‘It Feels Like a Derangement’: Menopause, Depression, & Me

Estrogen 

Click the link above to read the full article:

Estrogen is more powerful and more wide-ranging than is assumed, and its removal or diminishment brings effects ludicrously understated by “the change.”

The New York Review of Books

• Rose George

 

 Give a shoutout to Joanna Nix-Walkup on social or copy the text below to attribute.

 

 

Hormone therapy, long shunned for a possible breast cancer link, is now seen as safe

HRT

Click the link above to read an article in The Washington Post, about Hormone Therapy.  This is good news for women who are experiencing a difficult Menopause.

12 Drug-Free Ways to Cool Hot Flashes

Hot Flushes

Another very helpful article by GreenMedInfo!

Posted on:

Wednesday, October 30th 2019 at 12:15 pm

Written By:

GreenMedInfo Research Group

This article is copyrighted by GreenMedInfo LLC, 2019
Visit our Re-post guidelines

From acupuncture to peppermint oil, there are a wide range of natural, evidence-based alternatives to drugs for alleviating hot flashes
Hot flashes are most often associated with menopause.  But breast cancer survivors can have particularly severe and frequent flashes when chemotherapy or surgery sends them into premature menopause.
Many women find relief with hormone replacement therapy (HRT).  But breast cancer survivors aren't candidates for HRT because of concerns that estrogen promotes breast cancer.
Researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania investigated the efficacy of acupuncture to relieve hot flashes.  They compared acupuncture to the epilepsy drug gabapentin, which was previously shown to reduce hot flashes in breast cancer patients.
Their results are published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.[i]  They found that acupuncture is a viable treatment for hot flashes in breast cancer patients and is more effective than gabapentin.
In the study, 120 breast cancer survivors with multiple daily hot flashes were randomized into four groups.  One group received electroacupuncture (in which needles deliver weak electrical currents) twice a week for two weeks, then once a week. A second group received "sham" electroacupuncture.
The third and fourth groups received 900 mg of gabapentin a day or a placebo pill.
After eight weeks of treatment, the acupuncture group showed the greatest improvement in hot flash frequency and severity.   In fact, even the sham acupuncture group found more relief than the drug or placebo groups.
After 16 weeks the acupuncture groups reported even more abatement of their hot flashes.  But the drug group reported a worsening of symptoms.
The lead author was quoted as saying:

"Acupuncture is an exotic therapy, elicits the patient's active participation, and involves a greater patient-provider interaction, compared with taking a pill. Importantly, the results of this trial show that even sham acupuncture -- which is effectively a placebo -- is more effective than medications. The placebo effect is often dismissed as noise, but these results suggest we should be taking a closer look at how we can best harness it."

The researchers noted that acupuncture is more than a placebo and may work by boosting blood levels of endorphins and related painkilling, mood-elevating molecules.
Hot flashes are brief episodes of flushing, sweating, racing heartbeat and sensations of heat. They can last for a minute or for an hour.  Some women experience the flashes for a short time during menopause while others have them for the rest of their lives.
Precisely how hot flashes arise isn't known, though they are closely associated with decreased estrogen levels.  Many doctors believe that too many stress hormones exacerbate the flashes.
11 More Natural Ways To Cool Hot Flashes
1. Yoga. Studies show yoga may be effective in managing hot flashes and night sweats.[ii]
2. Meditation. Mindfulness based stress reduction practices were shown to reduce hot flashes by 22% after 20 weeks. [iii]
3. Peppermint oil.  Putting a drop of peppermint essential oil on the back of your neck can quickly cool a hot flash.
4. Pomegranates. Many foods can help balance hormones.  Pomegranates produce three types of estrogen – estrone, estriol, and estradiol and may help relieve hot flashes.
5. Avoid Trigger Foods. Caffeine, spicy foods and alcohol are all heat-producing substances that contribute to hot flashes. Instead, try cooling foods like melon, bean sprouts, celery, apples, asparagus and grapes.
6. Buy Organic. Most meat and dairy in your supermarket comes from animals treated with hormones that may compound an estrogen imbalance. Stick with hormone-free organic meat and dairy.
7. Eat More Flax Seeds. Many fruits and vegetables contain weak plant estrogens called phytoestrogens.  They bind to estrogen receptors and have an estrogenic effect if your estrogen levels are too low.  They also block stronger estrogens if your levels are too high.  Common foods with phytoestrogens include blueberries, cherries, cranberries, carrots, bananas, beets, oranges, onions, peppers, oats, plums, olives and potatoes. Flax seeds have particularly strong phytoestrogens.  One study showed eating 40 grams a day of flax seeds reduce hot flashes by 50% and severity by 57%.  Flax seeds also beat HRT for menopause symptoms.
8. Black Cohosh. This relative of the buttercup is among the most popular natural remedies for hot flashes and the most studied.  One meta-analysis proves black cohosh is effective for reducing hot flashes.
9. Red Clover. Red clover contains a type of phytoestrogen called isoflavones.  Netherland researchers found that 80 mg of red clover a day reduced hot flashes by 44% in 30 menopausal women.[iv]
10. Evening Primrose Oil. A six week randomized trial found that 500 mg of evening primrose oil a day reduced hot flash frequency by 39%, hot flash severity by 42%, and hot flash duration by 19%.[v]
11. Drop Some Weight. Researchers at the University of California, San Francisco studied 338 women with an average age of 53 who were overweight or obese and half of whom reported bothersome hot flashes.  They found that decreases in weight, body mass index (BMI) and abdominal circumference were each associated with improvement in self-reported hot flashes over a period of six months.[vi]

