O bright he very enlightening text below is reproduced here with the permission of Dr. José Carlos Brasil Peixoto, a medical doctor, according to the original sent to me by the author himself.
It's a rather long text, but very well explains and demystifies various aspects of the conscious use of hormones in the search for and maintenance of real health for any patient who needs it, at any age. In my opinion, it's a must-read for anyone who wants to know more about hormones and their vast usefulness for human health, all based on sufficient and unquestionable scientific evidence.
Anyway: read on and form your own opinion...
“OUR HORMONES
AND A THERAPEUTIC RENEWAL
Idealization, prejudices and reality
Recently, the subject of hormone treatment has been in the media.
The term has numerous references on internet search engines and
has already been the subject of radio, television and magazine reports.
As with other health issues,
controversies and radicalized positions arise.
Possibly this could have supporters and detractors who deal with
with excessive passion.
But it's a topic that needs a sensible discussion, so that it really
the general public understand the correct premises of the
concept underlying the physiology involved and what it is about - objectively -
a hormone treatment!
A brief history of steroids
The use of substances that behave like steroid hormones is not exactly new. The first female steroid hormone analogue, ethinyl-estradiol, was synthesized in 1938 in Germany(1). Another widely used analog is Premarin®, which is obtained from the urine of pregnant mares and is aptly called natural conjugated estrogens,(2) although it doesn't have the hormonal profile of the human species, hit the market in 1942.
But the use of hormonal extracts as a source of rejuvenation goes back much further. It is reported that in 1889, a Harvard professor tested a hormone extract on himself. elixir of youth which was nothing more than an extract of animal testicles, which would have given him energy and a feeling of great well-being. In this case, the hormone in question was testosterone.
Sex steroids were only isolated 40 years later by an American biochemist. Testosterone was isolated shortly afterwards (1931). But it was the discovery of the connection between cholesterol and sex hormones that enabled the first partial synthesis in the laboratory, which soon afterwards, in 1939, allowed the synthesis of pregnenolone from cholesterol.
Several non-steroid hormones, i.e. not derived from cholesterol, were discovered before this, including adrenaline, thyroid hormones and insulin.
This particularity of “birth” - derived from cholesterol - makes steroid hormones quite special. Apart, of course, from the group of sex hormones, it should not be forgotten that their family includes other important players. Cortisol and its derivatives, with almost infinite functions in human physiology, and aldosterone (manager of the acid-base balance, of the mineral rates that are controlled in the kidneys, basically sodium, potassium and chlorine, as well as maintaining the volume of body water), which plays a major role in balancing blood pressure.
The great impetus for the widespread use of substances that behave like sex steroids was given by the American doctor Robert Wilson, regarded as the father of what became known as hormone replacement therapy(3). His target was menopausal women. The goal shared the old ideas of the elixir of youth. The title of his famous book: Feminine forever would suggest that. We can't talk about therapies anti-aging, After all, growing old is an inevitable biological process, but so is growing old with dignity (a concern of official government bodies, as this article cites for example LINK) has been a social ambition that has stimulated medicine to continually pursue this goal.
Proven problems
The use of steroids is part of a wide range of medical knowledge. The nature, applications and implications of these substances cover a vast area of use. From the synthesis of contraceptive pills to the additives used by athletes, from the treatment of countless disorders linked to sexuality, to the applications of synthetic corticoids for allergies or rheumatism, steroids are by far one of the most important topics in pharmacology, unfortunately more so than in physiology itself. So their therapeutic potential could outweigh the necessary precautions to be observed before almost unrestricted use.
The biggest shock would be the proof that the use of conventional hormone therapy, based on popularized drugs (basically Premarin® andFarlutal®) would be more risky than beneficial for women as a climacteric treatment. The substantial increase in breast cancer, stroke, heart attack and thromboembolic disease would not outweigh the eventual advantages of seductive well-being. This statement is no longer a speculative fear or a retrograde prejudice. The WHI studies left no doubt: hormones (in this specific case: artificial ones) used in the widespread hormone replacement can do more harm than good!(5)
Unfortunately, this has never been perfectly explained by the media. Ordinary hormone replacement therapy does not accurately represent the hormonal profile of the human body. It uses substances that are (very) similar, but not the same, and these differences can only be understood and appreciated when we go deeper into the knowledge of endocrine disruptors (on the subject: endocrine disruptors, see this article by NIH).
