Preventing Estrogen Dominance

Estrogen dominance means having little or no progesterone to balance out the effects of too much estrogen in the body. If you are feeling tired and fat, suffer from major mood swings, suffer frequent migraine headaches, decreased sex drive and unrelenting brain fog, there is a strong chance that you are estrogen dominant . To restore balance you should check with your doctor in order to get your hormone levels checked. Once your results are in, your doctor can determine how much progesterone you need for proper hormonal balance. You can also alter your diet.

Causes of Estrogen Dominance

• The root causes of estrogen dominance have to do with ingesting too much pesticides in our food and beverage supply. These chemicals, called xenoestrogens, are similar to the natural estrogen in a woman's body. Pesticides are easily absorbed through the fat cells of meats, and when we eat these meats our bodies absorb the pesticides too. Cells in our bodies have estrogen receptors that recognize and open to the shape of estrogen molecules regardless of where they come from. Years of eating chemically laden foods eventually predisposes a woman to accumulate too many xenoestrogens, eventually causing one hormone to kick into overdrive and possibly causing another to go into hibernation.

  Xenoestrogens do not only cause hormonal imbalances, but they are also carcinogens. That is the reason why most breast cancers are estrogen-positive. A woman's best defense is to avoid eating all non-organic foods and meats. Fish, poultry and beef have the most amount of xenoestrogens.

Altering Your Diet

• You can balance your hormones without additional hormones by making a few dietary tweaks. You need to consume more omega-3s, the building blocks of reproductive hormones. Salmon, tuna and flounder are all excellent sources of omegas. Be sure to buy an organic brand that is free of mercury and other contaminants. If you don't like fish, try salmon oil supplements.

  Supplement more vitamin D in your diet as it plays a key role in the synthesis and metabolism of estrogen and progesterone. The recommended daily dosage is between 1,000 IU to 4,000 IU.

  Also make sure to eat an ample amount of veggies from the Brassia family. Broccoli, cabbage and cauliflower are rich in phytonutrients such as indole-3-carbinol. These compounds are known to help the liver flush out artificial estrogens that you may have ingested from eating chemically laden foods and beverages.

  Be sure to eat a fair amount of magnesium-rich foods or magnesium supplements as well. This important mineral can help the body break down excess estrogen and ease stress. Excellent sources include almonds, spinach, black beans and dark chocolate.

Bioidentical Progesterone

• If after a month or so of tweaking your diet you still see no change, consider going to a doctor, who can test your hormones and possibly prescribe bioidentical hormones to help restore balance. If blood work reveals that you are estrogen dominant, your doctor may prescribe bioidentical progesterone to help restore balance. Hormone replacement must be taken very seriously, so once you are on them you must get checked periodically to make sure you are on the right dosage.

Be Vigilant

• Hormone imbalance is an epidemic caused by the pesticides that we ingest from foods and beverages that women only two generations ago did not have to contend with. Estrogen dominance can cause breast cancer, the leading type of which is estrogen-positive.