Natural Hormones

Stress and Your Female Hormones

Thursday, September 2, 2010 by Kimberly Day

Women produce two major sex hormones, estrogen and progesterone. These hormones help to

keep in balance the various functions of the nervous systems, and they can have a strong impact on how you respond to stress. For example, estrogen tends to affect the levels of serotonin and acts as a natural mood elevator, whereas progesterone affects the levels of dopamine and has a sedative or calming effect. When these hormones (and subsequently, neurotransmitters) are out of balance in relation to one another, stress symptoms can be aggravated.

Additionally, stress itself can cause or aggravate hormone imbalances. In fact, it can interfere with your ability to ovulate, thereby blocking progesterone production and pushing further into estrogen dominance. This can lead to severe PMS, menstrual cramps, anxiety, fibroids, endometriosis, and infertility.

Studies from journals as varied as Human Stress, Psychosomatics, and Acta Psychiatry of Scandinavian have all shown that women with stressful lives are much more likely to experience PMS symptoms. In fact, a study from the Archives of Family Medicine found that women who suffered from PMS scored four times higher on a stress scale than other women.

Another Scandinavian study looked at baboons living in captivity. Researchers found that those who developed endometriosis had higher stress levels and were less able to react positively to stress as compared to baboons in the wild.

Like their estrogen dominant sisters, estrogen deficient women must also manage stress carefully. Not only can stress reduce estrogen levels, but it can reduce production of all female hormones. This can lead to a worsening of menopause symptoms, including hot flashes, insomnia, depression, and vaginal and tissue dryness, as well as other related issues, such as heart health.

A study from the journal Menopause looked at more than 400 women between the ages of 37 and 47 who were still menstruating. Researchers gave the participants an anxiety test at the start of the study and again six years later. By this time, many of the women were experiencing irregular periods and hot flashes.

The researchers found that those women with the highest anxiety levels had almost five times as many hot flashes as the less anxious women. Women with moderate anxiety had three times as many hot flashes. A second study from the Maternal and Child Health Journal found that vaginal dryness (also a common symptom of estrogen deficiency) was significantly associated with high emotional or psychological stress.

For more information on stress and female hormones, visit Dr. Lark’s Web site.

Fibroid-Fighting Recommendation #3

Monday, August 30, 2010 by Susan Lark

My third recommendation for fighting fibroids naturally is to add nutrients that have special effects for the uterus and female hormones--especially estrogen levels.

N-acetyl cysteine (NAC) normalizes the ovarian cycle, boosting natural progesterone levels to reestablish balanced estrogen levels. Take 1,200 mg daily.

Vitex (chaste tree berry) contains at least three phytoestrogens which block estrogen from its receptors and significantly help bring estrogen levels and progesterone levels into balance. It also helps to promote healthy ovulation, which is necessary for progesterone production. I recommend 225 mg per day of a standardized product.

To learn more about balancing female hormones and much more, visit my Web site.

Fibroid-Fighting Recommendation #2

Saturday, August 28, 2010 by Susan Lark

My #2 recommendation for fighting fibroids naturally is to use supplements that are known to fibroids heal and resolve.

Start by taking a top-quality, broad-spectrum multinutrient that contains at least 50 mg of B complex vitamins, 100 mg of vitamin B6, 1,000 mg of buffered vitamin C, 700 mg of bioflavonoids, 600 IU of vitamin E, 800 mg of calcium, and 400 mg of magnesium every day. These nutrients help support the liver’s ability to metabolize estrogen (and therefore balance estrogen levels), block its fibroid-stimulating effects, maintain healthy uterine muscle tone, and help reestablish healthy balance of female hormones.

For more hormone-balancing recommendations, visit my Web site.

Fight Fibroids Naturally

Friday, August 27, 2010 by Susan Lark

Uterine fibroids affect 30–40 percent of women by age 50. However, fibroids rarely cause symptoms, so they’re often overlooked. Their growth is triggered by estrogen dominance, since estrogen is a growth-stimulating hormone. Estrogen dominance is a common hormonal imbalance during perimenopause, and fibroids often disappear on their own after menopause.

The problem with fibroids occurs when they get big enough or numerous enough to cause pain or increased bleeding during or between periods. Some women also experience more frequent urination or changes in bowel habits because of the enlarged fibroids pressing against the bladder or colon.

