Hormone Free Through Menopause
October 11, 2014
Each day in the U.S., about six thousand women reach menopause. And did you know that there are more than 50 different menopause symptoms that women struggle with? Many women believe that the cause of these symptoms is low estrogen and end up on hormone replacement therapy. In reality, what’s going on with peri-menopausal and menopausal women is that they have normal to high estrogen levels and actually have a deficiency of progesterone. Tune in to this episode as we talk about why this happens and what you can do about it with hosts Darlene Kvist, JoAnn Ridout and Jennifer Barnes.
This archival episode of Dishing Up Nutrition covers many topics that we have since covered on more recent episodes. The information in this episode is still valid, but newer episodes contain more updated information:
- Podcast: How to balance hormones naturally after 40
- Podcast: Getting better sleep during menopause
- Article: Signs of estrogen dominance
- Article: Ultimate Guide to Menopause
Similar Podcast Episodes:
- Taking Charge of Menopause Symptoms with Food
- Hormone Balance After 40
- Solutions for Menopause Symptoms
Transcript:
DARLENE: Well, welcome to Dishing Up Nutrition. I’m Darlene Kvist, Licensed Nutritionist, Certified Nutrition Specialist. And this show is brought to you by Nutritional Weight and Wellness, a company providing life-changing nutrition education and nutrition therapy. You know today, we want to talk about how using nutrition can help women get through perimenopause and menopause and not need hormone replacement therapy. You know, daily, a lot of women join that menopause group.
JOANN: Yep.
DARLENE: Interestingly, about 6,000 U.S. women reach menopause each day. That's a lot of women. That's over 2 million women per year.
JOANN: Wow.
DARLENE: Big, that's huge. Isn't it?
JOANN: That’s huge.
DARLENE: So many women dread this phase of their life. I've heard that a lot of times. And, but I prefer to think of this period in life the same as the famous anthropologist did, Margaret Mead. She wanted women to experience what she called menopausal zest, you know, full of energy, confidence, productivity. And as an anthropologist, she saw that happening in many traditional cultures, but not so much in the U.S. Joining me today is Joann Ridout, a Licensed and Registered Dietitian, a grandmother of a new baby girl. How old?
JOANN: Yes. Eight days.
DARLENE: Eight days. Now…
JOANN: Pretty exciting.
DARLENE: Not only is grandma, but she's also experienced menopause so she can speak to it from both a personal point of view and also from a professional point of view.
JOANN: Yes.
DARLENE: Nice information to have.
JOANN: Yes, it is.
DARLENE: You can relate.
JOANN: I can relate. So we thought today let's open up the phone lines and let women ask their questions about menopause. Our studio number is 651-641-1071. There are over 50 different menopause symptoms. We want to answer your personal questions.
DARLENE: And we want to let people know that we might be having a little trouble with the phone lines this morning.
JOANN: We're not sure.
DARLENE: We’re not sure we can take callers, but we plan to.
JOANN: We’re trying.
DARLENE: So also joining us today is Jennifer Barnes, who is also a Licensed Nutritionist. And she sees clients in our St. Paul office. Now, you know, Jennifer may be not be old enough to have have experienced menopause because you know, she's a mom of two babies; well, not babies now. They're how old again?
JENNIFER: They're still my babies; two and four.
DARLENE: Well, they're still little. But really Jennifer understands the science of menopause and other hormonal issues besides menopause; lots of hormonal issues.
JENNIFER: Yes; so many women dealing with hormone imbalances. So, so thank you,
Dar. You know, many women really believe that during menopause and perimenopause, it's our estrogen that is really the problem. The estrogen levels plummet, but that's not really what's happening.
DARLENE: That's the first big one right there. Isn't it, Jennifer?
JENNIFER: Absolutely; absolutely. So the first hormonal change that happens is a gradual decline in our levels of progesterone while estrogen typically stays in the normal range or your levels of estrogen might even go up.
DARLENE: I think sometimes don't you that a lot of women, they haven't even heard of the word progesterone before?
JENNIFER: It's much less common than what we hear about estrogen.
JOANN: That’s true. And this is often new information, but this is the science: progesterone and estrogen are meant to counterbalance each other throughout the menstrual cycle. But when progesterone levels drop, estrogen levels rise because there's not enough progesterone to counterbalance the estrogen.
