The human endocrine system is intricate one, with estrogen and androgen hormones engaging in an intricate dance that is easily disrupted. If one dancer is absent, others rush in from the wings to “substitute” for it, which can set off a cascade of negative disruptions in the body.
As Mark Sisson explains,
The human endocrine system exists in a state of delicate balance. None of its constituents function in a vacuum, and trying to explain every hormonal interrelationship would take volumes, but one statement is fairly safe to make: one hormone affects another. Secreting one often inhibits the next, which in turn sets off an entirely different chain reaction of hormonal secretions, inhibitions, and syntheses.
For example, look at the thyroid hormones and all the disastrous effects of hypothyroidism—which cause low estrogen, high cortisol and constant, unceasing weight gain and the engorged-looking adrenal fatigue belly.
Low testosterone, in both men and women, is often caused by stress, which also leads to high cortisol, weight gain, extreme fatigue, and fat accumulation everywhere—especially the belly.
And exactly why do we see so much belly fat with these hormonal disorders?
Because they all cause estrogen to whisk in and save the day, doing the job for the thyroid hormone or testosterone.
Then, belly fat begins to act as an endocrine gland in the body and produces MORE ESTROGEN. Excess fat cells of any kind, in fact, manufacture excess estrogen.
In fact, throwing hormones out of balance most frequently leads to weight gain whether it’s testosterone, estrogen, or cortisol. The only exception is hyperthyroidism, as an overly active thyroid producing too much thyroid hormone, which actually lead to weight loss.
Estrogen and Your Body Composition: The Ugly Truth of It
Estrogen can be the destroyer of your weight loss and bodybuilding efforts for all kinds of reasons. Estrogen dominance can cause muscle loss and wastage and unceasing fat accumulation around the belly, and then, more fat accumulation as that fat attracts, manufactures, and stores more fat!
For that reason, estrogen is the most feared hormone for bodybuilders and anyone striving to lose weight. Although estrogen is frequently associated with women, it is actually a steroid hormone that controls countless important processes in the human body for both men and women.
However, when estrogen is out of balance, disastrous things can occur. Elevated estrogen, in fact, in both women and men can lead to sudden cardiac death. See this press release from the Heart Rhythm Society, here.
The problem is, estrogen dominance is becoming a real problem for everyone, male or female. Xenoestrogens in tap water, plastic water bottles, the environment, cosmetics, and aerosol hygiene products is wreaking havoc on our hormones. And too much estrogen can cause breast cancer, prostate cancer, and other health problems that are very serious. Plus, excess estrogen undoes our most stringent efforts to get fit at every turn.
What I see happening is that people are working out and dieting and having trouble getting results because of excess estrogens in their life and in their home. Often, it takes a while, but once I encourage them to get their estrogen tested and they see it is, indeed high, then I can teach them how to eradicate xenoestrogens from their immediate vicinity in every way possible—short of wearing a gas mask. We might not be able to annihilate them entirely, but we can completely eradicate all sources of them from our lives and perhaps rid ourselves of estrogen dominance.
So, let’s talk all about estrogen—the good, the bad, and the real ugly truths of it.
Estrogen 101: Why We Fear This Hormone Like The Plague
Both men and women have both androgen and estrogen hormones.
Oddly enough, although we often associate steroids with men, estrogen is a steroid hormone.
So what is a steroid hormone?
A steroid hormone is a steroid that acts as a hormone.
Steroid hormones come in two classes: corticosteroids (including glucocorticoids and mineralocorticoids, so named because they are made in the adrenal cortex) and sex steroids including adrongens, like testosterone, estrogens, like estradiol, estrone, and estrogen, and progestogens, such as progesterone.
Steroid hormones all work to help control metabolism, inflammation, immune functions, salt and water balance, development of sexual characteristics, and the ability to withstand illness and injury. So they are all important.
Since they help control metabolism and inflammation, you can see how imbalanced hormones can affect our weight.
Women are dominant in estrogen, while men are dominant in testosterone, at least in our younger years. In fact, levels of estrogen in males are higher than those in post-menopausal women.
Women need testosterone for energy levels, weight management, mood, more than 200 other bodily functions.
