Are Toxic Estrogens Causing Weight Gain In My Hips and Buttocks? Could This Also By Why My Sex Drive Is Low?

Estrogen is thought of as a female hormone, but men have it too. In fact the way estrogen is processed by the liver is often an overlooked factor when men want to improve their libido and raise testosterone levels. Certain types of estrogens that are more prevalent in the body can affect a woman’s risk for breast cancer, PMS, as well as her mood stability. In both genders estrogen toxicity can contribute to difficulty losing weight. Weight distribution in the hips and thighs can be a sign of estrogen toxicity. 

So you see it is important to understand a bit more about the role of estrogen in your body so that you improve the areas of your health that are affected by your hormones. 

What Does Estrogen Do? There are 3 types of estrogens in the body. Estrone (E1), Estradiol (E2), and Estriol (E3). Estrogens are made in the ovaries of premenopausal women. Other tissues that produce Estrogen are your adrenal glands and fat cells. So the more fat you have, the more estrogen is produced. Estrogen is important for secondary female characteristics, the thickening of the uterine lining, bone health and vaginal lubrication in women. It is responsible for maturation of sperm in men. 

What's the Problem With Estrogen Dominance? However, there is a rising problem of estrogen dominance in both men and women. This means there is too much estrogen, or an imbalance of how estrogen is processed through the liver. The body makes estrogen but it also needs to get rid of it in a healthy cycle. The liver and intestinal tract are key players to the detoxification of estrogen. Depending on what position on the estrogen molecule a methyl or hydroxyl group binds in the detoxification process, determines if the estrogen does its job, or becomes pro-inflammatory and proliferative. 

The problem with estrogen dominance is that it can contribute to proliferation. Proliferation is growth of tissues such as increased chance of breast cancer, fibrocystic breasts, uterine fibroids, endometriosis etc. Estrogen dominance also can lead to more inflammation, PMS, hormonal migraines, as well fat distribution around the buttocks, hips and thighs, an inability to lose weight, and decreased sex drive in both genders. 

Is Your Sex Drive Low? If sex drive is something that is of concern and you are also overweight, estrogen dominance becomes a vicious cycle because fat cells contain an enzyme called Aromatase. Aromatase converts testosterone into more estrogen, depleting testosterone. This is one of the reasons to be considered when the modern male suffers from low levels of testosterone. They say, the more belly fat a man has, the less sex he has. Testosterone levels are generally falling in our population and men in their 50s today have testosterone levels of men in their 70s in the 1960s.  Also because many chemicals and plastics we use today mimic the estrogen molecule, there is an increased incidence of estrogen dominance. So it would be wise to decrease your use of plastic containers and definitely not microwave in plastic or leave a plastic water bottle sitting in a hot car. 

Is Your Weight In Your Buttocks and Hips? If weight is something that is of concern, estrogen dominance becomes a vicious cycle because fat cells contain an enzyme called Aromatase. Aromatase makes more estrogen. Estrogen is known to be a risk factor for obesity in both genders. Weight gain can lead to insulin resistance (blood sugar problem), which further can lead to more weight gain. There is a supplement, Aromastat from Dr. Peter D’Adamo available on my online store. It works by decreasing the effects of Aromatase. 

There are 3 things you can do to decrease estrogen dominance.

1. Decrease exposure to zenoestrogens like plastics, parabens, bisphenol A, phthalates, PCBs, BHA (preservative), and red dye number 3.
2. Eat 1-2 cups of broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower or Brussels sprouts per day. They contain Indole-3 Carbinol, which helps the liver get rid of toxic estrogens. A study shows that eating just 2 servings of broccoli per day reduced the risk of some cancers by 50%.
3. Reduce the amount of alcohol and coffee. Alcohol increases the amount of estrogen in the blood because it competes with the liver. Coffee increases the receptors for estrogen, making it more potent.

What Are The Best Tests? Lastly, how do you know your estrogen metabolism is out of balance? The tests that are usually run in medical offices only test for the total amount of estrogen, which in many cases may be normal even if your estrogen metabolism is imbalanced. A blood test includes both free hormone and bound hormone for a total level. It is important to know how much free hormone you have, because that is what is active in the body. Only a saliva or urine test can give you the free hormone level and therefore it is superior to a blood test for this purpose. I also offer more comprehensive tests that give specific breakdown products of what the liver does with estrogen.

Is the type of estrogen you have pro-inflammatory, and proliferative? Normal tests do not tell you this. So if you feel that you have an imbalance in your hormone metabolism and it is contributing to your weight issues, libido, menopausal changes, PMS or mood swings, I can help you find out exactly where your hormonal pathways are aberrant and design a strategy to get you the results you need. Please contact me to set up an appointment. I can work with you both in office or virtually.