DARLENE: You know, this is what happened: we've kind of put an invisible lid and that invisible lid has been lifted in, and so then we have an excess of estrogen. And the invisible lid is actually progesterone. And when that is lifted, we often end up with what is called estrogen dominance, and estrogen dominance can lead to many menopause symptoms. Now, if we're saying estrogen and progesterone so many times you can't stand it, we didn't know how else to explain this.
JOANN: That's true.
JENNIFER: Bear with us please. But before we get into the symptoms, let's look at the science of hormone balance. So women, when, when we ovulate, our ovaries produce progesterone, and when we start into perimenopause, we often don't ovulate each month. So much less progesterone is produced. Perimenopause for women can sometimes start in their late thirties. I think that's really important to be aware of. And, and that can last for several, several years. And then as we get closer to menopause, we ovulate fewer and fewer times which results in fewer and fewer progesterone being produced.
DARLENE: So maybe let's Jennifer, let's talk a little bit more about that, you know, just because you've had clients in their thirties, right?
JENNIFER: Absolutely. Yeah.
DARLENE: That are like into perimenopause.
JENNIFER: Yes.
DARLENE: And how do, how do we know that they're into perimenopause?
JENNIFER: You know, the first, the first thing that I notice is those symptoms of a little light anxiety starting to come on, some sleep problems oftentimes. Maybe they're just feeling a little bit on edge a little bit, not, not calm. And that is, I mean, that's the first sign of that progesterone starting to drop.
DARLENE: And sometimes they have, you know, rather than having a 28 day cycle…
JOANN: It might get up to 35 days.
DARLENE: Yeah. So those are just kind of signs of…
JOANN: But our ovaries, our adrenal gland and fat cells still continue to make estrogen. So then we have excess estrogen and a very big deficiency of progesterone.
DARLENE: And you know, this is really totally opposite of what we were told before the science of hormones was discovered. And I think more and more science is coming out about this.
JENNIFER: And just as a side note, when women take birth control pills, they also typically stop ovulation. So again, they're stopping that production of progesterone.
DARLENE: I don't think a lot of women understand that one right now.
JENNIFER: No, I don't think doctors explain that when that, when they start them on, on the pill. So you're not ovulating, so you're not producing that progesterone. So, you know, women in their twenties might have the same symptoms of low progesterone. The mood swings, even low libido, bloating, breast tenderness, again, because they're having estrogen dominance and that low progesterone. And I've actually been seeing a lot of clients lately coming in on the hormonal IUDs with a similar problem. It also is going to prevent that ovulation and do that same thing; prevent the production of progesterone. So you can still have that same imbalance with the, even that small amount of progestin from the IUD.
DARLENE: Yes. You know, and when you have low progesterone and high estrogen, really the first thing to go is the sex drive. And this happens often when women are on birth control pills. And as you said on the, the IUD, this has progesterone in it. And it happens at perimenopause and, you know, women, they blame it on stress or they blame it on lack of sleep. They're having little kids and maybe all those could be some of the reasons. But really biochemically, it is too much estrogen and too little progesterone; simple. Sometimes it's a simple solution to these problems.
JOANN: That's right. And so let's look at other symptoms of estrogen excess, or estrogen dominance, and a deficiency of progesterone. Many clients complain of breast tenderness, breast swelling, as well as being bloated.
DARLENE: You know, and I bet women that are listening this morning say, oh, “That's me. That's me. That’s me.”
JENNIFER: Many women also experience mood swings, irritability, and even depression. And what is causing these uncomfortable symptoms? Again, it's, it's that too much estrogen and not enough progesterone. And because of the lack of understanding, women often end up on antidepressants, or they might be given a prescription for more estrogen, which can really make your symptoms worse.
DARLENE: We see this all the time, don't we; in clients that come into our office? It's just amazing. Sometimes I'm really surprised that people are still being put on like things like, you know, Premarin, which is an estrogen medication. And it's really surprising and it's a synthetic estrogen. It isn't, you know, it actually comes from horse urine is the source of it. So it's an, you know, it's, it's interesting that people are still using, being put on these medications.
JOANN: Yeah, we see that all the time.
