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Hello! I am on the path to greater hormone wellness and would love helpful thoughts anyone might have. Several years ago (after childbirth X2) I consulted with a naturopath to address my significant PMS symptoms (moodiness, anxiety, long cycles, etc). After a month long saliva test that showed estrogen levels in ‘normal’ range and very low progesterone, I began taking bioidentical prog in the subligual drop form. This form of prog gave me headaches so I consulted with my OB who prescribed the same strength of prog (200mg) but in topical cream form. She didn’t know that rates of absorption are completely different between the two forms of bio-iden prog — I didn’t either. After a 6 month honeymoon of very little to no PMS and regular cycles, things became awful. I began to have panic attacks, profuse sweating, rapid heartrate, headaches, floaty/out of body sensations, etc. After reading and an effort to contact as many people who could help me as quickly as possible, I determined that through overdose of bio=iden prog I has, in essence, overloaded (down regulated) my hormone receptors completely and they were not sensing the presence of my natural hormones — notably Estrogen. I was given a prescription for 20 mg of bioidential prog. I took it for a couple of months but I am so disenchanted with the whole mess that I soon stopped taking it altogether to give my poor body a chance to recover. The last time I was tested my thyroid function was pretty sluggish, which my hormone doctor thought was likely a domino effect from the hormone hell. So, here I am today, so much better than I was but looking for a nourishing/non-intense path to sustained hormone health. I want to avoid phytoestrogens, Vitex and the like. I eat really well and take certain supplements — but want to clean that up too to use my dollars most effectively without taking extra stuff just because it might help. What book of Matt’s should I start with for increasing body temp? Other thoughts or words of wisdom from the trenches?
Many thanks! Jessica
Matt’s advice is to concentrate on these things that start with S: sugar, startch, salt, sleep and saturated fat and also decrease liquids until you pee yellow only every 4 or so hours. I have only read the book for vegans and read all his newsletters and emails- did you get all of those? He started sending them out around the beginning of the year or so. I think his two main books are Eat for Heat and Diet Recovery 2.
You are supposed to sleep as much as you can – 9 hours isn’t too long. Don’t try to eat “healthy foods” (whole grains, high fiber cruciferous, etc..) unless you enjoy them they seem to agree with you. Listen to your body, pay attention to how warm you feel, particularly your hands and feet. Lay low on exercise if it seems to be stressing you out and leaving you drained of energy. Don’t be afraid of sugar, starch and saturated fats but if you want to minimize fat gain, eat a lower percentage fat calories and go high carb – though if you eat higher fat that’s ok too. The main dietary thing to avoid are PUFAs (polyunsaturated fats) because they can lower metabolism and cause inflamation THOUGH he says not to worry too much about it at first, particularly if you are coming off of a eating disorder so that you can learn not to be so restrictive and be more relaxed about eating.
Not sure how to address your hormone issues, but if you have a great metabolism then supposedly all your systems are going to function better.
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