Push Back Your Clock of Aging

By Roslyn Rogers, CNC

The balancing of hormones for men and for women has become a very important message for health! The reason is that our hormones are chemical messengers that tell our bodies what to do, when to do it, and why! Our hormones rule over the endocrine system, consisting of the pituitary, hypothalamus, thyroid, and adrenal glands. If one hormone is out of balance, we can experience many different uncomfortable symptoms that we might not even think are related to our hormones, but certainly are.

Some symptoms that can occur from hormonal imbalances are: aches and pains, sleeplessness, moodiness, fatigue, osteoporosis, wrinkling skin, even weight gain and water retention, as well as many others.

Why are we experiencing these imbalances?

A big part of the answer is that everyday we use so many things that are made from petroleum. The byproducts from petroleum can act as strong estrogens, getting into our cells causing unpleasant symptoms as well as estrogen-dominant cancers. Petroleum can be found in shampoos, conditioners, body lotions, cleaning products, fabric softeners, perfumes, and in the exhausts from cars and planes. One way to protect ourselves is to shop for products that don’t have parabens in them, as parabens are petroleum-based.

Some of the most popular food that we eat also contain estrogens. Cows are given the hormone of estrogen to make them grow bigger and fatter faster. So make sure that when using dairy (milk, cheeses, yogurt), and buying meat, they are without hormones. Chickens and eggs also need to be antibiotic and pesticide free to ensure that what we eat will not create an abundance of harmful estrogens that can cause our cells to proliferate or grow.

What can we do to resolve these imbalances?

Use a natural bio-identical hormone cream that comes from a wild yam plant. These creams are put onto thin-skinned areas, and very often, in a short period of time, these symptoms go away (for women and men as well)! As I travel around the U.S. meeting people, I have learned, especially from women, that when they begin to balance their hormones, hot flashes, vaginal dryness, night sweats, lack of their libido, PMS, and forgetfulness, are all a thing of their past. When men become more balanced, their libidos come back, weight is easier to manage, and their prostate glands are in better shape.

Thyroid Disorders Rampant – Part I

By Carol B. Blair, BS, DiHom, CNC, Wellness Educator

In our society today, thyroid disorders have become rampant, especially among women since they have larger thyroids than men as well as more hormonal fluctuations. In this article, I will focus on hypothyroidism (low-functioning thyroid), which is often under-diagnosed. Typically, only the thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) is measured. My naturopathic doctor, however, looks at the entire clinical picture and uses the blood test as confirmation only. Further, she suggests that most individuals feel better when the TSH is on the low end of the range on the blood test. TSH is produced by the pituitary gland, but gets its message from the hypothalamus, and the hypothalamus can nearly shut down when stress occurs. When my brother died of a Coumadin bleed three years ago, my thyroid went into a rapid downward spiral. I was able to get it back on track in a few months with natural supplements.

One of the best gauges of a thyroid issue is the old Brody Barnes test of symptoms along with basal body temperature. Take your temperature first thing in the morning before you get out of bed. If your temperature is 97.4 or below, discuss it with your doctor because you likely have thyroid AND adrenal problems. If you try to correct the thyroid first, you will end up with more issues. You need to work on the adrenals and the thyroid simultaneously.

The thyroid is a hard-working gland that affects every cell in the body. Hypothyroidism has over 40 symptoms. Some of the most common are thinning hair, inability to lose weight, constipation, dry skin, leg and foot cramps, goiter, depression, cold intolerance, impaired memory, high cholesterol, and infertility. There are many more!

Iodine is one of the key nutrients for the thyroid. A combination of iodine and the amino acid, tyrosine, makes T-4 which must be converted to T-3, the active hormone in the body. This requires good liver function, and there are many supplements including glycine that can help in this regard. When we are stressed, the adrenal hormone, cortisol, often becomes elevated and interferes with the body’s ability to convert T-4 to T-3; this conversion also requires adequate selenium, zinc, copper, iron, and vitamin D3 at the very least.

In the body, the halogens, fluoride, chlorine, and bromine (from bromated flour) can all fill iodine receptor sites reducing the availability of iodine. Fluoride also binds to selenium making it unusable. Factor in that selenium and zinc are also quenched by mercury, arsenic, and cadmium as well as the day-to-day detoxification of chemicals, and you have the makings for hypothyroidism.

Check back next Thursday for Part II of this article.