HOW TO CALM YOUR RACING MIND INVITE

Greetings from Laguna Beach California. This is Table Rock Beach, a quiet little cove off the pacific coast highway. Thank you for your wonderful notes and kind wishes for my move. Everything went very well.

I'd like to invite you to log in to this complementary webinar workshop on Sunday where I'll share with you how to calm your racing mind. I will also share with you my story behind this cross country move, and my personal transformational process. 

Watch this video!

I love teaching and sharing and would like to offer my time to help you with your stress and worry. There is a limited number of people the software can allow to attend. So be proactive and save your seat now.
Click Here to Register for this live complementary online workshop Sunday April 6th at 8:00pm EST. I will be giving you some life changing tips to help you get rid of those recurring thoughts so that your mind can be free to sleep better, have peace and happiness. You need to click on the link to register in order to get access to log in to this class on Sunday. 
REGISTER NOW!

I'm looking forward to having you!

How to Decrease Sugar Cravings

It's the holidays and we all want be healthy and keep the weight down. At the same time with all the holiday festivities, there's more sugar at parties and then candies/desserts brought home. So you want to stay away, but it seems very difficult to. Watch the video I made you! These are 3 strategies you can easily use that can help curb that sweet tooth.

There are two kinds of hunger: 1.Physiological hunger 2.Cravings. How does physiologic hunger work? The brain and stomach communicate via the vagus nerve (the nerve is like the wire of a tin can phone system, connecting the two phones). When you are truly hungry (low blood sugar, low nutrients), the hormone ghrelin is secreted and tells the hypothalamus in the brain to secrete an appetite inducing hormone. Then when you are full, leptin is secreted, telling your brain that you are satiated.

Cravings are much more complicated. But research shows that cravings are increased when serotonin levels are lower in the brain. Often times, serotonin levels drop with decrease in vitamin D levels. Natural vitamin D is obtained by sunlight, so in the winter, people feel more sugar cravings, low mood etc when it is typically darker. Serotonin is the brain chemical responsible for feeling happy, and some forms of depression are associated with low serotonin. Sugar, carbohydrates, and wheat can act as opiates and give temporary feelings of euphoria. This may be why people crave sugar more in the winter when they need a "pick me up".

Given this information, you can increase outdoor activity to get some vitamin D. You can also exercise to increase endorphins (which is a natural opiate produced by the body and beneficial). Use the sunlight and exercise to feel happy rather than sugar. Sugar tends to contribute to mood swings, weight gain and lowered immunity. So enjoy your holidays and you will be surprised at how much you enjoy them more when you commit to healthy habits.

7 Good Things For Your Body During The Fall Season

I’m always curious if the different seasons play a role in how the body works, because I’ve often felt changes in my body during the changes of the seasons. At the change of seasons I’ve sometimes noticed an increased susceptible to catching a cold. And during the brighter months, I’ve noticed that I need 1 hour less sleep than the winter. The ancient Chinese texts shed some interesting light to topic. 

As the earth cycles through different seasons, our bodies cycle with it. There are organs systems that are more involved during various seasons, and the Lung phase corresponds with autumn. According to the 5 elements system of Chinese medicine, there are 5 elements that form a cycle. Fire (heart), Earth (spleen), Metal (lung), Water (kidney), Wood (liver). Photo Credit: www.eggsfromthenest.com

As you can see from the illustration, the earth element (spleen) precedes the lungs. In Chinese medicine, the energy from one element flows into the next. The spleen in Chinese medicine corresponds to the digestive tract, in the western anatomy. Therefore if the digestive system is weak there will be more dampness in the lungs during the fall time, which can mean an increase in allergies, asthma and colds. Besides the respiratory system, the lungs function to distribute qi (energy) to the skin, hair, and muscles. The skin layer in Chinese medicine is related to the wei qi or protective qi which helps prevent us from getting “invaded” by pathogens and getting sick. 

There are certain emotions related to each organ. When we talk about emotions, we consider the way it is expressed, repressed, the inability to experience the emotion and experiencing it inappropriately. The emotion of grief is associated with the lungs. If the lung qi is deficient, there is a tendency to remain in grief, which is associated with depression. On a side note, if the liver gallbladder system is imbalanced and there is suppressed anger and frustration especially towards self, this can also lead to depression. When grief is suppressed, it gets boggled inwards and causes the lungs to contract sometimes manifesting in physical symptoms of asthma or other respiratory infections. 

Professor Margaret Kemeny of UCLA did a study on method actors. The study showed that actors who expressed happiness had increased natural killer cells, but to her surprise, those who expressed momentary sadness also had an increase in beneficial immune system function. This means that when we allow ourselves to be and experience our emotions as they come, it is actually healthy. When emotions of even sadness come and get processed, they will flow through. And will be much less likely to go into unhealthy depression (which is suppressed anger, frustration and grief).

So What is Good for the Body during the Autumn?

