As a medical intuitive healer, I empower my clients to understand why they have been feeling cold and tired and getting fat for no obvious reason.
Feeling constantly chilled may be your first sign that your thyroid function is dropping, but other common signs include low libido, poor stamina, memory problems, infertility and fluid retention.
Unexplained fatigue and weight gain are so common among American women today but few realize that the prescription drugs they take may actually be causing their problems.
Many women are not aware that the birth control pills they take to prevent pregnancy and the estrogen they have been prescribed to alleviate symptoms of perimenopause and menopause suppress their thyroid function.
I often refer my clients back to their medical doctors to discuss these issues.
Here’s what medical science has taught us:
- Birth control pills flood your body with artificial estrogen and thyroid, thereby suppressing your own body’s production of these hormones, and increasing the activity of Thyroid Binding Globulin (TBG), which binds thyroid hormones and lowers levels of free thyroid.
- Prescription estrogen for perimenopause and menopause may also lower your thyroid function, especially women who are already hypothyroid to begin with. Many people are surprised to learn that estrogen therapy interferes with thyroid medication and reduces the amount of available thyroid hormone, or thyroxine, in the blood.
If you are taking birth control pills or prescription estrogen and find yourself feeling cold and exhausted and gaining weight, here are 10 ways you can take back control of your health:
- Talk to your medical doctor about how your medications may be affecting your thyroid. If you are on estrogen therapy and your need for thyroid medication keeps increasing, your menopause drugs could be the problem.
- Ask your doctor about ways you can prevent unwanted pregnancy that do not affect your hormones.
- Look up the side effects of all your medications. Visit www.rxlist.com. If you are on multiple medications, learn the latest research about how all your drugs interact by visiting ww.epocrates.com. You can’t assume that you know all the possible ways that your drugs affect your body – you have to look it up.
- Heal your adrenals. You can learn how by reading my recent Amazon No. 1 bestseller Unlimited Energy Now. If you can heal your adrenals, you may not need to take artificial hormones to alleviate the symptoms of perimenopause and menopause. After menopause, the adrenal glands produce androstenedione, which is converted peripherally into estrone by the aromatase enzyme found mainly in adipose tissue. Estrone is then converted into estradiol, the most potent estrogen. Here’s the bottom line: the lower your stress level, the healthier all your hormones will be. That’s because of a phenomenon called cortisol steal. When you are stressed, your body produces fewer female hormones and stores more body fat..
- Avoid BPA in plastics. BPA is a compound found in most plastics that mimics estrogen. Avoid plastic water bottles and plastic wrap and look for containers marked free of BPA.
- Reduce or avoid phytoestrogens in your food, includingsoy beans, tofu, tempeh, soy beverages, linseed (flax), sesame seeds, wheat, berries, oats, barley, dried beans, lentils, yams, rice, alfalfa, mung beans, apples, carrots, pomegranates, wheat germ, rice bran, soy linseed bread, ginseng, bourbon, beer, fennel and anise. Recognize that you hold fat in your body in specific areas depending on hormone imbalances. Estrogen dominance leads to weight gain in your thighs. I have seen countless clients lose weight without dieting or exercise simply by correcting their estrogen dominance.
- Whether you take prescription estrogen or make your own naturally, make sure your body is able to detoxify. I highly recommend Biodetox, a hypoallergenic protein powder you can purchase at this link that supports your body’s ability to detoxify while healing your gut and reducing inflammation. Remember that your fat cells serve a purpose by holding toxins. As you detoxify your body, you will lose weight naturally.
- Choose hormone-free meat and dairy products.
- Choose organic fruits and vegetables raised without pesticides.
- Ask yourself whether or not the drugs you take actually make you feel better. Because every hormone you take affects every other hormone, maintaining hormonal balance is a tricky business. If you are not taking hormones yet but searching for ways to alleviate your menopausal symptoms, consider natural alternatives. As you learn to address your symptoms naturally, your energy returns, you stop feeling so cold all the time and your weight normalizes.
Taking control of your health by learning how to address your symptoms naturally can often bring relief where your prescription medications have failed you.
Frankly, the lack of understanding of the complex interactions between your stress hormones, thyroid function and female hormones is part of why most conventional diets don’t work and why most nutritionists or personal fitness trainers have no real clue how to help you lose weight.
You can’t simply starve or over exercise your way out of hormonal imbalance and get thinner.
To learn more about how to get your energy back, heal your metabolism and lose weight naturally, set up an appointment with me today by emailing catherine@unlimitedenergynow.com or calling 678-612-8816.