Many doctors recommend a hysterectomy to remove fibroids and prevent new ones from forming—after all, if you don’t have a uterus, you can’t have uterine fibroids. But hysterectomies can cause so many other problems in the long term, that I truly believe that they should be reserved only for extremely severe cases that cannot be resolved with any other treatments. Today and in the days to come, I am going to give you my top 5 recommendations for safely, naturally, and effectively dealing with uterine fibroids.

#1: Eat for hormonal balance. One key to bringing estrogen levels back into balance is to avoid foods that stimulate estrogen production and raise estrogel levels, such as alcohol, sugar, and saturated fats. Let your meals revolve around phytoestrogens—substances that are chemically and functionally similar to a woman’s own natural estrogen, except that natural plant estrogens are much weaker and less potent. Phytoestrogens soften estrogen’s effects. Fibroid tissue is studded with estrogen receptors, and phytoestrogens bind to those receptors, displacing the more potent estrogen.

Colorful fruits and vegetables, whole grains such as buckwheat and ground flax meal are great phytoestrogen sources that are also rich in the vitamins and minerals needed to balance estrogen levels, strengthen capillaries, and reduce uterine bleeding. As for supplements, I recommend 4–6 tablespoons of ground flaxseed, or 700–3,000 mg of bioflavonoids taken in divided doses.

To learn more about balancing female hormones and much more, visit my Web site.

Conventional Hormone Replacement Therapy and Strokes?

Saturday, August 21, 2010 by Susan Lark

Did you know that taking conventional hormone replacement therapy increases your risk for stroke? In fact, preliminary studies show that in younger females, estrogen actually protects brain tissue traumatized by stroke, but after menopause estrogen becomes neurotoxic: It takes the area of the brain damaged by stroke and actually enlarges it.

It is important to remember that conventional hormone replacement therapy does not cure menopause symptoms, it only postpones them. For the majority of women, menopause symptoms come back when they discontinue hormone therapy, whether they quit cold-turkey or gradually wean off. But alternative therapies, such as supplements and bioidentical hormone replacement therapy, actually target the causative hormonal imbalance, rather than the symptoms.

Review all my menopause-related entries in this blog, and my Web site, for more information about natural solutions for menopause relief.

Two More Reasons to Quit Conventional Hormone Replacement Therapy

Thursday, August 19, 2010 by Susan Lark

Considering how much news comes out on the consequences of taking conventional hormone replacement therapy, I think it is important to stay abreast of the latest research on the subject. Ovarian cancer and asthma are just two more reasons to choose natural hormone therapy methods, like bioidentical hormone replacement.

A study of nearly a million women showed that even if hormone replacement therapy is taken for less than a year, and even if it’s low dose, it brings a significant increase in ovarian cancer risk. That’s irrespective of dosing frequency (daily vs. cyclic), mode of delivery (skin patch, pills, vaginal preparation, or hormone intrauterine device), and whether the formula’s estrogen is countered by progesterone. The cause-and-effect relationship between hormone replacement therapy and ovarian cancer was confirmed by the finding that after a woman has been off of it for two years, her increased ovarian cancer risk drops back to her original risk level. Ovarian cancer remains the deadliest of a woman’s hormone-sensitive cancers.

As for asthma, it has been known for several years that conventional hormone replacement therapy significantly increases a woman’s odds of developing asthma after menopause, even if she has no respiratory allergies. In a recent study of nearly 60,000 asthma-free women entering menopause, taking conventional hormone replacement not only increased their risk of developing asthma by 20 percent, but that risk rose to 54 percent if the hormone therapy consisted of estrogen without progesterone. And, if a woman already had some form of allergies before starting estrogen replacement therapy, her risk of developing asthma went up by a whopping 86 percent.

All the more reason to use natural hormone replacement therapy, or safe, effective alternatives for menopause releif, like black cohosh and the many other nutrients I discuss in this blog!

Fight Diabetes with Tea

Wednesday, August 18, 2010 by Kimberly Day

According to a new study published in the Archives of Internal Medicine, people who drank three to four cups of regular or decaf coffee or tea a day reduced their risk of developing diabetes by 25 percent! Researchers attributed magnesium and antioxidant lignans (among other things) to the potential health benefits of these beverages.

I personally find about half of this news to be good. As I’ve written before, a study from the October 2001 issue of Fertility and Sterility found that caffeine elevates estrogen levels in women. Similarly, a from the Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston found that the more coffee a woman consumed, the higher her estrogen levels were likely to be. Researchers went on to caution women against drinking more than two cups of coffee per day.