Women can suffer from low testosterone just like men, and often begin to experience many of the same symptoms such as extreme fatigue, weight gain, anxiety, and decreased interest in sex. One surprising and sure sign of low T in women is a weak grip in the hand.
Estrogen: How it’s Made in the Body
Estrogen, whether it is low or high, causes the same kind of extreme symptoms as low T, much of which are related to energy levels and fat acquisition.
Estrogen is made in several places in the body. In women, estrogen is produced by the ovaries, the adrenals, and by body fat.
In males, estrogen is made chiefly in the adrenal glands.
While women have three types of estrogen, estradiol, estriol, and estrone, men produce Estradiol and estrone. That’s because the hormone estrogen is only produced when a woman is pregnant.
In fact, in men, estradiol is the hormone which initiates the formation and maturation of sperm. It also helps gives men and women bone strength and aids in cholesterol metabolism.
Just as women’s estrogen levels begin to decline more and more as they approach the age of 45 and beyond, men’s testosterone begins to decline in middle age as well. This is the chief cause of many men beginning to reach for the little “purple pill” after the age of 50 or so, which is a very dangerous choice, and I highly recommend the kind of natural remedies for estrogen balance, which also treat erectile dysfunction. I’ll tell you all about these in my estrogen dominance part II article next week.
When men’s testosterone levels decline, they then become dominant in estrogen. This is called estrogen dominance because estrogen is dominant to testosterone instead of vice versa, as it is in youth, which is what leads to men developing fat in areas typically associated with women, like the hips and the breasts.
We’ll discuss this more momentarily.
So, yes, estrogen plays many other important roles in the body, and we need it badly, just not in lack and not in excess. We need it in balance and given the amount of harmful estrogens in the environment, estrogen balance is hard to achieve.
So today, let’s look at why we all need estrogen, for many crucial, important functions in the body.
The Positive Roles of Estrogen in the body
Estrogen is a very necessary hormone, controlling over 200 functions in the human body. Here are some of the most important ones:
, which is why many pre and post-menopausal women are prone to depression, as they are losing estrogen quickly. In fact, women who are severely depressed are typically extremely low in estrogen and natural hormone therapies (or HRT, again, not recommended and very risky) can often help pull them out of a deep depression.
See my articles on neurogenesis to help you do just that: here and here.
Estrogen Main Role: Female Reproduction
Estrogen’s chief roles, however, are for fertility in the female and for maturing the female sex organs in preparation for all things baby making (like testosterone in men).
At the onset of puberty, estrogen plays a role in the development of all the secondary sex characteristics, such as breasts, pubic hair, and armpit hair.
Estrogen helps trigger the onset of and the regulation of menstruation and enhances the growth of the uterine lining during the first part of the cycle. The woman sheds this lining into menstrual “blood” if the egg is not fertilized, and this release of blood is caused by the sharp decline of estrogen when fertilization does not occur.
If the egg is fertilized, however, estrogen works with progesterone, another hormone, to fortify the walls of the cervix and not release the fertilized egg and to not shed the lining of the uterus.
In this way, estrogen is not only crucial for getting pregnant but also sustaining a pregnancy and avoiding a miscarriage.
Estrogen’s Importance for Male Reproduction
Though testosterone is responsible for most male reproductive development, estrogen inhibits sperm cell apoptosis, or cell death, in vitro and the testes have myriad estrogen receptors. Most research confirms that estrogen indeed plays an important role in male gonadal function.
Testosterone begins converting into estrogen as men age due to the aromatase reaction.
Aromatase is manufactured chiefly in the fat cells of the body. The more body fat you have, the more aromatase you manufacture, and the more estrogen you will have in the body.
Again, belly fat always leads to more estrogen in the body, so slimming down and firming up with exercise and resistance training, can help get you healthy and prevent and reverse estrogen dominance.
Estrogen and Men: Other Need to Knows
As teenagers, men have high levels of testosterone and low levels of estrogen. As they age, testosterone levels in men decrease while their estrogen levels increase. Not surprisingly, high levels of estrogen in men usually correspond to low levels of testosterone.
High estrogen levels in men contribute to prostate cancer and heart disease as well as gynecomastia (enlarged breasts).
As testosterone is lost and transformed into estrogen, the low levels of testosterone can cause many unpleasant symptoms including loss of muscle mass, fatigue, low libido, and erectile dysfunction (all symptoms you might have heard called LowT).
