Good afternoon everybody and I hope you're having a fabulous week. Welcome back to another episode of Find Your Model Health, the official podcast of Shameen's Model Health. For those looking to optimize their long-term health and weight goals, I am Shameen Linney, I am a biohacker and fitness and nutrition expert and I'm super happy to have you back with me this week for another awesome podcast. Before we move on, I must stress that the information provided in these podcasts is to be taken for informational purposes only and not taken as medical advice.
So moving on, this week's podcast, we're looking a bit more into estrogen, estrogen, estrogen, depending on what part of the world you're from, isaestrogen and its effects on our body and how we may address estrogen dominance. So as a kind of a follow-up and more in-depth on the post I did on my Facebook business page this week, I'm going to do a small series on a few different topics and this week it's going to be estrogen. So we'll start from the beginning, what is estrogen? Well, estrogen is a feminizing hormone that both women and men have in their body, or swimming, we just have more of it for obvious reasons, reproduction and so on.
Estrogen is made out of testosterone and is important to maintaining healthy bone skin nails and cardiovascular health and it is an extremely important hormone to have, but like anything else, if you have too much of it, it begins to be a bit of a problem. So that's where we see estrogen dominance, where we have too much estrogen. Now estrogen is proliferative, this means it stimulates growth and unfortunately that does not mean it stimulates the growth of muscles, it stimulates fat growth. So those that are estrogen dominant find it hard to lose weight, especially in estrogen dominant locations such as the lower belly, your love handles, hips, your butt, your thighs and in some the back of the arms.
Also other signs of being estrogen dominant, the more I'm going to stick to the more common signs, there are a lot of signs, but the more common signs would be blood clotting, fluid retention per circulation is a big giveaway, especially around the lower body, cellulite, then headaches and migraines are another one I see, anxiety or increased worry, cravings of sugar and chocolates, which I think is everyone, mood swings around menstrual cycle or moon phases, I have been known to have my moods around the moon phases. So bloated around the abdomen, hips and thighs, like I said, blood clots, obviously in and around period time, deep vein trombosis and you bruise easily, also varicose veins, cellulite as well I already mentioned, but these are some of the more prominent symptoms, so your periods you'll get blood clotting, they'll be heavy periods, they can be sporadic as well and they can be quite painful too. And these are the main ones, in men, a sign of estrogen dominance in men actually is gynecomastia, which is also known as man boobs and they will have a very prominent abdominal cavity, kind of a pregnant belly lock, but on a man, that is a sure sign of estrogen dominance. And it's important to note that women and men can carry estrogen dominance, fat in different locations, but in general in women we see it around the belly both thighs and then in men, it's kind of more the belly and those man boobs.
Sorry guys, so having high estrogen levels in the body can cause a lot of problems, therefore it is wise to make it a priority to get some of that estrogen out of your body. And it's important to note that this does not involve blocking estrogen production or activity, but we're mainly looking at working with the body's natural pathways to make and use estrogen for all its health benefits, like the menstrual cycle and fertility and being optimally fertile, I'll give a podcast on that in pregnancy a few weeks back, but then we've got to make sure that the estrogen is efficiently detoxified and eliminated from the body rather than to allow it to accumulate. So we want to get the whole process working in our favor. We're producing it, it's getting used price, right, so we can get all the advantages of it, but then anything excess that we don't need, that is getting eliminated effectively too.
So to strip out excess estrogen from the body, it must be either metabolized or excreted. So estrogen metabolism and detoxification is kind of a complex subject, but there are a few kind of general steps that we would follow. So first, we look at improving liver detoxification pathways of your estrogen. And this would be, you may have heard me speak about your methylation pathways, I mentioned sure they're working for you properly, so this is what we would look at.
So methylation, detoxification pathways, they're our priorities. So improving liver detoxification. So we're supporting our lymphatic system, which is our main detoxification pathway. We're going to be doing maybe some inversion moves, we're going to do rebounding, we're going to stay very active walking, especially to keep that circulation going in the lower limbs, so that the lymphatic system can bring all the toxins back up to the body to be excreted out.
We're looking at some liver support then in the lines of maybe some teas, we'll do dandelion, milk thistle, calm out can be helpful in that it can relax the body enough so that it lets go of toxins to be then run through the liver for detoxification. Then we've got to have some sort of nutritional approach, obviously. So a lot of the times a nutritional approach or modification can be just as powerful as medicines, as they have the nutrition has the ability, what you put in your mouth in regards to food and fluids has the ability to influence estrogen synthesis, it can influence their receptors and it of course can influence your detoxification pathways. So adding in some sort of nutritional support or addressing your daily food intake, so that it'll support the detoxification of the estrogen.
You're looking at some very effective ones are going to be cilantro, which is a key later, it binds to toxins, helps carry them out of your body. So does chlorella, one of my favorites, I try to drink some chlorella every day. You're looking at spirulina is also very effective. Insoluble fibers such as cilium husk and chia seeds can bind to unconjugated estrogen, so unconjugated means free estrogens in your digestive tract which are then excreted in your poop.
