weight gain, decreased sleep, increased appetite, low energy, insulin resistance, low libido, and even mood disorders like depression in both men and women.

When my husband and I first started investigating our hormone health, we discovered we both were estrogen dominant.

And we’re not alone in that!

So many people experience this same type of hormonal imbalance.

For me, I knew my hormones were out of sync. It started when I got on birth control at the age of 11 to manage my debilitating cycles. Although birth control seemed to help, I wish I had known about the negative impact that daily pill had on my health long-term.

So why are you hearing more about estrogen dominance in the health sphere? And how do you manage it before it results in permanent damage? I’m covering all that in this blog.

What Is Estrogen Dominance?

In general, estrogen dominance means that your estrogen levels are high relative to other sex hormones. We particularly look at the estrogen to progesterone ratio in women and compare to testosterone in men. It’s a delicate balance between having too much or too little estrogen. And this is true for all the hormones!

The great news is, it doesn’t happen overnight.

And in most cases, it is preventable and reversible.

If you don’t get your estrogen dominance under control, it can contribute to a variety of health issues, such as the following:

• Hormone driven cancers like breast cancer
• Tumor-like growths like fibroids
• Autoimmune conditions like hashimotos
• Yeast and bacteria overgrowth and drive conditions like candida

Do you know if you have estrogen dominance? If not, let’s run a lab to evaluate your hormones.

Why Is Estrogen Dominance On The Rise?

Simply put, the reason why estrogen dominance is one the rise is because of our environment.

We’re exposed to numerous hormone disruptors in our everyday environment. These are known as xenoestrogens. These xenoestrogens lead to estrogen toxicity and disrupt our natural hormone production.

You can most commonly find these xenoestrogens in plastics, chemicals, pesticides, and our water systems.

Take a moment to look around in your environment.

Start with your kitchen. The foods we eat are either processed with chemicals or coated in pesticides. Our tupperware that reheats our meals are made of plastics.

Evaluate your cleaning products. A few chemicals to look out for include cyclosiloxanes, phthalates, and parabens.

Then survey your medicine cabinet. Certain medications can impact your estrogen levels – especially hormone therapy drugs.

All of these small things make a great impact on our health.

If we don’t control our home environment starting now, we’ll continue to see a rise of estrogen over our progesterone levels. Ready to take control of your health? Let’s chat about how to redirect your course here.

How Do You Treat Estrogen Dominance

So, how do you treat this hormone imbalance? I’ve put together a couple of tips that you can start to implement today.

Decrease Your Exposure

It’s nearly impossible to totally eliminate our exposure to these hormone disruptors, but you can take small action steps to help. Try any of the following to decrease your exposure:

• Opt for Pyrex dishes and glass containers instead of plastic food containers (i.e. tupperware).
• Make the switch to non-toxic beauty products. Unfortunately, a lot of the makeup and body lotions that women are using today have hormone disruptors in them – especially those plumpers. They are filled with these fake estrogens.
• Use non-toxic cleaners for your home instead of toxic chemicals. They not only smell better, but they’re safer for your home.
• Use a water purifier so you limit the exposure to toxic metals and chemicals in your drinking water. Our body is about 70% water. It’s vital that you care about what you’re putting in your body – starting with your water.
  

 

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Detox Your Body

Depending on the severity of your estrogen dominance, I may recommend a complete detox protocol where we strategically remove all the toxins impacting your body’s balance. If you’d like to explore what a detox would look like for you, schedule a discovery call here.

Love Your Liver

When you’re cleaning up these toxins, it’s also important to address the health of your liver. One of the liver’s jobs is to get rid of excess estrogen. If you fully support the liver by making sure its drainage pathways are open, then you’ll more easily eliminate the toxins you’re exposed to on a regular basis that could otherwise raise your estrogen levels.

To support healthy estrogen levels by loving your liver, you can:

• Take daily liver support supplements; ask me about what you should take for your body.
• Eat naturally detoxifying foods that support your liver, like lemons, beets, and grapefruit.
• Consume foods that regulate estrogen levels, like broccoli, cauliflower, kale, brussel sprouts, and arugula.
• Use castor oil packs to naturally detox the body. It helps you sleep better, improves bowel movements (which helps you release old estrogen), helps with digestion, and reduces stress by activating that rest/digest state in the body. It has so many benefits.
  
  

Experiencing Estrogen Dominance?

If you’re experiencing hormone imbalance and it appears that you have estrogen dominance, these tips will not be enough (at least with my experience working with dozens of clients).

