Slow Metabolism Or Simple Estrogen Dominance?

ivy

Member
Joined
Mar 18, 2017
Messages
314
Location
Portugal
Hey everyone,

I've come to the forum after a lot of reading and frustrating, seemingly dead-end, medical endeavours. I would like your help and advice regarding diet and supplements. I've done quite a lot of RP reading in the past few days, but I am unsure of how to proceed.

Backstory: I've probably had a tendency for hypothyroidism since my teens, when my hair started to shed. All my blood work was 'normal' then, pelvic ultrasound and mammograms normal as well. My menstrual cycles were long (31 days) and messy, I had nausea and trouble digesting before my period. The two dermatologists I saw both prescribed Spironolactone, which on my first try made my period descend every 15 days. The second time, with a lower dosage, I just started looking thinner and my mother disliked the idea of my kidney dependence on this drug for the rest of my life, so I quit again. My late twenties were tough: IBS diagnosis (and big dietary changes), a bout of inverted psoriasis, permanent cold and a gradually more exposed scalp until I decided for a transplant, four years ago. Also, losing a lover caused serious disruptions in my sleep in 2014, and it took a long time (and supplements, I was most successful on Gaba) before I was able to sleep some five to six hours straight. Keeping my hair from falling is a permanent job, as is keeping my tummy safe from pain and diarrhoea.

Currently: suddenly last November, I noticed big changes: my hair fell massively, even the transplants, I suspect; my teen cramps and long cycles are back; my intolerance to cold skyrocketed; I now have constipation; I could easily sleep nine hours but never feel rested. What's worse, my breasts increased dramatically and I have stabbing pain on the flank and bottom of the breast. From ovulation till my period finally comes, this pain prevents me from running, dancing, even moving in bed is hard. Since my body is a tool of my trade (theatre/dance), this is a major difficulty.

Of course, all successive lab test are 'normal', according to my doctor. First, anaemia was ruled out.
Here's what followed:

Jan 23
TSH 1,54 RANGE 0,55-4,88
FT4 10,4 RANGE 11,5-22,7
FT3 3,8 RANGE 3,5-6,5

March 3 (luteal phase)
Triglycerides 61
Total cholesterol 233
HDL 84
Prolactin 12,0
FSH 3,6
LH 5,1
E2 125,0
Progesterone 17,00

Pelvic ultrasound is clean. Thyroid ultrasound shows 3 nodules, one (7mm wide) of mixed echo structure awaiting biopsy. Also, my report says that my lymph nodes are reactive, but my GP never even mentioned it. Breast ultrasound only shows a small cyst (3mm) and mentions predominantly fibrograndular tissue.

Now, I've measured my heart pressure, pulse and oral temperature a few times, since I know Peatarians value these indicators.

March 18,
10 pm before sleep
BP 97/57 pulse 44 temp 94.1
4.30 am woke up
BP 95/56 pulse 51 temp 96.98

March 20,
8.15 am woke up
BP 97/55 pulse 57 temp 97.52
11 pm before sleep
BP 85/57 pulse 51 temp 96.08

March 22,
11 pm before sleep
BP 93/60 pulse 57 temp 95.72


So, is my breast pain part of a bigger picture? What insights do you have? What tips can you offer?

Many, many thanks in advance.
 

Peatful

Member
Joined
Dec 8, 2016
Messages
3,582
Big ideas...
You need more calories. Small, balanced meals very frequently. Keep your blood sugar stable. Eat easy to digest foods. Balanced macros of 40/30/30.

Vitamin E may help your breast pain.

Yes, you are ED.
Yes you can heal...
My guess is your vocation has you in a metabolic deficit with high cortisol. I think your nutritional needs being met is a great start.
 

Evic677

Member
Joined
Mar 27, 2017
Messages
18
Okay so what is the point of estrogen? In like every article ray peat talks about how dangerous it is. Why is it our primary woman hormone?
 

HDD

Member
Joined
Nov 1, 2012
Messages
2,075
Okay so what is the point of estrogen? In like every article ray peat talks about how dangerous it is. Why is it our primary woman hormone?

Estrogen is not the primary female hormone.
Below is a portion of of an interview about progesterone. This is from part 1 of 3. You should listen to or read all three as they are very informative and should answer your questions.

BARKHAUSEN: And you’ve often talked before about estrogen and progesterone basically opposing each other where you might get a surge of estrogen for a certain purpose but if the progesterone doesn't come up to nullify that affect, you’ll end up with bad health effects.
RAY PEAT: Yeah, estrogen stimulates the uptake of water by – I think it's first action is to block the use of oxygen that causes a cell to take up water in the first few hours or minutes of exposure. And overloading cells with water causes them to go into the growth inflammation state where they forget what they had been doing and simply start multiplying. And so for the first 12 hours that there is a burst of new cells in the uterus ready to receive an implantation. In the breasts, it creates massive new cells to enlarge the milk production capacity. And in the pituitary, it enlarges the cells that will take over production of prolactin at the time of lactation. But if you continue that exposure more than a day that growth continues and then you increase the risk of breast tumors and pituitary tumors. When birth control pills were first on the market in 1960s, they had big doses of estrogen and there was a terrific epidemic of pituitary tumors producing prolactin that there has been very little written about it but it was like the early production in one hospital pituitary tumors went from, I think, just a few like five per year up to 300 per year in one publication.

