Estrogen Dominance At 16

[dutchmiss]

At the risk of sounding like I'm being paid to be the spokesperson for Dr. Brownstein (I have been excited to share my discoveries since the light bulb went off for me recently about the necessity of Iodine), I wonder if it is an iodine deficiency and/or toxic halogen overload, since these directly impact thyroid function and thus overall well-being and also from what I understand help keep estrogen levels contained. In particular, it seems like women have an ever higher chance than men to have a deficiency of it (and if 97% of all patients he saw had deficiency, that means 98%+ of women he saw were deficient... quite astonishing when you think about it). This means that essentially everyone in the civilized world probably has some degree of thyroid dysfunction, some more so than others. May be worth trying to see if you can find an Iodine literate Dr. in your area to get various tests (including for iodine saturation, TSH, T3/T4, bromine toxicity, thyroid antibodies, etc...) Since you're only 16, I don't feel comfortable giving you guidance on the Iodine protocol and you should definitely see a Dr. and not trust the advice of some random person on the internet as to dosages and whatnot. Women are particularly sensitive to Iodine deficiency during pregnancy, since they have to pass on to the baby. I think this helps explain why so many women have trouble "losing the baby weight" because a sluggish metabolism/thyroid loves to pack on body fat. It also helps explain why so many otherwise healthy women seem to permanently destroy their health/weight from kids. Iodine levels can be difficult to restore without intervention in many cases and so they "never lose the baby weight". In fact I happen to know (well not anymore, we no longer chat, but...) two women who both had very trim figures and permanently gained weight after pregnancy, one of whom went on to even get Hashimoto's. For that matter I only know one woman (besides my mom, who also eats healthy) out of all the ladies in my life who did NOT maintain excessive weight after pregnancy, and the only reason I believe she didn't is because she eats a healthy organic foods diet (note - not calorie restricted though). I'm not saying that to put anyone down, but rather to drive home the point that the type of foods / nutrients really matter. Food babe has been an interesting resource for me recently, after my mom told me about her, and her exposing the poisons that we ingest on a daily basis from 90-95% of industrial food. These "poisons" rarely kill us (right away at least), hence the FDA are able to "approve them in "safe" amounts". They instead kill us slowly and eventually give us cancer in a couple of decades not to mention make us go crazy with depression or even more severe conditions like bipolar (I am convinced a major contributing factor in bipolar developing in my ex-gf was dysfunctional thyroid exasperated by poor diet).

Nathan hatch (author of F*** portion control) has been an incredible resource and fountain of knowledge for me as well. Another light bulb went off for me when he explains in his book that psychiatric disorders like depression, bipolar are not some nebulous disease that just happens for some unknown reason psychological but are nothing more than the resultant negative effects from a PHYSICALLY unhealthy body exasperated by poor diet, poor thyroid function, poor environmental factors.

On that note I think I may have had too much Iodine today and made myself Hyperthyroid LOL. I can't believe I just wrote that huge wall of text :p

Thank you for commenting sir. I don't think I have an Iodine deficiency though I have never tested it. I take a lot of dairy products and bread. Parents will probably not approve of testing. Body fat is very low, was too low for a while but it is right now. That runs in the family: sister is very skinny, mother, grandpa was it and great-grandfather was also slightly underweight. My mother also stayed very skinny after pregnancy. I have a lot of trouble putting on weight, once I gain it, it goes away very fast. I will probably see a GP some time because my family is worried .

And yeah a lot of bad poisons. I have never heard of Food Babe but I will look her up. Most diseases where I live are blamed on genetics or either smoking or alcohol but I am not sure if that is the real cause. I don't live in the US so we don't have to deal with fda here.

I have never heard of Nathan Hatch, I will look him up, thank you for the recommendation. I also have no idea about my thyroid but it seems right most of the time. Metabolism is extremely fast. I don't know how I should recognize an underactive thyroid. But you can tell me . and Its fine I also write too much hehe :P

 

[dutchmiss]

What helped me calm down was more saturated fats: dairy, chocolate.