You'll see some nutritional professionals advise flax seeds for the insolia soluble dietary fiber. This is not something I tend to do unless you're a post-menopausal woman, I'm going to generally avoid staying away from flax seeds because they do have a high propensity to be a xeno estrogen and actually add to the problem rather than take away from the problem. So but focusing on like your cilium husks and even the skin of sweet potatoes, you've got your chia seeds, you've got of course your other tubers and green veg, it can be particularly useful because it'll interrupt the internal circulation of the estrogen by binding to them in the gut and stripping out the estrogen and therefore inhibiting reabsorption in the intestinal tract. Insoluble fiber can also beneficially affect the composition of the intestinal bacteria and reduce intestinal be glucuronidase activity.
So glucuronidase then being a byproduct of estrogen. This then can result in a reduction of the reabsorption of the estrogen as well by the intestinal bacteria, not to get too sciency but it kind of goes along the lines of pro, biotics, prebiotics, and postbiotics. We are kind of looking in that area with bass but then you also are going to be looking out of course staying very, very hydrated with high-grade water. So avoiding any chemical laden or toxic water, you want to really avoid water coming out of plastic bottles because these xenoestrogens are going to add to the problem.
You're going to avoid cooking in any sort of plastic or heating food or do not heat your chicken and broccoli or anything like that in one plastic and two in a microwave. I know sometimes you've got to use a microwave if you are going to heat in a pyrax and the lowest temperature is possible. Don't overcook your food but in general you should be heating in a pan or in the oven but definitely avoiding those xenoestrogens that come from plastic bottles. So you're going to be looking at glass as possible.
You can probably hear I'm drinking my sampel grino here so you're looking at high-grade water out of a plastic bottle or a glass bottle, not plastic, excuse me, or stainless steel if you have no problem with the taste. I personally don't get any taste of stainless steel but I know some people do. Using a nice filter maybe a reverse osmosis in your house is also going to be effective. So avoiding those xenoestrogens as much as possible and that includes where you're cleaning products.
You're aware of what you're putting on your hands and cleaning your house with too. So then we're looking at some supplements that can be very beneficial. So I mentioned keylators above so you're looking at your chlorophylls and your spirulinas and your other stuff like that that's going to bind and carry the toxins out of your body. When we look at supplements we look at for one you could look at activated charcoal.
So activated charcoal it is a binder. It'll bind to the excess estrogen or any free-floating heavy metals or toxins in your body. It'll bind to them but then you want to support the body to get them out. Like if you were one example would be you could do an activated charcoal and then do a hot sauna for maybe 30 or 60 minutes to sweat out the toxins and that way that excuse me activated charcoal would help carry out the excess chemicals or you could even take it up a level and do a nice and flush and then get into the sauna as well and that is one awesome way of helping to detoxify the body.
Doing it in a fasted stays again takes it over another level because that can be very tough. So you're doing your activated charcoal, you're doing your nice and flush, you're fasting and then you're getting into a hot sauna for 30 to 60 minutes. That is quite challenging but it is one way to detoxify the body pretty effectively. Next though then we're looking at magnesium as we know magnesium is super important for optimal function of the whole body and magnesium is required in two key liver detoxification pathways of methylation and glucoronidation.
So magnesium can optimize the methylation so that whole process of detoxification and excretion of synthetic estrogens by increasing certain enzymes that are required for the methylation process to take place properly. And magnesium can also increase the active activity of glucoronal transferase which increases your detoxification process. So you get more happening, more effectively. So you can do a supplement or you can do food time magnesium like spinach, pung, concedes, almonds, kefir, avocados, braid, and dark chocolate, who doesn't love dark chocolate.
B vitamins, I kind of, I'd recommend B supplements, B vitamins, supplements because there's been a lot of studies where they actually cause more problems with blockages through the methylation pathways. So I'd rather see back come from food. So you're getting your B vitamins folate in particular in the methylation of estrogen. Unfortunately, synthetic folate causes more interferences in the body like in those methylation pathways.
So it's important to be getting your whole foods in particular broccoli, avocados, green veg, dark or leafy greens, stuff like that rather than taking synthetic B vitamins. And that includes your B12 shop. We're seeing now they can cause more problems than actually focusing on optimizing your own nutrition, supporting your own methylation pathways. Okay, moving on.
Kelp, that is another very effective key later, but it also works to inhibit a process in the body called beta glucuronidase to keep the estrogen bound and conjugated. So it holds onto the estrogen until it leaves. So it's very effective key later, works very well, and can also be a great source of iodine as well. Calcium D glucuronidase I mentioned during the week, it's a natural compound that works in the detoxification of estrogen as well as its regulations.
