I test female salivary hormones in my patients if they are overly challenged by mood disturbances at different times in their menstrual cycle, are trying to conceive and are having difficulty, or are in peri-menopause or menopause and are wanting to determine what their hormone levels are. Monthly profiles can track your hormone levels; by taking eleven samples of your saliva every three days starting with your menstrual cycle, you can see a pattern of estrogen and progesterone levels which then makes it clearer for me to decide what intervention might be necessary for balancing.

I do see a pattern of estrogen dominance in some of the women that I test. Signs of estrogen dominance would include a higher estrogen to progesterone ratio- this means estrogen is high and progesterone is low in comparison. Symptoms of estrogen dominance may include irritability, PMS, fuzzy thinking, fibrocystic breast disease, weight gain, water retention, irregular and/or heavy bleeding, fibroids, endometriosis, menstrual migraines, ovarian cysts, and breast cancer. Why do we have too much estrogen and why do we not have enough progesterone to balance it all out?

We are exposed to estrogen in our environment in the form of phthalates (plastics, perfumes, nail polish), PCB’s (non organic butter, farmed salmon, even though it is was banned in 1972 it persists in our environment), pesticides, herbicides, insecticides, BPA in plastic water bottles, baby bottles and in the lining of cans, make-up, perfume, hair spray, shampoo, creams, lotions and other personal care products. Restaurants, golf courses, supermarkets and schools spray chemicals that mimic estrogen to keep their environments clean and weed/insect free. Birth control pills, fertility drugs and hormone replacement therapy contribute further to our estrogen load. This is too much estrogen coming into our bodies which then affects our estrogen levels, increasing them.

It is unrealistic to eliminate all your exogenous estrogen and so the goal is to reduce exogenous estrogens coming into your body.Here are some ways to begin. Buy organic vegetables when it comes to the following- peaches, apples, pears, strawberries, nectarines, imported grapes, cherries, lettuce, bell peppers (orange, green, red), celery, potatoes, and spinach. Buy organic dairy (at least butter), organic meat/poultry and choose wild versus farmed fish. Buy your fruit and vegetables fresh or frozen versus canned. Buy tomatoes, tomato sauce, and crushed tomatoes in glass jars versus cans.

Look for BPA free cans on the label when you are choosing canned foods. Some companies are staring to use BPA free cans. Don’t heat your foods in plastic or wrap warm foods in plastic. Buy glass storage containers to store or warm up food. Buy your home care products (cleaning supplies), insect killer, weed killer, health and body care products from your local health food store or find them online. (eg shaklee.com) Ask the staff of your health food store what their favorite product is for bath and body care and the like. (I found a great shampoo this way.)

Rome was not built in a day. Choose one thing that you can do tomorrow to start reducing the exogenous estrogens coming into your body! In the next post, I will talk about eliminating excess estrogen from your body…

I deal with people on a daily basis that are not well. I prefer to say that they are not well versus they are ill or sick. It feels better to me. In my interactions with many of them, I talk about the need to heal yourself and the power that you do have to affect your own healing. Many times, you may feel isolated in your situation of ‘dis-ease’. You may go to many different people who all have different ideas of what is going on with you and you may want to buy into or embrace a diagnosis that they give you or put your utmost faith in a supplement or product that is going to heal you…but at the end of the day you have to heal yourself. You are likely working with a team of sorts, doctors and other health care practitioners and I do absolutely recommend that. But keep in mind, that no matter what your diagnosis is, you are still in your healing journey, on your healing journey. I say when approaching this subject of optimal health or at the other extreme ‘dis-ease’, leave no stone unturned. Bring it to the level of your soul. Viewing things from a spiritual vantage point, can make all the difference.

