How to Balance Hormones Naturally in your 40s
March 2, 2019
Perimenopause is a time when your body is getting ready to enter menopause and you may start having symptoms that you’ve never experienced before due to hormones starting to get out of balance. Listen in as we discuss what is happening to your body and what you can do to get hormones back in balance.
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Transcript
KARA: Welcome to Dishing Up Nutrition. This is brought to you by Nutritional Weight & Wellness. If you are listening and you're a woman that's age 35 or over, or if you know someone who is, I think you're gonna really like our topic today because it's all about hormones.
As women, you know it can be pretty tough when you experience fluctuating hormones and it seems like when we reach age 35 to 40 our hormone balance just kind of seems to go crazy. Mood swings become an everyday occurrence. We might not get a good night's sleep. The only way to feel comfortable is to wear pants that have an elastic waistband. You just kind of load up your closet with stretch pants and leggings to accommodate that expanding waistline. Are you thinking, oh, that is so true. Why is this happening? Well today we're gonna discuss hormone balance after 40. While working with many, many women over the years, we have found that their hormones often start to get out of balance and even mid to late thirties. So let's talk about what's happening to your body, what you can do to get your hormones back in balance.
My name is Kara Carper. I'm a licensed nutritionist. I have a master's degree in holistic health. I'm also a certified nutrition specialist and I'm very excited to be joined by Marcie Vaske. She's also a licensed nutritionist and has a master's degree in clinical nutrition.
MARCIE: Well good morning, Kara. I'm so happy to be here once again in studio with you. We always have a fun time and especially today talking about this topic hormones, right? It's perfect for us. So for many women between the ages of 35 to 40 it is that time before we are entering menopause and for some women their hormones are going crazy. I know my lovely hormones have been trying to mess with me. And so fortunately I have a little knowledge in this area, so I've tried to get them back on track.
But this time before menopause is called perimenopause, which can result in a stressful, hormone fluctuating time. And this hormonal balance is not often easy and can really make you feel like you're kind of out of control because you've never experienced this stuff before. So many women have not lived a lifestyle that supported maybe good hormone balance throughout their lives. Kind of setting themselves up for some rough years ahead. And as I mentioned earlier, perimenopause is the months and years before the start of menopause typically starts. So when a woman reaches her mid thirties or forties you're in that perimenopausal age.
So for all those listeners out there who maybe are dealing with some tight pants and mood swings, you might want to ask yourself, am I in perimenopause? Am I experiencing fluctuating hormones? And if I am, what are some of these symptoms that I might experience? Well, Dr Sarah Gottfried, the author of the Hormone Cure. She offers a quick little quiz of 20 questions in her book that indicates some of these symptoms. So I think we should dig in and help understand how to play this hormonal game.
Emotional instability and hormone imbalance during perimenopause
KARA: And we're not going to go over all 20. I guess if we had more time we would. But we picked the top five questions to share with you. So the first one is emotional instability. So are you sort of bursting into tears when there's really no reason at a moment's notice? Are you experiencing poor sleep? You might wake up and just sort of ruminate in the middle of the night and not be able to get back to sleep. Are you starting to have night sweats where you wake up so sweaty that you have to change your pajamas and maybe even change your sheets? And then there's weight gain?
Are you gaining weight? Especially around that mid section. And also the fifth one is sudden forgetfulness. Do you walk into a room knowing that you went in there for a reason, but you can't remember why or what you were looking for? People can relate to many of those.
MARCIE: Some women describe perimenopause is a time in their life when they feel everything is changing and it's just beyond our control. So the question is what is causing all of these changes. So at about this time it's when a woman's ovaries are becoming less active, slowing down and preparing for the body to stop menstruating. We are getting ready to enter menopause. So because our little ovaries have decided to close up shop, you may start having some symptoms that you've never experienced before, such as what Kara was just talking about. Those sleep problems, that weight gain around your middle, or the mood swings that don't make you much fun to be around.