DARLENE: So another symptom of decreased progesterone and estrogen dominance is weight gain, particularly around the middle. So then you'd go, huh? Why would estrogen excess cause women to gain weight?
JENNIFER: Well, let's look again at the science of menopause. At perimenopause and menopause, we tend to focus on the ovaries, but we have many other hormone producing organs, including the thyroid gland. And we know thyroid problems are very common during menopause and perimenopause years.
DARLENE: You know, and I think that's also a new piece of information that people have no idea that, you know, other hormones are produced in other glands. So…
JOANN: Right. So, so what are some of the typical symptoms of low thyroid function? It could be low energy, sleep problems, mental confusion, often weight gain, thyroid problems, especially hypothyroidism is often intertwined with menopause. So Dr. John Lee: he's the author of What Your Doctor May Not Tell You About Menopause said, “There appears to be a cause and effect relationship between hypothyroidism and estrogen dominance.” And that's interesting. We see how many clients do you think we see every week with thyroid problems?
JOANN: Many, many.
DARLENE: It's huge now. I would say 40-50% of the people are, are having thyroid problems or, or women particularly. So, so, so is it time to take a break?
JOANN: So you’re listening to Dishing Up Nutrition. On September 13th, Lea and Dar answered questions on “Ask the Nutritionist” show but because of the volume of the calls, they could not get to all the questions. So we thought we would answer some today. Question number one was “What are some healthy snacks for someone who cannot eat dairy?”
JENNIFER: Well, one idea would be to take some nitrate-free deli meat, maybe some turkey, wrap it around some avocado slices and have a handful of some carrot slices on the side.
JOANN: Or sometimes I make a crockpot full of chicken legs and have it with a half an apple and one tablespoon of almond butter.
DARLENE: So if people are wanting to call in, our number, and hopefully we can take callers. It's 651-641-1071.
BREAK
DARLENE: Well, welcome back to Dishing Up Nutrition. There was another question that we didn't get a chance to answer before. “What helps with restless legs?” And we, you know, we really have many clients with restless leg syndrome. And one of my first recommendations is eat a bedtime snack with sufficient good fats, such as, you know, a few blueberries and heavy cream. And then I usually add 400 to 600 milligrams of magnesium. And for many people that takes care of restless legs.
JOANN: That took care of my restless leg.
DARLENE: Okay, good.
JOANN: I used to have that.
DARLENE: Okay.
JENNIFER: But sometimes clients needed to get their ferritin levels checked. So it's, that's a measure of your iron stores. Low levels of iron can, can lead to restless leg. So your ferritin should be above 40, but between 60 and 70 is ideal. And there's more ideas to, to handle that, but let's get back to the menopausal topic today.
DARLENE: Yes. Okay. Should we go ahead and take a caller?
JOANN: We have Sandra on the line? She has a question.
DARLENE: All right.
JOANN: Good morning Sandra. Do you have a question?
CALLER: Hi. Yes. I have a question about the perimenopause about what you were talking about, the symptoms and everything, and that really hit home is I'm 44 and I have those symptoms. And I was curious, the only issue is, is, my older sister passed away last year from breast cancer. My other sister is currently surviving breast cancer. So I'm just very, you know, when you said about the low estrogen and theirs were estrogen driven cancer.
DARLENE: Right.
CALLER: So and I buy your guy’s supplements, the Nutrikey, which I love them. What would be a good supplement that's safe for me to take so I don't have these issues of the anxiety and the sleeplessness and…
DARLENE: Well, I think, you know, a natural progesterone cream, like Pro-Gest is perfectly safe because it's not an estrogen, you know, it's a progesterone. And that's what you're deficient in. And so we will have people take like a, a quarter of a teaspoon and rub it in any thin skin part of your body, like over your thyroid or on your wrists or places like that. And it doesn't take very much. It just takes like a quarter of a teaspoon at bedtime. You don't want too much. And that's about the right dosage because our ovaries, typically, if we're ovulating, we make 20 milligrams. And that's just is what is in a quarter of a teaspoon of the progesterone cream: 20 milligrams. You know, I know that some practitioners recommend 200. Well, we don't. We recommend 20. And that usually takes care of the symptoms. And, you know, also, you know, also make sure that you're taking magnesium and some of those things, and you're probably already doing that.
CALLER: Yes.