When we reflect with this kind of knowledge in mind, we can arrive at some impressions about a possible prejudice resulting from ignorance of these premises. It's not hard to imagine that artificial hormones (or artificial dosages, or artificial forms of use, perhaps based on laboratory measurements without total accuracy) create problems! That might be a possibility to consider, wouldn't it?
On the other hand, the widespread use of anabolic steroids continues to be a very promiscuous area of pseudo-therapies with steroid hormone products. In this case, the problem is that the ambition of using testosterone analogues is to modify body potential, where sportsmen and bodybuilders use high doses of androgens, which has brought to light a series of complications and side effects linked to this form of use. One of the scandals of anabolic steroid use concerns the perverse use of these substances in East German female athletes, who won many medals in sports such as swimming. ...And sexual disorders for the rest of their lives (it is believed that more than 9,000 East German athletes used doping, mainly hormonal with their peak medal haul in 1976 - 40 gold medals in Montreal - as documented in this Deutsche Welle articleLINK.)
So we have negative effects from the addition of steroids to the body as artificial substances: chemical identity and form of use - and on the other hand we receive complicated but perhaps inaccurate notifications: hormones and the terrifying subject of cancer.
Charles Huggins was one of the first to consider the link between testosterone and prostate cancer. Although it earned him a Nobel Prize in Medicine, his pioneering studies would later be reviewed and proven to be “a bit” hasty in terms of conclusions. But his misguided ideas have become irreversibly entrenched in contemporary medical thinking.
The obvious nature of hormone-dependent cancers is not disputed, but this may have established a (too) unquestioned medical understanding of the relationship between hormones and cancer.
With regard to both oestradiol - related to breast cancer - and testosterone - related to prostate cancer, a simple aspect of the reflection has been eclipsed: it is not their mere presence that generates cancer. Teenagers have high levels of these hormones and don't usually get this type of disease. Much older men with very low hormone levels are the main patients for prostate tumors. Obviously, there is more to the action of these steroids in relation to malignant diseases. But this oversimplification has stigmatized these ubiquitous hormonal agents. Those who are always present can always be accused of something, why not?
Even more extravagant would be the possible imputation of progesterone to cancer. It should be borne in mind that the best anthropological demonstration can lead any mind - even one with little insight - to an unequivocal realization: pregnancy, a situation in which progesterone levels rise stratospherically, cannot be a risk of fatal disease for any species that wants to impose itself on the natural world. Obviously, this kind of thinking may be too audacious for many scholars, countless media experts who also try to blame a typically maturing hormone (the opposite of cancer: immature cells) for the appearance of malignant tumors.
(In any case, medicine uses a specific estrogen receptor blocker as the most standard drug in the treatment of breast cancer after diagnosis, so this should be valuable information - tamoxifen and more modern similar products are invariably of the SERm type - selective estrogen receptor modulators - see article - which leads us to believe that it is estrogen that is really associated with the problem).
Ecology tried to help
In the 1980s, a discovery was decisive in giving fundamental knowledge to the understanding of steroid hormones. Ana Soto's studies (4) demonstrated indisputably how environmental pollution affects hormonal health. Her discovery that substances coming out of the plastic lids that were part of her test tubes contaminated cultures of breast cancer cells, causing unexpected multiplication. Nonylphenols would be the first of a heterogeneous group of chemical compounds with unequivocal estrogenic action, where difficult names such as bisphenol-A and diethylhexyl phthalate, would be added to a wide range of chemical substances that would not only be in the composition of plastic products, but would participate in pesticides, toiletries and perfumery products, detergents, and a multitude of products typically the fruit of post-war development.