This may sound like a lot of responsibility and indeed it is, but this statement is not meant to scare or overwhelm you or even frustrate you. The process of ‘healing’ does not often lend itself to moments of instant gratification or illuminating insights. This may happen if you are lucky. Healing is often a battle in the trenches… for a time anyways…There may be a long period of time when you don’t feel well despite the changes you are making with your diet or the inner work you are doing>>   perhaps forgiving yourself or others who may have wronged you in the past or even confronting your inner victim. This battle in the trenches is hard work- it is facing yourself to the utmost degree, confronting yourself on so many levels that your head spins. When you are in the trenches, you need hope and trust that things will get better, and they eventually will, even if it is just an inner attitude shift that buoys you from time to time, that you can cling to in the choppy seas. This is a process and there are no markers or measuring sticks that make it all make sense. You have to surrender to the process- you feel out of control, yes. It is natural to feel fear- you are in the unknown.

Healing does not always mean curing. Let’s be clear about that. There are no guarantees in life. You can’t control everything that happens to you- control is an illusion anyways. You can’t guarantee good health by eating all the right foods or being kind to others around you or whatever other behavior you think you must do in order to assure you of good health. It would be nice if it were that simple. Wayne Dyer and Debbie Ford both have cancer after all. Healing can mean facing yourself at the end of the day, facing the despair or hopelessness that has engulfed you leading to this place of dis-ease that you find yourself in right now or it may involve confronting an illness that appears out of the blue with no explanation as to why it has shown up. The question is>> What are you going to do about it? I have been there. I know where you are coming from.

Before this process starts and gets underway, I recommend sitting quietly in your life absorbing what is going on in the present moment with non-attachment to anything; contemplation often happens naturally when you surrender to the present moment and trust the process of your own healing journey. There is an inherent wisdom underneath your dis-ease, there is a part of you that knows how to be well; your job, for now, is to begin to access this well being. How do you access well being? Who are the people that make you feel ‘well’ when they are around? What things are on your well being list? What things make you feel better? Everyone should have a list of things that bring them to a better space of well being- on mine>>music, water, flowers, tea for starters. What are yours? My book ‘Using Illness to Catalyze Self Transformation’ is in the process of being self published right now. Until it comes out, I ask you to sit with these words, and ask any questions of me if you feel so moved. Remember that you are not alone. I am right there with you in the trenches.

In today’s fast-paced hectic world, there is a tremendous need for balance and getting back to values that are the most important to you. When our egos run the show and we are caught up in the external world our internal world is often neglected. This external world which tends to be transient and can change on a dime is not the ‘world’ to get attached to these days. Turn on the news and you will quickly here stories of loss and feel the climate of fear and uncertainty that our media thrives on. This external world does not typically bring a deep feeling of peace to us or a sense that everything is alright with our world. Our internal worlds need to be cultivated and require some attention from us at this time.

Taking a moment to be more mindful in your world can really help at this time. Being mindful is really bringing your attention to the present moment and bringing as much of ‘you’ as you can to the present moment whether the moment involves washing your dishes, talking to a work colleague or chatting on the phone with a family member. Remind yourself that this present moment is the only thing you can really count on and ask yourself how can you bring the best you to the table? Being mindful is a way to quiet the chatter in your mind and bring a feeling of more inner peace to you. You can’t think about your future when you are in the present moment and when you bring your full undivided attention to the present moment it becomes really beautiful I bet if you check in with yourself from time to time and remind yourself of this you will have a better day and the other people around you will have a better experience of you.

Starting your day with a 10-20 minute meditation can also help you prepare for your day and start it in the best frame of mind possible. I recommend setting your alarm clock twenty minutes earlier and getting up to do this. Tell yourself before going to bed that it will be easy to get up at your designated wake up call. By telling your subconscious mind that it will be effortless for you before dropping off to sleep, it will be. Try it and you will be amazed that this is true.

As I have found that people’s emotional bodies are most challenged at this time, I recommend on doing a mindfulness meditation on love. To do this, I would conjure all the people up in your mind that you love most. Spend twenty minutes feeling love for all the people in your life. Think about all the reasons why you are grateful for them in your life, what specifically are the qualities that you most love in them, how they have added to the richness of your life. See how much you can fill your heart up with love for others. If you have trouble feeling love for people, you can also think of your pets or anything else that you feel love for. When you are finished this meditation, you will start your day feeling more in a ‘love vibe’ and will be less likely to react to minor inconveniences or challenging interpersonal dynamics in your day. Try this and let me know how it goes…and remember to love and accept yourself as we are all a work in progress…