Make sure you get enough quality proteins from meat and dairy. Then, the rest is up to you. Experiment with different foods, carb/fat ratios. Note how you feel after eating a food. If you are cold, your body is being stressed, if you feel cozy, your body is relaxed and is producing heat instead of mitigating stress.

I ate a high pufa lunch last week. About 30 minutes after the lunch, my hands were cold and I was shivering.

Thank you for commenting again. Chocolate helps me a lot. It takes a while usually before I become warmer, especially after breakfast, but I also live in a very cold climate. Thanks a lot for the tips!!

 

[dutchmiss]

I was in a similar situation having to tinker with my diet at your age in high school due to very severe IBS (often extreme pain which led to me not being able to walk and fainting from the pain). Went to doctors for years, got tons of laxatives/opiod pain killers etc. Had probably been to over 10 doctors in years of time during high school. It never helped me. The only thing that worked was experimenting with diet.

Luckily I had parents that supported me with my extreme diet changes, they saw my extreme pain so I guess that helped (they found it weird but let me do my thing). Eventually at age 19 I managed to cure myself from the problems, no more meds needed since 5 years.

Honestly I would not even put effort in trying to convince your parents if they’re that “koppig”. Just experiment with what kind of foods work well for you. One thing that makes bread digest better for me is removing the crust. Also you could drink an extra glass of orange juice if you feel it sits with you well, stop using “margarine” (I know this pufa health habit is big in NL. I always had this growing up) and use something else on bread if you can.

What I try to say I guess is you can make a difference I think within the limited options you have for now as it might not be possible to make a full 180 at this moment in time with your environment.

Regarding the pill just go by your gut feeling, if you don’t want it then don’t let people force you into it.

On the topic of brain fog in my experience this is related to digestion. For me personally when foods digest super easy there is no brain fog. I had this for years but figured it out after fasting that brain fog disappeared. Protein/fat are offenders for me and I am forced to eat high carb lowish protein low fat. I think this is different for everyone and you will have to see what works for you.

Thanks for commenting! That sounds very bad but very good that you were able to fix that with your diet ! What foods did help you for that??

My brain fog disappears when I take something with sugar usually. Like coke for instance. I still take margarine because it is very saturated with vitamins, even though It is a lot of pufa. I love orange juice a lot. I think I will be able to make more changes when I turn 18 but that is still a few years away.

Are you Dutch??

 

[dutchmiss]

Don't wanna give advice to a woman on something as birth control pills. that's your decision but my GF stopped them and she says it was the best decision. According to her they are the worst and made her really miserable so I would probably try that as a last resort. There has to be other things to do it naturally

Did she experience side effects from the pill?

 

[Douglas Ek]

Did she experience side effects from the pill?

Ohh yeah. She constantly feelt depressed and cried for no reason and gained weight. I seriously think that these pills are what makes women depressed in their high school years. so common for girls to start taking birth control and then suddenly a lot of girls start feeling suicidal and starts cutting their wrists etc. Its freaking sad.

Sadly enough there's not that many options for birth control. My girlfriend has a copper IUD at the moment its working great. Then only problem is that you experience heavier periods which long term probably will cause anemia. My girlfriend was diagnosed with iron deficiency after awhile she was terribly tired. But now when she's taking iron she's good again.

 

[Cirion]

Thank you for commenting sir. I don't think I have an Iodine deficiency though I have never tested it. I take a lot of dairy products and bread. Parents will probably not approve of testing. Body fat is very low, was too low for a while but it is right now. That runs in the family: sister is very skinny, mother, grandpa was it and great-grandfather was also slightly underweight. My mother also stayed very skinny after pregnancy. I have a lot of trouble putting on weight, once I gain it, it goes away very fast. I will probably see a GP some time because my family is worried .

And yeah a lot of bad poisons. I have never heard of Food Babe but I will look her up. Most diseases where I live are blamed on genetics or either smoking or alcohol but I am not sure if that is the real cause. I don't live in the US so we don't have to deal with fda here.