For more information visit Green Med Info's page on hot flashes.

Originally published: 2016-01-15

Article updated: 2019-10-30

---

Flaxseed Beats HRT in Reducing Menopause Symptoms in Clinical Study

Menopause

Posted on:

Saturday, February 9th 2019 at 5:45 am

Written By:

Case Adams, Naturopath

Views 35740

This article is copyrighted by GreenMedInfo LLC, 2019
Visit our Re-post guidelines

Both men and women can face menopausal syndrome in varying degrees. But hormone replacement therapy is riddled with risk, from heart disease to cancer. A recent clinical study finds flaxseed beats out HRT therapy in overall effectiveness for menopausal syndrome.
As a woman heads into her menopausal years, she may be met with varying degrees of what is often referred to as menopausal syndrome. Men too sometimes face some symptoms of menopausal syndrome during those years, but such symptoms and occurrence are generally less severe.
Menopause is not a disease. It is a natural metabolic change that accompanies changes that revolve around reproductive abilities. Menopause is distinguished from perimenopause in that menopause occurs when menstruation stops completely. During perimenopause, a woman might have irregular menstruation or she may miss menstruation for a month or more before it returns. In contrast, the typical criteria for menopause include not menstruating for more than a year.
Issues women face regarding menopause in addition to the discontinuance of menstruation and the loss of reproductive abilities include a host of menopause syndrome-related symptoms such as mood swings, joint pain, hot flushes and night sweats, insomnia and others.
Men sometimes also have these symptoms during their 50s and 60s, though generally less severe.
The reason for much of menopausal syndrome relates to the body producing less estrogen. For women this means their ovaries are simply producing and secreting less estrogen.
Men produce estrogen by converting testosterone with an enzyme called aromatase.
This means that reduced levels of aromatase, testosterone or both can lead to lower than healthy estrogen levels in men.

Estrogen reception

Many of the cells of the body contain estrogen receptors on their surface. When estrogen attaches to these estrogen receptors, it stimulates the cell to function in a number of ways.
These include stimulating the production of critical substances, such as collagen in the case of skin cells, cortisol in other cells (which balances inflammation and increases energy), mucosal secretions among mucosal linings, and neurotransmitters that assist in mood balance and cognition among neuron cells.
When the body's production of estrogen is dramatically reduced – in both men and women – the receptors will lie dormant or be replaced by non-estrogens. This causes the cells to produce less of these important substances, and produce the symptoms linked to menopausal syndrome that both men and women can experience.

Phytoestrogens as estrogen replacement

In both men and women, phytoestrogens can help alleviate problematic symptoms related to low estrogen levels. Phytoestrogens are contained generally in plant-based foods: Grains, beans, seeds, fruits and vegetables.
Phytoestrogens are nature's estrogens. They attach to estrogen receptors just as estrogen does, and thus stimulate most of the same activities that estrogen does.
Among phytoestrogen sources, some of the highest levels of phytoestrogens are found in soy and flax. And clinical research has supported the fact that these two foods can significantly reduce menopausal symptoms.