DARLENE: That make sense?
CALLER: Yes. Yes. And is this on your website that I can order this?
DARLENE: Sure. Yeah. And it's called Pro-Gest. And it's, yep. Okay.
CALLER: Thank you so much.
DARLENE: Yes. Thanks for the call this morning. And Joann, I think we had another caller, right?
JOANN: Yes. We had another caller that had a question about cholesterol.
DARLENE: Yes.
JOANN: And the association with cholesterol and menopause.
DARLENE: Okay. And then I think she wanted to know, obviously to me, what she was experiencing was probably higher cholesterol and that's not uncommon is it, in menopause?
JOANN: No, very common.
JENNIFER: It’s more of a natural change in cholesterol.
DARLENE: And one of the things that we have to think about is hormones are made from cholesterol.
JOANN: Yes.
DARLENE: So it's like our body, it knows what it should do. It tries to make more hormones and up goes our cholesterol number, especially our LDL cholesterol. But I find that after people get into menopause, it usually comes down. Now there's some other interesting research that shows that women who have cholesterol numbers between 200 and 240, I believe was the right number, live the longest.
JENNIFER: Yes.
DARLENE: Isn’t that interesting.
JOANN: That's great.
DARLENE: So, you know, I think we don't have to be afraid of cholesterol, unless of course we're eating a lot of trans fats and sugars because that really brings up the bad cholesterol more than anything. And we don't want, I mean, of course we, we wanted in a normal kind of okay range, but, so it depends on what people are eating.
JOANN: Yes.
DARLENE: And I think this lady also had another question about, about vaginal dryness?
JOANN: Vaginal dryness. Yeah.
DARLENE: Okay. Well, I mean, I can, I don't have to keep talking to you guys.
JOANN: The progesterone cream is also very helpful for that.
DARLENE: Yes. Progesterone cream is very helpful. Now there's a couple of other things that I often recommend to women is make sure that you're taking a fatty acid called GLA and lots of it, like six a day. Cause that hydrates, that oil hydrates the tissue. And vitamin E is very effective also. So we have to keep those tissues hydrated so that you don't have vaginal dryness and it and breakdown of the tissue.
JOANN: Right; and along with a good fat intake.
DARLENE: Yeah. I think that's a good point.
JOANN: Yep; very good.
DARLENE: So should we get back to what we were talking about before? Or do you want to…? Okay, let's go back to what we were talking about and then come back and take some more callers.
JENNIFER: Okay. So before the break, we were talking about the relationship between hypothyroidism, so low thyroid and estrogen dominance. So let's, let's look a little bit about the, the science of that connection. When estrogen is not counterbalanced with progesterone, it can actually block the action of thyroid hormone.
DARLENE: And that is really new information for most people. That was even new information for me.
JENNIFER: You're always learning.
DARLENE: That's true.
JENNIFER: So, so you may have a perfectly normal thyroid producing normal amount of, of thyroid hormone. But with this high estrogen, the estrogen comes in and blocks those cell receptors for, for your thyroid hormone. So it can't get into the cell. And when that happens along comes the weight gain, fatigue, that cold hands and feet, cold tolerance.
DARLENE: Yes; things that we always associate with thyroid.
JOANN: Yes.
DARLENE: But we, again, we have people go to their doctor and they test and it's normal.
JOANN: They say it’s fine.
DARLENE: But it's not getting into the cells.
JOANN: Absolutely.
JENNIFER: Right.
JOANN: So estrogen causes food, especially the process carbs, to be stored as fat, while the thyroid hormone helps food to be turned into energy and build a good metabolism. So again, thyroid problems for many women is intertwined with menopause. If your cells are not receiving the appropriate amount of thyroid hormone, because the cell receptors have been blocked by excess estrogen, then often weight gain occurs.
DARLENE: And we know that over a quarter, 25% of women in or near perimenopause have hypothyroidism, at least this. I really think this is, this is what research shows. But I think just working with clients, it's more like 40%.
JOANN: I think it's higher.
DARLENE: And they're on medication. Usually it's a T4 medication, but frequently these women find themselves still gaining weight even after being prescribed thyroid medication. So again, the question is, why is the medication not correcting the metabolism problem?
