Hormone Life Cycle

We make hormones, use them and get rid of them (hormone detoxification). Imbalance can occur at any of these stages or steps. For example, there are ‘fake’ hormones in many plastic water bottles. These fake hormones – called xenoestrogens – give commands that sound like nonsense to your organs. Your body produces inflammation in that region to trying get rid of (detoxification) the fake hormone. This is a common cause of fibroids in the breast or uterus.

Hormones Come From Fats

Good fats make good hormones. Bad fats make bad hormones. Your liver converts dietary fats into cholesterol., and your liver makes different kinds of cholesterol. Good cholesterol (HDL) makes good hormones. Bad cholesterol (LDL) makes bad hormones. To maintain a good hormone balance, eat good fats and take essential fatty acid supplements such as OmegaPrime®.

Hormones Are Easily Imbalanced

As mentioned earlier, certain toxins will disrupt hormones.  The number one disrupter that causing hormone imbalance may be toxins, and a close second is stress. Remember, toxins disrupt hormones by replacing them and speaking nonsense and creating inflammation in your body. Stress disrupts hormones by blocking or preventing your body from converting good fats into good cholesterol (usually seen in low HDL in your blood test) and converting cholesterol into the finished hormones such as estrogen and testosterone. This is usually seen in elevated total cholesterol and elevated ‘bad’ cholesterol.

The main hormone processing center is the liver. Here hormones are created and removed (detoxified). Your master control centers direct the liver to make more cholesterol in response to low hormones. Once ‘used,’ liver enzymes must detoxify hormones and excrete them. If hormones linger too long they become toxic.

Most signs of hormone imbalance, from night sweats to weight gain around the abdomen, are signs of hormone toxicity. Other signs we may not readily recognize as hormone imbalance include thinning hair and thinning muscles. Whatever the signs you are experiencing, for hormone detoxification we have no better approach than the supplement Balanced Woman® and Prostate Health Formula™. Balanced Woman supports liver detoxification. Prostate Health Formula hinders the good hormones from being neutralized and turned into dormant hormones.

Conclusion

Many causes of hormone imbalance are resolved with simple application of nutrients and nurturing: nutrients to support the making, using, and detoxification of hormones. Nurturing to encourage stress management, peaceful sleep, vigorous activity and a diet high in good fats, low in bad fats. We need to do all we can to live a healthy life and rely on medical care as a supplement to “self-care.”

• To help “make” hormones: take OmegaPrime
• To help “use” hormones: take Adaptuit™,  (also consider Cholestria™ if your cholesterol is elevated)
• To detoxify hormones: take Balanced Woman, and/or Prostate Health Formula

• Antecedents – An antecedent is something that comes before something else. It could be something like stress, an enzyme deficiency or an imbalance in probiotics. FloraVita™ and Adaptuit™ might be helpful in addressing many antecedents of indigestion.

• Triggers – Anything from food allergies to infections, toxins, bad food combinations and overeating can be a trigger. Your trigger is whatever triggers indigestion in you today – right now, and they can change over time.

• Inflammatory mediators – These are the chemicals secreted by your cells to help correct the imbalance created by antecedents and triggers. Inflammation is your body’s way of coping with injury, toxicity, certain deficiencies (a fiber deficiency, for example, may cause indigestion), and stress. Indigestion causes pain and discomfort which can motivate us to do something that restores balance.

Some tips for reducing indigestion include:

• Eat in a happy environment, preferably surrounded by people you love and happy conversation.
• Eat slowly and chew your food thoroughly until it is liquid.
• Select high-fiber, low-sugar foods.
• Don’t combine sweet foods with concentrated proteins.
• Don’t drink too much alcohol.
• Don’t overeat.

If stress is an antecedent of indigestion for you, consider taking one ounce of Adaptuit at the beginning of each meal. If you believe low enzymes or imbalanced probiotics are a source of indigestion for you, consider taking two FloraVita at the beginning of each meal.

Food allergies are real and valid causes of indigestion. Consider being tested for food allergies if you experience frequent heartburn and indigestion. Infections such as Helicobacter pylori can also cause indigestion and require medical treatment; there is often a zinc deficiency near the root of many digestive infections.  Zinc is an essential mineral found in a daily multi-nutrient complex like TriVita’s  Wellavoh™ and VitaDaily™ AM/PM.

Many people find relief from indigestion by following these simple suggestions and taking Nopalea™ once or twice daily.  Nopalea reduces inflammation that may be causing the “fire in the belly” called indigestion that affects millions of people!

Note:   Always see your physician when you have chronic indigestion as this may be a sign of a serious condition.

Next time we will discuss the special need of vitamin B12 for vegetarians.

Next time, we’ll discuss pregnancy’s affect on B12 demand.