I have never heard of Nathan Hatch, I will look him up, thank you for the recommendation. I also have no idea about my thyroid but it seems right most of the time. Metabolism is extremely fast. I don't know how I should recognize an underactive thyroid. But you can tell me . and Its fine I also write too much hehe :P

Unfortunately short of testing, all we can do is speculate. You'd need to get TSH/T4/T3/rT3/rT4/Thyroid Antibodies/Bromine Toxicity/Iodine Saturation all tested to be sure. If I was a Dr., I'd want to look at least all of those parameters to get a complete picture.

Unfortunately, there is a severe Iodophobia among the medical community and even in this forum, as I've realized as I have begun to promote the huge health benefits of Iodine to anyone who will listen. As such, a lot of Dr's will probably look at you funny if you ask them to test Iodine/Bromine levels, and think you're crazy. I am on the hunt for a Dr. that will test my own levels of these still. If you like reading, I recommend Dr. Brownstein's "Iodine, why you need it, why you can't live without it" book, I am reading it now and I find it very interesting.

Most Dr's today will be quick to prescribe Thyroid T4/T3 meds without even testing for Iodine levels. In my opinion this is a huge mistake. I would never let a Dr. prescribe me thyroid medication without testing my Iodine levels after what I've read from Dr. Brownstein.

Skinny does not always mean healthy either. There is also no such thing as "good, or bad genetics". There is only such a thing as good diet, environment, and healthy (or not) thyroid. Genetics are actually malleable when you fix your diet, environment, and thyroid. This is called epigenetics. Epigenetics - Wikipedia Genetics are not "Fixed" or a death sentence to doom you to being unhealthy. People have confused genetics, when what they really are referring to is healthy hormonal levels, which can be changed. Blaming genetics is the easy way out, escaping personal responsibility without wanting to change.

I'm not sure about Dutch bread, but bread in the USA is heavy in Bromine and deficient in Iodine, It's bad news here. Similarly, most dairy in the USA is poor quality from CAFO farms. In fact in just a couple of hours I am going to pickup raw unadulterated milk direct from a farmer to try it out for the first time.

My brain fog disappears when I take something with sugar usually. Like coke for instance. I still take margarine because it is very saturated with vitamins, even though It is a lot of pufa. I love orange juice a lot. I think I will be able to make more changes when I turn 18 but that is still a few years away.

Brain fog is a very common sign of hypothyroidism. Actually, from my understanding now, it may sound weird, but hyperthyroidism can be a sign of hypothyroidism as well sometimes. The reason for that is the body has a poor time stabilizing blood sugar, and instead of stabilizing at the normal amount, it oscillates between high and low blood sugar. Sugar would definitely bring the blood sugar and metabolism back up. I would personally recommend against margarine and have real butter (preferably Grass-fed).

Also be wary of the soda you drink. Some are OK and even Ray Peat loves him some mexican coke. Unfortunately, most sodas are loaded with toxic additives (one of the most sinister being Brominated Vegetable Oil). Out of them all, BVO directly inhibits the thyroid gland and can quickly cause hypothyroidism, Hashimoto's, all that fun stuff. This is why most "health nuts" see benefit from quitting soda. Not because of the sugar (We need sugar to live), but because of BVO and the other toxins.

I also forgot to mention, my ex-gf has been on the pill for a long time now, probably a decade. I feel confident in saying that had a factor in her developing bi-polar disorder as well. Stay away from the pill if you can. It's nothing but bad news. I get why people use it, but there are other options.

 

[cellboy]

You need to stop eating pufas asap otherwise it's gonna get worse every year. The damage done by stress, estrogen, cortisol, serotonin, etc is dependent on the amount of pufa you have in your tissues. Going low fat for a while would definitely benefit you. If not make sure you eat more saturated fat overall or just eat some extra sugar as it'll create the saturated fats needed for you. Sunlight will help too. Progesterone production is heavily dependent on it so maybe you're not getting enough. As for hunger it's mostly serotonin related so a daily raw carrot or coffee should help with that. Also take aspirin instead of ibuprofen if possible. wish you good luck

 

[Douglas Ek]

Did she experience side effects from the pill?

