The Female Hormone Problem
By:
Dr. Randy Wysong
With increasing population pressure and
modern independent lifestyles, procreation has become an option
that is declined, or at least significantly restricted. But with
these decisions women remove themselves from a natural
biological role. Additionally, opting for synthetic milk
formulas and treating the breast as an ornament, rather than a
feeding organ, also disengages women from a natural biological
function.
When these choices are coupled with the use of contraceptive
hormones, hormone replacement therapy, an increasing load of
estrogenic pollutants in the environment and food, and a diet
that has veered significantly from its natural design, the
formula for hormonal pandemonium, metabolic dysfunction and
disease is in place. The results are manifest today in early
menses in children (beginning as early as eight and nine years
of age),
infertility, abnormal and erratic menstrual
cycles, cervical dysplasia, fibroids, endometrial cancer, breast
cancer, premenstrual syndrome, dramatic mood swings, depression,
osteoporosis, and the hot flashes, psychological problems,
decreased libido, thinning of the vaginal wall and other
symptoms of abnormal
menopause.
If women would have as many children as they are capable of,
nurse them for years as they are designed to, eat natural foods
and live in a more pristine environment, these modern health
problems would disappear. If money flowed out of our tap we
wouldn’t have economic problems either, right? Nevertheless,
although the ideal biological lifestyle may not be possible for
any of us today, we can take a lesson and try to move our lives
as close to the ideal as possible.
At present, the desire to eliminate or limit pregnancies is a
personal choice. But it may one day not even be an option. We
either curtail population growth or we will outstrip resources
and be buried in our own refuse. Population is the engine that
ultimately drives all environmental woes. We live on a finite
planet with finite resources, but have an infinite ability to
breed. We either live within the limits of Earth’s sustainable
resources or we will destroy ourselves.
So we have a dilemma. As I will explain, women need to fulfill
their reproductive role to achieve metabolic balance and
health, but at the same time they do not want
to be restricted by the burdens of large families, nor are large
families socially or environmentally responsible.
In an attempt to solve this dilemma, women have turned to the
quick fix of synthetic hormones. There are hormones to control
conception, modulate abnormal menstrual cycles, for sex drive
and to fix menopause. But there is no free lunch. Since the
1940’s, when estrogen therapy became popular, hundreds of
thousands of women have succumbed to estrogen-sensitive cancer.
For example, a woman is 13 times more likely to get endometrial
cancer and there is a 30% increased risk of
breast
cancer by taking estrogen. The two top
preventable breast cancer risks are now known to be oral
birth
control
pills and estrogen replacement therapy.
Some women justify the use of estrogen for the putative benefits
of decreased risk of osteoporosis and cardiovascular disease.
But they have succumbed to marketing, not good sense. Proper
exercise, diet and lifestyle choices can have the same
beneficial effect without the potential consequence of cancer.
But hey, why change lifestyle when all you need to do is take a
pill?
Here’s what nature intended and why living in accordance with it
is protective against the modern plague of female cancers. The
average mom today chooses to give birth to about two infants. On
the other hand, women in the primitive natural setting who may
not even know what causes pregnancy or how to prevent it even if
they wanted to, would have started menstruating and ovulating at
age 12 and would have delivered 9 babies and breast-fed them
all. When they did breastfeed, they did so for up to five or
more years. Pregnancy stops the reproductive hormone cycles
(that generate estrogen) since there is room in the uterus for
only one pregnancy. Nursing also stops the cycle because the
body “knows” that lactation and caring for an infant is about
all one body can endure.
This means that the modern woman who has only two children would
reproductively cycle and ovulate 438 times during her lifetime.
On the other hand, the combination of more numerous pregnancies
along with extended breast-feeding would have decreased the
number of ovulations and cycles that a primitive mother would
have had to about 9.
This means that women today cycle through their menstrual
periods an abnormal number of times, causing repeated surges of
estrogen--about 50 times more than nature intended. Little
wonder that estrogen sensitive cancers abound in our modern
world. The cancer-estrogen link is also proven by the fact that
such
cancers in humans and animals are decreased if
the estrogen generating ovaries are surgically removed. (I am
just making a point, not advocating the procedure since the
absence of estrogen creates problems as well.)
The resting periods of lower estrogen that women experienced in
the pre-modern setting during pregnancy and lactation served as
a protective effect against cancer. (Women today can even
dramatically decrease their risk of breast cancer by nursing
their young for even as little as two years.) Additionally, the
fresh foods of the natural diet contain compounds known as
phytoestrogens. These plant estrogenic compounds are able to
attach to estrogen receptor sites in the body and prevent the
stronger ovarian estrogens from attaching to tissues. However,
the phytoestrogens only exert a mild estrogenic effect and even
inhibit oncogene (tumor
genes) expression and thus are not cancer promoting. This is the
logic behind plant-based
nutritional
supplements (nutraceuticals) to help women
with estrogenic problems and cancer prevention.
Hormones are master regulators of body function. They cannot be
manipulated either by lifestyle choices or medications without
serious consequences. Women do well to think of their genetic
heritage and try to live life as close to that as possible if
health is the goal.
For further reading, or for more information about, Dr Wysong
and the Wysong Corporation please visit
www.wysong.net or write
to wysong@wysong.net. For resources on
healthier
foods for people including snacks, and
breakfast cereals please visit
www.cerealwysong.com.
Article
Source: http://www.articlerich.com
Dr. Wysong: A former veterinary clinician
and surgeon, college instructor in human anatomy, physiology and
the origin of life, inventor of numerous medical, surgical,
nutritional, athletic and fitness products and devices, research
director for the present company by his name and founder of the
philanthropic Wysong Institute.
www.wysong.net.
Also check out
www.cerealwysong.com.
