The Problems with “The Pill”

Women are rarely fully informed of the potential problems and health hazards from the birth control pill.  Somehow we think we can take a precisely-running organism like the human body and then insert into it foreign chemicals and other substances, which pharmaceutical labs have explicitly created so that they have a patented product to sell in the marketplace. And then we wonder why the body malfunctions and may develop cancers and other life-threatening conditions as a result. Based on current studies and concern for your health and longevity, you must understand the hormones (birth control pills are hormones) you are being prescribed and how they affect your health and your life.

Preventing Babies

As much as people want babies, they also want to prevent them for myriad reasons.

Birth control has been around for as long as we have been making babies, and its history is quite interesting.  In ancient Egypt, women used a combination of dates, honey, and acacia, and it seems that when fermented, acacia does have a spermicidal effect.

Around 3000 B.C., humans made condoms from fish bladders and animal intestines. Closer to modern times, in 1838, condoms were made from vulcanized rubber.

Birth control has had a very conflicted history.  Religion has long had opinions regarding reproduction and women’s rights that date back into early history.

In March 1873, the United States Congress passed a bill to ban birth control, known as The Comstock Act. Its full name was an “Act of the Suppression of Trade in and Circulation of Obscene Literature and Articles of Immoral Use.” This act prohibited advertisements, information, or distribution of birth control.  It also allowed the post office to confiscate any birth control products it found being sent through the mail.  The ban came about because of anti-vice and temperance groups that considered birth control obscene and worked to outlaw it.  (5)

The Advent of Oral Contraceptives

Oral contraceptives, otherwise known as the birth control pill, were approved by the FDA on June 23, 1960.  The first pill was called Enovid, and millions of women began using it in the first few years of its introduction. It was almost 100% effective at preventing pregnancy and gave women more control over their sexuality and family planning.  The side effects that developed as a result of this new contraceptive, however, were severe.

Barbara Seaman, women’s health advocate, patients’ rights advocate, American author, and co-founder of the National Women’s Health Network in Washington D.C., wrote an important work called The Doctor’s Case Against the Pill.  It was published in 1969 and presented the facts that high estrogen doses posed serious and even fatal health risks to women.  Doctors were not informing women of these risks, including heart attacks, strokes, blood clots, cancer, suicide, and depression.  This book led to Senate hearings in 1970 on the safety of oral contraceptives. The drug companies were required to include printed warnings on all pill packs about birth control risks and clotting disorders because of these hearings. Today, the pill has a much lower dose of estrogen but still comes with its own set of similar risks, still detailed in that printed warning inside every pill prescription pack due to Barbara Seaman’s activism.

How The Pill Works

The combined pill that most women use today contains synthetic estrogen and progesterone that trick your body into thinking it is pregnant.  Mid-cycle, when you would normally ovulate, no egg is released from the ovaries, so pregnancy cannot occur.  The organs that run the menstrual cycle are shut down and do not function as they usually would. When a woman takes the pill, her natural cycle stops.  She has a period because when the artificial hormones stop for a week, and she takes the sugar pill, the uterine lining is shed and her period is often lighter.

Some doctors have recommended women not having cycles at all.  In 2003, pills were released that enabled a woman to go months without her cycle and, on doctor’s recommendation, to have only four menstrual cycles or less a year. Some doctors told patients that no cycles were necessary.  Depo Provera is given by an injection that often stops women’s cycles for three months at a time.  I have seen some extremely negative symptoms and side effects with this injection in some women.

Female Balance and Rhythms

Our bodies ebb and flow with a natural rhythm just as the tides and the moons do.  We live in a world that values convenience over balance, and in doing so, we lose the beauty of our bodies and our cycles.  Being female, having a cycle, being fertile are all things to celebrate!  Taking time from your life to acknowledge this gift can enrich your life as a woman.  The “curse” is really a blessing.

