Estrogen Is A Stress Hormone, It Can Both Trigger And Potentiate The Effects Of Stress

haidut

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I was quite surprised to see this article in WebMD - a website that is bastion of mainstream medicine. It regularly promotes dogmas related serotonin, estrogen, oxytocin, growth hormone, etc and the myriad of "benefits" these substances bestow upon humans. However, a bit of truth apparently manages to slip through the censorship every once in a while and the article below is a prime example of that. The study author directly states that higher estrogen levels are the likely explanation for the higher incidence of mental illness in females. As her studies (some of them listed below) demonstrated, estrogen is an actual stress hormones that can trigger the stress response by itself when its levels are sufficiently elevated. However, even at low levels estrogen is not benign at all as it can amplify the effects of an external stress signal that would normally not trigger a stress response in the absence of estrogen. It is amazing that despite all the evidence that has accumulated about estrogen's role in so many pathologies, most doctors still treat it (and medical schools teach about it) as if it was purely a "female hormone", and one that is quite benign.

Estrogen Promotes Stress Sensitivity in a Prefrontal Cortex–Amygdala Pathway
Estrogen mediates sex differences in stress-induced prefrontal cortex dysfunction. - PubMed - NCBI
Estrogen Is Involved in Stress Response

"...New research from Yale University may help explain why women are twice as likely as men to suffer from stress-related mental illnesses such as depression. Animal studies show that high levels of the female sex hormone estrogen affect the brain's ability to deal with stress. Estrogen was found to amplify the stress response in areas of the brain most closely identified with depression and other stress-related mental illnesses. Researchers say the findings may one day lead to the development of treatments for depression that specifically target women. "These findings suggest that there is a difference between men and women in how the prefrontal cortex responds to stress," says graduate student Rebecca M. Shansky, who was the study's lead researcher."

"...The Yale team exposed male and female rats to different levels of stress and then had the rats perform a short-term memory task designed to assess prefrontal cortex function. This region of the brain has been shown in previous brain imaging studies to be abnormal in depressed people. In the absence of stress, both the males and females performed the task equally well, and both sexes performed poorly when exposed to relatively high levels of stress. Yet when levels of estrogen were high, female rats were impaired by lower levels of stress than male rats. During periods when this hormone was low, they responded similarly to male rats to stress. "High estrogen levels made these animals more sensitive to the effects of stress," Shansky tells WebMD."
 

Sativa

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Do you think estrogen is the driving factor of hypomania?
estrogen has biological influences (due to interactions with kynurenic acid & stress systems) that result in the activation of biological systems that overlap with the pharmacology of disassociative, hallucinogenic and stimulant drugs. (inc alpha-7 nicotinic receptor, glutamate (AMPA; NMDA), Glycine & also adrenaline - likely via cortisol)
Kynurenic acid has been proposed to act on four targets:
  • As an antagonist at ionotropic AMPA, NMDA and Kainate glutamate receptors in the concentration range of 0.1-2.5 mM[2]
  • As a noncompetitive antagonist at the glycine site of the NMDA receptor.
  • As an antagonist of the α7 nicotinic acetylcholine receptor.[3] However, recently (2011) direct recording of α7 nicotinic acetylcholine receptor currents in adult (noncultured) hippocampal interneurons by the Cooper laboratory [4] validated a 2009 study [5] that failed to find any blocking effect of kynurenic acid across a wide range of concentrations, thus suggesting that in noncultured, intact preparations from adult animals there is no effect of kynurenic acid on α7 nicotinic acetylcholine receptor currents

Estrogens are also known to interact in the kynurenine pathway therefore exploring these interactions can yield a better understanding of the condition and improve approaches in ameliorating its effects.
...Therefore it is possible that estrogen levels can dictate the balance of kynurenic acid in the brain
@haidut were you aware of estrogens relationship with kynurenic acid, and its influence on KYNA levels?
 

GAF

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Hypomanic symptoms must last at least four days in a row and include

  • euphoric, elevated, expansive, or irritable mood and increased energy;
  • excessive self-esteem or grandiosity;
  • less need to sleep;
  • more talkative than usual or feeling pressured to continue talking;
  • expresses ideas rapidly -- quickly changes topics or feels that thoughts are racing;
  • trouble focusing;
  • restlessness or increased participation in goal-oriented activities; and
  • excessively engaging in activities that have a high likelihood of having negative consequences (for example, promiscuity, excessive spending, poor business decisions).
While mania and hypomania have many symptoms in common, mania results in more severe problems compared to hypomania.

also see "chorea" and Dancing mania - Wikipedia

RP said this was caused by estrogen dominance. I think he did. It was 4 or 5 years ago when I read or heard that. Anyway, I see this every week. Hilarious, but not really funny.
 