This would form a mosaic of imprecise borders that could fall under the heading of HORMONE DISRUPTORS (or endocrine disruptors). Chemical derivatives that behave like hormones, basically estradiol, affect all living beings in the food chain, storing themselves in their fats. Although many theorists try to reduce its importance by claiming that the chemical expression is weak (in the United States, of course), its virtually infinite persistence causes problems. There is no shortage of research on the subject. And action too. But for some reason the governments of Canada and Europe didn't believe this story of weak estrogenic action and PROHIBITED plastic baby bottles or Chinese plastic toys. At the very least, it's a matter of reasonable common sense: why put the population at risk, a risk that is obviously unnecessary.
The estrogenic action of pesticides is no accident. “Estrogenizing” individuals of a species could make it impossible for them to multiply. A typical action of products that would be used as poisons. Not allowing reproduction would of course kill a pest. Unfortunately, the wise researchers forgot to consider that everything that would consume the pest, or the products “protected” against this pest, could perpetuate the sterilizing action of this chemical substance. And they forgot that oestradiol is impressively active, even in discreet, homeopathic concentrations.
“Estrogenizing” the enemy is one of the ways that certain members of the plant kingdom use to curb the populations of their predators. Called phytoestrogens, these substances are by no means gifts from Mother Nature to repair the problems of women with hormonal problems. An excess of phytoestrogens has already been recognized as a problem for mammalian reproduction, as was the case with clover disease(6). The excesses of phytoestrogens present in products popularized under the onslaught of the media, such as soy extract (commercially called soy milk) were no longer able to sensitize health directors in the UK, who in 2004 practically banned the recommendation of this type of artificial product as a diet for children as a paediatric practice. The (potential) feminization of boys would not be a reasonable risk to face (7).
Ecology has left us a very important legacy: hormone-like substances produce effects similar to endogenous hormones, but can produce other distinct and imponderable effects. Theoretically, any substance with this biochemical profile would fit this definition. Either the substance is chemically identical, or it is a disruptor potential. Unfortunately, almost all the drugs that make up the arsenal of hormone treatments: anabolic steroids, contraceptives and traditional hormone replacement drugs for the menopause - can fall into this category. And we know that there are problems related to these treatments. Wouldn't it be permissible to assume that this could be a good justification - that they are also hormone disruptors?
Demonizing fat
The role of fat in the fixation of polluting agents has not been forgotten, but it has not been properly clarified. Steroids and substances that mimic steroids have a high affinity for fats. Blaming fats for being toxic on their own is a clear demonstration of the inconsistency of preliminary information. Ignorance, sophistry and prejudice seem to be permanently combined. Fat has become the cause of cancer for experts in too much of a hurry to think about what they're saying.
If one of them goes to the media and says something like: breast cancer may be related to fat, This is what any 1.99 bazaar oracle can tell you over and over again. And because of the concepts ingrained in society, it's easy to put faith in this information. But we must demand that this same expert improves his explanatory acuity. Some may remember that the pollution produced by the chemical industry, which is involved with agrotoxins, medicines and even food products, can impregnate the (natural) fat that participates in the cascade of the natural food web. (Let's remember that endless generations of human beings have struggled to feed on fat; in the human species, an evolutionary theory advocates that the encephalization of the primates that would become the ancestors of homo sapiens was made possible by the consumption of fat from the animals they hunted. LINK). Thus, not fat, but what man was producing - with a particular affinity for fat - turned out to be a probable cause of the problem.
Of course, other experts say that obesity is related to breast cancer. It's possible. The same relationship that obesity can have with a complex web of pathological situations. Whether it's possible insulin resistance, a lack of physical activity, priority consumption of carbohydrates, and of course the inevitable chronic stress that must surround this person. There may well be a connection between this range of situations and serious, degenerative diseases such as diabetes, hypertension, mental illness and even cancer. We could make an inventory of assumptions and reflect on this chain of pathological events. Or... blame the fat. It's not the truth, but it saves thinking.