As Dr. C. W. Randolph, endocrinologist notes,
Men are by no means immune to the downturn of hormone levels with age. In fact, the most potent force underlying mental and physical energy in men, the testosterone drive, starts to decline in a man’s mid-forties, or even earlier, depending on lifestyle and stress levels. But unlike the ‘roller coaster’ effect in menopausal women, male symptoms come on more gradually – and most men aren’t sure what’s hit them! But “male menopause” is very real, and it has a name: andropause (from the Greek, “andro” for male and “pausis” for stop). The gradual decline of the hormone “androgens,” testosterone and DHEA, is the key to changes in male health and vitality. While many medical experts acknowledge andropause as an age-related condition, the general public and too many physicians still do not recognize the term or see it as a natural challenge of aging.
Furthermore, excessive estrogen in men raises body fat and can contribute to diabetes and high lipids.
Causes of Estrogen Dominance
There are only two ways you can acquire estrogen dominance. Either your body is making too much estrogen on its own, or you’re ingesting too much of it via estrogens in food and in the environment. What kinds of food contain estrogen? Well, your hormone-treated dairy and meats. Also, we are constantly exposed to estrogen-like compounds in foods that contain toxic pesticides, herbicides and growth hormones. Pesticides and herbicides are especially rich in xenoestrogens.
So, It is High Estrogen or Just Low Testosterone?: Well, Hard to Tell . . .
As estrogen levels rise in men, causing estrogen dominance, testosterone levels begin to decline. But estrogen dominance, caused by rising estrogen levels, is more risky than simple loss of testosterone creating a lower level of T to E, for example.
High estrogen in men, or estrogen dominance, can be caused by all kinds of lifestyle factors, including too many xenoestrogens in the home and environment (and hygiene products such as aerosols), but also a high ratio of body fat, taking injectable synthetic testosterone (see here), and simply growing older/aging.
Symptoms of Estrogen Dominance In Men
The most common symptoms of estrogen dominance in men include:
Most men with high estrogen are hell bent on lowering it so that they can cure ED or get rid of the man breasts, but they’ll never do this if they’re throwing their estrogen out of whack with testosterone injections/supplementation or by being overweight.
Getting trim through diet and exercise, especially if you are overweight and out of shape, is especially important because estrogen dominance creates a cluster of risks that lead right to metabolic syndrome and insulin resistance.
Let me stress this point as MUCH as possible:
You do NOT want metabolic syndrome folks, it’s a fast track to heart disease, cancer, and I’ll just say it—death.
If you are overweight, get help and take action NOW. With a severe quickness.
For the best article I’ve found so far on men and high estrogen/estrogen dominance, see this article in UHN Daily.
Symptoms of High Estrogen in Women
Estrogen dominance/high estrogen in women causes many symptoms, including
Younger women who don’t ovulate regularly or who take birth control pills can become estrogen dominant and they will often experience
Low Estrogen in Women
Estrogen deficiency or when estrogen is low in relation to other hormones can result in symptoms and risks, as researchers note, such as
If left untreated, low estrogen can also lead to infertility in once-fertile women.
While women have three types of estrogen, men have only one, called estradiol.
Men Can Also Suffer from Low Estrogen: Symptoms
While women begin suffering from insomnia in menopause because of low estrogen, men are affected in the opposite way by loss of this hormone and may experience fatigue, sleepiness, and hypersomnia (sleeping too much/too often).
Other symptoms of low E in men include
Now that’s I’ve helped explain the symptoms of high and low estrogen, I want to focus the rest of this article on the pervasive problem regarding estrogen that is most likely to be wreaking havoc in your life, ESTROGEN DOMINANCE.
The Worry Over Estrogen Dominance IS Justified
Today, we’re all more likely to be suffering from estrogen dominance than a lack of estrogen because environmental estrogens are pervasive, all over the world, in the form of hormone-treated meats, toxic herbicides and pesticides, cosmetics, and plastics.
Estrogen dominance is a little different from low estrogen or simply high estrogen—it means that estrogen is dominant in relationship to other important hormones that need to be superior to estrogen for the overall health of the system.
Estrogen Dominance: Need to Knows for Men and Women
Estrogen Dominance in Women
Women need a very specific balance of estrogen to progesterone.