When our cycles are “off” or painful, it is often a sign that our lives or our paths may have veered somewhat from a more balanced existence.  Our diets, exercise levels, and stress may have increased beyond what our bodies can easily handle.  It signifies a time for us to regroup and examine ourselves to see what we can do to bring our lives and bodies back to a healthier state.

In our modern lives and our modern “must have it all” mentality, we can pay the price for ignoring our natural balance and rhythms. Chemically suppressing our bodies’ natural functions can cause many side effects, even death.

The Risks of Hormonal Contraceptives

One of my favorite books to recommend to patients is The Pill: Are you sure it’s for you?  One chapter is titled Dying Not to Get Pregnant.  This chapter details the side effects of the pill we aren’t told and the ones that could cost us our lives.  This same chapter mentions that in 1995 government health ministers went public in Britain about the increased risk of thromboembolism in the third-generation pills.  The incidence of pill use went down in Britain at this point, as did the incidence of deep vein thrombosis.  Women die every year from this side effect and from strokes, heart attacks, and cancers — deaths related to this form of contraception.  We all need to know the risks.

In 2005 the World Health Organization’s cancer research group, The International Agency for Research on Cancer, reclassified the pill from a “possible carcinogen” to humans to “carcinogenic” to humans.  This places the pill in the Class 1 Carcinogen category, along with asbestos and tobacco.  It does appear that the pill is protective against developing ovarian cancer.  I am not sure, though, that one would choose this path only for this reason, considering the other health concerns.  Anything that suppresses ovulation or its frequency, such as full-term pregnancy and breastfeeding, is preventive of ovarian cancers.

As women are given the pill to “regulate” their cycles, it is important to remember that suppression is not regulation.  Taking the pill triples the lifetime risk of breast cancer when taken before the age of 18. It can cause insulin resistance, cervical dysplasia, ovarian cysts, and infertility.

There are many, many other side effects in addition to these.  They include Increased risk of thyroid and liver problems, nutritional deficiencies in Folic Acid, B12, B6, Magnesium, Manganese, Zinc, reduced antioxidant levels, especially in the liver, and a deficiency of Vitamin A. These deficiencies can lead to many more severe health risks.  The liver is extremely stressed in attempting to “detoxify” and clear these synthetic substances.  This hardworking organ can sometimes be damaged long term with synthetic hormones from the pill and conventional HRT.

Deciding on Contraceptive Solutions

Read, educate yourself, and learn about other more natural and safe means to protect yourself from unwanted pregnancies.  Finding alternative solutions may make the difference between health and ill-health. Weigh the risk for yourself, now and for the future.  After “having their cycles regulated” by the pill for many years, I have seen many women who stopped the pill but were unable to get pregnant for months, if at all.  We spent many months cleaning and rebuilding the body after the damage of long term synthetic hormone use.

Read the warnings in the pill packets carefully and see if you feel that this is the right move for you.  I’ve included some links to natural contraception choices at the end of this post.

Make choices that will help solve your body’s health problems instead of making more!

You are beautiful, and your body is an amazing miracle of systems and organs and hormones.  You can be well at any age.  Work towards health and wellbeing. You are a beautiful woman, and you are here to share your gifts with the world. There is only one you!

The Villain of the Piece: Endocrine Disruptors

Reader’s Note: This post introduces a little-known topic that can be very dangerous to your life and health. Reading the facts as I present them can be overwhelming… maybe it’s just easier to “give up and hope for the best.” Rest assured, this would not be the best decision you ever made. My approach to this problem is simple: You live in the environment in which you live. There is no such thing as altogether avoiding the toxins I discuss in this post. But you can minimize your exposure to them. If your hormone system ever fails from toxic exposure, I have spent 20 years of research working out practical solutions to allow your body to overcome this type of stress.

In the end, your health is limited only by your willingness to search out and apply effective answers. Giving up? Not the solution at all!

