When God created our bodies, he created a fine tuned machine that had many parts all working in conjunction. People who believe in evolution usually ruin their ability to understand the human body because they tend to focus on one part as if it was autonomous from the rest of the body.
When we accept that our bodies were created as a single entity with multiple, dependent functioning parts we can then begin to learn how to have a healthy life.
Hormones are one of those little parts that effect many different areas. Our hormones are mainly looked at as making us a boy or a girl which grows into a man or a woman and then have something to do with procreation. But, they go beyond that. Our hormones can affect our mood, our use of vitamins and minerals, and our breakouts of acne and beginnings of osteoporosis.
Keeping our hormones in balance will go a long way to ridding the body of many ills.
Just speaking about hormones, you may think of estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone. Sadly, most people only know of those three, and yet there are many more that are needed in our bodies. These working in harmony cause the body to function as flawlessly as a fallen creation can. But, when they are all out of tune and running wild or sitting idle they can wreck havoc on our entire being.
Progesterone is probably the most valuable of the hormones. Progesterone is synthesized in the body and is a precusor for the body to make corticosteroids and testosterone. Even though this hormone is made in copious amounts during pregnancy, this hormone is neither specifically male nor female as both genders need it.
The main role of progesterone is to oppose and balance estrogen. Progesterone production begins to drop as you age, but this hormone can flatline much earlier than any of the others causing some serious disfunction in the harmony of the body. Progesterone in the proper amount not only protects women against fibrocystic breasts and endometrial cancer, but it also helps us use fat for energy, stimulates bone building, acts as a natural antidepressant, and even helps prevent prostate cancer in men. And those are just a few of the amazing things it does.
If you think you may be low on progesterone, you can buy a transdermal cream. Progesterone is highly fat soluble, and a good progesterone cream works better than any oral supplement. Read John Lee and Jesse Hanley's book What Your Doctor May Not Tell You About Premenopause to find out how to properly use the cream.
The most abused hormone on the market today is probably estrogen. Estrogen is needed in the female body to help with all of the lady organs as well as stopping the growth of long bones in both men and women. However, too much estrogen will make you bloated, moody, and give you insomnia.
Estrogen dominance is when this hormone runs rampant in the body to the exclusion of others. And it can cause so many problems from allergies to autoimmune disorders, cancer of the sex organs and breasts to thyroid dysfunction, hair loss and headaches to mood swings and osteoporosis. It's very scary stuff, and yet, doctors prescribe estrogen to their patients without a balancing progesterone to keep it in check. It's in so much of our food and water that it's cause so many problems in men, women, and animals!
If you are on estrogen and you aren't using a progesterone cream, you should really research the effects of too much estrogen on your body!
Another hormone that I've rarely heard mentioned is DHEA (dehydroepiandrosterone). DHEA and progesterone are used by the body to make estrogen and testosterone. This hormones helps with our energy and immune functions and moods. Many ailments like cancer, heart disease, allergies, diabetes, and autoimmune diseases pop up as our levels of DHEA drop.
If you are thinking of supplementing with DHEA, choose a low dose of 5 to 10 mg daily, and don't buy products that say DHEA precursors because there's no guarantee your body with use it to create it's own DHEA. Careful though, because this hormone can have a masculinizing effect on women like male pattern baldness and growth of facial hair.
Pregnenolone is another rarely heard of hormone which your body makes from cholesterol. This hormone seems to have some benefits on rheumatoid arthritis symptoms in low doses, but it should be taken under direction of a health care professional.
You may have heard a lot about Corticosteroids. Cortisol happens to be a big conversation piece when talking about stress. That's because these hormones respond to anything that signals stressors in our body.
But, you may not know that these hormones regulate immune responses, oppose insulin, and stimulate conversion of proteins to glucose. They can even help regulate mineral balance.
But, when our bodies are under constant stress, it can lead to high levels of cortisol in the blood stream which can result in Cushing's disease, hypertention, and osteoporosis. Some doctors even think that it may be the primary cause of Alzheimer's and dementia.
Testosterone is thought of as a man's hormone, but women actually need this one just as men need a little estrogen. Men and women decrease in their production of all hormones as they age and this is why we start to "look" old.
As men age, the start to notice the effects of lower hormones like weight gain, breast and prostate enlargement, and sometimes prostate cancer. Testosterone can be converted in the body to DHT, and while the original testosterone hormone will protect a man against certain ailments, DHT will not. You can supplement with saw palmetto extract to try to inhibit this conversion.
Unlike other hormones, testosterone is only available by prescription.
And, lastly there in Androstenedione. That one is not fun to type of try to say! This is a steroid hormone that is a precursor to testosterone and estrogen. It is secreted by the adrenals and the ovaries in women.
Body builders have known about this one for a while, and sometimes supplement it to boost their testosterone levels and increase the muscle mass. Doctors think it may also help in maintaining the bones and protecting them from bone loss. However, they can have a very masculinizing affect on women, especially when combined with DHEA or testosterone supplement.
All of these hormones working at the right time in the proper amounts give us some wonderful things. They allow us to build bone and muscle, get pregnant and grow a child in the womb, and much more. But, if even one of these hormones is out of whack then the whole symphony of our bodies sounds like a horror movie concert!
If you want more information, I suggest you read John Lee and Jesse Hanley's book What Your Doctor May Not Tell You About Premenopause to see the best ways to test for each hormone and whether or not you need to think about supplementing. Women actually start the premenopausal stage of life in their late 30's and early 40's so it's never to early to start learning about what's coming and how to help our bodies through it.