Conversely, the news about tea (especially green tea) is all good! Not only does tea appear to help protect against cancer, but it also helps promote natural weightloss. Plus, it has been shown to be cardio-protective, while also ease the pain associated with rheumatoid arthritis.

My advice? To help decrease your risk of diabetes, opt for green tea and skip the java. You can lower your blood sugar without raising your estrogen levels, while also promoting natural healthy weight loss. Now that’s something to cheer about!

For more information on female hormones, weight loss, or other women’s health related topics, visit Dr. Lark’s Web site.

Great Friends, Great Health

Monday, August 16, 2010 by Kimberly Day

I just finished reading a great book that celebrated the power of female friendships, and shortly after, received this email from my mother-in-law. Clearly, the universe is telling me to

pass the love along and remind us all to cherish our female friends.

The story apparently comes from the head of psychiatry at Stanford University (ironically, Dr. Lark served on the clinical faculty of Stanford’s Medical School and taught in their Division of Family and Community Medicine). During a lecture, he said that “one of the best things that a man could do for his health is to be married to a woman whereas for a woman, one of the best things she could do for her health was to nurture her relationships with her girlfriends.”

Naturally, everyone laughed, until it became clear that he was serious. He went on to explain:

“Women connect with each other differently and provide support systems that help each other to deal with stress and difficult life experiences. Physically this quality ‘girlfriend time’ helps us to create more serotonin—a neurotransmitter that helps combat depression and can create a general feeling of well-being.

“Women share feelings whereas men often form relationships around activities. They rarely sit down with a buddy and talk about how they feel about certain things or how their personal lives are going. Jobs? Yes. Sports? Yes. Cars? Yes. Fishing, hunting, golf? Yes. But their feelings? Rarely.

“Women do it all of the time. We share from our souls with our sisters and, evidently, that is very good for our health. He said that spending time with a friend is just as important to our general health as jogging or working out at a gym….In fact, he said that failure to create and maintain quality personal relationships with other humans is as dangerous to our physical health as smoking!”

We all likely know inherently that our friendships (usually!) bring us joy and peace. So, I encourage us all to reach out this week to all of our amazing women friends. Be it your mother, sister, aunt, family friend, in-law, niece, child, grandchildren, or best girlfriend…tell them you love them. Make time for them. Listen. Share. Laugh. Love.

For more information on overall health, female hormones, or other women’s health related topics, visit Dr. Lark’s Web site.

Bioflavonoids for Estrogen Dominance

Friday, August 13, 2010 by Kimberly Day

Flavonoids encompass a wide group of antioxidants, including bioflavonoids and flavanols. Bioflavonoids are usually found in the pulp and rind of citrus fruit. They have wea

k, estrogen-like properties, and have also been shown to interfere with the production of estrogen by binding to estrogen receptor sites. In this way, bioflavonoids work to normalize estrogen levels, bringing excessively high estrogen down to more normal levels.

Because bioflavonoids do bind to estrogen receptor sites, they can also act as a supplemental form of estrogen, helping to combat common menopause symptoms such as hot flashes and night sweats.

Flavanols, namely polyphenols and catechins, also bind to receptor sites, which is why they have been found to be so beneficial in protecting women from cancer. By binding to breast tissue estrogen receptors sites, polyphenols work to prevent carcinogens (tumor promoters, hormones, and growth factors) from binding to and harming the cells. In essence, the polyphenols "seal off" the tissue from invasion by carcinogens.

The superior antioxidant properties of polyphenols also help in the fight against heart attacks and other forms of cardiovascular disease. Japanese researchers have found that tablets of green tea extract providing 254 mg of catechins raised blood levels of antioxidants and reduced plaque-forming oxidation.

Foods rich in bioflavonoids include citrus fruits (lemons, oranges, tangerines, grapefruits, and limes) and buckwheat (a gluten-free grain that is not botanically related to wheat). Other good sources are apricots, cherries, grapes, plums, blackberries, papayas, green pepper, broccoli, and tomatoes. Foods rich in flavanols include green tea, apples, grapes, and onions.

For more information on estrogen dominance or natural treatments for menopause symptoms, visit Dr. Lark’s Web site.