My best advice would be to focus on eating

You need to stop eating pufas asap otherwise it's gonna get worse every year. The damage done by stress, estrogen, cortisol, serotonin, etc is dependent on the amount of pufa you have in your tissues. Going low fat for a while would definitely benefit you. If not make sure you eat more saturated fat overall or just eat some extra sugar as it'll create the saturated fats needed for you. Sunlight will help too. Progesterone production is heavily dependent on it so maybe you're not getting enough. As for hunger it's mostly serotonin related so a daily raw carrot or coffee should help with that. Also take aspirin instead of ibuprofen if possible. wish you good luck

I would add taking vitamin E to this as to help stop the PUFA oxidation process. Either buy the tocovit from haidut idea labs dc or this is a really good brand https://www.bodystore.com/holistic-e-vitamin-30-kapslar it's enough to take it once every week. It's important that it's mixed blend of tocopherols. Alpha is the main tocopherol you want but if you take only alpha tocopherol it will lower the other tocopherols which are not too good since they defend against nitric oxide as well.

 

[Jackrabbit]

My best advice would be to focus on eating



I would add taking vitamin E to this as to help stop the PUFA oxidation process. Either buy the tocovit from haidut idea labs dc or this is a really good brand https://www.bodystore.com/holistic-e-vitamin-30-kapslar it's enough to take it once every week. It's important that it's mixed blend of tocopherols. Alpha is the main tocopherol you want but if you take only alpha tocopherol it will lower the other tocopherols which are not too good since they defend against nitric oxide as well.

+1, I was just thinking the same thing about taking vitamin e. It also can help with the estrogen dominance. It seems like a simple thing that your parents may not object to and maybe you could say you’d like to at least try vitamin e supplementation before getting on birth control.

 

[Cirion]

Going back to Iodine:

The more I learn about it the more I realize how vital this nutrient is.

http://reset.me/story/why-iodine-is-one-of-the-most-crucial-supplements-for-womens-health/

 

[dutchmiss]

Unfortunately short of testing, all we can do is speculate. You'd need to get TSH/T4/T3/rT3/rT4/Thyroid Antibodies/Bromine Toxicity/Iodine Saturation all tested to be sure. If I was a Dr., I'd want to look at least all of those parameters to get a complete picture.

Unfortunately, there is a severe Iodophobia among the medical community and even in this forum, as I've realized as I have begun to promote the huge health benefits of Iodine to anyone who will listen. As such, a lot of Dr's will probably look at you funny if you ask them to test Iodine/Bromine levels, and think you're crazy. I am on the hunt for a Dr. that will test my own levels of these still. If you like reading, I recommend Dr. Brownstein's "Iodine, why you need it, why you can't live without it" book, I am reading it now and I find it very interesting.

Most Dr's today will be quick to prescribe Thyroid T4/T3 meds without even testing for Iodine levels. In my opinion this is a huge mistake. I would never let a Dr. prescribe me thyroid medication without testing my Iodine levels after what I've read from Dr. Brownstein.

Skinny does not always mean healthy either. There is also no such thing as "good, or bad genetics". There is only such a thing as good diet, environment, and healthy (or not) thyroid. Genetics are actually malleable when you fix your diet, environment, and thyroid. This is called epigenetics. Epigenetics - Wikipedia Genetics are not "Fixed" or a death sentence to doom you to being unhealthy. People have confused genetics, when what they really are referring to is healthy hormonal levels, which can be changed. Blaming genetics is the easy way out, escaping personal responsibility without wanting to change.

I'm not sure about Dutch bread, but bread in the USA is heavy in Bromine and deficient in Iodine, It's bad news here. Similarly, most dairy in the USA is poor quality from CAFO farms. In fact in just a couple of hours I am going to pickup raw unadulterated milk direct from a farmer to try it out for the first time.



Brain fog is a very common sign of hypothyroidism. Actually, from my understanding now, it may sound weird, but hyperthyroidism can be a sign of hypothyroidism as well sometimes. The reason for that is the body has a poor time stabilizing blood sugar, and instead of stabilizing at the normal amount, it oscillates between high and low blood sugar. Sugar would definitely bring the blood sugar and metabolism back up. I would personally recommend against margarine and have real butter (preferably Grass-fed).

