Hormone Havoc June 5, 2009

We have a generation of people who have been poisoned by artificial hormones. From their teenage years many women have taken ‘the pill’ were initially delighted that they were able to gain control over such an important part of their lives. It did liberate women to a certain point, but then enslaved them again when some discovered that they couldn’t conceive naturally after taking it or that later in life they suffered from hormonal imbalances and cancer.

The artificial hormones we have been taking by the ton are excreted in urine and become environmental poisons within our food and water chains so that not just the women suffer – men are getting more breast, testicular and prostate cancer, than ever before. It is time to stop. Our systems have been unbalanced by these foreign hormones so we often need help to detox and get back on track.

So, where did it all go wrong?

Normally Oestrogen and Progesterone are finely balanced in the human body. Oestrogen is not a single hormone but a group of at least 24 types. It is not merely a ‘sex’ hormone and there are oestrogen receptors throughout the whole body including the vital organs, brain,heart and liver. Some of these oestrogen hormones are stimulating and some protective. We know that Oestriol E3 – the type that is most dominant during pregnancy – is cancer protective whereas Oestradiol E2 is the one predominantly implicated in increased cancer risk. Progesterone is made from a sterol called Pregnenolone which is made from Cholesterol. It is made in the ovaries of  menstruating women, in small amounts by the adrenal glands in both sexes and in the testes in men. It is a precursor of testosterone, all the important adrenal cortical (stress and anti-inflammatory) hormones, and also of oestrogen. Besides its main functions during conception and pregnancy Progesterone has many intrinsic effects on metabolism, cell oxygen levels, cancer prevention, normalising levels of blood sugar, zinc & copper, blood clotting and it is a natural antidepressant.

Oestrogen stimulates cells called osteoclasts that travel through bone removing the old, weakened bone and leaving little spaces behind. Progesterone stimulates cells called osteoblasts that fill the holes with new bone and the whole balanced system supports repair and ongoing strengthening of our bones. Osteoporosis is bone loss due to a relatively high level of osteoclasts (oestrogen) activity without the balancing effect of osteoblasts from progesterone.

For years the pharmaceutical industry has focused on talking  about and  replacing oestrogen in the body and ignored progesterone. Progesterone cannot be given by mouth as it is rapidly broken down in the liver and by injection it is locally irritating and painful.

When they first gave women artificial oestrogen, usually Premarin that came from horses urine, sales rocketed over about 5 years. Then it was discovered that a percentage of women were developing  Endometrial cancer (cancer of the lining of the womb). This doesn’t happen in women who have balanced hormones and so a synthetic drug called progestogen was added to try to balance the synthetic oestrogen.

So then the Oestrogen myth was up and running. Supposedly the panacea for all women’s problems, it would keep them young, healthy and feminine for years. Many doctors even “threatened” their patients ominously with predictions of heart disease and osteoporosis if they didn’t take HRT, regardless of any predisposition for either, mine certainly did.

Now women are becoming more informed and frequently choosing alternatives to synthetic hormones. There are many good books on this subject, (see links) and some people do well with herbal remedies, diet and lifestyle changes. if your body is showing signs of oestrogen dominance (or unopposed oestrogen) then you may benefit from a natural progesterone cream that is simply massaged into the skin. It is well absorbed this way and can redress the balance gradually over a few weeks or months.

Symptoms of Oestrogen Dominance

• Acceleration of the aging process
• Allergies
• Auto-immune disease like Lupus
• Breast tenderness
• Decreased sex drive
• Depression
• Fatigue
• Fat gain – especially around the abdomen, hips and thighs
• Fibrocystic breasts
• Foggy thinking
• Headaches
• Low blood sugar
• Increased blood clotting and risk of DVT or Stokes
• Infertility
• Irritability
• Memory Loss
• Miscarriage
• Osteoporosis
• Premenopausal bone loss
• PMS
• Thyroid disfunction that mimics hypothyroidism
• Cancer of Uterus or Breast
• Fibroids
• Water retention and bloating

Western women tend to have a 10 – 15 year period prior to menopause when they are oestrogen dominant they are suffering from many of these symptoms and some doctors are giving them more oestrogen. Much research and many books have been written  on this subject over the last 25 years but still women are being diagnosed and treated with the wrong hormones and many of them are suffering from breast cancer.

Only Human June 1, 2009

As stated in my profile, I have always been a bit at odds with the medical profession. In the early years of my training I could see the point of the discipline and order but not of the lack of personal involvement with the patients. The only time we got to talk with them was while giving a bed bath.( What’s that? I hear some of you say.) Now it is frequently a bowl of lukewarm water plonked on their table and the curtains pulled round.

Patients were usually too intimidated to talk to the doctors during ward rounds unless asked a direct question. When I was training for my General nursing at Charing Cross Hospital, London, being a teaching hospital it would sometimes be difficult to get all the doctors around the bed because there were so many of them.

I don’t want to be all negative so I will say that one good thing that used to happen was that whenever anyone was prescribed antibiotics they were always given a Vitamin B complex. It was known that antibiotics kill off the good bacteria in the gut and that this can lead to diarrhoea or a sore mouth and that this simple action can prevent those side effects. Why don’t they do this now, when antibiotics are even stronger? Vitamin B and Acidophilus protects the immune system.

Over the years there have been some memorable, personal occasions where I have lost faith in the safety of prescribing. At one time I was feeling very unwell and my GP prescribed Premarin (an oestrogen taken from horses urine – more on this in another blog!). She said she thought I was in early menopause due to having a hysterectomy several years before. When I went back after 1 month, not feeling much better, she doubled the dose. This started to give me some bad side effects, one of which was extremely lumpy and painful breasts – for which my GP prescribed Tamoxifen (an anti-oestrgen drug). I looked at her in disbelief and then suggested that it would probably be best if I just stopped taking the oestrogen – she didn’t agree but I did it anyway.

A much more serious error occurred when my mother was prescribed Methotrexate (a chemotherapy drug) by a Consultant Rheumatologist. Folic Acid is essential for many functions within the body and it is well known that it has to be given to people who are on Methotrexate to prevent serious side effects but the Consultant omitted it from the prescription. This was not noticed by her GP or pharmacist for over a year and it certainly contributed to her death from heart failure.

OK, we can’t always know if we have been prescribed incorrectly but we know if we are feeling worse rather than better and if this is the case we should clearly tell the doctor. If we suffer side effects we should ask if there is an alternative and not accept even more drugs to disguise the side effects.

Always remember that the Hippocratic Oath taken by doctors states that “they should do no harm” and this should apply to all medical and health professionals.

Confession: For three years I persuaded my mother to take Echinacea for a couple of weeks whenever she was flying over to visit. Every time she developed a severe cough and felt unwell and we thought that she easily picked up viruses on the plane. Then on one occasion it did not resolve and she was admitted to hospital in the UK with breathing difficulties. They diagnosed Pulmonary Fibrosis and a young, Chinese Junior doctor, who had taken her history pointed out that anyone with Auto-immune disease, like Rheumatoid Arthritis, should not take immune stimulants like Echinacea because it makes their condition worse. I didn’t know this and neither did any of the other doctors but I have since researched it thoroughly and found it to be true. Sorry Mum.

http://www.nutrasanus.com/echinacea.html

http://www.medherb.com/92ECHAUT.HTM