Harmonious Hormones

Your hormones are amazing substances. Working at a molecular level, they are your body’s messengers and influence and control all your organs.  These hormones coordinate and work together to create a symphony of magic in your body.

The orchestra is playing; all the instruments are in harmony and blending their voices in a beautiful symphony. The beautiful sound reverberates in the air—when suddenly a loud squawking is heard from the brass section, and a horrible wail begins from the strings section.  Violins fly through the air, instruments are dropped, and a black coated band of invaders displace the rightful musicians and begin to play their version of the piece.  Chaos ensues.  The conductor is yelling as musicians try in vain to regain their seats. All the while the invaders continue their horrible rendition of the once beautiful song.

Daily, your body is experiencing this invasion. Your systems are invaded repeatedly by toxins that either take the place of or block your body’s correct function.  Now, instead of proper hormone flow and balanced output, we have hormone chaos.  Your cycles hurt, you have PMS, you are angry or sad for no apparent reason, your body begins to grow tumors, benign or otherwise, in your uterus or your breasts, you have hot flashes and night sweats, you are exhausted and depressed, your body is no longer yours. It has been hijacked by these foreign substances that now run the show.

Endocrine Disruptors

These invaders are called endocrine disruptors.

If you are to control your health in our current chemical-rich environment, you must understand endocrine disruptors, which are mostly manmade chemicals.  They are found in pesticides, plastics, plasticizers, metals, additives in food and personal care products, and many pharmaceuticals.  Endocrine disruptors include heavy metals such as mercury and lead, dioxins, PCBs, DDT and pesticides, and bisphenol A. These chemicals have long been proven to cause altered reproductive function in both males and females, increase in reproductive cancers in women and men (breast, uterine, ovarian, prostate, testicular) and decreased fertility in both sexes. Neurological and developmental delays have also been seen in children.

As many of these endocrine disruptors mimic estrogen, there has been a substantial increase in the number of women suffering from estrogen-dominant conditions. These issues include PCOS, ovarian cysts, cervical dysplasia, uterine fibroids, heavy cycles, severe PMS, and other female disorders.

How You’re Exposed

We are exposed to these chemicals in food and water by inhaling gases, particles in the air, and absorption through our skin. One primary source of exposure is the transfer of these damaging and extremely harmful chemicals from the pregnant mother to the developing fetus through the placenta and the infant and small child through the breast milk. Pregnant women and children are the most vulnerable to these toxins, even though the effects may not be evident until later in life and may decrease immunity over time.

The World Health Organization, The Environmental Protection Agency, and the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences have defined and cataloged the existence of and the damage caused by these endocrine disruptors that are rampant in our environment.  I would highly recommend that you watch the video Our Chemical Lives.

Many of our everyday personal care products and convenience products contain endocrine disruptors. Some common examples are found in plastic drinking bottles, flame retardant clothing, toys, cosmetics, pesticides, detergents, birth control pills, conventional HRT (hormone replacement therapy), perfumes, nail polish, soaps, spermicides, adhesives, metal smelting, waste incineration, dry cleaning chemicals, dental sealants, food, and beverage packaging. This is just a shortlist of the chemicals found in our clothes, food, and the personal care products we may think of as safe for everyday use.

A recent report by the Environmental Working Group found the average level of the bromine-based flame retardant in American women’s breast milk was 75 times higher than the average found in recent European studies. I don’t know what you think, but flame retardants should not be in mother’s milk! They should not be in salmon or cow’s milk, but they are. The places children are supposed to be the safest, inside our bodies and at our breasts, are where we are inadvertently passing toxins on to our future generations.

Hormones “talk to” cells by plugging into “mailboxes” on the cell called receptor sites. The hormone plugs into the mailbox and downloads instructions to the cell. Endocrine disruptors look like hormones to the cell. They are literally “counterfeit hormones” and fool the cell into letting them plug into the mailboxes. Once in the mailboxes, these chemical toxins block real hormones from plugging in, and may continue to do this for the life of the cell. This makes the cell “deaf” to instructions from the body, leading to many malfunctions and disease processes.