Understanding Bioidentical Hormone Replacement

Saturday, August 7, 2010 by Kimberly Day

Trying to reverse female hormone issues can be quite complicated, especially when you are

trying to increase estrogen levels to offset menopause symptoms. And with all the negative side effects surrounding conventional hormone replacement therapy, many women don't know where to turn.

Fortunately, you don't have to look any further than bioidentical hormone replacement. Biochemically identical hormones are molecularly identical to the hormones found in the human body. Moreover, they are produced in the laboratory from natural ingredients such as soy and wild yam, derived from plants, not horse urine. Since bioidentical hormones are biologically similar to the hormones your body produces, they do not appear to have the grave risks associated with conventional HRT.

The bioidentical estrogen that Dr. Lark typically recommends is estriol. Of the three types of estrogen produced within your body, estriol is the weakest and least potent. More importantly, several research studies have found that it is as effective as the stronger, more potent estrogens for treating menopause symptoms.

One study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that estriol was particularly effective in treating vaginal atrophy, mood swings, and hot flashes. Researchers selected 52 symptomatic, postmenopausal women and separated them into four groups, giving each group either 2 mg, 4 mg, 6 mg, or 8 mg of estriol per day for six months. On average, women in every group experienced a decrease in their menopausal symptoms after one month of treatment. Furthermore, in the groups with the three highest dosages, women who had ranked their symptoms as severe now felt that their symptoms were very mild.

Estriol and all biochemically identical estrogen have to be prescribed by your physician. Estriol is available at most compounding pharmacies, as well as a few mainstream pharmacies, including the Women’s International Pharmacy in Madison, Wisconsin, which sends estriol formulations to physicians throughout the U.S.

For more information on bioidentical hormone replacement or other natural hormone replacement therapy options, visit Dr. Lark's Web site.

Hormone Replacement Therapy Dangers

Friday, August 6, 2010 by Kimberly Day

Reports on the risks associated with conventional hormone replacement therapy (HRT) have

filled medical journals for more than 20 years. There was clear evidence that conventional HRT use increased a woman’s risk for heart disease and breast cancer. And yet, many physicians were still insisting on prescribing conventional hormone replacement therapy. And many women were still taking it. But the summer of 2002 forever removed the curtain of doubt surrounding the dangers of HRT.

On July 17, 2002, the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) reported on the findings from one part of the Women's Health Initiative (WHI), an 8.5 year project funded by the National Institutes of Health. The WHI involved 161,809 postmenopausal women between the ages of 50 and 79, and outlined the benefits and risks of a variety of treatments designed to lower the incidences of several diseases, including heart disease, breast and colon cancer, and fractures in postmenopausal women. Of this group, 16,608 women who were healthy and had an intact uterus participated in one part of the WHI, which tested the effectiveness of estrogen/progestin therapy.

According to the findings, women taking estrogen/progestin for five years or more had an increased risk for blood clots, coronary heart disease (CHD), strokes, and breast cancer. The researchers concluded, "The results indicate that this regimen should not be initiated or continued for primary prevention of CHD."

The data indicated that if 10,000 women took the drugs for a year and 10,000 did not, women in the first group would have eight more cases of invasive breast cancer, seven more heart attacks, eight more strokes, and 18 more instances of blood clots.

In fact, researchers felt so strongly about the negative implications of long-term combined hormone replacement therapy, especially the unacceptably high risk for breast cancer, that they ended the study three years early! Participants were contacted and instructed to stop taking the drug—immediately.

The Research is Clear

The research leaves no room for doubt about conventional hormone replacement therapy and its negative effects on women’s health.

It does not reduce a woman's risk of heart disease. While it can improve HDL and LDL cholesterol levels, these improvements are not associated with fewer heart attacks or other heart problems.
It increases a woman’s risk of heart attack, stroke, and blood clots.
It does not reverse pre-existing heart disease.
It raises levels of C-reactive protein, an indicator of inflammation that is a strong predictor of a future heart attack.
It increases the risk of invasive breast cancer.
It increases the likelihood of an abnormal mammogram after just one year of use.
It increases risk of gallbladder disease by 40 percent.

Where Do We Go From Here?

While many physicians and researchers are still hoarding the "fool's gold" known as hormone replacement therapy, complementary medicine is busily mining the mother lode of real gold—and women are taking notice.

Large numbers of American women are either abandoning their hormone replacement therapy or deciding to never start taking it. Many are rejecting physicians unfamiliar with or unsympathetic to natural health supports. They are also realizing the power and wisdom of using natural medicines and herbal remedies for easing menopausal discomforts, and are very interested in natural solutions for heart disease and osteoporosis.