Of course, there is a question about adipose tissue in relation to the formation of hormones. Fatty tissue can increase the availability of aromatase - the enzyme that converts androgens into estrogens (both estrone and estradiol). It can make a difference in the situation of estrogen dominance (a term coined by physician John R Lee, which implies an imbalance of forces between estrogens and their physiological antagonists, in favor of estrogens. This condition is considered controversial, but its principles are understandable, and deserve a qualified discussion).
Questions about laboratory tests
One of the peculiarities of steroids is that they are derived from cholesterol. This has led to a major difficulty in one of the pillars of controlling a substance with potential medicinal use: the accuracy of blood measurements.
Why does this happen? Because blood is hydrophilic, and as you know, water and fat don't mix. Steroids are lipid-based and cannot be transported in their active form by the blood. When you measure progesterone in blood serum, for example, you are basically measuring the hormone fraction without physiological activity. This applies to all steroids. The fraction seen in blood tests is associated with proteins, which carry these hormones. They are known as lipoproteins, and some abbreviations are very popular: LDL and HDL, because they also carry cholesterol (from the liver to the tissues, and vice versa). This is so true that when we want to measure testosterone, the most accurate test would be to measure free and bioavailable testosterone, which is the result of a calculation and not a direct measurement, which requires the measurement of SHBG and albumin, as well as total testosterone - as shown in this article. ONLINE CALCULATOR. Only the free fraction of testosterone has biological activity. Of course, we have to be aware of circadian issues. (A discussion of the accuracy of tests for this hormone can be seen in this article. LINK). For example, testosterone itself peaks in the morning. Female steroids also depend on the menstrual cycle, and can have different values almost daily.
To get a more accurate idea of hormone levels, more accurate tests may be needed. One alternative available in laboratory practice is salivary testing of free steroids. There have been several studies on this laboratory technique. It is considered a more interesting method because it is non-invasive and the patient can collect it at home without too much difficulty. It is, however, considered a method that has yet to be endorsed. One study, for example, showed its accuracy for diagnosing Cushing's Syndrome, where the accuracy of cortisol measurements is fundamental for diagnosis(9). There are laboratories in Brazil that are perfectly equipped to carry out this test, and which are regulated by the official bodies that regulate this activity.
(One of the longest-serving researchers in this field is Dr. David Zava, who has published several articles LINK).
Hormones as a therapy
In search of hormonal homeostasis - Plausible ambition?
Well, considering everything we've seen, it's not too difficult to imagine how the use of hormones as a form of treatment has taken on a controversial form.
There are many misunderstandings along the way.
For an American doctor, John R Lee, there was a perception that the problem lay at various points in a hormonal treatment, which led him to put into practice a peculiar therapeutic proposal, but with ambitions to be as faithful as possible to physiology: the use of progesterone - as a priority - for menopausal disorders. With the proviso that it should be progesterone. When we search the internet for progesterone, we often come across a biased term: progestins. Progesterone is not a group of hormones! It is a unique hormone. It has a unique formula, and nothing that doesn't have this chemical formula can bear its name (C21H30O2). The term progestin should be reserved for anything that behaves in a similar way to endogenous progesterone, but in no way does exactly the same thing, according to the aforementioned principles of endocrine disruptor knowledge. There are therefore no uterine devices that release progesterone, only progestins.
As confusion had already arisen, he brought up the term natural hormone (or identical to natural, or even isomolecular). bioidentical, In Brazil, the equivalent term in Portuguese was not used, as micronized progesterone USP was already available for therapeutic use and does not seem to need a distinctive adjective, such as the Utrogestan ®, There is an article from Harvard Medical School about this discussion in this issue. link 10), which, regardless of the sources of origin and production, must meet one non-negotiable requirement: chemical accuracy with endogenous hormones.
This may seem like a redundancy, but as it has become very widespread that the use of hormones applies to treatment with any substances that behave in a similar way (to real hormones, of course), this new adjective would reduce the substances to a group of a few actors. All measurable in healthy human beings, even those who naturally don't use any hormones.
This applies especially to some drugs that cannot normally be measured in humans. A tibolone(7), widely used under the traditional concept of hormone replacement, is not a measurable substance in a healthy human being. We can infer that what is not lacking, nothing can replace. (A tibolone is a substance that is transformed into active estrogenic, progesteronic and even androgenic metabolites, according to the manufacturer's information).
