When you know better, you do better and warn others!
There I was, living that mom life.
It all started after my daughter was born. Like so many women, I felt like something was off. I felt on edge ALL the time, with intense, dripping night sweats, low energy, all of the same presenting symptoms that most women feel postpartum. I was not at all depressed, I just felt like I needed more energy or more time in the day to run my life. Since, I can’t create more time, I started looking into hormone replacement as it seems to be not just the common thing to do, but a modern day woman requirement. So, this is where my use of hormone pellets and hormone replacement began.
It was like magic, I felt great, like a superhero!
WOW, I thought, this is what my body needs to function properly and these hormones prescribed by a board certified physician, seemed like the right thing to do. I, like so many other modern women, became a hormone addict. I could not function without them. If you use hormone pellets, then you know the scenario that happens toward the end of your pellet cycle. The horrible symptoms come back, the night sweats, not sleeping, feeling groggy in the morning, tired and needing coffee in the afternoon. So I went back in for another hit, you think your body needs more, right?
To the world, I looked healthy, vibrant and able to handle the stress of my “busy” life like some kind of superhero.
This went on for years and years. My physician knew I was living a stressful life, she knew that I was one of those high functioning working mom’s. You know the kind, because you probably are one too. I operate the best with a full plate, and I keep it nice and full. I had the mindset that stress is just a part of life. So I worked and worked and worked, between my actual job and all the other mom duties, I was clocking way more than 40 hours a week most every week for years. I maintained this because I felt really good, thanks to the help of my doctor and all those hormones she was prescribing.
I have to tell you, the human body is a miraculous creation, it has the potential to go a long, long time before it completely shuts down. As I look back, for me, the signs were there all along. The low testosterone, the low DHEA and then came the final blow, low growth hormone. But I was humming through my life, so I did not see this, I thought I was doing the healthy thing. In my mind, I had no idea that exposing my body to all of these hormones, in the name of health was actually masking the fact that was slowly breaking down my body.
As I have stepped way back, reflected and learned what I have learned through my nutrition training, I see it very clearly.
I have no history of breast cancer in my family, so it had to be an environmental cause. I know now it was a stressful lifestyle and my exposure to hormones that caused my hormone positive breast cancer. Knowing what I know now, I would have done a few things differently. And if you are on hormone replacement, trust me when I say I know the fear of going off them, because I know you do not want those awful symptoms, but I want you to know there IS another way.
Healing your body and preventing disease naturally comes down to what you are eating and your lifestyle. You have GOT to eat good, nutrient dense food. There is just no other way around it. Hormones are made in our bodies from cholesterol. So FYI sister, a low fat diet is absolute no no! You must have good fats, carbs and proteins in your diet and plenty of them. Eating enough whole food nutrition is one of the easiest ways to help your hormone levels stay steady and help mitigate stress in your life. Just make sure you are eating enough. Calorie restrictive diets are a no-no as well because calorie restriction is interpreted by the body as a form of stress.
Next, you must put that self care you have been putting off at the very top of your to do list. Managing your stress is the most important thing you can do for your health and well being. Long term stress will cause cortisol, our body's main stress hormone, to rise. Cortisol is a catabolic hormone, that means this hormone breaks your body down to survive. Conversely DHEA is the yin to your body's cortisol yang. DHEA is the body's main anabolic hormone, it builds your body up. So if you are hearing from your doctor that your DHEA is low, you need to understand that your body could be in a chronic catabolic state as there may not be enough DHEA to balance out the excessive cortisol. I want this to be your wake up call to put yourself at the top of your list by dialing up your nutrition and getting some serious self care so you are managing your stress.
I don’t know how all cancers start, but I know how mine did.
I brought cancer into my life but the good news is you do not have too, you can learn from me and my big mistakes. Hormone replacement is not a benign adventure. You have a big role to play alongside your physician to make sure that hormone replacement is a short term solution and not a long term band aid. It is possible, I see it happen for my nutrition clients all the time and if you are struggling, I want you to know I’ve got you. As a nutritional therapist, nurse and breast cancer survivor, it is my life’s mission to work with women to help them heal their hormonal imbalances as naturally as possible to avoid the worst case scenario. If you know you need to do some work in this area and you’re unsure where to start, get on my calendar for a discovery call so we can start you on the path to being healthy from within.