Do you remember Oprah’s infamous car giveaway ? You get a car.. you get a car… and you get a car! Well in this case you have estrogen dominance… you have estrogen dominance and you have estrogen dominance… YES YOU!! Now don’t diagnose yourself, but please tell your doctor your symptoms and have the appropriate test to confirm your suspicions.
If you have some of the symptoms listed and not listed in my previous post and it has been confirmed with your physician, there is still hope. As mentioned in Estrogen Dominance: What does that really mean? (previous post) a diet low in fiber, environmental factors and overloading the liver can create a hormonal imbalance and DING DING DING! You guessed it Estrogen Dominance. As mentioned before, a diet with less fiber intake causes a decrease in movement of material in the digestive system and increase storage of estrogen in the body, therefore increase your fiber intake. By eating fiber rich foods such as whole grains, beans, and berries ( to name a few) movement of GI tract increases and facilitates regular bowel movements which leads to excreting more estrogen.
Who enjoys a nice cocktail with dinner or just after a long day at work ? ME! (hand raised high-CHEERS!!). Doesn’t that drink relax you and take away of the stressors of that moment, well it also impairs the liver. Alcohol consumptions, environmental toxins, and drugs can impair liver function and decreases it’s ability to filter toxins and detoxify the body, hence the liver can’t filter excess estrogen. With the liver being impaired, estrogen cannot be filtered properly and recirculates in the body.
Lastly, environmental factors i.e xenoestrogens , that are present everywhere, the only alternative is to try to limit our exposure to them. Start by washing all of your fruits and veggies thoroughly, eat organic (please refer to the dirty dozen and clean fifteen) , eat organic meat and wild caught seafood, and I urge you to stop warming your food in plastic containers- use glass or porcelain instead. By doing the things above, you limit your exposure to pesticides, dioxins, PCB, growth hormone given to livestock/poultry and decrease the amount of xenoestrogen in your body. With less exposure to xenoestrogen, the game of ” who gets the estrogen receptor ” can be played fairly and the hormone receptors in your body won’t accept the xenoestrogen because they mimic our estrogen.
How can we over come estrogen dominance? By have a diet rich in phytonutrients that bind to estrogen cell receptors and protect them from accepting xenoestrogens, a diet rich in fiber, decrease alcohol intake and decrease environmental factors. By doing all those things the hormonal balance can be reestablished, decrease the symptoms that drive you up the wall each month and possibly decrease uterine fibroid size. I can testify that by doing all the things mentioned in this post along with exercise and positive thinking, your symptoms will decrease and your monthly flow will not be as cumbersome.
Leave a Reply