Estrogen Dominance

[MrBBQ]

Hey gang,

I realise that my attitude in previous posts was very maligned and less than productive for myself and others, so I've decided to change my demeanour somewhat.

As you know, I'm currently *working* to overcome some problems I encountered in my journey of trying to recover my health.

8 weeks ago, I was swamped with some major symptoms, which align with adrenal dysregulation. I've since discovered that my cortisol has been very high, as well as my ESTROGEN! Yeah, I have high estrogen...

Strangely enough, in the last day or two, I have a tender swelling in my right breast. This is on top of deteriorating vision, loss of collagen from my skin/joints and many other things like constant dehydration, fluctuating pupils, inability to handle stress etc.

I'm now wondering if everything goes back to my liver, which is responsible for clearing estrogen. Maybe my unfinished business of liver cleansing actually contributed to estrogen dominance, which may have contributed to adrenal fatigue (or not).

Also, my eyebrows and eyelashes have become unbelievably bushy.

The point of the post is to appeal for anyone here with experience of combining raw paleo with liver/GB detoxification in the context of adrenal dysregulation.

Let me know if you can help me with any suggestions.

Nice one,
BBQ

[Caveman]

I think I am in the exact same situation. Blocking estrogen and working on your testosterone levels is so incredibly important.

Have you ever tried any supplement which supports your testosterone production and/or reduces estrogen levels?

I've always had low testosterone and high estrogen as far as I can remember, of course more so when my health went downhill, but something really got my attention when I tried out pine pollen for the first time.

Pine pollen is an amazing thing for all people because of it's androgenic qualities, but when taking this for the first time, I felt like I was even more than "cured" from the stack of health problems. I could barely get myself to sit down (in a good way), all I wanted to do was get outside and move my body and my mental function was incredible. It was especially amazing when seeing my girlfriend during this time. It felt like I knew what "love" was again and much more, if you know what I mean. It was like night and day. Unfortunately, that only lasted for maybe 2 days for me, but I understood how these hormones play a huge role in my health and may even be the one thing to really focus on.

When it comes to taking some kind of supplement for your hormonal health, you really need to work at getting a different effective supplement for each day of the week, so your body will actually be able to make progress and not get used to a single supplement. I know now this is why the effects only lasted a day or two for me. Whenever I can get a hold of some more supplements, I am going to try to follow this advice:

http://www.boost-your-low-testosterone.com/testosterone-booster.html

I usually disagree with using any kind of supplements (unless they are natural tonics like pine pollen) but these seem to be relatively cheap and somewhat natural as they are herbs. I wish there was no need for supplementation, but I feel I need to try this..

[MrBBQ]

Nice one for the quick reply. Pine pollen is an interesting suggestion - I think I heard that from Daniel Vitalis (good marketing name) once...

Currently, my testosterone is in the okay range, although it could be higher. My concern is really the accumulation of estrogen, which is prob'ly down to liver stagnation.

I have no sex drive whatsoever and with my strange hormone dynamic, I do not even feel human - there must be an impact on neurotransmitters, I'm sure. Maybe my gut is too destroyed also, which could be attributed to a soil probiotic I had a negative reaction to once.

I'm going to try to get the liver moving with some Chinese herbs and maybe flushing, although I don't want to rock my bowels too much because any loss of electrolytes (through loose stools) really puts me in adrenal stress territory, which I cannot handle.

All of the healing tools seem to have catch-22 elements for me, which is very frustrating. Oftentimes, it seems that all of my endeavours are catch-22 challenges!

Nettle root is good for freeing up testosterone - maybe you could try that...

[kurite]

How long have you been raw paleo?

[Caveman]

Do you have any reason at all not to work on your testosterone levels and not just looking at it like all you need to do is get rid of your higher estrogen levels? You do need more testosterone. Have you even tried anything which should raise testosterone levels?

[MrBBQ]

I was raw paleo for 2 years...My implementation of the diet may have been incomplete because it never quite agreed with me to eat more than 200g meat. I was trying to eat meat and fat to appetite, but then my digestion went downhill, whereby I could not tolerate fat anymore in any quantity at a meal.

Also, I often didn't get enough fruit in a day to stay out of ketosis, which I accidentally dipped into slightly on many occasions.

Ultimately, I think this wrecked my metabolism and as a knock-on effect, my digestion.

Now I can't find a style of eating that suits me, so I'm having to eat "just anything" for energy.

I discovered from a salivary hormone test that my estrogen was high and that's probably the reason why I have extra tender tissue in my right breast - quite unbelievable really. My weird adrenals kicking out excess cortisol is probably the reason that there's not sufficient progesterone to oppose estrogen.

I'm in chaos now, wondering what to do or eat next, depending on the fact that I cannot digest fat that well.

Suffice to say that keeping the metabolism up is important over a matter of years, whether you're eating paleo or junk.

[cliff]

Not too sure about the estrogen problem but if your interested in experimenting gelatin could be an option for overcoming the joint pain and loss of collagen.

[RawZi]

    If you're eating eggs and they're not fertilized, you might want to switch to fertilized eggs.

    Some people eat grassfed/forage testicle to help too.  Can't tell me trible people didn't give the testicle share of a hunt to the tribe member they wanted to be most dominant.  I would think that, but if you might convince me, then please go ahead.

[sabertooth]

When I was a teenager I would get sore breast and I developed what the doctor called a nipple button. It was a lump of tissue that got swollen and painfull, I also had bad skin, as well as other symptoms which seemed to be from some hormonal problem.

Even now I am mindful of ways to keep my testosterone high while avoiding estrogen's.
I avoid most plant foods entirely, and will eat the occasional testicle(I ate some buffalo testicle earlyer today) I also make sure to get enough sunlight. In the wintertime I will use a tanning bed twice a week. Tanning is proven to raise testosterone, vitamine D, as well as treat depression by raising serotonin.

If one is hormonally unbalanced it may take a while to heal, but simple steps like avoiding estrogen foods, and chemicals. While increasing testosterone forming foods such as  (oysters, testicles, fertilized eggs,etc). If you have the right balance of nutrients then perhaps you can begin working on other ways to balance your hormonal system: with tanning, steady exercise,  or a possible casual lover.

I don't think that there is a guaranteed fix for these types of hormonal havoc, but there are things like what I have listed that are proven safe, and should at least offer some improvement over time.