I talk a lot about the liver every day when speaking with clients. Many women (myself included in the not-so-distant past) don’t know that our livers play an integral role in our hormonal health. Let’s just put it this way…if your hormones are all whacked out, then it’s most likely that your liver is not feeling so hot.

How The Liver Impacts Your Hormones

Your liver functions in your body in much the same way a pool filter functions in a pool. Just as a pool filter cleans a pool by catching the dead leaves, dirt and insects, the liver detoxifies our bodies from harmful chemicals and toxins found in food and our environment. This is done in two phases and requires certain vitamins and minerals to do it effectively.

Too much booze, drugs (illegal and legal – xanax has to be processed by your liver too), pesticides in foods, refined sugar, chemicals and environmental pollution (your liver doesn’t like smog), and too little nutrients can cause your lovely liver to get really bogged down. It ends up working all day long to remove these excess toxins that we’re exposed to, instead of doing it’s main jobs in the body.

Liver Detoxification

One of the most important functions of the liver is to break down and remove excess hormones from your body. One hormone in particular is estrogen. As you know, estrogen is a big player in our menstrual health – it helps build the uterine lining, it keeps our vagina’s lubricated and even helps keep our mood elevated!

There are two phases of liver detoxification. Fortunately for many of us, our phase 1 detox works really great so things get moved through pretty fast. Where we run into problems is phase 2 – it tends to be much slower. This creates a bit of a bottleneck and eventually a lot of the not-quite-broken-down toxins spill back into our system because the liver can’t accommodate them anymore because of the backlog.

How The Liver Affects Estrogen Levels

  1. Once estrogen has done its job in the body, it is sent to the liver so it can be broken down and removed through the colon. Unfortunately, if your liver is all gunked up from the excess toxins it is exposed to then it is unable to function optimally and thus cannot remove estrogen at it’s normal rate.  Estrogen is not metabolized properly and can be reabsorbed back into the body.
  2. Even if a woman’s liver is functioning properly there is another factor to consider. Chronic constipation because of lack of fiber. Fiber increases the expulsion of excess estrogen so it would make sense that too little fiber would be a problem. As I mentioned above, the liver sends that broken down estrogen to your colon for removal. If your bowels aren’t moving then that estrogen can get reabsorbed back into the bloodstream. Ah, no good.
  3. In addition to all of this, if you are consuming a diet with too much fat, such as the Standard American Diet, your estrogen levels may go up. The reason for this is that excess dietary fat encourages reabsorption of estrogens from your gut into your blood stream rather than excretion of this excess estrogen.

Warning estrogen

And so it begins – a build-up of estrogen in the bloodstream. This results in a condition called estrogen dominance, where estrogen becomes dominant in the body in relation to progesterone. It’s like a store where there are no sales but the owner keeps buying new products.

Estrogen Dominance Symptoms and Conditions

  • Fibrocystic breasts, tender and swollen breasts
  • Bloating and painful periods
  • PMS & PMDD – especially emotional symptoms like anxiety, depression and snappiness 🙂
  • Migraines, especially right before your period
  • Irregular periods and heavy bleeding
  • Endometriosis – from an overstimulation of the uterine lining by too much estrogen
  • Fibroids – similar to how endometriosis begins
  • Infertility – caused by many of the symptoms above

How To Test For Estrogen Dominance

Lets Get Checked is my go-to provider for at-home hormone testing kits for myself and clients. You just order them online, have the kit shipped to you, then do the tests at home and send the kit back in the mail.

One and done.

And after processing, their team of physicians will review your results and a member of the nursing team will call you to deliver the results and discuss treatment options.

I recommend getting their Female Hormone Test which will give you a clear picture of your estrogen levels and overall hormonal health, with online results in 5 days.  Be sure to use discount code Hormones20 to get 20% off the price of the test.

Biomarkers covered in the test:

  • Follicle Stimulating Hormone (FSH)
  • Luteinizing Hormone (LH)
  • Prolactin
  • Oestradiol

Remember: use code Hormones20 to get 20% off!

Causes of Estrogen Dominance

1. Stress. I said it! Chronic stress can cause chronically high levels of cortisol (the stress hormone). Read more about all that here. Cortisol actually blocks progesterone receptors which can lead to low levels of progesterone in relation to estrogen. This results in symptoms of estrogen dominance.