Before changing your hormone replacement therapy regimen, be sure to discuss your plans with your physician. Chances are, you will be able to eliminate your conventional hormone replacement therapy or dramatically reduce the dose you require for symptomatic relief. Either way, you win: Recent research indicates that breast cancer risk returns to normal within a few years of stopping HRT, and it's likely that lower-dose HRT has less of an adverse impact on estrogen-positive breast cancer risk.

For more information about hormone replacement therapy and for a variety of natural hormone replacement therapy options, visit Dr. Lark's Web site.

Hormone Replacement Therapy and Breast Cancer

Thursday, August 5, 2010 by Kimberly Day

Not so long ago, conventional hormone replacement therapy's impact on breast cancer risk was

still the subject of heated debate. This debate essentially ended when an article described by a Harvard Medical School professor as "close to being the final word" on conventional hormone replacement therapy and breast cancer was published in the Lancet.

Fifty-one studies involving more than 161,000 women were reviewed. The conclusion: Conventional hormone replacement therapy increased the risk of breast cancer with each year of use. Women using conventional hormone replacement therapy for five or more years were at 35 percent greater risk.

Another study revealed that after 10 years of use, estrogen replacement therapy (hormone replacement therapy using estrogen alone) increased a woman's risk of dying from breast cancer by 43 percent. Other similar studies indicate that combined estrogen-progestin therapy, the kind used by most women, increases breast cancer risk even more than estrogen replacement therapy does!

Concerns about combined estrogen-progestin hormone replacement therapy were identified by a large National Cancer Institute study and were reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association. The study concluded that women who took the combined treatment for five years were 40 percent more likely to develop breast cancer than women taking estrogen alone or no hormones.

Similarly, other studies have confirmed an even higher 60 to 70 percent increase in breast cancer risk with the long-term use of HRT.

While the figures vary from study to study, the evidence is clear, compelling, and consistent—conventional hormone replacement therapy increases a woman's risk of developing breast cancer, and with each additional year of use, that risk gets higher.

Opt instead for natural hormone replacement therapy options, such as maca, black cohosh, and bioidentical hormone replacement.

For more information on HRT and natural hormone replacement therapy options, visit Dr. Lark's Web site.

Estrogen Levels in Food and the Environment

Friday, July 30, 2010 by Kimberly Day

While estrogen levels decline with age, the amount of estrogen in your body is influenced by a range of other factors, including diet and environmental toxins—a topic that has not

received sufficient attention to date.

Meat, poultry, and dairy foods contain estrogens that have been injected into the animals to fatten them for market. One of the synthetic estrogens routinely given to livestock was DES (diethylstilbestrol). DES was also given to women to prevent miscarriages and symptoms of menopause, until it was associated with birth defects in their offspring and was finally banned in 1979. However, today poultry and livestock, especially dairy cows, are still given other forms of estrogen compounds. Hormones such as estrogen accumulate in fatty tissue in the animals we eat as well as in us, and high-fat diets have been associated with changes in human estrogen levels.

Caffeine and alcohol consumption can also influence estrogen levels. Excessive alcohol intake can affect the liver’s ability to break down estrogen for excretion, thereby elevating the body’s blood estrogen levels, particularly of the more chemically active forms of estrogen. Even public water supplies may contain estrogens, if that water is recycled at treatment plants and still contains traces of excreted synthetic estrogens, such as those contained in birth control pills and excreted from the bodies of women using these products.

Additionally, pollutants that have estrogen-like activity when they are taken into the body (xenoestrogens) are found in an enormous range of products for the home and workplace. They are present in cosmetics, detergents and dishwashing liquids, and bug spray. Pesticides and industrial chemicals such as organochlorines, dioxins, and PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls) also contain substances related to estrogen.

There are many suspected health consequences of our wide exposure to xenoestrogens, including an increased risk of PMS and breast cancer. This problem has also affected male reproductive health, and has been implicated in lowering sperm counts in men all over the world.

To avoid these dangers, be sure to take the following precautions:

Eat organic as often as possible, especially when it comes to animal-based products such as meat, eggs, dairy, etc.
Limit (if not avoid) caffeine and alcohol consumption. Aim for no more one or two caffeinated or alcoholic beverage per week.
Use natural beauty care products.
Choose natural, chemical-free household products as often as possible.

