Are you dealing with symptoms of estrogen dominance such as bloating, breast tenderness, irregular cycles or moodiness? Wonder if your hormones are to blame for headaches, anxiety, increased belly fat or even hair loss? We’ll review what exactly estrogen dominance is, common symptoms, and 6 ways to reduce estrogen dominance.
Hi i’m ali and i’m becky we are registered dietitians that are passionate about food as medicine in today’s video we will be covering signs of estrogen dominance as well as food and supplement recommendations to balance out your estrogen so let’s first begin ali with why we see so much estrogen dominance and what exactly it is in the first place yes so actually
We can see estrogen dominance correlating with obesity or excess body fat our fat cells or adipocytes themselves are estrogenic so men or women that are holding excessive body fat will commonly have higher estrogen levels also people that have recently lost weight they’re going to have more circulating estrogen levels as their body fat has been liberated now
They have excess hormones circulating through their body so they could be candidates as well another source of estrogen dominance is through our environment through toxins that are endocrine disruptors or synthetic forms of estrogen and those used in our agriculture or in our ranches when we’re using hormones or growth hormone and we can see estrogen dominance
In the body in light of low progesterone or testosterone so if a man or a woman isn’t making the other healthy counterpart hormone that estrogen even if at a normal level will express as dominant so ally let’s first discuss what some of the very common signs and symptoms of estrogen dominance are like how do we know that our estrogen is off yes so it is quite
Common as you mentioned becky we can see anything from mood swings which can be expressed as irritability or anxiety we can see hot flashes and night sweats we can see insomnia we can see increased belly fat and issues with metabolism or weight loss we can see low libido as well as again imbalance with testosterone and progesterone we can even see gi issues
With bloating and bowel irregularity because there’s that estro belong the interaction of the microbiome and that excess estrogen and so much more including even things like hair loss and yes another symptom to note would be pms and irregular cycles so seeing a heavier cycle excessive clotting with our cycle and even an irregular cycle rhythm and infertility as
Well sure yes so we’re going to talk to you guys about six solutions or ways that you can support healthy estrogen metabolism in your body regulating that estrogen dominance through food as medicine and supplement support let’s start with what we need to avoid or get out of the diet in the first place so yeah one of the first things to avoid are our exogenous
Estrogens or estrogen that’s found outside of the body this is going to come in the form of things like xenoestrogens in our plastic drinking containers plastic tupperware plastic utensils and if we’re heating things in plastic even worse so definitely definitely avoid those things like phytoestrogens so seeing estrogen in the form of soy as well as dairy which
Is estrogenic and especially conventional forms of dairy and animal protein which are given exogenous hormone yes that growth hormone that’s used in dairy as well as animal production for meat can definitely drive the estrogen dominance and not to mention the hormone you might be taking in the form of your birth control oral contraceptives can also contribute
Greatly to that estrogen dominance yeah that’s a really good point and one of the populations i think we see estrogen dominance in the most frequently is those who’ve been on birth control for years yes so when we’re looking at metabolizing the estrogen level in our body beyond avoiding that exogenous or excessive outside stimulus we want to support the way that
Our body metabolizes the estrogen so there’s actually a process called aromatization and in this process aromatization converts testosterone into estrogen this is where men can be at risk for gynomastia or male breast formation as well as the big belly fat that we can see in andropause or when men see declining testosterone and excessive estrogen so we want to
Bring in zinc zinc is actually an aromatase inhibitor so it’s going to block that conversion pathway to allow a healthy testosterone expression while not converting that into the excess estrogen zinc food as medicine sources could be found in our red meat as one of the best sources available so i have a delightful rib eye here and then pumpkin seeds or pepitas are
Another great form of zinc and then beyond supporting with zinc supporting our detox pathways is super important for hormone expression in general because our liver is that first site of hormone production and also the first site of detoxification of excess hormone or hormone we don’t need in our body so using things like apple cider vinegar to really rev up that
Bile flow uh bringing in things like broccoli and cruciferous veggies which have been studied with the i3c or indole-3-carbinol compounds to help to reduce that excess estrogen especially in the breast cancer population yes and we’ll even see on a supplemental level combining an idol 3-carbinol into dim or die end all methionine which can be used with clinical