KARA: Right. And weight gain that doesn't seem related to your normal activity. You're exercising the same that you always have, you’re pretty much eating the same, but all of a sudden you have an extra five, 10 pounds around the midsection.
MARCIE: Oftentimes we'll have clients come in and be like, I've changed nothing. What is going on? And that's just an indicator of you could be definitely getting into perimenopause for sure.
KARA: In addition to that expanding waistline and trouble sleeping, you also may have things like your hair starts thinning. You might start feeling more irritable. You might have adult acne, which is fun, right? To have adult acne and you're starting to get wrinkles. You also may be experiencing more anxiety and there can be a lot of other symptoms as well.
There can be things like more sugar cravings. You could be having some digestive issues, feeling a little bit more bloated, having headaches. Especially like you were saying, the weight around the midsection or just the weight gain in general does seem to be the most kind of concerning or problematic for the clients that we come to see you.
MARCIE: Sometimes it’s the first thing you notice because you're always looking at your stomach and you just don't want that weight gain. That's why people initially come in and then you start asking them questions and they're like, oh yeah, I guess I am forgetting some things or my hair has kind of thinning. It's putting it all together.
So, we know the symptoms of perimenopause and we understand the ovaries are not working as well as they could be and our hormones are out of balance. So the two of hormones that are causing our problem is estrogen and progesterone. And when the basic estrogen, progesterone balance is disrupted, that's when women end up with these symptoms.
How do diet and nutrition affect the estrogen/progesterone balance?
KARA: That's right. And you might be wondering what disrupts this estrogen progesterone balance. Honestly, there's a lot of things that can create this imbalance, but if we're talking about nutrition, eating a lot of processed carbohydrates and foods or beverages that contain sugar can certainly cause an imbalance of estrogen to progesterone. And the reason that this happens is let's just say somebody has a bowl of cereal for breakfast with milk and a banana, glass of orange juice, the blood sugar's going to go up too high. The pancreas is going to release insulin to bring that blood sugar level back down. And if that's happening day after day, year after year, too much insulin in the blood stream is going to lead to too much estrogen in the body. So that's how we get that imbalance of estrogen to progesterone through nutrition.
I used to be, in high school and college, I was kind of a pasta girl. Lots of pasta, bagels, cereal, a lot of those processed carbohydrates. But we were trying just eat carbs and no fat. That was the era of everybody's eating low fat. Cause we'll talk more about that. We thought fat was bad, but it's not. So unfortunately eating like that year after year, when it gets to be peri-menopause time, women are more likely to have these symptoms. So we really want to be eating, not the processed carbohydrates, but more of a balanced eating plan. Like our Nutritional Weight & Wellness balanced plan.
MARCIE: Exactly. So maybe you've just been a poor eater your entire life. So for years he might've said to yourself, well I'm going to do something about my nutrition, I have to do it. But what happens? Life gets in the way. You keep moving forward. And you might say to yourself, okay, now I'm going to do it. But then I don't have time to cook. Or I don't have the money to eat healthy or I'll just worry about my nutrition when I'm older, when I have more time. And then suddenly you're older and you feel wired, anxious, bloated, and your pants are getting tight. I mean, this is not fun. Procrastination with your nutrition often does not turn out in your favor.
KARA: And it's so easy to do that. Tomorrow or next year, it's going to be my year. I'll start next week. So we're going to take our first break. You're listening to Dishing Up Nutrition, changing your diet from a convenience food eating plan to a real food eating plan takes education and it takes a lot of practice. That's what we provide at Nutritional Weight & Wellness. And we recommend starting with a series of classes. So stay tuned because when we come back from break, Marcie and I will talk about some of those class options.
BREAK
What are the misconceptions about diet that can contribute to hormone imbalance in your 30s and 40s?