JOHN BARKHAUSEN: That’s significant. And you were talking about your mother having taken Armour corpus luteum and was it used for other thing? Was that for getting pregnant? Is that why she was taking it?

RAY PEAT: Yeah, it was recognized that estrogen wasn't the fertility factor as early as that and that progesterone was, but the estrogen industry not being able to patent progesterone because there was only one substance and it was very expensive to make, they found that SERT is as cheap as anything and so you can – for no production cost you can make any kind of estrogenic substance you choose to. And so they created the whole mythology of what the female hormone is. And at that time, progesterone had to be very laboriously converted from cholesterol . the way the ovary does it. And it was later in the 40s when Russell Marker devised a way to make it from the M Steroid and it began very cheap in the early 1950s but the first synthetic forms of progesterone that could be patented that were later developed as contraceptives. These were modified molecules that they marketed as synthetic progesterone with the argument that real progesterone is destroyed in the stomach and so you have to take our product because we’ve modified it and made it a biologically active from you take a pill otherwise you would have to inject it. And there were doctors injecting progesterone and curing all kinds of things through the 1940s from premenstrual syndrome, premature births,. cancer and so on but then the…

Politics & Science: Progesterone Part 1
 
OP
ivy

ivy

Member
Joined
Mar 18, 2017
Messages
314
Location
Portugal
Big ideas...
You need more calories. Small, balanced meals very frequently. Keep your blood sugar stable. Eat easy to digest foods. Balanced macros of 40/30/30.

Vitamin E may help your breast pain.

Yes, you are ED.
Yes you can heal...
My guess is your vocation has you in a metabolic deficit with high cortisol. I think your nutritional needs being met is a great start.


Thanks for the input.
I'm eating more in smaller portions. I've seen a natural healer who recommended stinging nettle tea, which I've also seen recommended in other posts. It makes sense, it is a powerful diuretic. I'm hoping it will indirectly help with my breast pain as well.
 

sele

Member
Joined
Aug 9, 2014
Messages
238
@ivy have you tried progesterone?
It helps with hair loss and cysts and ...it heals everything. (I should become a salesman) :)
Slow metabolism and estrogen dominance go hand in hand. If you have one then you have the other.
I think you will get more help if you post your diet using cronometer.com.
With IBS you have to look at every food as a suspect till you find the offender.
Your pulse is very low indicating low metabolism.
 
OP
ivy

ivy

Member
Joined
Mar 18, 2017
Messages
314
Location
Portugal
@sele, I haven't tried Progesterone yet. Is there a brand and dosage you'd recommend?

Right now my bowels seem OK, even with milk and chocolate reintroduced. The lethargy and breast pain are giving me a hard time though...
 

sele

Member
Joined
Aug 9, 2014
Messages
238
@sele, I haven't tried Progesterone yet. Is there a brand and dosage you'd recommend?

Right now my bowels seem OK, even with milk and chocolate reintroduced. The lethargy and breast pain are giving me a hard time though...
I use Simply Progesterone from Health Natura.
RP's article should give you some ideas on dosage.
Hope you feel better.
 
OP
ivy

ivy

Member
Joined
Mar 18, 2017
Messages
314
Location
Portugal
I thought I should keep you guys updated after a few weeks of Peating. Mind you, I wasn't totally strict, but fairly consistent to see results.

Adjustments to diet and lifestyle:
- I've stopped eating tuna and reduced nuts massively. I've been eating meat a few times a week and have no trouble digesting, as long as it's lean, not soaked in fat and not eaten with starches. I feel warmer and my mood seems to have improved. On Easter Sunday, usually a terse family reunion, I felt happy and light, which I attribute to the unusual amounts of roast goat and chocolate I had...
I've focused on coffee, oranges, eggs, raw carrot, mushroom, cooked spinach, some chocolate, cod, veal, sliced Edam, mozzarella and cottage cheese, carbonated water with lemon, ginger tea and stinging nettle tea. Kept fat very low - omelette cooked in coconut oil, olive oil added to salads. Had a recent urge for watermelon, but it's a bit disruptive for my stomach and bowels. Still looking for the optimal food combinations.
- I've tried milk, but had to let it go due to a psoriasis comeback on my left forearm. Greek yogurt seems to be better.
- I've cycled less and walked more. I spent the whole of April moving to a new place, which involved climbing a lot of stairs and lifting heavy boxes. My energy was consistent throughout. Because I had no time to go to the gym, but was physically active, I seem to have kept my muscle, while at the same time I feel less stressed. I'm beginning to embrace the feeling that I might need to do stuff slower rather than faster...
- My breast pain is gone, the swelling has also subsided, but I don't think it was the diet alone. I supplemented with a modified TCM formula recommended by a thoughtful practitioner who tweaked it according to my symptoms and to information found on a TCM manual. The original formula is very well-known, it's meant to target the liver and is known as Chai Hu Shu Wan Gan. I took a modified powder version, three spoons two-three times a day. It's a very bitter mix, but seems to have helped my liver purge. If you happen to live in Minnesota, I'd be happy to refer you to this practitioner.
 

Similar threads

Back
Top Bottom