How Endocrine Disruptors Cause Damage

Endocrine disruptors mimic hormones in the body, such as estrogen, testosterone, or thyroid hormones. They bind to receptor sites in the cells and block the real hormone, preventing the hormone from completing its action, creating confusion or no action at all. Endocrine disruptors can also block or interfere with the way natural hormones or their receptors are made or controlled.

Hormones are your body’s messenger system. Microscopic amounts of hormone are released directly into the bloodstream and exert extraordinarily profound and far-reaching effects on the body. Hormones are measured in nanograms (parts per billion) and pictograms (parts per trillion). Hundreds of different hormones course through our bodies at any given time, precisely and in exact measurements, to carry out their duties in the beautiful symphony we’ve talked about previously.

Endocrine disruptors are the villain of the piece. They are the evil infiltrators that ruin the magnificent choreography of the body and disrupt the symphony. They block, damage, and destroy these fragile hormones, creating any of the countless health problems you can encounter when your hormones do not work correctly.

Worse yet, you are being poisoned by the countless chemicals allowed into our environment. I’ve read that over 80,000 manmade chemicals have been introduced into our food and water supply in the last 60 years. Our bodies have not had time to adapt to these chemicals, and most have never been evaluated for health risks in humans. No wonder we as a nation are so sick.

The Result of Toxins

What are the consequences of this flow of toxins into our world and our bodies? How are they affecting the intelligence and behavior and our offspring’s health after years of accumulation of these pollutants?  No one knows for sure, but we can point to an infertility epidemic, an increase in behavioral and psychological problems, and a very alarming rise in deaths from all kinds of cancer. Politics and economics combined do not create a climate of rapid change—after all, look at how long it took for cigarettes to be “proven” to be bad for your health.

There are many dangers that I have been warning my patients about for years, and the “establishment” is very slow to accept these things as truth. It is essential for all of us to be wise and savvy consumers, research, and be our own advocates. Trust your intuition. If something seems wrong, it probably is.

When my son was eight years old, he would ask me why they showed sugar cereals on TV as healthy and good for children. It is disheartening to tell your child the industry lies and advertise things purely for profit in blatant disregard for life and health, but the truth is that they do.

Our Standard American Diet is killing us. If food has ingredients that you cannot pronounce and you do not recognize, it is safe to say these ingredients are not healthy for your body and very well may be endocrine disrupters. Consuming endocrine disrupters is destroying your symphony of health.

EndNote:

When I started research on a treatment solution for Endocrine Disruptors back in 2001, the whole subject was considered highly controversial and even pseudo-science. My assertion at the time that most thyroid problems came from or were made worse by endocrine disruptors was deemed to be laughable. Try this: Google “endocrine disruptors and thyroid disease.” You’ll get more results than you could read in many years, including many papers from the NIH (National Institutes of Health), CDC, and every major university.

Things have changed. We are still a long way from any significant action being taken by industry or government to curb this problem, but awareness and research have expanded exponentially.

Later, I’ll post some guidance on avoiding endocrine disruptors and have a section on therapies that help relieve this stress on the body.

 Find Out More

Here is a free booklet with the story of how I developed my techniques and how those techniques work (practical information that shows how your body works and how to start recovering your health for the rest of your life).

The Female Curse

Sometimes an entire subject can seem inspiring or terrifying, depending on how you view it. A child who is afraid of dogs might overcome that fear, get a dog as a pet, and discover love, loyalty, and responsibility. Similarly, my patients often are angry and fearful of their bodies, and then realize that they were misinformed, experience their body healing, and become a happy partner with it.

I’ve talked to countless women who view the fact of being a woman as an unfortunate disadvantage. Menstruation is the “curse,” and common female health problems are just more proof of the disadvantages of being born a woman.