Dr. John Lee set out the various premises of hormone treatment. A very important concept is the notion of dynamic equilibrium: hormones are not static pieces, and they establish a relationship of mutual adjustment, because they counteract each other. Steroids are on the same production line. They can be partially interchangeable, but they can always arrive at the end of the production line as... estrogens. This explains, for example, why some treatments with high doses of androgens could lead to gynecomastia (breast growth) in men. Aromatase transforms androgens into estrogens, as shown in the graph below:
Using the smallest doses necessary, observing the chemical characteristics of the substances produced by the body, and taking into account the perspective of the search for homeostasis, pursuing forms of administration that are more similar to physiological processes, will make up this new model of hormone therapy (which has been given various names in medical circles, including natural hormone therapy, hormone modulation, etc.) In this respect, the way in which the hormones are used is just as important as the possibility of maintaining adequate laboratory monitoring (as discussed above). As far as the form of use is concerned, the use of transdermal gel or cream has been the mainstay of this therapy, although there are alternative forms of solution or sublingual tablets for oral use, as well as, of course, intravaginal forms. In fact, there are already commercial products that follow these guidelines, such as formulas with estradiol and testosterone in gel form for transdermal use. Other forms of use would be exceptional. The ideal of homeostasis should also include an understanding of a set of environmental and dietary hormonal stimuli that can put pressure on the body in relation to the presence of oestrogen imitators, which become active in the body. (This situation falls under the principle of Estrogenic Predominance already mentioned. In the book “The Stolen Future”, by LPM, although the term is not used, the concept is quite demonstrable).
Who may need hormones:
- Symptomatic menopause syndrome (including hot flushes, vaginal dryness, lack of libido, etc.)
- Women with endometriosis;
- Symptoms linked to menstrual flow (PMS, change in cycle, excessive flow, headache, etc);
- Symptoms of mature men, in the condition many call andropause;
- Possible support for the treatment of conditions related to chronic stress;
- Possible support for the treatment of certain problems typical of old age;
- Possible support for the treatment of some psycho-emotional disorders;
- And others, according to clinical assessment.
Controversies about natural and conventional treatments, etc.
The so-called natural treatments for menopause are usually made with herbal substances, which can have a relatively beneficial effect in controlling some symptoms. In general, their benefits are partial and transitory. When we imagine that progesterone may in fact be the first choice when starting treatment, the use of substances that behave like oestrogen seems to be a mistake: the use of substances such as the popular isoflavones can even extend the status of Estrogenic Predominance, and even potentiate situations linked to this condition. The use of hormones themselves, which, despite coming from the external environment, fulfill the human body's own physiology in no uncertain terms. Conventional treatments can have the problem of chemical differences with endogenous hormones, imposing reactions on the body that have already been recognized and studied in the field of hormone disruptors.
Comments:
One of the practical effects of the study of hormone disruptors was the emergence of “BPA free” baby bottles on the market in Brazil, since ANVISA banned their manufacture and sale on January 1, 2012. BPA is an abbreviation for Bisphenol-A, a substance that was used in the plastic used to make baby bottles and which could be released into children's food and harm their development and health. BPA is a hormone disruptor and acts as an oestrogen (in this way). LINK a Veja magazine report on the issue).
References, in addition to direct links in the text itself:
(1) Schering AG Laboratory, by Hans Herloff Inhoffen and Walter Hohlweg;
(2) O PRE(gnant)MA(re)(u)RIN - has 50% of estrone, which will be metabolized into estradiol in the human body, plus 15 to 25% of equilin, plus a smaller percentage of equilenin;
(3) The first phase of replacement therapy was called ERT, or Estrogen Replacement Therapy, but was modified with the use of artificial progestinmedroxyprogesterone, Under the name HRT, this modification was intended to protect the uterus from endometrial cancer, which occurred as a result of overstimulation from the use of estrogen alone;
(4) See the book “The Stolen Future”, published by LP&M;
(5) Original article published in a medical journal New England Journal of Medicine, see link: http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/short/360/6/573
(6) Australia, 1940, active substance fermononetin, a type of isoflavone;
(7) Ministry of Health recommendation published in CMO's Update 37, January 2004, United Kingdom;
(8) Tibolone is marketed in Brazil under various trade names.
