The Hormone Story

Remember biology class in high school? Me neither, so I've been catching up with a book called Sexy Hormones, among others. Trust me, when doctors say you have a life threatening disease that's fed by your own body functions, you want to know what went wrong. I'm not a doctor or a anatomy teacher (yeah yeah), but here are, I think, the basics to understand for this newly publicized food and toxins debates to make sense. There are many conflicting information and opinions out there depending on which interests are being protected, which is why it's important to stay critical. In my case, the interest I'm protecting is my life. This is what I'm digesting from all of it.

1. Our body has many glands and organs which secrete hormones by converting cholesterol.

2. Hormones direct our body's functions, some you know more that others: The thyroid controls metabolism, the pancreas produces insulin, the ovaries control fertility. But did you know some boosts our immune system, helps us deal with stress, even direct cell formation (and therefore helps prevent cancer)?

3. Hormones are interdependent and work together like an orchestra --I prefer the bees-in-a-beehive or ants-in-an-ant-hill metaphors myself. Even one out of whack unbalances all the others, and consequently is bad news.

4. The body creates 3 types of estrogen; some can potentially protect against cancer, some feed hormonal receptive cancers like breast, ovarian and (I think) prostate cancer. However, not all cases of these cancers are hormonal receptive --about 70 to 75% of breast cancers are. Two of the three types of estrogen can convert to harmful estrogen and revert back.

5. The male body also creates estrogen. In fact, testosterone is one chemical conversion away from being estrogen.

6. Estrogen in our environment is called xenoestrogen and is a harmful type. Estrogen in plants is called phytoestrogen and is generally safer, with a few exceptions.

7. Organs like the liver and the intestines play an important role in hormonal health. A healthy liver detoxes harmful estrogen and well functioning intestines eliminates them.

8. Too much estrogen (or serious hormonal imbalance) in men can cause infertility as well as ADHD, autism, Tourette's syndrome, cerebral palsy, and dyslexia. In women, it causes many conditions such as ovarian cysts, PMS, endometriosis and infertility, as well as feeds hormone receptive cancers.

Understand these facts/concepts and the Bisphenol A and Phthalate "discoveries" and debates present in the media right now will makes more sense. More on that in next posts.

Sources
These sources cite many others sources. I've inserted links in case you want to learn more, but I'm not suggesting you go out and buy these books over others.

The Dissapearing Male, CBC, 2009.

The Intelligent Patient Guide to Breast Cancer. Intelligent Patient Guide, Vancouver, 2006.

Sexy Hormones. F & W Ltd, Markham, 2007.