Also be wary of the soda you drink. Some are OK and even Ray Peat loves him some mexican coke. Unfortunately, most sodas are loaded with toxic additives (one of the most sinister being Brominated Vegetable Oil). Out of them all, BVO directly inhibits the thyroid gland and can quickly cause hypothyroidism, Hashimoto's, all that fun stuff. This is why most "health nuts" see benefit from quitting soda. Not because of the sugar (We need sugar to live), but because of BVO and the other toxins.

I also forgot to mention, my ex-gf has been on the pill for a long time now, probably a decade. I feel confident in saying that had a factor in her developing bi-polar disorder as well. Stay away from the pill if you can. It's nothing but bad news. I get why people use it, but there are other options.

Thanks for the commenting again sir. In Holland people in medicine are actually for high iodine consumption. My mom was actually afraid that when I started eating too little that I would develop an iodine deficiency. One of her patients has MS and she does not consume enough bread according to her to fix her deficiencies. She eats very weird she says. The bread my mom buys us is fresh from a high quality bakery. They select the high quality wheat, mix it with flour and flower, add water, yeast and a bit of salt. Out of that dough they make bread. As far as I am concerned it has no additives like soy or anything (none of them has an ingredient list), it does have either sunflower seeds or nuts on the crust. The milk here is also of better quality I believe, but it is also dependent on which brand my mother buys I think.

And that milk you were gonna buy sounds very good, I hope you enjoyed it . The only thing I am wondering is if the bread and dairy is so terrible in the states then how do you get your iodine in? Do you supplement?

I did not knew that brain fog is a sign of hypo. Sometimes my head just feels very heavy and that happens a lot, also after coffee and sometimes after breakfast. I used to make eggs in butter but my mother threw the package away I think. I read an article saying that BVO is only used in the US. In Europe those companies use glycerol components of rosines or ''sucrose acetate isobutyrate'' (that's what the article says) as a substitute for BVO.

I also know about epigenetics, we talked about it at school. Maybe it is indeed environmental because I lost weight a few years back when my sister started getting me to exercise. I noticed I kept putting weight on from especially peanut butter and Nutella. Both have pufa added to them here. As soon as I switched to cheese only the weight gain stopped , and my skin went back from purple to pink. This was far before I even knew about Peat .

I will see how I feel the next few months. If my issues keep coming back then maybe I will consider the pill. Like I said I have yet to meet anyone who did not develop some very strange side effect from the pill . Very sad about your ex but was bi-polar the reason you two stopped dating then? That must be terrible for both of you . If that is private I don't mind you not telling me of course

 

[dutchmiss]

You need to stop eating pufas asap otherwise it's gonna get worse every year. The damage done by stress, estrogen, cortisol, serotonin, etc is dependent on the amount of pufa you have in your tissues. Going low fat for a while would definitely benefit you. If not make sure you eat more saturated fat overall or just eat some extra sugar as it'll create the saturated fats needed for you. Sunlight will help too. Progesterone production is heavily dependent on it so maybe you're not getting enough. As for hunger it's mostly serotonin related so a daily raw carrot or coffee should help with that. Also take aspirin instead of ibuprofen if possible. wish you good luck

Thanks for the advice cellboy. I never take ibuprofen anyway, sometimes paractemol. I try to limit PUFA but limiting PUFA for me means limiting eating altogether because it is everything people eat here . Thanks for the advice sir.

 

[dutchmiss]

Ohh yeah. She constantly feelt depressed and cried for no reason and gained weight. I seriously think that these pills are what makes women depressed in their high school years. so common for girls to start taking birth control and then suddenly a lot of girls start feeling suicidal and starts cutting their wrists etc. Its freaking sad.

Sadly enough there's not that many options for birth control. My girlfriend has a copper IUD at the moment its working great. Then only problem is that you experience heavier periods which long term probably will cause anemia. My girlfriend was diagnosed with iron deficiency after awhile she was terribly tired. But now when she's taking iron she's good again.

Thanks for the comment Douglas. I noticed the same thing, lots of people develop depression here in there teenage years. And good to her your gf feels better. Does Peat now recommend against iron though ?

 

[dutchmiss]

* to hear.