Flaxseed clinically tested for menopausal symptoms

This is what was found in a recent study which also compared flaxseeds to pharmaceutical hormone replacement therapy (HRT). Researchers from the Departments of Nursing and Pharmacy at Turkey's Izmir Katip Celebi University investigated the potential of flaxseed reducing menopausal symptoms with 140 women volunteers who had not experienced menstruation for at least a year.
The women were divided into four groups of 35. Groups one and two did not take - nor had they been taking - hormone replacement therapy. Both of these groups were given five grams of flaxseed per day. (A tablespoon of whole flaxseed equals about 11 grams.) They received the flaxseed from the researchers in bulk and took the flaxseeds daily for three months. The only difference between group one and group two is that group two also received information training about menopause.
Group three received hormone replacement therapy as prescribed by a physician. Their HRT consisted of 2 milligrams of estradiol hemihydrate and 1 milligram of norethindrone acetate per day.
Meanwhile, group four – the control group – received no treatment.
The length of the study was three months for all four groups.
Everyone in all four groups received two tests at the beginning and end of the testing period. The testing consisted of the Menopause Rating Scale – first used in 1992 – and the SP-36 Quality-of-Life Scale – a leading test since 1987. The menopausal rating scale measured the various menopausal issues including intensity and frequency.
The scores for the tests before and after the three months were analyzed by computer to create a statistical analysis for the results.

Flaxseed matches HRT in reducing menopausal symptoms

After the three months, the researchers found the groups that consumed the five grams of flax per day had significantly fewer and less-intense menopausal syndrome symptoms.
The group that didn't receive any HRT treatment nor flaxseeds (control group) had increased menopausal syndrome symptoms by an average of 7%.
Groups one and two had a decrease in menopausal syndrome symptoms, by an average of nearly 9% and 10%.
This actually means that the daily flaxseeds improved menopausal symptoms by up to 17% when compared to the control group.
Meanwhile, those women who received pharmaceutical HRT drugs also saw their menopausal symptoms decrease, by about 10%. This was slightly higher (10% compared to 9.8%) than group two, but the difference was very slight.

Quality of life scores reveal flax' advantage over HRT

One might wonder what is the advantage of flaxseed over pharmaceutical hormone replacement therapy - besides cost. While flaxseed therapy with menopause education basically matched HRT in the reduction of symptoms, there is more to hormonal therapy than simply menopausal syndrome symptoms.
The two flaxseed groups in this study experienced significantly improved Quality-of-Life scores. Group one's QOL scores increased from 38.93 to 49.00, while group two saw QOL scores increase from 38.63 to 41.69.

The HRT group, however, had reduced Quality-of-Life scores. Their scores went down from 37.29 to 34.65.

The control group also had a reduction of Quality-of-Life scores – from 34.94 to 33.82.

This means the Quality-of-Life scores of those who took hormone replacement therapy drugs dropped more than those who didn't do any therapy.
Another obvious advantage for flax relates to side effects. HRT typically comes with a host of side effects. One of these was evidenced from the large Women's Health Initiative, a 15-year study of over 161,000 women. This study found combination HRT therapy (such as in this study) came with a significantly increased risk of cardiovascular diseases. Short-term HRT use also increased inflammation (C-reactive protein). Other studies have shown increased risks of breast cancer with HRT.
Other adverse effects of HRT typically include intestinal irritation, vaginal bleeding, nausea, headaches and others.
What this all means is when flax is compared to HRT utilizing a complete spectrum - symptoms plus quality-of-life plus adverse side effects - we can conclude that flax significantly outperformed HRT in this clinical study.

What's in a Quality-of-Life Score?

When it comes to overall effectiveness of any therapy, QOL is a critical component. A therapy is rightly measured by both its symptom reduction and its Quality-of-Life scores because no one wants to feel worse overall when they are undergoing a therapy. For example, if someone takes an NSAID for a headache and finds the headache gone but is now faced with feeling drowsy and a stomach ache, or just a feeling of being down in the dumps, how effective was the therapy?
As this study proved, flaxseeds not only reduce symptoms of menopause – at practically the same levels as the HRT therapy: But flax also increases quality of life and comes with positive side effects. These include flax' positive effects upon digestion, cholesterol and cognition.
For example, flax contains considerable amounts of phytosterols, which reduce levels of oxidative low-density lipoproteins (LDL). Flax also contains healthy prebiotic fiber, so it aids digestion and bowel movements. Pertaining to cognitive levels, flaxseed comes with considerable content of an omega-3 fat called alpha linolenic acid or ALA. ALA is converted by a desaturase liver enzyme into heart- and brain-healthy ​docosahexaenoic acid (DHA). DHA is utilized by heart, brain and nerve cell membranes to help protect them from free radical damage.
For these many reasons, I always sneak a good dose of flaxseeds into the smoothies I make for my wife and I.
For additional research on the health benefits of flaxseed consult the GreenMedInfo.com database on the topic: Flaxseed Health Benefits Research.
Learn about natural solutions for food allergies and sensitivities.