MARCIE: Welcome back to Dishing Up Nutrition. Before break, Kara was talking about changing your diet from a convenience food diet to a real food plan. And I want to share an interesting study just published in Stroke, a journal from the American Heart Association. And they reported that among postmenopausal women drinking two diet drinks daily was associated with a risk of having a stroke caused by a blocked artery. And women who consume two or three more artificially sweetened beverages per day, or 31% more likely to have a clot-causing stroke compared to a women who consume diet drinks less than once a week.
KARA: In the past, women who wanted to save calories, and we say in the past, but we know that this is still happening. A lot of people just think, oh, I want to save calories, so how can I do that? Well, I'm going to drink diet soda instead of regular soda, but I don't think people understand the harmful effects, especially to their arteries. So this information is really important to know so that you can protect your long term health. And this is the kind of thing that we teach in our Weight & Wellness Series.
MARCIE: I really love that study. I'm glad that we said that because so many people are doing this diet coke or soda or whatever. And it's just so harmful. So hopefully they're hearing that today and thinking twice about it.
KARA: And it’s Diet Coke, it's also those artificial sweeteners are really so prevalent. They’re in yogurts. They're in a lot of those prepackaged protein drinks, protein bars, protein powders. You just have to really look at labels for that stuff. So before break, we were talking about what are kind of some of those symptoms of perimenopause, the lack of sleep, the weight gain around the midsection, the fluctuating moods, night sweats. So as far as, why does that start happening and what's more likely to cause those symptoms?
Well, poor nutrition is definitely one of those factors. Poor nutrition can lead to that excess insulin that we talked about that creates more estrogen than progesterone. That imbalanced ratio. Lack of vitamins and minerals can end up causing more symptoms and throw off that estrogen progesterone balance. And like we were just talking about, the low fat diet was just this misconception that started in I think in the 50s. It started as like a marketing ploy. And so we all thought that we were supposed to eat low fat and we thought that was healthy and we would be the healthiest people around while turns out it's not working out that way. I think people thought low fat would mean they would lose weight. Which is also not the case because the foods end up being a lot higher in sugar and carbohydrates.
Another thing, Marcie, and this is one thing that you would teach clients and I used to teach clients is we need beneficial fats to make our hormones. And so many people don't realize that. We need fat for balanced hormones. So eating a low fat diet means imbalanced hormones. Again, throwing off that estrogen to progesterone ratio. So I was just so grateful that when I started working at Nutritional Weight & Wellness, that's just one of the empowering things that I learned is eat healthy fats. And one of the main reasons is for hormone balance.
MARCIE: You can really tell. Years ago when I was eating low fat or really no fat because that would be ridiculous, my hormones were silly then too. And, as I've gotten older and now we're in this fun stage of life, I can tell if I don't not eat enough fat now. But I am very, very rigid on how much fat I eat because I want to make sure that my hormones are working at top functions.
KARA: You're trying to get enough. And trying to make sure, every time you eat, am I getting enough healthy fat?
MARCIE: Right. And instead a lot of our clients are, am I getting too much? I don't even worry about that. I'm just like, throw it on. Throw the butter on. I need it. And there's another factor that also weighs into hormone imbalance that is a part of everybody's life. Stress can throw off that estrogen, progesterone levels. And I know that too. I mean, when I'm in times of chronic stress, my body really does take a hit. I get tired, my hair starts falling out. Things like even my periods get more irregular. So lots of things. What stress does is it causes your adrenal glands to produce the hormone cortisol. And excess cortisol can lead to belly fat.
What are typical hormone fluctuations during perimenopause and menopause?
KARA: All these hormones are intertwined, so one of them changes and the others can get out of balance. Perimenopause might start for women in their early thirties and continue on until menopause. And we were just talking on break that the average age of menopause is around 50. At some point during those perimenopausal years, a woman will miss a period or several periods and then will finally stop obsoleting. So taking into account that women make progesterone when they ovulate, it just means that a woman is no longer producing that hormone called progesterone. And so many times, even when there's no ovulation occurring and no progesterone secreted, that menstrual cycle will proceed and a period will occur. So it's kinda confusing.