The New York Herald Tribune newspaper quoted the highly respected hematologist, Victor Herbert, M.D. of New York’s Mount Sinai Hospital. He attributed the blame for many patients being committed to mental hospitals to brain damage that resulted from a lack of B12.  The British Medical Journal editorial staff dramatically stated, “It is true that vitamin B12 deficiency may cause severe psychotic symptoms which may vary in severity from mild disorders of mood, mental slowness, and memory defect to severe psychotic symptoms – Occasionally, these mental disturbances may be the first manifestations of B12 deficiency”. Do you possibly have friends and acquaintances who have been similarly misdiagnosed on account of a lack of understanding of the devastation a B12 deficiency can create?

Adverse changes can occur in the nervous system due to a B12 deficiency.  Changes can include such problems as soreness and weakness of the limbs, diminished reflexes and sensory perception, poor body temperature regulation, walking difficulties, stammering and tremors, depression, paranoia, listlessness, an acute state of confusion, hallucinations, delusions, insomnia, anxiety, psychosis, lack of mental alertness, mania, panic attacks, personality change and suicide.

A B12 deficiency is something even a doctor might not think of looking for, or not find even if he did look. He could easily check the patient’s blood, find the blood levels of B12 relatively normal and presume there is no sign of anemia, and misdiagnose the problem. An early diagnosis of a B12 deficiency might not occur because the relationship of vitamin blood levels to the symptoms the patient is experiencing is not grasped . This is a serious matter, because the end result of untreated cerebral or spinal lesions created by B12 deficiency may be severe dementia and paraplegia. These may be irreversible when treatment is delayed by failure in diagnosis.

You need to know that problems associated with a B12 deficiency may occur long before a diagnosable case of pernicious anemia occurs. Pernicious anemia does not just affect the blood. The gastrointestinal tract and the peripheral and central nervous systems are affected as well. The first indications of anemia are a sore tongue and numbness and/or tingling or burning sensation in the hands or feet. Sufferers tend to be pale and white-lipped. A variety of abdominal difficulties include: gas, constipation or diarrhea, nausea, vomiting, pain, and poor appetite.

Other signs include ringing in the ears, spots before the eyes, chronic fatigue, drowsiness, and irritability.  Vital organs become starved for oxygen because not enough red blood cells are being formed. The liver and spleen often become enlarged, and neurological damage increases as the disease progresses.  Severe anemia may lead to heart failure.

Next time, we will discuss psychiatric abnormalities associated with B12 deficiency.

Several causes may lead to a B12 deficiency, but the usual reason one develops pernicious anemia is the inability to absorb the vitamin. The natural means of obtaining vitamin B12 is by way of the foods we eat, but B12 is not found in plants. You must eat protein foods such as liver, whole milk, eggs, oysters, pork or chicken, and its complex structure makes it much more difficult to absorb in comparison to other nutrients. In addition, the stomach secretes a substance known as “intrinsic factor” which binds to the B12 allowing it to be absorbed through the intestinal walls.

 An absence of vitamin B12 in the diet is seldom the cause of a vitamin B12 deficiency. It is much more common to find deficiencies in individuals who fail to absorb the vitamin from the intestine. This failure to absorb the vitamin results in pernicious anemia. The gastric parietal cells are responsible for the synthesis of a glycoprotein (a combination of carbohydrate and protein), called the “intrinsic factor”. When these cells are destroyed, the intrinsic factor is no longer produced and absorption of vitamin B12 is no longer possible.  Furthermore, as we reach the age of 50 and beyond, the stomach begins to produce less hydrochloric acid as well as less “intrinsic factor.” This is the condition that causes the elderly to have the inability to completely break down the protein in their diet, thus they are unable to free the protein-bound B12. This in turn creates the B12 deficiency.

 If an individual is missing or under producing “intrinsic factor,” it is not possible to absorb B12 regardless of how much one eats. The availability of “intrinsic factor” can also be affected by any type of stomach surgery, iron deficiency, pregnancy, aging, and intestinal disorders (like Crohn’s disease). Because of all these factors, many more people than generally recognized suffer from some level of B12 deficiency. 

 The “good news” to this is that when taking a sublingual B12 supplement, it does not matter whether or not you have any “intrinsic factor”, or even Crohn’s disease for that matter. The B12 will be absorbed directly into the bloodstream, thus by-passing any dependency on stomach hydrochloric acid or the production of the “intrinsic factor”.

 Next time, we’ll discuss how devastating a B12 deficiency can be.

I’m sometimes asked if vitamin B12 is really that important and if there is any difference between sublingual B12 and a regular B12 supplement. So, in the next few posts, we’ll look into these questions.

Not too long ago in the United States, a diagnosis of pernicious anemia was like a death sentence. Now, picture this, the first therapy for pernicious anemia was the eating of repulsive amounts of raw liver! Patients had to eat a half pound or more per day just to continue living. The thought of that makes me gag!  Fortunately, that is no longer required because in 1947 vitamin B12 was isolated from liver and found to be the factor that alleviated pernicious anemia.