REFERENCES:

Cetisli NE, Saruhan A, Kivcak B. The effects of flaxseed on menopausal symptoms and quality of life. Holist Nurs Pract. 2015 May-Jun;29(3):151-7. doi: 10.1097/HNP.0000000000000085.
Physicians Desk Reference. 2005
Pradhan AD, Manson JE, Rossouw JE, Siscovick DS, Mouton CP, Rifai N, Wallace RB, Jackson RD, Pettinger MB, Ridker PM. Inflammatory biomarkers, hormone replacement therapy, and incident coronary heart disease: prospective analysis from the Women's Health Initiative observational study. JAMA. 2002 Aug 28;288(8):980-7.
Originally published: 2015-06-10 
Updated: 2019-02-09
Breast cancer and hormone replacement therapy: collaborative reanalysis of data from 51 epidemiological studies of 52,705 women with breast cancer and 108,411 women without breast cancer. Collaborative Group on Hormonal Factors in Breast Cancer. Lancet. 1997 Oct 11;350(9084):1047-59.

Case Adams is a California Naturopath with a PhD in Natural Health Sciences, and Board Certified Alternative Medicine Practitioner. He has authored 26 books on natural healing strategies. His focus is upon researching, writing about and authenticating traditional therapies with clinical evidence. His books can also be found at Heal Naturally. Contact Case at case@caseadams.com.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of GreenMedInfo or its staff.

Internal Site Commenting is limited to members.
Disqus commenting is available to everyone.

'Sunshine Vitamin' Regenerates and Detoxifies Your Hormones:

What if you could boost your sex hormones while reducing their toxicity with a simple, safe and affordable vitamin?

'Sunshine Vitamin' Regenerates and Detoxifies Your Hormones

8.9k Shares

7.8k

125

154

Posted on:

Monday, August 20th 2018 at 4:00 am

Written By:

Sayer Ji, Founder

This article is copyrighted by GreenMedInfo LLC, 2018
Visit our Re-post guidelines

Sometimes called the 'sunshine vitamin' because it is found in high levels in citrus fruits, vitamin C has a uniquely regenerative role in hormone health and cancer prevention that has been overlooked for over twenty years!
Truly groundbreaking research on the regenerative potential of vitamin C therapy for hormone health as well as cancer prevention was performed over twenty years ago, and yet still today it has received little to no attention.
Published in 1993 in the journal Radiation Physics and Chemistry and titled, "Photo-induced regeneration of hormones by electron transfer processes: Potential biological and medical consequences," Austrian researchers explored the role that vitamin C plays in preventing the degradation of steroid hormones into toxic and cancer-promoting metabolites known as "hormone transients."  Their stated goal was "to investigate if hormone transients resulting by e.g. electron emission can be regenerated."
The molecular structure of progesterone, estrone (a form of estrogen) and testosterone is such that when exposed to differing biological and/or environmental conditions, e.g. UV light, pH, temperature, they lose electrons, becoming toxic and often carcinogenic metabolites that represent a burden on the body's eliminative capabilities. Vitamin C is a well-known electron donor, which is to say a substance that donates electrons to another compound (i.e. a 'reducing agent'). Vitamin C's ability to donate electrons can have an antioxidant effect as far as neutralizing free radicals, or as is the case with transient hormone metabolites, a structurally regenerative one.
The study's design and results were summarized as follows:

"Investigations were performed using progesterone (PRG), testosterone (TES) and estrone (E1) as representatives of hormones. By irradiation with monochromatic UV light (λ=254 nm) in a media of 40% water and 60% ethanol, the degradation as well as the regeneration of the hormones was studied with each hormone individually and in the mixture with VitC as a function of the absorbed UV dose, using HPLC. Calculated from the obtained initial yields, the determined regeneration of PRG amounted to 52.7%, for TES to 58.6% and for E1 to 90.9%."