There is another way to view being a woman and having a cycle, a joyous, optimistic, and creative viewpoint.

So, without further ado, I’d like you to meet your hormones!

Your hormones are amazing substances. Working at a molecular level, they are your body’s messengers and influence and control all your organs.  When they are at their best, these hormones somehow coordinate and work together to create a symphony of magic in your body.

My favorite class in university was endocrinology or the study of hormones. It was a miracle and a wonder to me as I studied this system that such important effects came from such tiny messengers and that somehow the cascades of hormones streaming through the body had meaning. They all seemed to follow the same symphony conductor to produce their music. Of course, when those hormones become unbalanced, the symphony will be very much out of tune. In my opinion, the beauty and complexity of our hormone system are unmatched.

Have you ever wondered what a hormone is made from? Cholesterol! Crazy, right? Who would have thought that?

Do you know what makes your hormonal orchestra play beautifully all the time?  Nutrients and lots of them.

Nutritional imbalances and deficiencies severely impact the hormone system.  Making and replacing our hormones requires many different nutrients, and many of us are not getting these nutrients from our diets.  You truly are what you eat. All your physical functions require nutrients, and your female hormones need many of these.

The Beautiful Symphony that is the Female Cycle

Your female cycle is magic. It’s what creates new life on earth.  We women hold the seed of creation inside our bodies!  What an honor to have in your physical self the future generations of the world.  Helping young girls understand this honor should be a priority as we nurture strong and independent women.

Understanding this perspective can give girls, and young women respect for their bodies, and ultimately themselves. Viewing our female bodies in a derogatory and demeaning manner is a dishonor and a disgrace to all sexes. Sex and the reproduction of the body are beautiful things. This beauty has been stolen by the coarse and misinformed and subverted to a dark, dirty and evil subject.

Sex and reproduction have been subjected to many thousands of years of social and religious taboos.  It has been and will continue to be a difficult subject for the societies of earth.  Suffice it to say that the purpose of sex includes both reproduction and the resulting pleasure for those involved. The female menstruation cycle, and the gestation cycle that results in a new human being, are nothing short of a miracle—a beautiful symphony of hormones in harmony and balance. 

The Phases of the Cycle

The Follicular Phase is the first part of your cycle and is run mainly by the hormone estrogen. The first part of the cycle is about building up the uterine lining for a possible pregnancy.  This is when ovulation occurs at about day 14.  Many amazing things happen during this time to prepare the body for pregnancy.

The hormones LH (luteinizing hormone) and FSH (Follicle Stimulating Hormone) are important in ovulation.  LH and FSH work in concert with estrogen and progesterone and come from the brain, not the female organs.  These hormones working together in perfection to create the few days out of the month that the body can reproduce.

The second phase of the menstrual cycle is called the Luteal Phase and is run by the hormone progesterone. During this part of the cycle, your hormones will cause ripening of the uterine lining in preparation for possible pregnancy. They will help the body keep the embryo safe if implantation occurs.  This phase, when working correctly, helps prevent spontaneous abortions and ensures smooth menstruation.

If no pregnancy occurs, both estrogen and progesterone fall, signaling another cycle’s start, and bleeding begins again. If pregnancy does occur, the embryo produces small amounts of hormones that communicate the need for more progesterone.

The Out of Tune Orchestra

Your female hormone system organs secrete certain hormones that communicate in various ways with other parts of the body. These organs then secrete their hormones in response, and—wonder of all wonders—if these hormones and organs properly harmonize with each other, a human being can be conceived and then born! 

But what happens if they don’t? Just what happens with any orchestra:

You can only imagine what would happen if the flutes did not chime in on time or the violins were squeaky, or the conductor didn’t time his gestures to the music, and whole instrument sections played off-key.  You would be holding your ears and begging for it to stop!  This is what happens when even one or two of these hormones or organs do not work correctly. 