If you suspect you may have a hormonal imbalance and you want to gain access to the right lab tests and resources to help you get it under control, then take the time to schedule an appointment with me today. This could mean the difference between living a life traveling from appointment to appointment and experiencing freedom.

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Are you dealing with a metabolism issue?
That may not be easy to answer at face value.
If you’re experiencing low energy, fatigue, brain fog, poor memory, and digestive symptoms, that may be an indicator for something more.
The symptoms above paired with cold hands/feet, dry skin, and hair loss could be signs of a hypoactive thyroid. Many clients don’t seem to be getting better with their medications.
Others experience the symptoms of a hypoactive thyroid, but their labs fall into normal ranges – indicating a normal thyroid.
Then a few are masking each symptom separately with medications and supplements.
We’re quick to blame the thyroid here, but it’s usually not the only piece to the puzzle – even if there is damage to the thyroid or an underlying autoimmune condition destroying the thyroid.
If you’re searching for out-of-the-box therapies or want more for your life than pills and medications, discover where you should put your focus to heal your thyroid.

Find The Root Of Your Problem To Address Your Thyroid Issues

Our thyroid is the master of our metabolism; however, the symptoms we’re experiencing may not be caused by the thyroid alone.
Instead of investigating the underlying causes – an imbalance of the gut, brain, adrenal glands, and/or cellular health within the body – we may be left with lingering symptoms.
When we see a metabolism issue, we often blame the thyroid and treat those symptoms alone. When that doesn’t work, we typically get referred out to someone who “specializes in” a specific organ or condition.
Unfortunately the root of the problem is never addressed.
This is why people believe we must get sick before we die and that disease is inevitable. The truth is… If we address the underlying cause of our issues, then we can have a much healthier life.

Studying Your Thyroid From A Holistic Standpoint

Addressing the thyroid, or any other organ for that matter, from a holistic standpoint allows us to look at the person as a whole (instead of treating symptoms). When we approach the body in this way, it allows us to uncover imbalances that are leading to dysfunction in these organs.
A thyroid problem is not always a thyroid problem.
If we look at all the organ systems like the immune system, digestion, detoxification pathways, the nervous system, and even emotional health, we will uncover the stress that is actually leading to disease. When we uncover this stress and work to bring healing in those weak areas, we bring balance into the body. This balance gives us the results we are looking for as a side effect of good health.
Of course, there’s a systematic process to accomplish this. That’s why so many people fail when they try to do it on their own. Most people I talk to have spent thousands of dollars trying to figure out their health on their own, when they could have hired a mentor to guide them through the process instead. Skip the heartache and empty wallet that comes with DIYing your health. Schedule some time to chat about your health with me today.

 

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Why Is Thyroid Health Vital?

Your thyroid health regulates metabolism and energy production in the cells. It’s important for tissue repair, cardiovascular health, bone density, cholesterol levels, temperature regulation, and energy levels.

Two Types of Thyroid Conditions

When it comes to thyroid health, there are two different types of conditions – primary and secondary.

Primary Thyroid Condition

A primary thyroid condition is when the gland itself is not functioning at optimal levels. In these cases, medical supervision is required. When you include healthy lifestyle factors through nutrition, proper supplementation, the reduction of deficiencies, the use of stress reduction techniques, and gut healing strategies, you will improve your primary thyroid condition.

Secondary Thyroid Condition

A secondary thyroid condition is caused by toxicity from other areas in the body. This can also be due to chronic stress and inflammation in the body. Since this type of thyroid condition is caused by poor lifestyle habits or toxicity, medications typically will not bring the thyroid into balance because the thyroid isn’t the problem. The key here is bringing balance into all the organ systems of the body so you can experience health. When you address this from a holistic standpoint, medication may not be needed.

What Areas Should You Focus On When Healing Your Thyroid Health?

When someone comes to me with thyroid, metabolism, energy, or even autoimmunity, these are my biggest areas of focus:

• Brain
• Adrenal glands
• Liver
• Gut

Your Brain

Thyroid communication starts in the brain. The hypothalamus responds to the low thyroid hormone in the body and secretes thyrotropin releasing hormones (TRH). It sends a message to the pituitary gland to secrete thyroid stimulating hormones (TSH). TSH stimulates the thyroid to release more thyroid hormones into the bloodstream to bring the levels up.
Keep in mind, TSH is a pituitary marker – not a thyroid marker. If your doctor is only looking at TSH to measure the health of your thyroid, you will not receive accurate results as to whether or not your thyroid is making enough hormones. Looking at TSH alone is a shot in the dark and does not give an accurate picture of thyroid health.
Instead, acquire a full thyroid panel, and work with someone who understands how to interpret it to help you function optimally.
You can see the type of results this type of investigation will give someone by reading Tina’s story here .