High levels of estrogen but we like to first start as a supplement intervention with our bronchodetox yes we love bronchodetox this is actually a featured supplement in our women’s hormone bundle and rather than something like dim which wouldn’t be safe to take unless you’ve tested with high levels of estrogen bronchodetox can be supportive across the board
For all kinds of hormonal imbalance issues so this is a fantastic whole food focused formula it’s going to have the sprout the floret and the broccoli seed extract and this is going to provide a very potent dose of glucoraphanin and myrosinase which work in the body to activate sulforaphane production this is going to enhance protection of our dna anti-cancer
Properties as well as antioxidant and detoxification properties in the body yes while supporting that estrogen metabolism so all good things there the fourth area of focus is progesterone deficiency so we want to bring progesterone up to the playing field if you will again even if you have a healthy normal or optimal level of estrogen but the progesterone
Is deficient you’re going to see expression of that estrogen dominance so as far as a clinical tool we like to use myo-inositol this has been shown in research to aid in ovarian function and can help to balance out women’s cycles their menstrual cycles we also see myositol being a powerful tool with pcos or polycystic ovarian syndrome where women are also
Expressing often excessive estrogen our relaxant regulate features a potent dose of that myositol along with magnesium bisque glycinate which regulates the fight or flight stress response if we are under chronic stress we’re going to be turning our progesterone levels into that survival cortisol which can further steal from that already potentially low hormone
We also on a food as medicine level would want to consider citrus so citrus is actually a great source of inositol as well and it also provides us a unique bioflavonoid this has been shown in studies to demonstrate a reduction of estrogen receptor function so this means that there’s less expression of estrogen in the levels when we’re eating a healthy diet with
Citrus as a highlight as we’ve said before stress is not sexy and that can really wreak havoc on our hormonal balance so using things like adaptogens such as maca which we really talked about in our libido boosting foods video which can enhance progesterone production and be supportive of thyroid health and then on a supplemental level our adaptogen boost is a
Fantastic stress supporting supplement that has three featured adaptogens so we’ve got cordyceps mushroom panics ginseng and rhodiola so rhodiola in particular in a dose of 100 milligrams has been seen in studies to actually regulate menstrual cycle and aid in fertility in women who are experiencing amenorrhea or loss of cycle and the sixth thing that we want
You to do to regulate your estrogen metabolism is poop daily so becky mentioned how your liver is really important as far as regulating excess estrogen but we also see estrogen levels building up in individuals that have vowel irregularity especially with constipation so we look for markers in the functional medicine world one of them is beta gluconaridaes
Beta gluconeridae’s levels when elevated are giving us a sign that that individual is dealing with a buildup also of estrogen in their body and that beta gluconeridase is elevated based on microbiome imbalance again often seen with constipation so getting ample fiber is one way to move and bind that excess circulating estrogen so that it doesn’t get reabsorbed
In that gut blood barrier but actually gets excreted or carried out of the body so some food is medicine focus here could be getting ample fiber with flax and our phytofiber is a great supplement support which provides food as medicine solutions to fiber so we’re getting prune in here and cranberry as well as the flax seed now flax seed is worth highlighting
Because we’ve actually seen that flax can be categorized as a phytoestrogen but unlike soy we see very favorable impact of the flax and estrogen metabolism in fact we’ve seen in clinical studies individuals that consume flax regularly which can reduce risk factors for estrogen-related cancers so if you feel like you may be experiencing some of these signs of
Estrogen dominance or hormone imbalance our 10-day detox is a really good place to start to put together all of the tools that we’ve talked about today in kind of small measurable ways over a 10-day protocol yes so you can check out the link below to check out our interactive detox video class as well as our detox ebook to learn more about our food as medicine
Approach to regulate all of the hormone in the body through supporting the detox process and if you like today’s video make sure that you like and comment below with your favorite food as medicine tip and make sure you subscribe to stay on top of our weekly releases of functional medicine information in today’s video we’re going to be talking about the signs
And symptoms of estrogen dominance as well as ways that you can that as well as always
Transcribed from video
How to Reduce Estrogen Dominance By Naturally Nourished Ali Miller RD