MARCIE: I know people are like, oh, I must be fine. I'm still getting a period. Not necessarily true. And that's because women can go several cycles on just estrogen alone and experience an excess level. That just means there's more estrogen circulating in the body. It's like a vicious cycle. I always say that for sure. So, some women have that light irregular period for years but are not ovulating. So when women don't ovulate for many months at a time, the ovaries kinda become confused and the secretion of estrogen often becomes erratic. And sometimes there'll be surges of estrogen followed by then a very low level of estrogen. So when there's a surge of estrogen, you might feel things like breast tenderness or water retention, even mood swings, weight gain, the things we've been talking about. So, biochemically and hormonally, a lot of hormonal shifts are occurring. And all of these shifts really lead to weight gain, sleep problems, and mood swings. So you're not going crazy. It's really just your body trying to figure it out.
KARA: It's biochemistry. So some of you listeners know that for the past several months I've taken a break from working individually with clients. So for the rest of the format for the show today, I wanted like pick Marcie's brain. Kind of an interview type format. She has the same type of knowledge as our other nutritionist as well when it comes to hormones. So Marcie, I'm just going to ask you when you're working with a client, what would you do to eliminate or even just reduce those uncomfortable perimenopausal symptoms? The ones we've been talking about. Night sweats, sleep issues, mood swings, and weight gain.
MARCIE: Well I guess it's time to get into the good stuff. Well, when I'm working with a client, I really ask a lot of questions, just like I'm sure you did too, Kara. I mean, we have to be investigators. And in fact, I always say to my clients, now get ready, I'm going to ask you a lot of questions. And they look at me like, oh no, I’m going to be interrogated. But I truly understand these symptoms because I am fortunate enough to be in perimenopause stage of my life. So I really know about mood swings, the irregular and erratic periods, and night sweats.
So first of all, I kind of dig into their lifestyle and I'm looking for factors that may be putting their hormones out of balance. So, do they have work and family stress? What are they eating, what are they not eating, how active are they? Are they sleeping? Things like that. And there are so many different reasons involved in hormonal imbalance and including men as well. There's the toxic environment we live in today. So, men are not excluded from this hormonal imbalance as well.
KARA: And toxins are such a big part of this. We're going to talk more about that when we come back from break. You're listening to Dishing Up Nutrition. We will be right back.
BREAK
Using real food to naturally balance hormones
KARA: So Marcie, the next section that we're going to talk about is how to incorporate real food to balance some of these hormonal issues that people have in their perimenopausal years. And as a nutritional counseling company, I know that Nutritional Weight & Wellness, we always promote food first. So instead of jumping to supplements, things like that, which can be very helpful and we will address, but we always want to start with an eating plan.
MARCIE: We sure do. And whether you're in perimenopause or Menopausal, the meal plans remain the same. It's not different for each category of your life.
KARA: And that is a question that we do get quite a bit. Do I have to eat a certain way and perimenopause versus menopause?
MARCIE: Right. And we just want you to eat in balance. So it is one of those things that I always tell my clients too. We're going to start with food first because you need to get this under control before we can move on. So, if a woman is having many different symptoms, I always start her out by maybe eating every three or four hours.
And so what would that kind of look like? It would be maybe starting with a serving of grass fed meat, so maybe four ounces of grass fed meat at your meal and two to three cups of vegetables. Green leafy vegetables are going to be great. And about a tablespoon of healthy fat. And the healthy fat comes out to be about 10 to 14 grams of fat for each meal and snack as well. And what many people don't realize is that these good fats are, like we talked about earlier, they're helping to make our hormones. So what are good fats? Well, it's butter, one of them, coconut oil, olive oil, or even including some nuts, seeds. They're all building blocks for our hormones.
