Natural Hormones or Hormones Naturally?
It took over 30 years, but we finally understand the errors of synthetic hormones. Unfortunately, many, many individuals were “victims” of this human experiment, dying from induced cancers, heart disease, and alzheimers disease. Medicine offered it’s collective “oops,” and on with life we go.
Now we are more careful, with more testing, and more “natural,” “bio-identical” hormones that may be safer, and offer hope for those unfortunate to have symptoms of hormone imbalance. Hot flashes, PMS, irregular cycles, infertility, to name a few. But this is not just a female problem, men have their own sets of hormones, with potential for imbalance as well.
What appears very clear, however, is that every time we have tried to outsmart nature, we have miserable results. Our improvement of women through synthetic hormones as already mentioned… our improvement of pain through COX-2 inhibitors. “We can block a normal biological function, and that will make man better,” we said. How many people died in that lesson? How about our improvement of butter in production of hydrogenated oils, AKA trans fats?
Philosophically speaking, even without the science, is it not egotistical to think we can improve on our “makers” creation (our body and its many functions), including what was made to put into it (nutrition)?
This is the debate over vitamins and medications, and I believe, the same debate over natural hormones versus hormones naturally. I will explain further…lets begin with a brief understanding of the vitamins versus medications debate.
Biochemically, the body utilizes vitamins and minerals for chemical reactions in the body, to create a chemical or to break down a chemical. For instance, serotonin, the brain chemical well know for its effects on mood (think prozac) is made naturally by converting tryptophan (a protein) with Vitamin B6 and calcium. Adding B6 to your diet, or supplementing, can increase the natural conversion into serotonin. B6 is required from the diet, as is the protein, but the conversion happens naturally, most efficiently when B6 and calcium levels are optimal. So if you truly have a serotonin deficiency and that makes you depressed, you need either the substrate, tryptophan, or the B6 or calcium.
Take on the other hand Prozac. Prozac is a SSRI, Selective Serotonin Re-uptake Inhibitor. You can see from the name that it blocks, or inhibits a normal body function. There is the difference, it blocks normal function, trying to outsmart normal natural biochemistry, whereas B6 facilitates or assists normal function. I often say, when did natural become the alternative?
So what about natural hormones? Are we attempting to work with the normal function of the human body, or we again manipulating a normal function? In my opinion, and this is opinion at this time, any hormone, natural or synthetic is more manipulating the body than working with the body, naturally. The body makes hormones, just like serotonin, from nutrients we consume in our diet. This is a rule…God’s rule, scientific fact, however you want to look at it…it is a natural law that we eat food that contains vitamins, minerals, fat and protein, and then we make hormones, neurotransmitters, and probably many chemicals we haven’t even discovered yet.
If we examine some common scenarios where hormones are being used to change function, I can try to shed some light on my opinion.
The first scenario is dysmenorrhea, or irregular cycle, often accompanied by PMS symptoms of many types. From what I have read, this is often a result of unbalanced cycling of estrogen and progesterone. And most often, a result of a dominance of estrogen.
In this situation, if there is truly an estrogen dominance, we should ask why. How does the body rid itself of estrogen. It’s not a “making it” problem, it’s a “breaking it down” problem. Where does the body break hormones down? The liver. For those chemistry majors, by hydroxylation, methylation, and conjugation, using sulfur and glucuronic acid. Do we need to think about this? Of course not, the body naturally performs these functions without thought; but why wouldn’t this process work? If we again consult our biochemistry textbooks, we can see that the process requires many things that are required in our diet…protein, antioxidants, B vitamins, and minerals. We are supposed to consume these in order to function properly. Poor blood sugar regulation, highs and lows, will also slow the glucuronidation process, one of the last steps in getting rid of this excess estrogen. Another factor, stress, will change your chemistry to produce cortisol instead of progesterone, creating a net effect of imbalance towards estrogen.
The second scenario is menopause, which results in a low level of steroid hormones (estrogen, progesterone), and the many symptoms associated with that. But, as I understand it, there is supposed to be a decrease in steroid hormones with this change in life, with the adrenal glands continuing to produce enough of these hormones to avoid osteoporosis, and the other problems associated with menopause.
So what would be a “hormones naturally” solution to these real problems?
First of all we need to provide the proper macronutrients to make steroid hormones. All these hormones plus cortisol are made from fat. With the low fat trend that appears to be losing steam now, we need to first take a look at providing proper amounts of healthy fats. Research is showing now, that consuming polyunsaturated vegetable oils, and hydrogenated oils is a major cause of heart attack and stroke. It also shows that saturated fats such as butter and coconut oil have many beneficial effects on our health. It is also apparent that we are deficient in omega three oils, such as fish, flax, and the naturally occurring fatty acids in green vegetables. So step one to better hormones, naturally, would be to start consuming these oils and tossing out all low and non fat foods, all those vegetable oils, and certainly the hydrogenated “trans fats.”
Once we have the appropriate raw materials to make hormones, naturally, we have to provide adequate coenzymes and cofactors to make them out of that raw material. This includes all our B vitamins and various minerals. Ideally consumed from whole foods such as raw and slightly cooked vegetables. Add to that a quality multivitamin multimineral supplement to fill in the gaps caused by increased pollution, decreased quality of whole foods, and the high stress life that so many lead.
Same story with the body’s ability to break down the hormones that naturally cycle in our bodies. As mentioned this is mainly a function of the liver and routes of elimination. I covered the needs the liver has for getting these hormones ready for elimination. From there we need water and fiber to properly eliminate through the bowels and kidneys.
The major “X” factor in this process is the nervous system, which regulates function of all these processes. We have to consider our sympathetic vs. parasympathetic balance, and its effect on the adrenals. The sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system makes up the autonomic, or automatic (stuff we never have to think about) nervous system. Sympathetics correspond to the stress, fight or flight mechanism within our central nervous system. Parasympathetics correspond to the relax, rest, digest, and repair components of out nervous system.
A typical scenario is that we are stressed out… from the kids, spouse, job, add in the coffee and sugar, donuts, stimulants, soda, artificial sugars and flavors, pollution, alcohol, cigarettes, and lack of sleep. Our sympathetics are being stimulated, maybe over stimulated, throughout the day, emotionally, chemically, and often physically. We may not do the things that calm this part of our nervous system, such as rest, meditate or otherwise relax, think positively, and exercise, so we never get turned off or down. The adrenals are extensions of the autonomic nervous system and respond by making more cortisol, often at the cost of steroid hormone production, particularly progesterone.
If this continues, all our hormones will get out of balance, including thyroid. We tend to gain weight because of these hormone imbalances, as well as generally feel and function poorly.
It may be much easier to take a hormone… you just pop a pill everyday. And you don’t have to make lifestyle changes, change the way you think, or alter your diet. But I truly believe that if you wish to live a healthy 100-120 years, you have to live by natural law.
Hormones are made naturally by the body, by things we are required by natural law to get into our body. We cannot break that natural law by adding what is not intended, such as hormones. We are quite efficient at messing this natural process up, primarily due to lack of this type of information. But we can get out of trouble the same way we got into it…fixing the way we eat, think, rest, and healing physical injuries where ever possible. This is the way to healthy hormones… naturally.
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