(9) Critical analysis of salivary cortisol in the assessment of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis (LINK) Arquivos Brasileiros de Endocrinologia e Metabolismo;
(10)Harvard Medical School article on the subject: LINK
Compiled by José Carlos Brasil Peixoto, doctor”
Plus THIS, the original of which can be found at: https://www.facebook.com/labvitrus2/posts/547978931929265
“Dr. José Carlos Brasil Peixoto
Introduction
One of today's hot topics is hormone treatments.
This topic appears in the mainstream media under names such as: hormone replacement therapy or HRT, menopause problems, or andropause. All these terms, when viewed in the light of a simple knowledge of physiology, are misleading.
The term HRT is a big fiasco, since the strategy used is not to replace the hormones that may be lacking, and usually involves the use of mistaken physiological hormonal identities.
Menopause disorders lead to misconceptions, since the menopause itself is not a problem, nor is it the explanation for a set of symptoms that disrupt the lives of women who are around 45 years old.
Finally, the term andropause is a profound misnomer, since the symptoms of men after the age of 50 are not the result of a radical change in hormone levels, but in fact the prominence of problems related to advancing age, with impaired intimate performance, prostate disorders, and the continuous decline in testosterone, which from a certain level can lead to a series of discomforts or illnesses.
All these situations were dedicatedly studied by the doctor John R Lee, who before he died left the seed of a unique concept: disorders derived from hormonal imbalance.
A balance between hormones
In his avant-garde vision, he introduced the concept of balancing hormone levels. For most doctors, this concept is difficult to grasp. There isn't exactly one hormone that needs replacing. It is necessary to establish a hormonal profile, using a method that really tells the patient and the doctor the real rates of hormones at work in the body. In general, the rates seen in the blood are unreliable. The best way to check steroid hormones is through saliva. Blood levels are representative of the portion of the hormone that is bound to lipoproteins and is therefore not active. This is part of the practical necessity of hormone physiology. Lipophilic substances need “help” to move around in a hydrophilic medium (blood serum is an aqueous vehicle).
Steroid hormones make up a group of substances that show the fundamental importance of cholesterol in the human body.
Steroids are substances derived from cholesterol. No cholesterol, no steroids!
Steroid hormones are lipid-affinity substances - that's right: they like fatty tissue. This affinity will be fundamental for their most important action: entering the cell nucleus and introducing a set of commands that will modify the action of the cell's genes, inducing, for example, multiplication, volume increase, maturation or the exercise of any other metabolic functions. Only substances with an affinity for fatty tissue have this power. Speaking gratuitously badly about body fat can be a gross misunderstanding of physiology (or the expression of other unflattering interests).
The characters
But what matters is that steroid hormones - Progesterone, Androgens (Testosterone, DHEA, androstenedione), Estrogens (E1 - estrone, E2 - estradiol, E3 - estriol), Glucocorticoids, and Aldosterone move through the bloodstream attached to carrier proteins: lipoproteins, such as HDL, LDL, etc.
There is no problem in being carried to perform such important functions by noble transporters. Despite their bad reputation, these substances only carry out orders. Blaming cholesterol, or its carriers, for causing serious damage to tissues is like blaming soldiers for the orders they are carrying out, or blaming witnesses for the crimes they might witness, or firefighters for the fires they are near or working on...
Understanding the notion of equilibrium tells us that the absolute rates of these characters is much less important than the relationship they can establish with each other. For John R Lee, the quotients are more important. They tell us the direction of the force resulting from the joint action of the steroids:
Progesterone/Estradiol (Pg/E2)
Testosterone/Estradiol (T/E2)
The observation of thousands of patients over more than 20 years of practice, including research into hormone dosages by Dr. David Zava and his collaborators, has led to the development of a functional premise: Estrogen Predominance, which we explain below.
