What Is Estrogen Dominance
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I’m sure we’ve all heard the saying “you can never get too much of a good thing”, and as a woman trying to
increase your breast size naturally one of the main things you need to do is increase your estrogen activity. However, too much estrogen can actually sabotage your breast enlargement goals and leave you vulnerable to a host of health problems.
When a woman has little, normal, or high levels of estrogen, and has little or no progesterone to maintain a good balance in the body she has a condition known as estrogen dominance, or estrogen dominant syndrome.
Keep in mind, you don’t have to have high estrogen levels to be diagnosed with estrogen dominance. There are some women out there who have a deficient amount of estrogen in their body, but they still show symptoms of estrogen dominance because they don’t have any progesterone at all.
Progesterone & Estrogen
You need the right amount of both progesterone and estrogen in your body at all times, as these are our 2 primary sex hormones. During the first half of our menstrual cycle estrogen rises to stimulate ovulation, while during the second half of our menstrual cycle progesterone kicks in and rises if we’re pregnant, or our progesterone levels will drop to stimulate menstruation (period).
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As you can see, you need the ideal ratio of estrogen and progesterone in order to remain free of estrogen dominance, which is a condition that affects more than half of women who are over the age of 35. This might have something to do with the fact that your body begins producing less and less progesterone once we reach age 35.
By the time you hit menopause your body can’t produce a sufficient amount of progesterone, while estrogen is still produced in decent amounts. Breast cancer is the number 1 cancer in women and it can be attributed to too much estrogen and extremely low or no progesterone. In fact, If you’re a premenopausal woman you are 5 times more likely to develop breast cancer if your progesterone is too low.
How Does This Affect Your Breast Enlargement Goals?
As I stated earlier, too much estrogen can actually sabotage your breast enlargement goals. Estrogen dominant syndrome is when the progesterone levels in your body are too low, while your estrogen levels remain dominant and high.
In order to successfully grow your breasts we need both these hormones working together in harmony. Too little or too much estrogen can prevent a woman from getting bigger boobs, as it’s the hormone responsible for enlarging your breast tissues. However, progesterone also plays an important role in the development of women’s breast, as it’s responsible for producing milk-secreting cells.
Your breasts will grow bigger as a result of these milk-secreting cells getting bigger. Moreover, progesterone has cancer preventive properties that are needed as we try to increase the activity of estrogen in our bodies for breast development.
What Causes It
We’re (and this goes for men, women, and children) all exposed to way too much estrogen on a daily basis. That’s because It’s Everywhere We Go! Environmental estrogen is the number one cause of estrogen dominance today. The environmental estrogen we’re most commonly exposed to at a high level are known as xenoestrogens. Xenoestrogens belong to a family of chemicals and are considered endocrine disruptors with the ability to throw off our hormonal balance or harm our immune system.
- Xenoestrogens
These harmful estrogens block up our estrogen receptors, which leads to a build up of estrogen. The human body can’t tell the difference between xenoestrogens and our own estrogen, because xenoestrogens mimic the shape of our natural estrogen, which our estrogen receptors in our cells recognizes and opens up for.
This exposure to xenoestrogens eventually leads to various health problems like headaches, sinus problems, asthma, arthritis, symptoms of premenopause, and in some cases a direct cause of cancer. A lot of men and women these days are suffering from one or more health problem due to they’re exposure to these estrogenic chemicals. Check out some of the most common xenoestrogens that you need to do your best to stay away from, as they trigger estrogen dominance.
Pesticides
The most common source of xeneoestrogens that we’re always exposed to are pesticides. Pesticides have a chemical structure that resembles estrogen and most of the traditionally cultivated vegetables and fruits on the market these days have some degree of pesticides.
Most chicken, beef, and pork that’s commercially raised contain pesticides, as they are given growth hormone and estrogen-like hormones to feed on. These xenoestrogens are then passed on to us when we eat them.
These meats have a high amount of pesticides stored in their fat cells making them very estrogenic. Over a pound of these dangerous estrogenic chemicals are ingested by the average person each year according to some studies.
How to Avoid Them
The best way to avoid these estrogenic chemicals is to eat less (or completely stop eating) commercially raised animals (pork, beef, chicken). Also, do your best to stay away from commercially grown vegetables and fruits, as they most likely have residue of pesticide on them.
The best thing you can do is go Organic.
The same goes for dairy products like cheese, ice cream, butter, and milk – look for organic products when you go shopping at your grocery store. Stay away from caffeine, as it increases estrogen levels dramatically. That means cutting back on the coffee and the mountain dews.
However, all natural herbal teas are okay as they contain no xenoestrogens whatsoever. Also, stay away from canned foods because they are sprayed with xenoestrogens to help prevent the taste of metals in the finished product.