A disruption in even one area can lead to many different symptoms of imbalance and suffering for women. 

Many symptoms can result: PMS, heavy cycles, irregular cycles, weight gain, hot flashes, insomnia, mood swings, depression, mental fog, headaches, fatigue, dysfunction of the thyroid, adrenals and gallbladder, facial hair, cold hands and feet, and infertility.

You may see yourself and some of your health struggles in these symptoms. As you start to understand your body more, you can see how and where things can get off track and what to do to help your body heal. 

I love the hormone system.  I can feel its ebb and flow in my own body.  It is a beautiful rhythm and a wonderful song when all is well.  The dissonance we feel in our bodies and the resulting illnesses are often a result of many things going wrong in a distressed body all at once. 

Stress can begin at a very early age.  Lack of sleep, long nights, chemical solutions, poor diet, and seemingly unrelenting life stresses can start the slow, or in some cases, quick, deterioration of the beautiful symphony of our hormones.

 Find Out More

Here is a free booklet with the story of how I developed my techniques and how those techniques work (practical information that shows how your body works and how to start recovering your health for the rest of your life).

Making the Best of Your Life: The 20s and 30s

In a time with nothing but bad news, pessimism, and doom and gloom around the subject of health, I have decided to lighten things up. Imagine how your life could and should be if you were taking care of yourself and had all the health and life energy you wanted. Of course, there are extenuating circumstances, environmental issues, and factors outside your control that may be preventing this, but what would your health look like at its best?  How would this feel? This is not a pointless exercise. Nothing in your life is likely to change until you decide what future you want. I have seen my patients take control of their current health situations and become closer to the ideal picture of what they envisioned their health and their life to be. You can do this at any age and at any time. Envision your life the way you want it to be right now.

Your 20s and 30s

(I may do more posts for different age groups, but if you are older than 40, read this description of the 20s and 30s to get a better idea of how you arrived at your current health.) Ages 20 through 39 is the time of your life when you should be experiencing all things new. You may be in college or graduate school or pursuing a new job challenge. You may be newly married or beginning your family. At this time of your life, your health should be vibrant and your energy abundant as you move and grow and change. In this period, you should be eating a balanced diet of excellent quality fruits and vegetables and lean, organic, non-processed meat, keeping processed foods, alcohol, caffeine, and sugar to a bare minimum.  You should be exercising 3–4 times a week to keep your energy up and your body in shape and sleeping at least 7-8 hours per night.

Children and Families

This is when many women choose to start families and may go through pregnancy for the first time. Pregnancy should be a unique and amazing part of a woman’s life.  A new person is coming into the world! A family is created to bring joy and new little people for the family and the world. Pregnancy should be a time of hope and expectations and a time when a woman cares for herself and her future little one. She should be balancing her work and her family life in a way that brings joy to herself and others. OK, I realize this might sound like a fairy tale! I imagine this is how a balanced healthy life should be. It isn’t how it is or was for most of us, but think how much better it would be if this were the reality. If you haven’t had a family yet, think how wonderful it would be for you to plan YOUR ideal situation and create it! I wish I had. I would have made some changes! During pregnancy, you and your body have exceptional needs. Specific supplementation for moms, recommended by an alternative or functional medicine professional, will enable you to keep your energy up and spot any deficiencies before they become a problem. Pregnancy can be very hard on a body, especially one with a lot of previous stress. Help from a qualified health practitioner can make the difference between a joyful and healthy pregnancy and one that takes a negative toll on the body, possibly even causing future health concerns. After your baby arrives, you and your family are overjoyed. Now is the time for you to pass along the same healthy habits you practice to your new child and family. Eat processed foods, fast foods, and sugar products infrequently, if at all. Use whole foods and natural sugars for baking and in drinks. As you live through your 20s and 30s, you can start to see the fantastic things you can create as a woman, at home, and in your career.