 1.     Breathe and exercise. This helps to strengthen and move the lung qi so you do not feel stuck, but feel a healthy flow of energy and vitality.

2.     Decrease Dairy Products: Dairy products are very damp and can contribute to phlegm production, weight gain, and a sensation of sluggishness.

3.     Sunflower Seeds: Contains healthy oils that support the skin and wei qi to keep the wind out. Sunflower seeds contain the highest amount of vitamin E than any other seed or nut. In general you want to eat more oils in the fall to support the lungs system and also provide the calories for hibernation in the winter. You know your lungs are strong when your skin looks soft and lustrous.

4.     Cinnamon: Is in the category of a pungent food, and helps to help clear lungs. Cinnamon also helps to keep the blood sugar stable and can help decrease cravings.

5.     Pumpkin: Clears phlegm and removes dampness and nourishes the blood. Contains lots of beta-carotene, which is great for the eyes and lungs

6.     Seaweed: Builds the yin. Weak lung yin makes a person mores susceptible to chronic infections. Seaweed also helps remove phlegm. Is a great source of iodine which is good for the thyroid.

7.     Lemon: Sour foods are astringent, which benefits the liver. Lemon also prevents the skin from drying, detoxifies, alkalizes and is a great source of vitamin C.

The fall is a time for the body to start storing up nutrients and qi to prepare for the cold winter. If you are feeling run down, you are probably deficient in qi and it would be wise to build up your body to prepare for the winter. This way, you will be less likely to get sick, feel tired, or seasonally affected during this time. An ounce of prevention goes a long way. Come stop by our office and get a tune up.

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Your Doctor is Human Too! What to do if your To Do List is Overwhelming.

After a full week of work, I had planned to get a few things done this weekend, mostly big projects. One of them was smaller. I wanted to write an article for you all. As I started thinking of all the things I needed to do, more and more etched on my mental to do list. I started to feel less and less motivated to do any of these things on the list, and ended up going to the gym, washing my car, cleaning the house and giving myself a French pedicure. When I looked at the clock on Saturday evening, it was already 7pm. The whole day was almost gone and I hadn’t done a thing on my to do list. I became more and more overwhelmed, but later decided to give myself permission to take the night off and relax. I listened to music, connected with God and did some reading.

So this is what I read from The Bond by Lynne McTaggart. I discovered that my to do list was so large; it was incomprehensible by my brain. Dr Rizzolatti a neurologist was studying movement and cognitive function at Italy’s University of Parma. He hooked monkeys up to devices that measured their brain waves. His team had the monkeys copy the human actions. To his surprise, the part of the brain that should light up when the monkey itself performs the action lit up prematurely when the researcher was performing the action, and the monkey was watching. “The very same neuron in the monkey’s brain that fired when it intended to grasp the object was also firing when the monkey observed the researcher grasping it”. That part of the brain is the ventral premotor cortex, the portion of the brain responsible for formulating and carrying out intentions.

When it comes to intentions, the brain’s copycats were pretty specific. If the monkey was able to comprehend what the researcher was doing, such as placing a banana in his mouth, the neurons would fire. But if the monkey observed an action that it didn’t recognize or could not relate to, the neurons would not fire.

To apply this principle to life, if what I visualize in my head is incomprehensible, then it would be more difficult to carry out the action. I realized some of the intentions on my to do list were large projects that were vague, with steps within the project that I did not have down. There were many of those on Saturday that just clogged my brain into a freeze.

I made things more familiar and comprehensible for myself the next day, Sunday. I decided to take my laptop to a café by the beach and write this blog article. This was one thing to do in one location and I promised myself I would not leave the café until this one thing was completed. And I can tell you I felt really good after writing this. One step at a time is what it all takes!

A tip for you is to break down tasks into small steps. For example, if you are planning your child’s summer camp, this task can seem overwhelming. But if you break down the list with separate items consisting of: web searching different camps, blocking off family vacation times, choosing available dates, calling your baby sitter for availability for pick up on the days you are unavailable, narrowing down to 2 choices, discussing with your child and giving them a choice between the 2 camps etc, all these steps can be done in one day, or a few days, and you are still checking off, one at a time, 6 separate things you need to get to the end goal of having summer camp arranged. And you will feel much happier doing it. This way of braking things down will be less stressful because this makes tasks more comprehensible by your brain. Whether you are copying someone else like the monkey, or formulating intensions in your head, the best way to get something done is to be sure you can relate and comprehend it, and that it gives you a sense of connection. Stay tuned, I’ll write about human connection next time.

I also want to mention that sometimes feeling unproductive can also be due to: physical fatigue, lack of nutrients for focus in the brain, anxiety, depression, unhealthy beliefs or in-congruency between your real wants and your projects. Schedule your appointment now to discuss this further with Dr. Chan.