KARA: So, Marcie, I just started a new thing last week. I do have a cup of coffee in the morning. And in my coffee, I've always put in coconut oil in the past. And I just started, a friend of mine was telling me how she does the bulletproof where you whip it in a blender with butter and MCT oil. So, I do it the lazy way. I put in a teaspoon of coconut oil and a teaspoon of Kerrygold grass fed butter. And it's so delicious. So, that's one way that I am getting healthy fat right away in the morning. And stabilizing your blood sugar right away in the morning. It actually does help to stabilize. I don't get quite as much of a coffee spike.
So to make hormones, we need to be eating these good fats. Like Marcie said, butter, coconut oil, olive oil, Avocados, because our hormones are made from healthy fats and actually cholesterol as well. So, we do need to include some foods that have cholesterol. Otherwise our liver is going to just make more cholesterol. That's how much it's needed in the body. And then you end up somewhere you don't want to be. So things like egg yolks are okay. And actually that's a great way to balance hormones.
MARCIE: Exactly. Good information. Over and over, I still see women who are afraid to eat the fat though. And in fact, just this last week I had a client come in and she was literally floored by eating healthy fats. And she struggling to kind of wrap her mind around it, but I just told her, I eat fat all day long, you're going to be okay. Just have some faith and jump right in. So I just try to convince them to add just maybe two teaspoons of good beneficial fats at each meal and snack. And what they'll find is that they'll find their selves less irritable, they'll have less anxiety. And you know what? They’ll have less wrinkles. And that would alone sell me on eating fat, especially now. And most importantly, their cravings will go away and they will actually lose some weight.
KARA: I remember when I was seeing clients how challenging it could be for someone to change their diet. A lot of times it does not come easy. And as nutritionists we find that people need to learn a new way of eating and it doesn't necessarily happen overnight. They really need to get the information and the education and then they need to practice and practice some more until it becomes a habit. I also remember clients who were afraid to add fat because they thought, Oh, I'm going to gain weight. And one of my main goals is to lose weight. But we give them the science behind it and the information and we support them and then if they incorporate fat, maybe after a couple of weeks or a month, to their amazement and delight, they're losing weight by eating more healthy fats.
MARICE: It really, truly does amaze them. And time and time again, clients will come in or you'll get emails saying, oh my Gosh, you've changed my life. I feel great. All these great things. So this happens, this really happens. And there's another cost for hormonal imbalance that we haven't gotten to yet and that is going to be gut health. So when I talk to my clients about their gut health and how it affects their hormone balance, they’re really often surprised because that usually is not a connection for them either. So I really just explain in simple terms, I just lay it out. If your gut is unhealthy and so poor that you experience constipation, you're not able to detox those toxic estrogens, which helps you develop estrogen dominance.
KARA: Marcie, that makes a lot of sense how you described that. So basically, having a bowel movement is one way, that's one of our detoxification systems, is our intestinal track. So it's basically all those things are getting backed up, like excess hormones. They're not being released.
MARCIE: I always say if you're constipated, your toxic. So, we need to get you moving.
KARA: You had mentioned estrogen dominance. Would you mind explaining to listeners more about what that is?
What is estrogen dominance and how does it happen?
MARCIE: Yeah, let's talk about that. Estrogen dominance is an excess of harmful toxic estrogens in your body. And that's kind of the gist of it. But I think it's important to explain it a little bit further. So when women ovulate, they produce the hormone progesterone. And when women stop ovulating, they no longer produce progesterone, which is known as our calming hormone. We want that. I definitely need that. Progesterone is what helps you sleep through the night. And it also supports our good moods. So once our ovaries stop making progesterone, no other organ takes over to produce it. So what happens that progesterone production comes to a screeching halt.
KARA: So the ovaries are making progesterone when we’re menstruating and up until that perimenopause, menopausal age. So what about estrogen then? Does the estrogen production stop as well? Like you said, progesterone stops.