JENNIFER: Well, if your body has an excess of estrogen and a deficiency of progesterone, remember how we said that estrogen can block that thyroid hormone from getting into our cell? And then no fat burning can occur.
DARLENE: So Joann, do think we could take another caller?
JOANN: Yeah, I think we should.
DARLENE: I think maybe just to give people a chance to, oh, are we break time? Oh, okay.
JOANN: Right after break. So you're listening to Dishing Up Nutrition. Another question a listener had is “What should I look for in determining if I am buying a good multivitamin?” And that's a really good question. But one thing to look for is to see if it contains any dyes or colors. Any food dye such as red number 40 is not healthy and should not be in a multivitamin.
JENNIFER: No, you don't want to be taken in any chemicals with all those nutrients. Another thing you can do is take a look at the, the minerals in the multivitamin. So calcium, for example, if you see calcium carbonate or magnesium oxide, that's a sign that that's a, they're using low quality minerals that aren't going to be absorbed very well. So it's best to stay away from something like that. And questions, please call 651-641-1071.
BREAK
DARLENE: Well, welcome back to Dishing Up Nutrition. So, you know, over the past several weeks, we have been updating our menopause class. In recent years. There's been so much additional research that what was in the past, a three hour class, is now is a four hour class. So we have decided to offer this class as a seminar. And we will teach the first two hours then have a nice organic, balanced light lunch. And then finish up with one and a half hours. And then we'll have time for personal questions at the end. So I will be team teaching the first Menopause Seminar on December 6th at the Maple Grove office. And so to learn more and to sign up, call 651-699-3438. So we have space for about 30 people, I think, at the Maple Grove office. So I would say if you're interested in this topic and need some answers, sign up quickly. So I'm not coming out of retirement. I'm just doing this on top of everything. And besides, continuing education credits will be offered. So should we take some callers and find out what's what kind of questions they have?
JOANN: Lots of callers today.
DARLENE: Okay. That sounds great.
JOANN: Is this Mary on the line? You have a question about low estrogen?
CALLER: Yes I did. No thank you ladies. I've been listening to you for several years now and, it's just been great.
DARLENE: Thank you.
CALLER: I changed everything about the way I eat and cook and all that.
DARLENE: Super.
CALLER: First thing: I, I went off trans fat and then now I'm gluten free, dairy free. I cook at home.
DARLENE: And do you feel good?
CALLER: I, well, I did.
DARLENE: Okay.
CALLER: I do. And I'm sure pretty much sugar-free almost completely. Now I do blueberries, but I had tested very low estrogen when I went in with perimenopause symptoms, so I've got on the pill and that was many, many years ago. Well, I don't know, 8, 7, 8 years ago. After listening to you guys for a year and a half, and I had changed everything about how I ate and following everything, I decided I was going to get off of it. So I did. And everything came rushing back. I was all thinking I had, I was safe. It all came rushing back until then I went in to get my hormones tested again. And I, I decided, you know, if I do it again, I'm going to go into natural hormones. And I tested very low again; estrogen. I did try the Pro-Gest cream first and even some estrogen gel first and nothing really seemed to help. I wasn't sleeping well cause I was waking up so many times. So I…
DARLENE: You know, what you're experiencing, Mary is not uncommon. We hear this story a lot of times that the, after you've been on an estrogen replacement medication and you try to go off of it, people always have more symptoms. This is not uncommon. You know, if, if you had gone through menopause kind of naturally without that, that medication, you would have slowly weaned down and you would have had less and less and less, and then your body would have been adjusted to it. And you would probably not have the symptoms that you're having now. So how do you, you know, you go back and say, okay, how do I manage to get off of this medication? Because you know, if you look at the research, you know that it is not probably healthy to be on it for a long period of time.
CALLER: Right.
DARLENE: So then what do you do? What I usually recommend is to go back and work really closely with your doctor in gradually reduce the amount that you're taking. You know, maybe for three months you go at certain level and then you drop it down just very slowly and you drop it down and drop it down, while you also make sure that you're using enough of the progesterone so that you can kind of counterbalance some of that. Does that make, I mean that's, and that has worked.
CALLER: I did actually try to do that, but maybe I still went too fast; a hundred milligrams of progesterone pills. So I should have enough progesterone.