2. Xenoestrogens. These are synthetic chemicals that mimic estrogen. They are found in plastics, and many many other products that we use in everyday life. We live in a pretty toxic world. Did you know there are over 80,000 chemicals currently on the market and the majority of them have not been tested for safety, much less proven safe.  Xenoestrogens act like estrogen in the body making it seem like you’ve got more estrogen than you do. They are total impostors and wreak havoc on your delicate hormonal balance. BPA and phthalates are two of the worst offenders.

3. Alcohol. Do you know that alcohol consumption raises estrogen levels and slows down fat burning? Not cool! Just two servings a day for four weeks has been shown to raise estrogen levels by 22 percent!

Natural Solutions for Estrogen Dominance

1. Get that fiber in! I know, sounds so boring right? However, it has been proven that women eating higher amounts of fiber have lower levels of circulating estrogen, so it’s worth a try! Less estrogen wreaking havoc on your hot bod – what’s not to love? Try getting 25 grams of fiber a day into your diet. What does 25 grams of fiber look like?  Here it is: 1 apple-5 grams, 1 pear-4 grams, 1/2 cup of kidney beans-6 grams, 1 cup of brown rice-4 grams, 1 cup of mustard or collard greens-5 grams.  That’s 24 grams of fiber! So easy right?

Or you can bring up your fiber intake with supplementation.  I recommend taking Metagenics MetaFiber or Thorne Research Medibulk.

2. Cut back on the zin.  Alcohol impairs your liver’s functioning so much that circulating estrogen levels increase significantly with just two drinks a day. If you are struggling with any of the estrogen dominance issues above then reducing the amount of alcohol you drink could really help. The same goes for the men in your life.  Liver impairment caused by too much alcohol can cause a condition called gynocomastia, which is characterized by enlarged breasts in men. The cause: elevated levels of estrogen.

3. Reduce exposure to Xenoestrogens. As if we needed any more estrogen! PCB’s, pesticides, chlorine, you name it; they all have this effect on us. And let’s not talk about the ingredients in shampoo, body lotion and makeup. There are some serious offenders out there.  Check out the Environmental Working Group’s Skin Deep Database to find out how your products rate. http://www.ewg.org/skindeep/ Start replacing your toxic products with products that contain more natural ingredients and less chemicals.  Your body and your liver will thank you.

4. Eat foods that cleanse your liver. Dandelion greens contain many compounds that aid in the cleansing of the liver. I used to be scared to try new greens but they are seriously the best thing I ever incorporated into my diet. Avocados have been shown to protect the liver against toxic overload and turmeric has been found to protect the liver against toxins. In fact, turmeric is one of the most powerful liver cleansers out there. Sulphur-rich foods like brussels sprouts and cabbage are also awesome along with beets too.

5. Take supplements that will increase your glutathione levels. Glutathione is the master of all antioxidants and it is required by your body so it can properly detox every day. Basically it just mops up all the mess and helps your body get rid of it. The problem is poor food choices, stress, and a genetic inability to adequately detoxify leaves us very depleted. Boost your glutathione levels with this glutathione supplement 450mg/day, or try N-Acetyl Cysteine which is a precursor to glutathione. Integrative Therapeutics NAC or Thorne Research Cyste Plus – 500mg/day. These supplements speed up phase two detoxification in the liver which is super helpful in preventing the bottleneck I described above. 

Here’s another brilliant option: You can get my Fix Your Period 14-Day Cleanse, A 14 day detox for your hormones!

You’ll get everything you need to participate in this cleanse, including:

  • The Pre-Cleanse Guide – get prepared with this handy guide
  • 14-Day Cleanse E-Book with Recipes + Daily Activities – a full-on guide with recipes and everything!
  • A complete shopping list & Meal Planner – with foods and cleanse enhancing supplements
  • A Detox & Feel Good Tips handout – top 10 tips to get the most out of your cleanse
  • Supplement recommendations – You’ll get my list of recommended supplements to enhance your body’s detox process during and after the cleanse.

Click here for all the details and to take advantage of this awesome deal!