The Age of Estrogenic Overdrive

[Guest guest]

The Age of Estrogenic Overdrive

From The Book RDA: Rats, Drugs and Assumptions

 

We live in an age of Estrogen overdrive

 

 

There are two points that will be focused on in this article:

 

1. To show how xenoestrogens---chemicals that have estrogen-like

effects---are causing a growing number of ecodis-eases and

ecodiseases, including the near-epidemic increase in cancer of the

breast and prostate.

 

2. To shed some light on the prevailing controversy concerning

the clinical value of synthetic estrogens for prevention of heart

disease and osteoporosis in women.

 

Nature's Prescription For Preserving The Human Species

 

Hormones are Nature's molecular messengers. To save the human

species from extinction, Nature created a rather simple design:

 

It prepares the uterus for pregnancy each month during the entire

reproductive life of the women. Estrogen peals during the first half

of each menstrual cycle to prepare the soil of the uterus for

conception. If conception occurs, estrogen peaks further, but in

this situation, estrogen overload is balanced with a progesterone

peak to protect the beginning of life for the baby from unbalanced

estrogen drive. As the fertilized egg develops into an embryo and

beyond, there is an outpouring of estrogens from the placenta that

also increase its output of progesterone, again to keep the

estrogens under surveillance.

 

Times have changed. There are simply enough of us on the planet

now. The way we live our lives has changed rapidly, but evolution

does not work that fast.

 

The result: A fundamental chemical conflict between the needs

of 21st century women and their hormonal clocks.

 

Each month, an estrogen peak goes unbalanced by progesterone. What

are the chemical consequences of estrogen overdrive?

 

Endometriosis---the growth outside the uterus of misplaced cells

that normally line the uterine cavity. It is a painful, often

disabling disorder that can lead to infertility.

 

Endometriosis rarely occurs, if ever, in tribal cultures removed

from the rush of modern life.

 

Estrogens and Molecular Mating

 

In biologic molecular pathways, molecules compete for " receptor-

mates " as aggressively as animals do in the animal kingdom.

 

Such competition among molecules is based upon their structural

similarities.

 

This, however, does not always hold, and many synthetic chemicals

not belonging to the family of human hormones actively compete for

their receptors.

 

This natural phenomenon is well illustrated by the example of

competition for receptors among estrogens and estrogen mimics.

 

Following is an incomplete list of estrogen mimics.

 

Ingredients in plastics

 

Pesticides such as DDT and heptachlor

Plastic (polycarbonates) breakdown products

PAHs (polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons)

Petroleum byproducts

Polystyrene

Marihuana compounds such as tetradyfrocaanabinol

Plant estrogens such as coumestrol, equol and zearalenone

Combustion byproducts

Electromagnetic fields that boost the concentration f estrogens

in blood.

 

Exercise, Enzymes and Breast Cancer Risk

 

The body metabolizes its main natural estrogen called estradiol

in several ways.

 

Two enzyme systems compete for an opportunity to alter the

structure of estradiol molecules, but they do so at two

different locations, the 2-carbon and 16-carbon regions.

 

The end-products of such reactions are quite different in their

biologic roles.

 

For instance, insertion of a hydroxyl radical at the 2-carbon

site produces an innocent molecule while that at the 16-carbon

location produces a genotoxic and breast cancer-promoting molecule.

 

Regular and vigorous exercise upregulates conversion at the 2-

carbon site and down-regulates that at the 16-carbon location, both

changes offering protection against breast cancer.

 

Breast Cancer, Estrogens and Xenoestrogens

 

Estrogens drive the rate of proliferation of mammary gland

cells. This explains the breast fullness and soreness experienced by

many women during menstrual cycles---and less frequently during

ovulation---when estrogen levels surge.

 

This seems to be the principal mechanisms by which estrogen therapy

increases the risk of breast cancer.

 

Since 1940, the incidence of breast cancer has increased in the

United States and in Europe. Nearly 35 years ago during my

residency, I remember that we saw a very unusual case of breast

cancer---unusual because the tumor occurred in a 28 year-old woman.

Now we see young women, ages 21, or 26, or 29, with breast cancer,

and this is no longer unusual.

 

Two million to six million women in the United States and Europe

were prescribed DES--a synthetic estrogen--to prevent miscarriages

between 1948-1971.

 

Melatonin and Estrogenic Overdrive

 

Melatonin is the primary hormone of the Pineal gland located in

the center of the brain. It is mainly produced during nighttime

darkness. Light and electromagnetics fields suppress melatonin

production.

 

Melatonin is a powerful antioxidant. Among its other important

roles is reduction of estrogen production in the body, and probably

reduction in the number of estrogen receptors.

 

Studies of shown that the protective, estrogen reducing effects

of melatonin are significantly reduced by excessive exposure to

light (including late night TV viewing), electromagnetic fields,

chemical pollutants such as pesticides and fungicides, and many

commonly prescribed drugs, such as beta blockers for heart disease,

high blood pressure and headaches.

 

If Estrogen Overdrive Is Real, Why Does Estrogen Therapy Seem to

Help?

 

About eight to ten million American women are prescribed

hormonal replacement therapy by their physicians. Of these, about

half discontinue hormones due to untoward effects of hormones or for

fear of developing breast, uterus and other cancers.

 

This means about five million women in the U.S. are taking

estrogens and progesterone regularly.

 

If hormonal replacement therapy is all that risky, why do some

women agree\ to take this?

 

This question has interested me for some time. On the surface it

negates my theory about the estrogen overdrive described above.

 

The answer is that they are not made aware of healthful, natural

alternatives to synthetic hormones.

 

I make three points here.

 

First, a vast majority of menopausal symptoms can be controlled

with sound nutritional; therapies exercise and self-regulation and

without estrogen.

 

Indeed, many of the symptoms attributed to inadequate estrogen are

in reality symptoms of sugar-insulin-adrenaline roller coasters that

respond well to natural nondrug measures.

 

 

Second, for some of my patients who need further relief, I

frequently prescribe natural plant-derived progestrone creams.

 

Indeed, it is uncommon for me to have to use estrogen for symptoms

that are difficult to control otherwise.

 

Third, How do I explain the occurrence of hot flashes, fluid

retention and related symptoms that seem to respond to estrogen

therapy?

 

An insight into a possible explanation of this phenomenon

came to me some time ago as I listened to a patient describe her

difficulty with sugar craving and sugar roller coasters.

 

It occurred to me that the need of some women for extra estrogen

for hot flashes is similar to the need for sugar in someone craving

sugar, or for cocaine in a cocaine addict.

 

These are examples of receptor dysregulation, of energetic-molecular

disequilibrium, of molecular responses overshooting their marks.

 

No one recommends that we solve the problem of sugar craving with

sugar, or that we treat cocaine addiction by giving the addict

regular doses of cocaine. Why do we do so for estrogen?

 

http://www.majidali.com/theageof.htm

 

 

JoAnn Guest

mrsjoguest

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