The need for antagonistic forces in balance!
Estrogenic predominance occurs when there is a marked action in an individual of estrogen-type hormones, represented basically by estradiol (E2) in relation to its antagonistic hormones, usually progesterone and testosterone.
Antagonistic are the actions that, in a balanced situation, provide the proper physiological functioning of an organism. As a rule, the human body, like all biological forms, reaches a state of equilibrium through the continuous, dynamic action of forces that antagonize each other at all times.
An example of the antagonistic forces at work is the menstrual cycle. At first, the proliferating action of oestrogens on the mucous membrane of the uterus is essential so that the inner layer, which has peeled off during menstrual bleeding, can be rebuilt in a new attempt to make the uterus ready for a possible pregnancy.
But the proliferating action cannot be infinite. Cell multiplication is interrupted by the transforming action of progesterone, which inhibits this multiplication in order to mature the cells, qualifying them to receive a fertilized egg.
In the midst of this process we have the action of hormones that come from the pituitary gland, such as follicle stimulating hormone (FSH) and luteinizing hormone (LH). The former stimulates a follicle in the ovary to mature and release an egg. Around the middle of the cycle, this follicle releases an egg. The residue of the follicle forms a transitional organ, the yellow body, which is one of the major producers of progesterone in the female body.
The presence of adequate amounts of progesterone in the second phase of the menstrual cycle returns to the brain, in the region that controls the functioning of the pituitary gland, which is the hypothalamus.
Yes, there are three levels of hormonal control, and they work in a feedback scheme. Higher or lower levels of hormones available in the body regulate the release or reduction of hormone levels. These are the antagonistic forces in nature's wonderful and well thought-out design!
The hypothalamus, once informed by increased progesterone levels that part of the reproductive process is working properly, decreases the production of gonadotropin-releasing factor to the pituitary gland, which in turn reduces the release of FSH...
That's why women who don't ovulate, and especially women in the climacteric (and after the menopause) generally have high FSH levels.
Estrogen predominance
In a situation of estrogen dominance, this set of forces is corrupted. Urban dwellers usually have their hormonal balance impaired by a number of factors:
1. Environmental agents: the modern world has brought people into contact with an uncertain amount of substances that behave like weak hormones, called xenoestrogens. Most of these substances come from products derived from the petrochemical industry. Plastics are at the top of this list because of our continued exposure to them. Pesticides and pesticides in general are also important.
2. Hormones used in animal husbandry, especially confined cattle and industrial-scale poultry.
3. Use of estrogenic substances for medical purposes, contraceptive pills and hormone replacement drugs based on ethinyl estradiol and the like.
4. Stress can lead to a series of hormonal problems, since cortisol is a hormone that forms part of the steroid hormone transformation network.
5. Dietary mistakes, especially the use of sugar, non-wholemeal flour and carbohydrates in general.
6. Phytoestrogens unsuitable for human consumption, mainly soy isoflavones, in those derivatives that are not fermented, i.e. those most commonly used in consumer society, soy milk, infant formulas with soy, soy lecithin, soy meat, etc. (the fermentation process transforms genisitin into genistein, as well as reducing the action of anti-nutrients phytic acid and trypsin inhibitors - examples: tofu and miso).
It's important to note that estrogenic predominance doesn't depend on a high, normal or low level of estradiol. It depends on the balance that this hormone has with the others, mainly progesterone and testosterone.
Interference in women's health:
In women's health we have the following problems linked to a lack of hormonal balance:
Symptomatic climacteric syndrome - a set of symptoms in which the menopause is the most significant event and at the same time the least relevant in terms of the causes of the problems that are occurring...
Polycystic ovary syndrome - where we have a set of symptoms related to the absence of ovulatory cycles, acne and pimples, especially on the face, cramps in the menstrual flow and other symptoms.
Menstrual flow disorder syndrome - the name PMS is too imprecise and shouldn't be used because it leads to a mistaken and perverse understanding that menstruation is the cause of women's health problems. In fact, menstruation is just a milestone in the natural physiological process. The symptoms surrounding the flow originate from a process of unbalanced hormonal forces that favor mood swings, headaches, cramps, etc.