For more information on estrogen levels or other issues related to female hormones, visit Dr. Lark’s Web site.

Female Hormones’ Check and Balances

Wednesday, July 28, 2010 by Kimberly Day

Your two primary female hormones (estrogen and progesterone) are naturally design to create a sort of biological check and balance within your body. These two hormones, working

together, help regulate a notably wide range of physiological processes.

For instance, estrogen increases body fat, while progesterone helps the body burn fat for energy. Estrogen also promotes salt and fluid retention, whereas progesterone is a natural diuretic, increasing the flow of urine. Estrogen promotes blood clotting, while progesterone normalizes clotting. Furthermore, estrogen impairs blood sugar control, and progesterone normalizes blood sugar levels.

When these hormones are in balance, they help keep your entire body in balance.

For more information on estrogen levels or other issues related to female hormones, visit Dr. Lark’s Web site.

Understanding Estrogen

Friday, July 23, 2010 by Kimberly Day

Estrogen is the “queen bee” of the female hormones. As one of the two major female hormones, it is an especially important factor in health for women. When many women enter their

menopausal years, it’s as if they cross over an invisible line in their lives.

As a result of the decline in their estrogen levels, these women find that many of the functions needed for peak performance, which had formerly been effortless, seem to evaporate or diminish. While women often do complain of menopause symptoms that are strictly physical—such as vaginal dryness, more frequent bladder and vaginal infections, and dryness of the skin—they complain just as often about menopause symptoms that impair their job performance, social relationships, and even their ability to take pleasure in day-to-day activities.

The negative effects of the natural decline in female hormone production during menopause are not uncommon. Menopausal symptoms are so common in the United States that 80 to 85 percent of American women experience them to some degree. A small number of these women are lucky enough to have mild symptoms, such as occasional hot flashes over a period of a few months to a year. However, the majority of women have menopause symptoms that are bothersome enough to cause them to seek the help of physicians or complementary health care practitioners, or to seek solutions on their own by reading books and articles and exploring the use of natural hormones, vitamins, and herbs to relieve their symptoms.

For more information on menopause symptoms or other issues related to female hormones, visit Dr. Lark’s Web site.

Another Reason to Take Fish Oil

Friday, July 9, 2010 by Susan Lark

According to a new study in the journal Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention, taking fish oil can reduce your risk of developing breast cancer.

Researchers had about 35,000 women fill out questionnaires, which included questions about their past and present supplement use. About 8 percent of the respondents were taking or had taken fish oil at some point. Over the next six years, 880 women got breast cancer. Researchers found that the women who were taking fish oil when the study began had a reduced risk of one type of cancer--invasive ductal carcinoma, which is the most common form.

I recommend fish oil to treat and prevent a wide variety of health conditions and complaints. Just some of the reasons to take fish oil include natural appetite control; regulation of hormones, including estrogen dominance; creating wrinkle free skin; and alleviating perimenopause symptoms like hot flashes. I am so pleased that fish oil is starting to be recognized as a breast cancer preventive, too!

I recommend taking a minimum of 1,000 mg of fish oil per day.

For more information on menopause relief, effects of menopause, or menopause related problems, visit my Web site. While there, you can also sign up for my FREE eLetter or monthly newsletter.

Estrogen Dominance and Triathlons

Thursday, July 8, 2010 by Kimberly Day

I’ve recently started training for a triathlon. It’s an Olympic distance and will be the fourth or fifth time I’ve done one. Every time I begin to train for one of these events, I am struck by how great I feel about three weeks into it. My mood improves, I have more energy, I think more clearly, and my overall self-esteem is higher.

I used to think it was because it was simply due to the inevitable weight loss that occurs with exercising six days a week, but after working with Dr. Lark on Hormone Revolution, I came to realize that intense exercise fits perfectly with my particular hormone profile.

As a woman with estrogen dominance, I need to keep my hormones properly balanced with high-intensity activities such as running and triathlons. In other words, I am more “hare” than “tortoise.” (Okay, not when biking…but that another issue.)

As Dr. Lark has explained, women with estrogen dominance tend to be instinctively drawn to strenuous types of exercise that are more contractive, more acidifying, and more yangizing to counter our natural tendency towards alkalinity and expansiveness. These types of exercises are more likely to deplete both the oxygen content and the natural buffering agents contained within the muscles, as well as to generate lactic acid.