 

[dutchmiss]

+1, I was just thinking the same thing about taking vitamin e. It also can help with the estrogen dominance. It seems like a simple thing that your parents may not object to and maybe you could say you’d like to at least try vitamin e supplementation before getting on birth control.

Thank you both for the advice. I can't buy anything online I don't even have a credit card. But we have a story in my city that sells supplements so maybe I can find something there.
is there a way to not take supplements and just do it with food? Which foods are low Pufa but rich in Vitamin E?

 

[dutchmiss]

* a store. Sorry for the bad typing everybody haaha

 

[Douglas Ek]

Thanks for the comment Douglas. I noticed the same thing, lots of people develop depression here in there teenage years. And good to her your gf feels better. Does Peat now recommend against iron though ?

Its not a recommendation against he says that obviously anemia from iron deficiency is an actual thing. Especially if theres been a source of bleeding like in this case. If you got cut and lost a lot of blood for exampel you wouldnt take iron? Its really hard to restore anemia without supplements and just eating liver 24/7. Ray says having high iron is bad. And iron tends to build up the older you get but there are ways to both lower and protect yoursef. U can donate blood, theres tons of supplements that lower iron. And also be sure to get enough vitamin E and C as they both protect the body from excess oxidation. But controlled oxidation is an important process of the body. I can post so many studies saying that iron and a deficiency causes thyroid problems, low testosterone, low dopamine and a lot of other symptoms. Living with anemia is linked to an 60% increase in alhzeimers. People are just taking the iron problem to far. If you’re numbers are normal accorsing to blood tests you have nothing to worry about. Mostly hemochromatosis patients who have problem.

 

[Douglas Ek]

Thank you both for the advice. I can't buy anything online I don't even have a credit card. But we have a story in my city that sells supplements so maybe I can find something there.
is there a way to not take supplements and just do it with food? Which foods are low Pufa but rich in Vitamin E?

Grass feed butter has good ratio of vitamin E to PUFA. Cows eating grass eat more vitamin E up to 5 times more because grass has high photosynthesis levels like normal grass would have instead of grains. Why is because grass need to produce a lot of vitamin E to protect from the suns oxidation. So grass feed butter is the best.

 

[Lilac]

This thread might be helpful:

List Of Things That CAUSE Elevated Estrogen?

 

[fradon]

Hello everybody,

I am new to the forum. I am a 16 year old Dutch girl who found Peat after a history of extreme exercise and dieting.

I feel like Peat has helped me a lot. However, when I stopped with the extreme exercise, my menstrual issues increased.

I was on holiday this summer in England and got chronic diarrhea, muscle wasting, I couldn't get out of bed and was walking with my stomach bend and head down so I would not feel the stomach pain. I recently went to England again (Oxford, with school), and basically my entire trip was ruined by my period. I kept on vomiting, had no hunger, was grumpy all the time and my classmates and all of my teachers did not like being around me.

Yesterday I started my period again. I have no stomach pain but I keep on vomiting; it is so bad that I now have to skip tests in school so I can stay home. I have no hunger and my muscles feel non existent.

I am so done with all of this. My mother is going to plan an appointment with a GP. I said I absolutely do not want to start the pill at this age, I noticed that a lot of my female friends their behaviour changed went they started to use those pills. My mom thinks I keep exaggerating how bad the pill is. But I really don't want to take it. I keep crying about it and she does not understand it.

My diet is certainly not how I want it to be exactly, also because of my parents because they believe my eating habits are strange so I just conform to their wishes now.

I was hoping to find some advice here. If any of you have a more natural way to fix primarily the vomiting, and how you deal with muscle wasting and such. Anything is welcome, I am so done with all of it. Greetings.

i' ve read girls your age usually go on birth control in order to better manager their periods as the birth control has progesterone.

the excercise you were doing most likely lowered your estrogen level and extremem excercise can even halt menstruation.

also certain foods can increases progesterone like yams and sweet pototatoes you may look into that.

the one issue to look out for is excess sugar consumptions because it lowers SHBG and you need this to bound to your E and T without you get out of control estrogen. also high glucose over time can create insuline resistance and also lead to high Testosterone output from the ovaries and lead to PCOS.