Anders86

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estrogen has biological influences (due to interactions with kynurenic acid & stress systems) that result in the activation of biological systems that overlap with the pharmacology of disassociative, hallucinogenic and stimulant drugs. (inc alpha-7 nicotinic receptor, glutamate (AMPA; NMDA), Glycine & also adrenaline - likely via cortisol)



@haidut were you aware of estrogens relationship with kynurenic acid, and its influence on KYNA levels?

Wow, great! Many scizofrenic have bouts of hypomanic episodes resulting in NMDA damage and building of beta amaloids plaques. Making schizofrenia "irreversible".

I have to learn more about kynurenic acid..

So I guess NMDA modulation is one of the main factors of lowering hypomanic episodes. Glycine, magnesium, progesterone, diamant etc.

And ofcourse estrogen..
 

Anders86

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Hypomanic symptoms must last at least four days in a row and include

  • euphoric, elevated, expansive, or irritable mood and increased energy;
  • excessive self-esteem or grandiosity;
  • less need to sleep;
  • more talkative than usual or feeling pressured to continue talking;
  • expresses ideas rapidly -- quickly changes topics or feels that thoughts are racing;
  • trouble focusing;
  • restlessness or increased participation in goal-oriented activities; and
  • excessively engaging in activities that have a high likelihood of having negative consequences (for example, promiscuity, excessive spending, poor business decisions).
While mania and hypomania have many symptoms in common, mania results in more severe problems compared to hypomania.

also see "chorea" and Dancing mania - Wikipedia

RP said this was caused by estrogen dominance. I think he did. It was 4 or 5 years ago when I read or heard that. Anyway, I see this every week. Hilarious, but not really funny.

Thanks! Many people has hypomanic episodes characterized as personality thraits and is never "diagnosed". Though that is usually better than being "catched" by the system, but they need help/guidance to become their best self. And to avoid psychiatric illnesses. Or should I just say illnes? It's obviously all systemic..

Mania is to dominant to ignore, hypomania lurks everywhere.
 

Anders86

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estrogen has biological influences (due to interactions with kynurenic acid & stress systems) that result in the activation of biological systems that overlap with the pharmacology of disassociative, hallucinogenic and stimulant drugs. (inc alpha-7 nicotinic receptor, glutamate (AMPA; NMDA), Glycine & also adrenaline - likely via cortisol)



@haidut were you aware of estrogens relationship with kynurenic acid, and its influence on KYNA levels?

Kynurenic acid is a metabolite of tryptophan and wiki writes "Cognitive deficits in schizophrenia are associated with imbalances in the enzymes that break down kynurenine.[5] Kynurenine production is increased in Alzheimer's disease[6] and cardiovascular disease[7] where its metabolites are associated with cognitive deficits[8] and depressive symptoms.

Also promotes cancer growt..

Would you classify Kynurenic acid as Serotonin?
 

Goobz

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Would you classify Kynurenic acid as Serotonin?

No, they are different molecules.

In fact, the enzyme tryptophan dioxygenase (TDO), which metabolises tryptophan into kynurenine, increases circulating kynurenine at the expense of circulating tryptophan, which leads to less serotonin and melatonin.

This enzyme has been implicated as a critical step in neurodegeneration. One reason why patients with neurodegenerative disorders sleep so poorly, with their melatonin and serotonin out of whack.

Cortisol leads to an increase in TDO, which helps explain the many ways in which stress leads to neurological problems. Inhibiting this TDO enzyme seems to ameliorate neurodegenerative disorders.

Tryptophan-2,3-dioxygenase (TDO) inhibition ameliorates neurodegeneration by modulation of kynurenine pathway metabolites. - PubMed - NCBI

The main hormone that inhibits this enzyme in humans is actually... estradiol. Always remember these pathways are linked, and it's rarely a one sided effect of any of these hormones.
 

Anders86

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No, they are different molecules.

In fact, the enzyme tryptophan dioxygenase (TDO), which metabolises tryptophan into kynurenine, increases circulating kynurenine at the expense of circulating tryptophan, which leads to less serotonin and melatonin.

This enzyme has been implicated as a critical step in neurodegeneration. One reason why patients with neurodegenerative disorders sleep so poorly, with their melatonin and serotonin out of whack.

Cortisol leads to an increase in TDO, which helps explain the many ways in which stress leads to neurological problems. Inhibiting this TDO enzyme seems to ameliorate neurodegenerative disorders.

Tryptophan-2,3-dioxygenase (TDO) inhibition ameliorates neurodegeneration by modulation of kynurenine pathway metabolites. - PubMed - NCBI

The main hormone that inhibits this enzyme in humans is actually... estradiol. Always remember these pathways are linked, and it's rarely a one sided effect of any of these hormones.

Thank you! All hormones matters :protest So balance is key, as a Peat inspired diet and lifestyle promotes.
 
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sladerunner69

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My prefrontal cortex has become very numb since finasteride. Do you think the estrogen receptors could have grown highly sensitive?
 

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