That’s why physical activities such as jogging, weight lifting, competing in triathlons, competitive cycling, and mountain climbing are best for us ladies with estrogen dominance. The key for these women is to generate more yang energy by heating up their bodies, sweating, and ridding themselves of excess yin (as edema, bloating, or excess weight).

So, next time I don’t feel like training or tell myself I have too much to do that day, I’ll stop and remember that this type of exercise comes “naturally,” and benefits my mind and soul, as well as my body.

For more information on estrogen dominance or other issues related to female hormones, visit Dr. Lark’s Web site. While there, you can also sign up for Dr. Lark’s FREE eLetter or monthly newsletter.

Tune in to Natural Appetite Control

Thursday, June 10, 2010 by Kimberly Day

We all know the important role that insulin plays in overall health, and in natural weightloss specifically. But now we are learning that a different hormone—leptin—may play an even greater role in health and weight loss than insulin.

Studies have shown that leptin regulates your brain’s hypothalamic activity, which in turn regulates much of your “autonomic” functions—those functions that regulate body temperature, heart rate, hunger, the stress response, fat burning or storage, and blood sugar levels. Another very recent study also reveals leptin’s importance in directly regulating how much sugar your liver manufactures.

In other words, leptin is directly related to conditions such as heart disease, obesity, diabetes, osteoporosis, autoimmune diseases, reproductive disorders, etc. It does this by telling other hormones, such as insulin and female hormones, whether or not to turn on maintenance and repair mechanisms, as well as by helping to control areas of your brain that regulate thyroid levels and the sympathetic nervous system.

Are You Tuned In to Leptin?

Dr. Ron Rosedale believes people become leptin-resistant by the same general mechanism that causes people to become insulin-resistant—overexposure to high levels of the hormone.

It’s like the frog in the boiling water. If you toss a frog into boiling water, it will jump right out. But if you place the frog in warm water and gradually increase the heat, he will soon be sitting quite happily (and quite dangerously) in boiling water.

So it is with leptin. As sugar gets metabolized in fat cells, fat releases surges in leptin. Over time, those surges become so frequent and expected, that the leptin is not released…in other words, you become leptin-resistance, since the “danger signal” no longer getting through.

Once you tune back in to leptin, you “jump out of the water” so to speak. In other words, high leptin levels can now scream to your brain that you have too much fat and that you better start burning some off. Your brain can now start burning off the fat you’ve been storing, and using it for energy. Best of all, your will suppress your hunger signals and regain appetite control.

Natural Weightloss Secret Weapon: Leptin

Wednesday, June 9, 2010 by Kimberly Day

Several years ago, I met Ron Rosedale, M.D., a nationally respected physician in the field of nutritional and metabolic medicine. As we talked, I learned that it was Dr. Rosedale personal mission to eradicate type II diabetes in this country, in his lifetime. And one of the intriguing weapons in his diabetes arsenal is his work with leptin, a little known hormone that helps your cells communicate.

As Dr. Rosedale explained, leptin is a very powerful and influential hormone produced by your fat cells. It works in conjunction with insulin to control the quality of your metabolism. While insulin works mostly at the individual cell level, telling the vast majority of cells whether to burn or store fat or sugar, and how to use that energy, leptin controls the energy storage and utilization of all of the cells in your body, allowing them to communicate with your brain about how much energy (fat) you have stored, and whether you need more or should burn some off.

One of the key ways leptin controls energy storage is by controlling hunger (i.e. appetite control). Trying to restrict calories in the face of hunger is virtually impossible (and could set you up for an eating disorder). The only way to truly eat less for the long-term is to not be hungry. And the key to appetite control is to control the hormones that regulate appetite…namely leptin.

In addition to helping with appetite control, leptin can also determine where you store your fat. If you are deaf (or resistant) to leptin’s signals, you tend to lose appetite control and pack on the pounds. And, in the case of leptin resistance, these pounds tend to store in your abdomen in the form of visceral fat.

Visceral or abdominal fat is one characteristic of the “apple” body shape. And it’s very dangerous. Not only does it pack in around your organs, it is also metabolically active. It decreases insulin sensitivity (making diabetes more likely), increases triglycerides, decreases levels of good HDL cholesterol, creates more inflammation and blood clotting, and raises blood pressure—all of which increase your risk of heart disease.

The answer is to tune in leptin’s message so you can regain appetite control, lose the belly fat, and begin to enjoy healthy, natural weightloss.