WHAT IS MENOPAUSE?  

There was a medical condition a few years ago called menopause and it required drug therapy, which coincidentally had just recently been discovered: synthetic estrogen - hormone replacement therapy. Let’s see what happened.

Menopause is a period of years in a woman's life in which gradual hormonal changes shift from the physical powers of childbearing, to a more mature condition of mental development. Unpleasant symptoms we associate with menopause are common only in a small group of women in history: American and Northern European women in the past 75 years. Outside that group, menopause is not much of a problem. It is taken more in stride as a natural phase in a woman's life, with little fanfare. The more simple the lifestyle, and the more simple the diet - the more effortless the transition through menopause.

Throughout history, simple diet has been a function of low income. The most nutritious foods are the least expensive: whole fruits and vegetables, unprocessed dairy, whole grains. As lifestyle became more complex, and incomes grew, expensive, empty, processed, nutrient-deficient foods were popularized by marketing and advertising - the foods of commerce. Less need to exercise, more focus on money, greater stress - the basic formula for the rise of the most resistant group of diseases in history: the degenerative diseases. Heart disease, cancer, arthritis, diabetes, osteoporosis - are epidemic in our society, the richest nation in history. Even 100 years ago such diseases were rare.

Back to Hormones and menopause. Hormones are chemical compounds that are players in the most sophisticated and exquisitely balanced internet in the entire body: the endocrine system. This group of glands, including the adrenals, the pituitary, the ovaries, the testes, the thyroid, and the hypothalamus are interrelated in highly complex ways. We're just beginning to understand. The endocrine system controls all other systems of the body by means of chemical messengers, who wait for an answer.

Heard of Estrogen?

Estrogen is a hormone, one of the moving parts of that endocrine system. It is a steroid (made from cholesterol) hormone, occurring in both men and women. Estrogen's functions are primarily the growth and development of sex organs and other tissues related to reproduction.

But we've begun fooling around with this highly tuned endocrine system because we've discovered a few coarse, synthetic, sledgehammer substances that resemble real estrogen, or real thyroid hormone, or real progesterone. But we really have only the vaguest notion what we're doing, because of all the overlapping interrelationships. And one new problem has developed into a brand new disease: endometrial cancer. Where was this 70 years ago?

Back to estrogen. Estrogen is made up of three separate hormones: estriol, estradiol, and estrone.

Estrogen is produced in three main places in a woman's body: the ovaries, the adrenal glands, and the fat cells.

The main purpose of estrogen is to make the uterine lining, the endometrium, ready to implant a fertilized egg in the event fertilization occurs. To aid in this function, estrogen will promote water retention, fat storage, and maturation of the female adolescent.

All the above is working if pregnancy is likely. But excess estrogen throws off the timing. Excess estrogen causes the body to prepare for embryo implantation all the time. This state of over-preparation is the cause of sluggish blood circulation, migraines, increased clotting, high stroke risk, disrupted copper/zinc ratios in brain cells/ mood swings, fibroids, and endometriosis.

Every system in the body has a feedback loop to keep balance. Estrogen has a sister hormone called progesterone, whose functions are equally important.

What is Progesterone?

Progesterone is the other primary female hormone. It is produced in the ovaries. It is the precursor for both estrogen and testosterone, as well as all other natural steroid hormones.

Progesterone's functions to maintain the endometrium in pregnancy, add new bone formation, regulate blood pressure, conversion of fat, sugar metabolism, maintain myelin (nerve insulation), and regulate estrogen production.

An egg is presented once a month from the ovaries, wrapped in a follicle. After the follicle lets go of the egg, the egg travels down the Fallopian tubes on its way to the uterus, where it awaits possible fertilization. The follicle still has an important job to do: it begins to produce progesterone, for the next two weeks. Progesterone's job is to maintain the uterine lining until one of two things happens: pregnancy or no pregnancy.

If pregnancy occurs, progesterone production is taken over by the developing lining itself - the placenta. The follicle simply can't make enough progesterone for the demand, since the uterus will expand from the size of a lemon to the size of a basketball during the next nine months.

If no pregnancy occurs, the follicle stops producing progesterone, which triggers the collapse of the blood-rich lining, which is then expelled as the woman's monthly flow.

So the interplay between these two hormones estrogen and progesterone controls the entire infrastructure of reproduction, on a daily basis, after the onset of menarche (first flow) in adolescence. Estrogen creates the lining each month; progesterone maintains it.

PROBLEM: ESTROGEN DOMINANCE

If estrogen levels get too high, progesterone can no longer keep the dynamic balance. This is exactly what happens in American women who live their whole adult lives with pathologically high levels of estrogen. Three main reasons for the high levels:

- over-refined diet
- no exercise
- external toxic sources of estrogen : xenoestrogens

Refined carbohydrates, hard fats, empty foods and too much of it all serve to raise estrogen to abnormal levels, as much as twice the normal, which are maintained for the better part of the adult lives of most American women.

Second, a lack of exercise. Dr. Ellison of Harvard University found that estrogen levels are much lower in women who eat little and perform strenuous physical work, as in locales with non-industrialized lifestyle. The opposite is true for the American woman who eats too much and gets little exercise: abnormally high estrogen levels are the direct result. Here is the obvious corollary: menopause is a much bigger deal in our industrialized countries, because the estrogen decline is so radical - the difference between pre and post estrogen levels is significant. This hormonal rollercoaster dip is very stressful, and is the real cause of the discomforts of menopause.

Third, xenoestrogens. Huh? Xeno- means foreign. So the word xenoestrogen just means estrogens from outside the body. Many external toxins have been found to have estrogenlike effects in the body. Most are petroleum derivatives. Xenoestrogens are found in plastics, computer chips, PVC, pesticides, soap, clothes, DDT and other modern manufactured goods.

What to do. We have to change every one of these problems to overcome the increasing problems women are facing in menopause. Stop eating junk you call food. Go run around the block a few times for a little exercise. Stop industry from producing chemicals that are highly toxic to everything. We’re killing ourselves softly, no not so softly anymore.

Go read over again diet and stress and stress and weight.