DARLENE: Well, you might do better with, you might do better, you might do actually better with the cream because sometimes…
CALLER: It didn’t help at all.
DARLENE: Well, maybe we're not using enough, you know, that's the other thing. Sometimes we have to, I mean, Joann, you said…
JOANN: I use it twice a day.
DARLENE: Yeah. She uses a quarter of a teaspoon.
JOANN: Quarter of a teaspoon twice a day.
CALLER: Well, okay.
DARLENE: So it, you know, so maybe come in for an appointment because we, we help people kind of titrate down or at least kind of give you the directions to work with your doctor, so you know how to do it and you, yes. You have to do it slowly. But you can, I mean, it can happen.
CALLER: I dropped it down an eighth of a patch a month at a time. And so I got down into a half and I couldn't stand it anymore. So it was over like four months they went to half.
DARLENE: Yeah. That may have been too fast.
CALLER: Okay.
DARLENE: I mean, really, I'm thinking three months at a time. You have to really go gradually. So, okay? But come in and see one of us.
CALLER: I may do that.
DARLENE: Okay. Sounds good. Joann would be great, cause you know, she's got this down.
JOANN: I do.
DARLENE: Okay. Thanks for the call, Mary.
CALLER: Okay. Thanks. Bye-bye.
DARLENE: I mean, this is the kind of stuff that a lot of people are going through, so yeah.
JOANN: Very common.
DARLENE: So should we take another caller? Sure.
JOANN: Is this Linda on the line? You have a question?
LINDA: Yes, it is.
DARLENE: Hi there.
CALLER: Hi. The reason that I'm calling is I'm 57 years old and I've had hot flashes for at least 10 years. And at different times I’ve used the estrogen patch and it takes care of the hot flashes. I most recently have stayed off them for the last probably six months. And like your previous caller, you know, I've been kind of on and off at different intervals, but I don't want it taking it all the time. But then about six months ago I was listening to you and, and my thyroid I've always felt that maybe somewhat of an issue. I requested a full thyroid panel. And my levels continue to go up slowly, and, the other thing when they tested the antibodies and I can't recall the test completely, but a normal range would be 35 and mine was 355. And so, I just was at the doctor yesterday. They retested. They are doing another full thyroid panel to determine whether I should go on Synthroid or one of their replacements.
DARLENE: So, Linda, one of the things that's happening is that you're, you're well, you've got probably a Hashimoto's disease.
CALLER: That's what I thought it was indicative of that.
DARLENE: Yeah. Yeah. So I think one of the first steps to do is you actually probably have too much toxic estrogens in your system. So what's happening is the thyroid hormone that you're making is not getting in to the cells and it's messing up all your other hormones. And that's probably, it could relate to having more hot flashes. And, or it's who knows, but guys, I, you know, I, I really think it makes sense to come in and see one of us and sit down and help you get through. There are certain foods that you probably are sensitive too. We, we see that people that have, that have high antibodies often are gluten sensitive and sometimes dairy sensitive.
JOANN: Yes.
CALLER: Okay.
DARLENE: So I guess, you know, come in and sit down with one of us and let's see if we can figure out how to, how to get your, your hormone system rebalanced.
JOANN: Yes.
CALLER: And then, can I just have one more question. If I go on the hormone replacement or the Synthroid, well that then, I realize I need to do more than just that, but does that somehow affect the hot flashes?
DARLENE: It might make them worse.
CALLER: Will it make it, really? Okay.
DARLENE: It could; very easily. And so, you know, I, I think, I think you have to walk very cautiously with that, and get the rest of your body working right before you... I know that's what I think, unless, you know, unless your numbers are way off. I, you know, it would be better to sit down with you.
CALLER: Okay, great. Thank you. Alrighty.
DARLENE: Okay, thanks for the call. I mean, interesting, interesting callers this morning.
JOANN: Yeah.
DARLENE: Yes. That's very good. So should we get back to what we were talking about? I've kind of lost track of where we are.
JENNIFER: Okay.
JOANN: Okay.
DARLENE: We were talking about thyroid.
JOANN: We were talking about thyroid actually in our script as well. So there's more to this story about thyroid, excess estrogen and menopausal symptoms. So this is what a lot of our callers are asking about too. So remember at least one quarter of women in or near menopause have hypothyroidism. And it is not uncommon for women to suffer with thyroid problems also have depression.