Careers and Success

If you do not have a family, the 20s and 30s are often a time when you are focused on creating a career and a name for yourself in your area of expertise. Ideally, you are sleeping and eating and balancing work and life in a way that gives you joy and fulfillment. If you are in a stressful work environment, take time to balance yourself. Notice the stress you’re under and do something practical to address it. You’ll be more productive and happier in the long term. In this balanced scenario, you’d work hours that allow you to exercise. You’d eat healthily. If you’re in college or graduate school, you’d take care of your body and eat and sleep the proper amount so that you can keep your immune system healthy and robust. College, graduate school, and new jobs can be very stressful times of life, so good sleep habits, healthy food, and specific supplementation to support extreme levels of stress are particularly important.

Planning a Well-Lived Life

Taking time to plan out what a balanced life looks like and how you can achieve it can be a life-changing decision. Looking back on my life, I realize I went into many situations with no planning, knowing I would “handle it” — and in many cases, I was “handled” by the situation instead! Maybe this is the way of youth, but when taking your next big step in life, understanding and seeing—really seeing—what you want your life to be like can be invaluable. I wrecked my health in graduate school, and it took me years to recover. I will always have a weakness in my adrenal glands as a result. What a difference it would have made for me if I had understood that while school was undoubtedly going to put me through the wringer, I would come through the stress with my health intact if I ate whole foods, stopped the junk food and sugar, exercised and slept. Instead, I ate whatever I wanted, with no thought of what it could do to my body. I ate pans of brownies and bags of Doritos and drank extreme amounts of coffee and soft drinks. I had completely unrealistic standards for myself for my grades and my life. I did not exercise, and I constantly stressed about my grades and classes and projects. I was sick after final exams every quarter and lost a relationship that meant a lot to me during this time. These times can and will shape you, and the results of your choices will be with you, perhaps for your entire life. These are the foundational years of your life and your health. Treat yourself well. Know there will be stress. Eat healthily, exercise even if you are stressed—especially if you are stressed. Find ways to handle stress, even if that means taking a quarter off or fewer hours at work if your health is suffering. Finishing college or graduate school quickly or getting that promotion isn’t worth it if you lose your health in the process.

The Danger of Perfection

Being a perfectionist is the way to early burnout. Being a perfectionist is the recipe for unhappiness and more stress. Take it from a perfectionist! You cannot ever be perfect, and if hearing that makes you cringe, you need to take some time right now to realize that trying to control your own life or someone else’s within your concept of perfection will not make you happy. It is a sure route to unhappiness. What I have learned after many years of being a perfectionist is that living that way hurts. It hurts everyone around you, but mostly you. You may never lose that urge to be perfect, but you can learn to love the imperfections. You can let go and let the world and your actions be imperfect sometimes. Yes, you should have high standards, but you have to let yourself fall short of them sometimes without self-recrimination—or for some of us, self-flagellation! As we see the world through our lens, we often see others the way we see ourselves. Expecting a loved one to respond to life the way we do and treating them the way we treat ourselves when we make a mistake is not healthy and puts the same heavy burden on them that we put on ourselves. Relationships with friends or others often can’t withstand this type of pressure. You can choose a different way! Choose the path that creates more sanity and more joy. You can find it because it is in you. Make your plan and include a lot of love and patience for yourself!

 Find Out More

Here is a free booklet with the story of how I developed my techniques and how those techniques work (practical information that shows how your body works and how to start recovering your health for the rest of your life).

Your Body’s Guardian Angels

Here you are in the chaos created by a pandemic added to the chaos of the year 2020. But in the middle of this confusion and stress, your body has real heroes: your adrenal glands!

They are your body’s guardian angels, and I want you to understand them because they are the difference between health and vitality, and disease and exhaustion.

