Last week I wrote about how women with hormonal imbalance often struggle with what is called estrogen dominance. Reduced libido, bloating, breast swelling and tenderness, water retention, headaches, mood swings, weight gain, PMS, foggy brain and feeling cold and tired are all common symptoms associated with carrying too much estrogen relative to progesterone. This is often true even for women approaching menopause and can start as early as age 35.
The above symptoms are due to estrogen stimulation of the brain and body and are made worse by stress and being overweight. Start by adding a high potency multivitamin/mineral supplement preferably from plant based sources. Eat a diet rich in fruits and vegetables, make sure you get adequate, healthy protein (ideally organic) intake, usually in the range of 12 to 20 grams with each meal, and add moderate amounts of health fat to your diet.
Healthy fats include avocado, nuts and seeds, olive oil, fats found in cold water fish and even small amounts of coconut oil. Fibre is your friend in estrogen dominance. Estrogen is dumped by the liver into the bowel and if there is not adequate fibre in your diet to bind it up, your body will simply reabsorb the dumped estrogen. Dark leafy greens are superfoods for reducing excess estrogen as they are high in fibre AND they stimulate the liver to produce more bile.
Estrogen gets mixed by the liver into bile which means the healthier your bile production, the better able you are to clear excess hormones (this includes cholesterol too). Having a healthy liver is the start of robust bile flow and allows you to clear your body of excess estrogen, not to mention a myriad of metabolic and environmental toxins. Your liver is an extremely complex filter that responds to nutritional support.
Choline, methionine, parsley, beet, dandelion and green tea extracts all support and stimulate the liver to filter more effectively. Adding bio-identical progesterone or a pre-progesterone cream made from wild yam can bolster progesterone if it is too low. Once identified, estrogen dominance is pretty easy to treat and can make a world of difference in how you feel.