DARLENE: Yes.
JOANN: And there may be many by different biochemical reasons, but one of the causes is excess estrogen, not allowing the thyroid hormone to get into the cell.
JENNIFER: And I'm sure we all have many clients come in, you know, the first appointment and they're really distressed about low energy. They're gaining weight. They're, they're feeling, they're feeling depressed, but they're oftentimes already on thyroid medication. It didn't fix their problem though. They're not feeling like themselves.
DARLENE: We hear that a lot. “I'm just not feeling like myself.”
JOANN: Yeah.
JENNIFER: So, so what's going on then? Well, again, when we have excess estrogen, often the thyroid hormone, whether it's produced in the thyroid gland, or maybe you're taking the medication, it can't get into the body or the brain cells.
DARLENE: And that's exactly what we were talking about with last caller, you know, possibly it would work. Possibly it wouldn't. So hypothyroid and depression are related on many levels. You know, excess estrogen that blocks the uptake of the thyroid is just one reason. Eliminating or decreasing the level of toxic estrogen. So, you know, it's kind of like we got two different, well, at least a couple of different kinds of estrogens in our body. And that's why it's so hard to understand. It's such a difficult concept to understand this hormone. And you know, the toxic level of estrogen may be one of the keys to, if you could get rid of it, you might probably, we find that people have more energy, they start losing weight and their moods get better because they have better energy.
JOANN: That's right. And in the past we were told to get rid of menopausal symptoms, we needed more estrogen. But again, that recommendation was not based on scientific research. And in July 20th, 2002, that huge women's health initiative study was actually stopped because the data showed that the risks of long-term Prempro use clearly outweighed any benefit. So there were more detrimental effects. Women on the synthetic hormone combination were found to have more breast cancers, heart attacks, strokes, and blood clots than those who were on no hormone replacement.
And that’s what we were talking about. Prempro is Premarin, this artificial estrogens, things like that. So I, it is break time right?
JENNIFER: Break time; once again.
DARLENE: Kind of hard to keep up with all this, isn’t it?
JOANN: It is. Okay. So you are listening to Dishing Up Nutrition. Research shows that by the age of 35, the typical woman is already deficient in progesterone.
JENNIFER: So signs of progesterone deficiency are decreased sex drive, low energy, trouble sleeping, mood swings, hot flashes, and night sweats. And to put your hormones back in balance, we recommend the, we all recommend the natural topical cream we mentioned earlier in the show called Pro-Gest. It's the same cream that Dr. Christiane Northrup, that she's author of The Wisdom of Menopause, recommends for all her clients.
DARLENE: And we'll be back in a minute.
BREAK
DARLENE: Well, welcome back to Dishing Up Nutrition. Just around the corner is Halloween. And then it's Thanksgiving, Christmas parties all through December. And we top it off with New Year's parties and with a Super Bowl; all potential weight gaining opportunities. It sends fear among many. And we hear this all the time.
JOANN: We do.
DARLENE: So, you know, maybe sign up for the Nutrition for Weight Loss program. It starts the week of October 27th. And really if you follow the program, you can probably be six to 10 pounds less by Christmas, but you're going to be feeling great. You won't be in that carb fog, you know, think about it. It's a great gift for yourself. So to sign up, call 651-699-3438, or you can go online at weightandwellness.com. And we've had a few callers haven’t we?
JOANN: We have.
DARLENE: So shall we take a couple of callers?
JOANN: Yes.
DARLENE: That sounds great.
JOANN: Is this Crystal?
DARLENE: Good morning, Crystal.
JOANN: Good morning.
DARLENE: Good morning.
JOANN: Crystal.
CALLER: Hello?
DARLENE: Hello there. You have, you have a question for us today?
CALLER: Yeah, I just recently experienced a lot of eczema in my hairline, and I’m wondering, and scalp, and wondering if that has anything to do with menopause or maybe it's just stress. I've never had eczema before.
DARLENE: Okay. Who wants to tackle this one? Anyone?
JOANN: Sure. Actually eczema could be a sign of a food sensitivity.
DARLENE: Right.
JOANN: Often people are sensitive to either dairy or to gluten and then it can play out as eczema.