Chlorine bleach – use non-chlorine bleach for laundry. Laundry detergent – contains high amounts of estrogenic chemicals that get absorbed through our skin.
And the list can go on. For a more detailed and longer list you can click here. It’s really a lot.
At the end of the day you can’t avoid xenoestrogens… they’re literally everywhere. The best thing you can do is keep your body in great condition so that it can effectively fight off the sea of xenoestrogens around you effectively. Adapting to a healthy lifestyle that involves eating nutritious foods daily and staying active will go a long way.
- Liver Congestion
Your liver is responsible for metabolizing hormones and removing excess amounts of hormones from the body. This is why it is very important to keep your liver functioning properly in order to maintain proper hormone balance and avoid estrogen dominance. I recommend detoxing your body a couple times each year to help keep your liver functioning at its optimum level.
- Stress
Stress is another leading cause of estrogen dominant syndrome. Stress not only decreases our progesterone levels, it also causes adrenal gland exhaustion. Meanwhile, estrogen levels remain high due to excessive exposure to estrogenic chemicals from processed or refined foods we eat, coffee in the morning, energy drinks to beat fatigue, and/or alcohol.
Eating less than good quality food, lack of sleep, lack of exercise, and drinking too much alcohol or cafeine all contribute to high stress levels, which releases cortisol into your body. In order to feed this spike in cortisol level your body will begin to utilize reserves that would have originally been used to produce other hormones such as progesterone.
Other things that can cause estrogen dominance include - Birth Control Pills, Obesity, Not Getting Enough Exercise or Physical Activity (30 minutes of exercise per day has shown to reduce stress levels), Lack of B Vitamins, Improper Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT), and of course Diet.
How to Regain a Healthy Hormonal Balance and Prevent Estrogen Dominance
In order to regain a healthy hormonal balance in your body it’s important to know that increasing your progesterone levels alone isn’t enough. You need a strategy that helps bring all 3 of your sex hormones back into balance and these include: testosterone, estrogen, and progesterone.
However, progesterone supplementation is key to replenishing hormonal balance. Just consult your naturopathic physician so you know the right dosage you need to take daily, and he or she will make sure you have a plan you can follow.
Make sure any progesterone cream formulation you utilize is free of preservatives. Remember, estrogen dominance is caused by not only a deficiency in progesterone, but also a high level of estrogen. So if your progesterone levels are normal you just need to focus on reducing your estrogen levels.
What Can You Do To Decrease Estrogen Levels
- Eat organic foods and Avoid fast food or processed foods.
- Exercise for 30 minutes daily.
- Maintain ideal body weight – your body will start retaining more estrogen when it has excess fat.
- Eat more dietary fiber – passing stools efficiently is vital because estrogens and toxins will get reabsorbed by the stomach and back into your system if you’re constipated (the main cause of constipation is lack of fiber).
- Phytoestrogens – Phytoestrogens are plant based estrogens that help activate estrogen activity in our bodies, which leads to natural breast growth. Most phytoestrogens are not only great for natural breast enlargement, but also great at decreasing the amount of harmful estrogen in the body.
Foods such as fennel,
fenugreek, sunflower seeds, lavender oil, licorice, soybeans, and
herbs like alfalfa and fennel have been known to reduce dangerous levels of estrogen and protect the estrogen cell receptors from more damage from xenoestrogens. Good phytoestrogens can help your body’s ability in balancing out all of your hormones and preventing estrogen dominance, while promoting
natural breast growth.
Dietary Supplementation That Can Help
- B vitamins – helps keep your stress levels down and hormones in check.
- Chasteberry (vitex) – helps normalize progesterone levels.
- DIM – DIM or diindolylmethane is a phytochemical that is made using certain vegetables like broccoli. When it comes to the metabolism of estrogen in the body DIM is very effective. Twice each day take 60mg DIM each day.
- Milk Thistle – Helps detox the liver so that estrogen can be metabolized more efficiently. Talk to your doctor about the best dosage for you.
- NAC – NAC or N-acetyl-cysteine will help your liver break down estrogen, which will decrease the total amount of estrogen in your body.
Final Thoughts
It’s always important to get your estrogen, progesterone, and stress hormone levels checked so you can learn if you have a hormonal imbalance, and if you do, how severe it is. Always go for a combination of supplements, diet, and lifestyle changes to address estrogen dominance.
Estrogen dominance is a major cause of various health conditions like cystic breast disease, fibroids, breast cancer, PMS, and many more. The breast enlargement methods covered on this site will not only stimulate estrogen activity (which is vital to promote natural breast development), but also improve your progesterone levels promoting a healthy hormonal balance, and protect your body from many of the harmful chemical estrogens that are everywhere around us.