Estrogen dominance can be dangerous, because without healthy levels of progesterone to “oppose” estrogen, estrogen can trigger unchecked cell growth, especially in estrogen-rich tissues.
It’s for this reason that estrogen dominance has been linked to an increased risk of breast cancer, uterine cancer, ovarian cancer, fibrocystic breast disease, uterine fibroids and endometriosis.
Estrogen Dominance in Men
For men, a normal level of estrogen is between 15 pg/ml and 60 pg/ml.
When estradiol climbs higher than that, or when testosterone levels fall too low to balance out the estrogen in men, estrogen dominance occurs.
In fact, due to modern lifestyle factors such as xenoestrogens in the environment today, it is not rare for men to have estradiol levels as high as 250 pg/ml, which, as Nick Delgado noes, is a level that is equivalent to a woman’s peak estrogen levels during ovulation.
Estrogen dominance places men at a high risk for prostate cancer because as estradiol levels climb, prostate size increases.
High estradiol also causes an increase in fibrous tissues around the prostate gland, which can make urination difficult. Even worse, though, is that estrogen dominance greatly increases the risk for prostate cancer and benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH).
Why Are So Many Individuals Becoming Estrogen Dominant Today?
As I’ve stated, today, many individuals are very worried about estrogen dominance because of environmental estrogens in plastics, fumes, cosmetics, aerosols, pesticides, soup cans and any materials containing BPAs, bisphenol A, and other phthalates.
These xenoestrogens are proven and powerful endocrine disruptors that, as Dr. Axe notes, mimic the “effects of estrogen and interferes with all hormone levels, cell signaling systems and genetic messages.” And unfortunately, xenoestrogens, BPAs, and phthalates are pervasive in our environment and, especially, our water supply (both tap and bottled) that over 93% of the world population test positive for BPA.
Both BPAs and phthalates are xenoestrogens, that can cause breast cancer and prostate cancer. As Axe adds,
“Bisphenol A has been found to increase the risk of reproductive health problems and possibly increase breast, prostrate and ovarian cancers. In animal studies it decreases sperm count and alters menstrual cycles. Adult cases of diabetes, heart disease and liver toxicity may be linked to BPA.”
But if you want to know the power of xenoestrogens to alter fertility and hormones, note this:
In a recent study at Goethe University, scientists found that placing snails in a pool of bottled water (water from plastic bottles, like any bottle of water sold everywhere) DOUBLED in their rate of reproduction—that’s because of the enhanced levels of estrogen in the plastic bottles, which, of course, seeps into the water.
In fact, way back in 1991, TDEX (The EndoDisruption Exchange) warned us that “Unless the environmental load of synthetic hormone disruptors is abated and controlled, large scale dysfunction at the population level is possible.”
They now remind us that it took only a mere 10 years for us to see their effects in common incidences of endocrine-sourced disorders from ADHD, to Alzheimer’s, to Hashimoto’s, diabetes, and every other endocrine disruption caused disorder today.
Other Causes of Estrogen Dominance
Fat manufactures estrogen, and this is why getting lean is one solution for estrogen dominance.
Dangers of Estrogen Dominance for Both Sexes
The Consequences of Estrogen Dominance
There are certain risk factors for both men and women for estrogen dominance.
Risk Factors for Women Include
Risk Factors for Men Include
Breast Cancer
Most breast cancers (as many as 80% of cases) contain estrogen receptor sites and rely on estrogen for “fuel.” So, estrogen, like SUGAR, fuels cancer, folks.
So, it’s important to fix an estrogen dominance situation if you have one.
The most effective treatment for these types of breast cancers is to suppress estrogen – both production and circulation of, in the body. You can do this naturally by avoiding estrogens in food and in the environment.
High estrogen in women is a direct cause of breast cancer, which is one reason why estrogen patches were banned back in the 80s. This is also why birth control pills are always risky. Because birth control pills work by raising hormone levels to make the body think it is already pregnant, especially estrogen, young women who take these are especially at risk for breast cancer.
For more on the very high risk for breast cancer in women with raised estradiol levels, please read this good resource.
Estrogen Dominance, Prostate Cancer, and Breast Cancer
High estrogen directly places men at risk for prostate cancer, in fact – a lot of risk for prostate cancer.