Balancing hormones with natural foods and low-dose supplements
MARCIE: Well, that's a great question. So, no, not really because when our ovaries stop that estrogen production, our adrenal glands will actually take over and make about 40% of what our ovaries previously made. Also on our fat cells, we produce estrogen. And unfortunately our environment produces toxic estrogens. So today most women and even some men have too much estrogen, including the harmful toxic estrogen, which is referred to as what we've been talking about, that estrogen dominance. So excess estrogen can keep us up all night. It makes us crabby, it affects our memory. And it really leads to that weight gain. And there are many, many studies that link excess estrogen to cancer and especially breast cancer. Very interesting. A big one to hear about.
My goal really is to teach women how to detox their bodies from these excess estrogens. And one of the first steps is really just to eliminate meat and dairy products with hormone residue. That's why we always talk about at Nutritional Weight & Wellness, eat the grass fed meats and things. Organic. The next step is then to eat those organic vegetables especially the cruciferous vegetables like broccoli, cauliflower, kale and Brussels sprouts. They reduce your cortisol levels by eating every three to four hours. And then of course, sleeping seven and a half to eight hours a night, which we all get.
KARA: Hopefully we are. Marcie, that was a lot of information. It's time for a break. Maybe when we come back from break we could just kind of recap that. It’s very important what you just said. You're listening to Dishing Up Nutrition. The nutritionists at Nutritional Weight & Wellness are experts at helping clients detox harmful estrogens from their bodies. If you're concerned about your hormone balance, call (651) 699-3438 and set up an appointment with the nutritionist so you can start feeling like yourself again. And don't forget to tune in next week because Carolyn and Joann will be discussing weight loss habits. We'll be right back.
BREAK
MARCIE: Welcome back to Dishing Up Nutrition. As a clinical nutritionist, working individually with many women who are experiencing estrogen, progesterone imbalance, I always recommend eating real food first. Things like vegetables and especially those cruciferous vegetables, cabbage, Brussels sprouts, kale, broccoli, you get the picture, the ones everybody loves the most. They really help to detox estrogen naturally, and I will often recommend adding two key supplements.
And the first one is Estrofactors and Estrofactors is really a wonderful supplement that promotes estrogen balance and helps to relieve hormone related symptoms. It's designed to address mild mood swings, breast tenderness, cramping, sleep issues, and those dreaded night sweats. I usually recommend taking one tablet with each meal. And then in addition to those Estrofactors, I often find natural progesterone to be really helpful in restoring that estrogen, progesterone imbalance. So Progestakey and Pro-gest are too great natural progesterone body creams. And they're both available at all seven of our office locations as well as our website.
KARA: The Pro-gest has been something that has really helped me. And I don't use it daily. But, I will use it before bed. Especially if I'm in a pattern of waking up in the middle of the night. It just really helps to get more of a restful night's sleep, less likely to kind of wake up sweaty, things like that.
MARCIE: Exactly. And like we said earlier, it is our calming hormone. So, if you are low in progesterone and you're having what Kara is experiencing, not sleeping very good or those night sweats, maybe it's something to really look into. Bringing that progesterone level up.
KARA: And it's natural progesterone. Just to kind of clarify. It's very different from a synthetic hormone. It's a natural progesterone and I would consider it a lower dose. It's 20 milligrams, which is I believe what our ovaries would produce in a day during normal functioning. So before break, you had a lot of really, really good information and I think we should just recap in case somebody missed any of it. You were talking about estrogen dominance and what leads to estrogen dominance, but then also you gave some great tips on how do we bring that level back into balance so we have more even progesterone, estrogen and not too much estrogen. So you had mentioned, stop eating products that have hormones and also the dairy products with hormones. So we really want to be looking at more organic.
MARCIE: We do, it's going to be a much better way to go because we want to get the toxins out. We don't want to keep putting more in. So, the organic cruciferous vegetables would be wonderful. And also when you're not having all those toxins in, then it'll help repair your gut. And that was one of the things as well that causes that hormonal imbalance is going to be gut problems.