In our more primitive incarnations as humans, the “fight or flight” syndrome was over very quickly.  We would either run from the threat or stand and fight, and the body’s stress response would be completed.  Today the stress we are under is often persistent and never-ending.  It overpowers our thoughts and our day-to-day lives, creating scenarios our ancestors could never have imagined.  Your body was not designed to handle a 24/7 stress load. When you don’t have a chance to recover, you can go down the spiral of ill health very quickly.

The Anatomy of Stress

I remember how fascinated I was when I first read about the stages of stress and how the body fatigues. Now, I want to help you to see how your adrenal glands are working for you every minute of every day to keep you healthy.  They compensate for our stress, for our terrible diets, for our busy lives.

Hans Selye, MD PhD (1907-1982) was a Hungarian endocrinologist who is often called the “Father of Stress.” He called his theory of what we now call “stress” the General Adaptation Syndrome, or GAS.

According to Selye, a stress is an “occurrence that could threaten the wellbeing or survival of an organism.”   Here’s what Dr. Selye said:

“Every stress leaves an indelible scar, and the organism pays for its survival after a stressful situation by becoming a little older.” 

We can only imagine how old we become after so many stresses that start so young for some of us!

Selye describes the stress response by using three stages of fatigue: alarm, resistance, and exhaustion.

What Stress Stage Are You?

Alarm: When your body is in a healthy state, with fully-functioning adrenal glands, it marshalls all of its resources effectively to handle stress. This is amazingly effective when the stress is temporary but becomes a problem if the stress goes on too long.

Resistance: With long-term stress, the body calls on other resources from the nervous system, trying to return itself to normal. Meanwhile, it must handle the continuing stress, so it never gets any rest at all. Soon, hormone levels are lessening, and fatigue and exhaustion begin to set in. Your amazing body is working to stay functional despite the ongoing stress, but it’s growing weary.

Exhaustion: Your body can’t keep up a “code red” condition for months and years. The constant output of hormones exhausts your body’s resources and organs, and you become susceptible to illness, or even death. Exhaustion is the stage when I start to see most of my patients.

Symptoms of Adrenal Exhaustion

Here are some clues for you to see how close to exhaustion your body may be:

• Sweet and carbohydrate cravings
• Increased fatigue especially in the afternoon
• Weight gain
• Increased difficulty handling stress
• Anxiousness
• Mood swings
• Memory problems
• Sleep issues
• High blood pressure
• Heartburn
• Yeast infections
• PMS
• Infertility
• Decreased Libido
• Hypoglycemia
• Impaired immune function
• Inflammation

As you age, and your stress continues, and your body strives to keep up. Suddenly, your blood pressure is higher when it’s always been low; your lipid levels and sugar levels are high when they were always normal in the past.  As women age and stress continues, heart disease becomes a genuine risk.  When you are young, you can push through almost anything you encounter.  As your stress increases with work and family and children, however, those days and years add up. Your resistance is reduced, and illness and disease can set in.

You can start to feel very old, very quickly.

Adrenals and Menopause

In addition to managing stress, the adrenals manufacture and secrete steroid hormones such as estrogen, testosterone, and cortisol. All your female hormones are necessary for health and wellness, and after menopause, the adrenals single-handedly create the bulk of these hormones all by themselves! If the adrenals have reached a severe level of fatigue by the time you are in your 40s, as they have for many women, you are in for a long, hard road ahead. 

Adrenal Recovery is Possible

Over the past 27 years, I’ve helped many thousands of patients who have recovered their adrenal function. Here’s a summary of how this can happen:

1. A patient comes in with many symptoms listed above, often in addition to other problems.
2. Labs show the condition of the adrenals, so we’re starting with a known measure of exhaustion.
3. Lifestyle and diet are crucial components of any effective program for recovery.
4. Exact, tested supplementation can reduce stress on the adrenals and supply nutrients to help the body rebuild the damage.
5. Targeted acupressure treatments reduce specific stresses from allergies, toxins, and hormone imbalances.
6. Follow-up labs and reduced or eliminated symptoms show real, stable improvement.