DARLENE: And sometimes you may not have been sensitive to these foods ever in your life before, but if you've been under a lot of stress or something like that, or, you know, who knows, that can kind of change how your immune system is working and suddenly you can start to be sensitive to it. So we would say cut those out for six weeks and see if it doesn't clear up.
CALLER: Cause I'm traveling, traveling. Did you say cut out gluten?
DARLENE: Cut out gluten and cut out dairy products. And just see, I mean, lots of times it just goes away then.
CALLER: Well thank you.
DARLENE: Okay. Thank you very much for the call. So let's take another caller, Joann.
JOANN: Good morning, Vicky, do you have a question about estrogen cream? Or is it Therese?
DARLENE: Good morning.
JOANN: Vicky?
DARLENE: Maybe try a different line, Joann.
JOANN: I'll try Julie on number five. Are you…?
DARLENE: Good morning, Julie. Well, maybe our callers didn't stay with.
CALLER: Hello?
JOANN: Hello. Hello? Yeah, this is Therese.
DARLENE: Yes. Oh, good. You had a question for us today.
CALLER: Yeah, I have been on Synthroid for almost 20 years. That's when my son was born and I've always had, and especially, it gets worse as I get older, really poor circulation. My hands get cold really easily. Is there anything you would recommend?
DARLENE: Go ahead.
JENNIFER: Well, Therese, first thing I would do is actually make sure you you've gotten a full thyroid panel done, including looking at the possibility of any antibodies. You know, just the, the, the fact that that came on after you had your baby, I mean, that's a very common time as those hormone shifts to have your immune system kind of change as well. So that will help kind of guide us in the best way to handle the thyroid. What else? Any…?
DARLENE: Well, I think…go ahead.
CALLER: When they test my thyroid annually, that's not a full thyroid panel?
DARLENE: No, it's just, they’re only are doing the TSH.
CALLER: Okay.
DARLENE: So, you know, you want a whole panel, and that includes the antibodies.
JENNIFER: There's two, two antibody tests to ask for.
DARLENE: And then, you know, depending on what the answers are on those tests, you know, many different things could be going on. I mean, you might have a food sensitivity that's causing some of that, or you may have too much estrogen in the, the thyroid hormone that you're taking is not getting in and not working really properly for you. And so lots of times we have to help people detox those more toxic estrogens out of their body. And that, we detox estrogens through our liver basically. So we have to support our liver so that we can get rid of some of those. So there's lots of different answers. I, you know, I, again, I would say, come in and sit down with one of the nutritionists and see if we can get to the bottom of this so that you can get your system working better because it's only going to get worse as you get older.
DARLENE: Make sense?
CALLER: Yup.
DARLENE: Okay. All right. So let's go back to kind of talking a little bit more about the science of hormones. And that make sense?
JENNIFER: Yes. Yep. So, most women in perimenopause and menopause have excess estrogen. So it's condition called estrogen dominance, but, but why? Why do so many women in the U.S. have this problem of estrogen dominance?
DARLENE: You know, in our menopause class, we have a PowerPoint slide that shows that when we have excess fat cells, we also make excess estrogens. And we know that 68% of the population is overweight. And if we lose weight, we can reduce those toxic estrogens.
JOANN: That's right. And we also know when we eat vegetables, especially those veggies like broccoli, kale, spinach, cauliflower, cabbage, beet greens, our bodies naturally get rid of the excess estrogens.
JENNIFER: I often recommend clients do a protein shake. It's real simple, delicious, portable protein shake with a scoop of whey protein, a scoop of our Dynamic Greens, which is just a green antioxidant powder with lots of fruits and vegetables. And then add a quarter cup of some canned coconut milk and some water. So that'll help detox excess estrogens. And it's just a great tasting shake as well.
DARLENE: Simple. Now we also sometimes recommend a special supplement that is called EstroFactors to help the liver detox these excess estrogens. And it works great for people.
JOANN: It does. We also use support using the natural progesterone cream. It's called Pro-Gest. We talked about it earlier. And this counterbalances the decline of progesterone and the overproduction of estrogen.
DARLENE: So thank you for listening today and thank you, Jennifer and Joann.
JOANN: And thank you, Dar.
DARLENE: Have a great day.
JENNIFER: Good to be here.