KARA: That's a great point. You had mentioned constipation means you're not getting rid of excess estrogens.
MARCIE: Exactly. And so we want to clear it all out with eating balanced through our day with those non toxic foods and making it your goal. I mean if you want to feel better, we kind of have to put the work in.
Developing good habits to decrease cortisol levels
KARA: Right. And then the last part you had mentioned reducing cortisol levels. And one thing that can help that, I mean people might be thinking, Oh I have stress in my life. How do I reduce cortisol? Well, waiting too long to eat or maybe not eating the right balance of foods can cause more stress on the body. So just simply by eating in balance every three to four hours actually will help to reduce cortisol just all by itself.
MARCIE: It sure will. It's very easy.
KARA: And then as much as we can, getting that seven and a half to eight hours per night of sleep will definitely help. So, you must know that this whole program to rebalance hormones doesn't happen overnight. It can take months to change your food habits, but it's really important. You have to start somewhere.
And truth be told, the only real way to balance out those hormones is by taking a look at what we're eating and to start incorporating real food. You had mentioned a couple of key supplements. Estrofactors and the natural progesterone cream. And meeting with a nutritionist on a regular basis is really going to give you that additional support so these things will start becoming habits.
MARCIE: That's right. Because it does have to become a habit and it takes a long time, as we all know. I mean, even when we started eating better, we had to practice it. We all have to go through it. And just a bit more on this detox of excess estrogens, it will also help to reduce your cancer risk. And it takes a very thought out prescriptive plan to do that. So, step by step, you change your eating behavior, you begin to avoid some of those environmental toxins. And some of those environmental toxins, things like plastics, pesticides, once you start taking out and really nurturing yourself, your body's going to respond.
Some of the serious health risks to both women and men with some of these high level toxic estrogens have been found to be connected to increased risk for depression and anxiety, increased risks of breast and prostate cancer, an increased risk to also developing an autoimmune disease and also an increased risk of becoming overweight or obese. So rebalancing hormone levels at really any age is critical for your health and wellbeing. So don't put it off. I mean, there's a lot of things that can happen when you're in a toxic state.
KARA: I think it's interesting that you had mentioned increased risk of breast and prostate cancer and really any reproductive type cancer is more likely to occur with high levels of estrogen.
MARCIE: Exactly. So like we said earlier in the show, men are not counted out on this. This is important for them.
KARA: I know we associate estrogen as a female hormone. Men have estrogen as well and can certainly become estrogen dominant. So, I want to share an interesting story about how diet could wreak complete havoc on your hormones. So, many years ago, a woman in her early forties came in to Nutritional Weight & Wellness for an appointment. Now she had gained a lot of weight over the past 15 years and was looking for some ideas on how to lose the weight. That's why she made the appointment. So she divulged her medical history and explained how she had started gaining all this weight. Well, this led to her story about how she was having heavy periods. She had also had fibroid tumors, severe endometriosis, and then eventually a hysterectomy at the age of 32. So what could have caused this really extreme hormone imbalance?
Well, I mean, once we kinda figured out what she had been eating and drinking, it was really her diet that had created this hormone imbalance. She had been eating low fat foods, but also drinking a lot of soda. Up to 10 cans of coke per day for several years. And one 12 ounce can of coke has about 40 grams of sugar, which is 10 teaspoons, which is a lot. So 10 times 10, well that's 100 teaspoons of sugar per day. And that's not factoring in any other sugars or carbohydrates that might turn into sugars. So that might sound extreme to some of you listening. Others may actually relate to that story, but it's a true and a very real example of how a diet of just too much sugar, too many processed carbohydrates, could create that estrogen dominance. All those harmful toxic estrogens. And as we mentioned earlier, toxic estrogens are a serious health risk, and they can have devastating effects on your hormones. So, if you do feel like you could benefit from an appointment, be sure to call our office.
MARCIE: So our goal at Nutritional Weight & Wellness is to help each and every person experience better health through eating real foods.