So it helps regulate and detoxify. Now, I feel that you can't look at just estrogen without looking at progesterone too. We want to make sure both are balanced and a lot of the time when we see an estrogen dominance, we've got a progesterone deficiency. One of my favorite ways to help bring all progesterone is to bring in either a really nice vitamin C supplement or a chaste berry tea can be very effective.
You can use a chaste berry supplement as well, but it can be a bit harder to come across. Then when we look more along the herbs and herbal medicine and how we can use more natural stuff to stimulate that estrogen excretion, we can look at turmeric is very effective. We know it's an anti-inflammatory and immune regulator, it protects your liver and supports the liver, reduces anxiety, improves mood. And it has been shown to convey a sparing effect on the adrenals and the HPA access, which is super important to making sure that everything is running smooth when it comes to hormones.
Crycin is another very nice herb that you can bring in and it's a bioflavonoid. I love anything to do with the flavonoids categories and it's found in droplets, so honey droplets will be great and it's also found in a herb called aroxylum indicum, which will be hard to come by. But crycin is another one to look at and continuous, so crycin works by inhibiting aromatase activity, so that's those excessive reproductive hormones that can inhibit them and reduce cell proliferation effects on estrogen. So this means that it can reduce that growth of excess estrogen and continuously being used, we see that crycin can be extremely effective in estrogenic, estrogenic areas, such as the lower belly, your butt hips, thighs, love handles.
So it can be very effective in moving stubborn fat cells from those specific areas as well, but you can't just go take in one thing and expect it to work. This is where you got to look at the whole environment because I know that when I say, hey this one herb or this one supplement will do this, this and this. Everyone will rush out and buy it and take it, but you've got to remember you've got to incorporate all your other environmental factors as well. Rosemary is another herb that I love to use, especially with my menopausal women for those half flushes.
It can be super effective and Rosemary works to balance both phases of liver detoxification and I really like Rosemary for again and blood pressure, so the half flushes and the blood pressure. So Rosemary is like a staple herb in many of my clients kitchens, so it not only improves liver function, but also has an awesome effect on cognitive function. It has powerful antibacterial and antioxidant properties and it also can protect us against the effects of carcinogens. So if you say barbecuing a steak or chicken, you would rub it in Rosemary first to just help protect against those carcinogens that come off of the barbecue.
So then lastly, when we look at herbs, and I don't know if this is so much of a herb as it is a food, but it's broccoli or brassica or seracia. So broccoli or alaricea are the species of plants that include cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, kale, brussels, sprouts, color grains, all that good stuff, and they contain very beneficial phytonutrients. And they also contain a chemical called saforaphane, which is one of the most potent detoxification and antioxidants found in nature. One of the best ways to get access to the sulfuraphane is to one eat a lot, a lot of broccoli or two eat broccoli sprouts regularly throughout your week.
It also has been shown to have very potent anti-cancer properties and anti-aging. So along with all of that, you're looking again at your lifestyle modifications. So supporting your detoxification pathways with movement, I encourage my clients and strangers this sounds to get on the ground and crawl around and get into a lot of more unusual moves, crawl up the stairs, roll around on the ground, sit on the ground, run it on the sofa, watch and TV get up and down a lot. And this can help keep that circulation going, but keep all these tight junctions in the body free, especially around the joints so that fluids can move for your and avoiding those harmful endocrine disruptors or those estrogen.
So BPA of course, even if a plastic bubble says BPA free, it's still plastic. We know that water is the most soluble substance on the planet, so you're going to be still drinking plastic. So no microwaving food in plastic as it increases the BPA that leaches into your food, avoid fight-lates. And I like to tell my clients as well to avoid fluoride as much as possible.
Start using natural cleaning products, switch your toiletries. If you can, to a more natural line of stuff. So I like Tom's, I really like Tom's fluoride free to paste. And I like the live clean brands.
I do like that. And then I use Jason's natural deodorant. And then for actually before people ask on my face for like moisturizers and creams and stuff, I like to use beauty counter. It's a bit pricey, but in my opinion, you can't put a real price on health unless you let your health get so bad, then you have to pay a lot on health care and insurance.
So that was very in-depth, quite an in-depth podcast there. So just really quickly adding in your cilantro, chlorophyll, spirulina, even grapefruit can be effective at supporting the body's detoxification pathways. If you're eating meats, try get them organic where you can. And grass beds, if you can again, because a lot of the times these animals are being fed corn and other zenro, estrogen foods like soy, which is going to contribute to your problem.
Supplements, rosemary is going to be very beneficial. Magnesium is great. I do like Epsom salt bats for that. Magnesium support as well.
Activated charcoal. And then getting your B vitamins from food as well. Okay, that was a lot. That was quite a lot of information.
So you're probably going to have to listen to this a couple of times over again. And then feel free to reach out to me through Facebook or through my website if you have any follow questions you need me to address. Okay, everyone have an awesome end of week. Stay safe and enjoy your weekend.
And I will chat to you next week. Bye.