Fibroids - the abnormal growth of masses of muscle tissue in the body of the uterus, which usually manifests itself around ten years before the climacteric period, is already an expression of oestrogenic predominance that needs to be repaired in time to avoid potentially more serious problems, which will progress as the imbalance is not corrected. If the mass of the myoma increases too much or if numerous myomas appear in a location that causes bleeding, they may be untreatable with natural hormones, leading inexorably to surgery.
Endometriosis - is a condition of intense abdominal discomfort caused by the presence of islets of mucous from the endometrium (the inner layer of the uterus) in the inner parts of the abdomen, often attached to the ovaries, fallopian tubes and the peritoneum (the membrane that covers all the organs in the abdomen). It is a common cause of infertility, and is becoming increasingly common.
Cancer - breast cancer is the worst of all possible cases of a hormonal imbalance of the estrogenic predominance type. The most serious studies accuse estradiol and its industrial counterparts (ethinyl estradiol, the most common) as the main cause of breast cancer, as well as endometrial cancer.
Interference in men's health (male hormonal modulation)
When we talk about male hormonal balance, we're mainly talking about prostate health.
Lately a term has become very common: andropause. As the consumption of hormones for men has increased dramatically in the United States, it is perfectly conceivable that this trend will come to Brazil.
The term andropause is terribly inaccurate and should never be used. If the purpose is a comparison with women, who have a life milestone at the end of their menstrual cycles, comparable to the beginning of adolescence with the first menstruation (menarche) or with the first ejaculation in boys, with the sense that a new phase of life is beginning, which may require new life attitudes, it might even be acceptable.
However, the comparison brings up a series of erroneous assumptions about the workings of hormonal forces, where natural characters are usually blamed for any suffering. The way we have transformed the idea behind the term menopause, the most popular connotation is a synonym for illness and loss.
The fall in male hormones happens progressively throughout a man's life, especially after the age of 40, when it occurs at a rate of 1.0 % per year.
The central idea behind hormone replacement for men is a tremendously obvious one, so obvious that it is forgotten - hormones can only be used for people who have a proven lack of hormones, which can be easily measured by salivary steroid tests, and only salivary steroid tests. And if it is necessary to use hormones, only identical hormones should be used, without a single atom more than human hormones, which means the restricted use of bio-identical hormones.
The prostate is the organ that can most benefit from hormone compensation treatment. It is very sensitive to a predominance of estrogen action. The most careful studies show that the prostate grows in estrogenic environments.
The PSA may be of little importance as an indicator of danger to men's health. In fact, according to Dr. John Lee, the PSA rises in an attempt to prevent the gland from enlarging. It's more like a policeman being accused of a crime. When the PSA rises, we already have a relative or absolute lack of testosterone and progesterone in the man. Progesterone is particularly important because, as well as being a powerful anti-estrogen, it also inhibits the transformation of testosterone into a derivative that can be one of the agents of prostate cancer growth, 5-dihydro-testosterone (5DHT).
The studies that accused testosterone of being the cause of cancer and prostatic growths (hypertrophy and benign prostatic hyperplasia) by the pioneer Charles Huggins are today drastically contradicted by more precise notions of human physiology and the existence of more accurate ways of measuring hormones. (In the days of that researcher there were only blood tests, which, as has already been said, are inaccurate and should not be taken into account).
So, in a nutshell, we can say that there is already a safe method of hormone compensation for men, or as some like it - male hormone replacement. There are precise criteria, reliable tests, and bio-identical substances - testosterone and progesterone for male use. The doses are quite small, especially for testosterone, which can be very fraught with side-effects if used in the exaggeratedly high doses that are usually prescribed in the most commonly used synthetic formulations, sometimes a hundred times higher than the physiological ones!
Note: The book “Hormone Balance for Men” has now been translated and will hopefully soon be available to the interested public. It's a text with very rich, unpublished content, as books by the brilliant doctor John R. Lee usually are”.
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