The discovery of vitamin B12 led to the knowledge of both the cause of and the cure for pernicious anemia. This form of anemia develops due to a shortage or lack of B12 in the body. It will cause damage to both the blood-forming process and the nervous system.  As a result of the B12 deficiency, the bone marrow produces abnormally large red blood cells. The life span of these affected blood cells is only one-half that of normal cells.

 The bone marrow turns red and jelly-like. This results in a decrease of both the red and white blood cell count. The normal count for red blood cells is 5,000,000.  One suffering from pernicious anemia may experience a red blood cell count of only 1,000.  The white blood cell count may fall to 3,000 as compared to a normal range of 5,000 to 10,000.  Blood cells suffer from both arrested development and rapid destruction. These two factors prevent many blood cells from ever reaching the bloodstream.  Harm to the nervous system can range from a tingling sensation in the fingers to permanent impairment to the nerves; 40 to 95 percent of pernicious anemia victims suffer some degree of neurological damage.

Next time, we will look into “intrinsic factor”, another significant factor involved with B12 anemia.

The best defense is a good offense, right!  Especially, when it comes to your immune system. By practicing healthy lifestyle habits and reducing exposure to infection (offense), you can better help protect against illness (defense).

Why you get sick or not – or not?
Louis Pasteur and Antoine Bechamp were both keenly aware of the same things you and I experience every year: during the cold and flu season, some people get sick and some people don’t.

Pasteur devoted his life looking for what makes sick people sick, and Bechamp spent his looking for what keeps healthy people healthy - and how we can be like them! Both men settled their argument with the discovery that illness visits people with poor habits much more frequently than those who care for their health.

As the beast in nuture prefer to pay on the weak, so microbes prefer to wreak their havoc on people with compromised immune systems.  Even simple things can compromise our immune system, including:

• An imbalanced diet
• Alcohol and caffeine consumption
• An argument with someone you love

Pasteur and Bechamp discovered, more than a century ago, that our health depends more on a healthy lifestyle than on the virulence of a microbe.

Help protect against illness
The phrase that describes our vulnerability or resistance to disease is “biological terrain.” Your genetics, your environment and, most importantly, your lifestyle make up the terrain of your health. Vigorous application of the 10 Essentials yields the healthiest, most disease-resistant terrain. Skipping even one of these principles will change your terrain and leave you vulnerable to infection.

• A base of healthy nutrients
  Establishing a base of healthy nutrients can provide a very resilient terrain. The more dense the base is, the more disease-resistant your terrain will be. Taking a multiple vitamin and mineral supplement every day is an excellent start. Many physicians recommend an Omega-3 supplement as well. If your terrain is being remodeled by stress, you may need adaptogens to help you cope while remaining disease-resistant. Indeed, the long-term studies of adaptogens in Russia clearly demonstrated that these plants help you resist infections and speed healing.
• Vitamin C
  Vitamin C is a favorite for protecting against and even treating viral infections. Russell Jaffe, MD, former director of the National Institutes of Health, recommends a loading dose of Vitamin C: one teaspoon of Vitamin C crystals every 15 minutes until you “flush.” By this, he means a complete bowel evacuation. After the flush, he recommends a daily serving of Vitamin C (for one month) that is equivalent to 75% of the amount it took you to flush. This should really improve your terrain!
• Echinacea
  Echinacea is used in a similar way. Significant medical research from Germany suggests that an hourly dose of Echinacea will help reduce symptoms and may help shorten the duration of a virus infection. Taking a gram of Echinacea every hour for three days may even “abort” an infection that has already begun. Continue taking Echinacea three times daily for up to two weeks afterward to protect against a relapse.

Reduce your exposure
Here are some great recommendations for reducing your exposure to infection:

• Wash your hands
  First, the largest contributor to infection is unwashed hands. Washing your hands with soap every few hours will reduce the chance for pathogens to gain access to your system. You should also make sure they are completely dry. Then, use the disposable towel to open the door out of the washroom. Many ugly microbes lurk on door handles – usually from people who have not properly washed and dried their hands.
• Clean surfaces
  Next, disinfect surfaces that are shared by many people. For instance, public telephones bring you within kissing distance of hundreds or even thousands of people. Who knows what their hygiene habits were? In a typical day we may be exposed to germs from as many as 150 countries or more!
• Reduce stress
  Reduce stress. Stress decreases the effectiveness of your immune system. Your immune system may begin to overreact or not react in time to stop an infection when you are under stress. The source of the stress really doesn’t matter. Job stress and an injury may seem like entirely different stresses to your mind but they are treated exactly the same way by your body.

Remember, building up your terrain and reducing your exposure are keys to a great offense… which will help improve your defense!

                                              Take Charge of Your Health

• Aggressively apply the 10 Essentials
• Take a “base” of nutrients:
  • A multiple vitamin and mineral supplement
  • An Omega-3 fatty acid supplement
  • A stress-specific antioxidant supplement
  • Vitamin C
• Reduce your exposure
  • Wash your hands every few hours and dry thoroughly
  • Disinfect common area surfaces

Learn More… The proper way to wash your hands