Remarkably, vitamin C was capable of almost complete regeneration of estrone and quite significant regeneration of both progesterone (52.7%) and testosterone (58.6%). 
These experimental results have profound implications if they prove to carry over to human physiology. For instance, vitamin C may offer an alternative (or at least adjuvant and/or 'drug sparing' effect) to hormone replacement therapy, which suffers from the problem of 'feeding the deficiency,' i.e. negative feedback loops operative within our endocrine system can result in the down-regulation of endogenous steroid hormone production when exogenous forms are supplied.
The researchers noted that this was (at the time) the first scientific evidence proving:

"[H]ormone transients originating by the electron emission process can be successfully regenerated by the transfer of electrons from a potent electron donor, such as vitamin C (VitC)."

While a preliminary study, the researchers identified two possible implications of their research to human medicine:

• Cancer Prevention/Treatment: "The regeneration of hormones by electron transfer process using a potent electron donor, such as VitC, might offer a new pathway for an efficient reduction in the formation of metabolites, also such initiating cancer among others."
• Hormone Replacement Therapy: "The reported results concerning the ability of VitC to act as electron donor in the regeneration of hormone transients might also be of benefit in the clinical application of hormones (e.g. contraceptive, HRT)."

Vitamin C, of course, is exceptionally safe at high doses and has hundreds of proven health benefits (view our Vitamin C health benefit database), whereas conventional chemopreventive agents for cancer, e.g. Tamoxifen, and hormone replacement therapy using animal derived and/or synthetic hormone analogs, cause a wide range of adverse health effects, including at times increased mortality.
For additional related research you can read two previous on vitamin C's role in cancer treatment in intravenous form and vitamin C rich foods like pomegranate as an alternative to hormone replacement therapy.

Sayer Ji is founder of Greenmedinfo.com, a reviewer at the International Journal of Human Nutrition and Functional Medicine, Co-founder and CEO of Systome Biomed, Vice Chairman of the Board of the National Health Federation, Steering Committee Member of the Global Non-GMO Foundation.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of GreenMedInfo or its staff.

Internal Site Commenting is limited to members.
Disqus commenting is available to everyone.

To comment:

• Log in if you have a Membership or Become a Member

Recommended Related Articles

Turmeric

428,665 views

Wheat: 200 Clinically Confirmed Reasons Not To Eat It

364,926 views

25 Cancer Stem Cell Killing Foods Smarter Than Chemo &...

234,456 views

600 Reasons Turmeric May Be The World's Most Important Herb

664,357 views

5 Food-Medicines That Could Quite Possibly Save Your Life

265,264 views

• Cancer

Print Options

Some features are currently member only features. If you are already a member, please login. Otherwise, click here to become a member.

• Printer-friendly version
• Send to friend
• PDF version

Disqus

Key Research Topics

Disease

Cancers: All

Estrogen Deficiency

Hormones: Insufficient Levels

Testosterone: Too Low

Progesterone: Low

Hormone Replacement Therapy

Substance

Vitamin C: Intravenous

Menopause Breakthrough Treatnent


This article should be of great interest to anyone who has these symptoms.

Breakthrough stem cell treatment that reverses symptoms of early menopause raises hopes that women affected could still have children naturally

• Stem cells from bone marrow were injected into the ovaries of 33 women
• These women were suffering premature ovarian failure due to early menopause
• Six months after starting the treatment they began to have periods again 

By Colin Fernandez Science Correspondent For The Daily Mail

Published: 01:49, 3 March 2018 | Updated: 15:11, 3 March 2018

Pioneering treatment that reverses the symptoms of early menopause has raised hopes that women affected could go on to have children naturally.

Stem cells from bone marrow were injected into the ovaries of 33 women suffering premature ovarian failure (POF) who began to have periods again after six months.

As well as treating early menopause, which can lead to women becoming infertile in their forties or earlier, it could also offer an alternative to hormone replacement therapy.

The US researchers who conducted the study said their aim was to ‘support improvement in quality of life and reverse infertility’. Professor Prosper Igboeli, of the University of Augusta in Georgia, said: ‘POF is a challenging condition due to loss of ovarian function in women younger than 40 years.

+2

Pioneering treatment that reverses the symptoms of early menopause has raised hopes that women affected could go on to have children naturally.

‘It is particularly traumatic when the diagnosis is made in early reproductive life, leaving them with post-menopausal symptoms and infertility.

Hormones Could Help Younger Women With The Menopause

Hormones and the Menopause

I felt the above article needed to be shared to highlight the risks of heart attack for women and how it can be reduced.