Your Adrenal Glands

Your adrenal glands play a big role here as well; they also get their messages from the hypothalamus and pituitary. They not only help to manage stress, but they also help regulate blood sugar and control mineral levels.
Our adrenal glands are taking a toll due to the chronic state of stress we are in.
Everything from mental and emotional stress to physical stress to environmental stress to internal stress inside the body… The adrenals are responsible for keeping the body in balance.
Right now, they are overstressed – releasing large amounts of cortisol. The body then begins to break down. It will cause your thyroid gland to slow down so it can conserve energy.
Your big takeaway here is that you must address your stress and your adrenal health if you want your thyroid to respond fully.
Unfortunately, you may miss this point because you may not feel stressed. That doesn’t mean your adrenals aren’t stressed.
The body wants to maintain balance; help it by addressing those disease processes from a holistic standpoint.

Your Liver

The liver is responsible for the conversion of T4 (inactive thyroid hormone) to your active form of thyroid T3. If there’s a problem with this conversion, then the T3 will remain low – leading to symptoms related to a hypoactive thyroid. This hormone gives your body fuel. When it’s low, you feel sluggish.
The liver also produces a substance called thyroid binding globulin – which prevents thyroid hormones from being immediately absorbed into the cells surrounding the thyroid gland. In addition, the liver distributes and transports thyroid binding globulin into other areas of the body. When there’s a malfunction in this area, it can cause the T3 levels to appear high or low.
Thankfully, there’s a sweet spot when it comes to your hormones. You don’t want them too high or too low. When the liver is doing its job, these thyroid hormones will come into balance. Utilize functional lab tests to discover if you have a liver issue and map out a healing plan with me.

Your Gut

My favorite area to talk about is the gut because as Hippocrates said, “it is the window to disease”.
This is foundational when it comes to thyroid health. 20% of the free T3 that is used by the body is produced in the gut. Your good friendly bacteria play a huge role in the conversion of your active T3.
Your gut is made up of billions of bacteria; they can either help us or harm us.
The good bacteria helps to nourish us.
On the other hand, bad bacteria produce toxins that make us sick. Poor diet, inflammation, medications, toxicity, food sensitivities, and low stomach acid can stress the gut. It leads to a condition called leaky gut – which allows toxins and other unwanted particles to pass into circulation. This puts stress on the immune system and causes an inflammatory response throughout the body.
When food proteins spill into circulation where they don’t belong, the body begins to elicit an attack. Many of these food proteins look very similar to our organs, so the body may begin to attack specific organ systems. This leads to autoimmunity. And autoimmunity does not go away. While you can live symptom-free with autoimmunity, it is a condition you must work on to remain healthy.

My Recommendations For Healing Your Thyroid Health

If you want to start healing your thyroid health, here’s what I recommend:

1. Work with someone to access the right lab tests. Your doctor orders a lab test as a way to diagnose and treat a specific symptom or condition. Those lab tests do not address underlying causes of disease. Functional practitioners, like myself, use lab tests to see a clear picture of what may be causing a disease or condition. You want to make sure you address your brain, adrenals, liver, and gut.
2. Throw out the processed foods and focus on nutrient-dense foods that heal the organs. Try to include more good healthy grass-fed meats, organ meats, wild-caught fish, healthy fats (like ghee, coconut oil, avocado), dark leafy greens, and colorful vegetables into your diet.
3. Get your ZZZ’s. Get in bed by 10pm. The first half of the night is when the body is repaired, and the second half is for the brain. Don’t skip this!
4. Eliminate stress – not just emotional stress. Make sure you’re addressing physical stress as well as internal stress. The internal stress will require that you invest in yourself by hiring a guide.
   If you’ve been spinning your wheels for years trying to figure out how to get healthy on your own, and you’re still stuck in the same place you were years ago, it’s time to address your health in a holistic way.
   What is your other option?
   Are you going to spend the next five years doing the very same things that get you nowhere?
   What would your life look like if you actually reached your health goals?
   If you’re ready to tackle your thyroid, metabolism issues, autoimmunity, or any other chronic condition head-on, schedule a discovery call with me to strategize a game plan.
   

    

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