Males exposed to supra-natural levels of estrogen in the womb are at a greater risk for developing both testicular cancer and prostate cancer as adults.
In a study published in 2010, researchers discovered that when “estradiol is added to testosterone treatment of rats, prostate cancer incidence is markedly increased and even a short course of estrogen treatment results in a high incidence of prostate cancer.”
These scientists found that metabolites of estrogens attach to DNA and cause a generation of reactive oxygen species—meaning that high estradiol in men can act as a DNA-damaging carcinogen that causes DNA damage to prostate cell genes.
This kind of damage to DNA prostate cell genes is, in fact, what initiates prostate cancer.
Estrogen Dominance, Insulin Resistance, and Obesity
The reason men get man boobs when they are estrogen dominant is because estrogen causes fat accumulation in all the places men like in women—but on MEN—like the breasts, hips, and thighs. Its nature’s way of trying to give us an hourglass figure. Trouble is nature is confused. We’re not trying to procreate with another man, at least. Some of us aren’t. Okay, change of topic!
But my point is, estrogen (along with stress-hormone cortisol) causes fat accumulation when it is dominant in the body period—for men or women. This is because estrogen shuttles glucose to the wrong places of the body.
Let me explain with some help of an endocrinologist.
As Sara Gottfried, M.D. and author of The Hormone Cure notes, “When estrogen gets thrown off, . . . it turns you into a weight-gain machine.”
That’s because high estrogen can lead to insulin resistance and excessive fat storage.
As Gottfried explains, when you eat, your blood sugar rises and insulin rushes in to lower it by escorting glucose into places in your body such as the liver, the muscles, and some to fat storage (for fuel for later, it’s our ancient fat fuel mechanisms that we try to tap into with certain diet strategies, such as ketogenic diets).
When estrogen levels are too high, though, we can become insulin resistant, as I covered in my last three articles.
As Gottfried explains, “That’s when insulin starts to usher less glucose to the liver and muscles, raising the levels of sugar in your bloodstream and ultimately storing the glucose as fat. Your fat tissue can expand by as much as four times to accommodate the storage of glucose.”
Add that response to the xenoestrogens in our environment everywhere, and you get estrogen overload, insulin resistance, and excessive fat storage – in short, “diabesity,” as Kresser calls it.
As Mark Sisson explains,
Estrogen [alone] isn’t the problem; it’s estrogen dominance brought on by exogenous phytoestrogens (from food, like soy, bran, and other legumes) and xenoestrogens (from plastics, pesticides, herbicides, and other synthetics). I’ve discussed the potential complications arising from widespread exposure to bisphenol A, a potent xenoestrogen, in the past, but we live amidst dozens of various other estrogen-like compounds – and it’s not a stretch to think they might be disrupting our natural hormonal balance.
Other Chronic Diseases and Health Disorders Associated with Estrogen Dominance
Women with estrogen dominance are especially at risk for
Men with estrogen dominance are in even more danger, as for them, elevated estrogen leads in all kinds of deadly health problems.
Men with elevated estradiol levels and low testosterone are more predisposed to myocardial infarcts and heart attacks.
A recent study confirms the connection of estrogen dominance with coronary artery disease and MetS noting that “low levels of total testosterone, testosterone/estradiol ratio and free androgen index and higher levels of estrone in men with coronary artery disease appear together with many features of metabolic syndrome and may be involved in the pathogenesis of coronary atherosclerosis.”
And elderly men with estradiol levels greater than 34.3 pg/mL have a slightly higher risk of hip fracture compared with those in the range of 18.2-34.2 pg/mL.
So now that I have your attention on a. the severity of the estrogen epidemic and b. the severity of the diseases and disorders it can cause, stay tuned with me next week for ways to lower our estrogen profile and stay healthy.
**One hint I’ll give you a hint right now, consume 7 to 10 cups of vegetables a day to increase your fiber intake.
Thanks,
I’d love to hear from you!
Jackson Litchfield, Your Body Composition Specialist
If you want to stay busy until next week, you might want to start with This BPA Bombshell from the EPA, which lists some 16,000 foods with chemicals you want to avoid like the plague: http://www.ewg.org/research/bpa-bombshell