Anna Cabeca, MD

The Hormone Fix

Aired on: May 10, 2019

Episode Description

“I don’t feel like myself ” is a common complaint from women suffering a hormone balance in Dr. Cabeca’s office. They suffer wild mood swings: Irritable and snappy in the morning, depressed when the workday ends, and then anxious as bedtime approaches. Happiness rarely comes, and they can’t recall the last time they felt exuberant joy or bliss. But when it comes to your mood, willpower and determination don’t cut it. Your hormones run the show. They’ll take your emotions wherever they see fit, often at the expense of your health and happiness . One physician told one of her patients “it’s just normal for women your age to feel this way.” Well, while it may be “normal” it’s not ok and can be fixed! Dr. Cabeca offers a far better solution that doesn’t require prescription drugs, powering through negative emotions, or any sort of emotional struggle. Starting at the end of your fork she shows how to fix these imbalances to feel better fast.

Her motivation

  • She went through early menopause after being traumatized by her son’s death
  • She searched and reversed her menopause and gave birth at age 41

Hormones

  • Chemical and energetic messengers
  • Difficult to measure
  • Decline with age

Most important and major hormones

  • Have major interplay with all other hormones
  • Directing hormones
    • Insulin
    • Cortisol
  • The Boss of the directing hormones
  • Oxytocin

Oxytocin

  • Hormone of love, bonding and connection
  • Pertocin (oxytocin) given during labour
  • Some connect oxytocin deficiency with autism
    • For example pitocin, antibiotics and Cesarian sections, she believes might be creating a perfect storm
  • Helps with trauma
    • Outpouring of progesterone, oxytocin, cortisol
      • Cortisol adversely affects receptor site
      • Is cortisol – oxytocin disconnect post trauma and in autism
      • Research is being done about nasal oxytocin helping patients on the autism spectrum with social interactions
    • Creating oxytocin
      • Hugging, laughing, EMDR, reprocessing, desensitization, emotional freedom, heart math, hugging an animal or person, getting out in nature
      • Being mindful, having a higher purpose
      • Qi Gong, yoga

Insulin

  • Instructs all other hormones
    • Instructs progesterone,
    • Affects cortisol, estrogen and testosterone
  • Takes glucose out of the blood and stores it in cells
  • If there is too much blood sugar, insulin wears out and is not effective resulting in insulin resistance
    • Insulin resistance
      • Leads to diabetes, higher dementia, diabetes, heart disease, metabolic disease, cancer
      • Need to follow HbA1c and get it below 5.3
    • Brain uses ketone for fuel
  • Glucose is like gasoline as ketone are to jet fuel
  • Keto-green diet
    • Manages cortisol and insulin
    • Creates insulin sensitivity helps store insulin
    • Protein one quarter of plate
    • High nutritious, low carbohydrate alkalizing greens
      • She found that people she put on the keto diet became irritable
        • Results in people becoming acidic so she added greens as an alkalizing factor
        • Every blue zone, longevity culture has plant based foods
      • Broccoli sprouts, microgreens, kale, cauliflower, chard, beet greens, onions, tomatoes, sesame seeds with olive oil, turmeric, Himalayean sea salt, fiber
    • Fats
      • Sugar industry figured out in seventies, that if fats are blamed, people consume more sugar
      • Insulin levels can be raised if meat is eaten without fat
      • Is important to eat healthy fats such as olive oil, nuts and seeds, avocado, salmon
      • Alaskan Innuits who have a high fat diet
        • They drink broth getting minerals
        • Eat adrenal and animal organs which has vitamins
      • Minerals to support phase I and phase II detoxification
      • Hydration
        • Drink water away from meals
        • Hydrate first thing in the morning
        • The fluids dilute our stomach acid and impeded digestion
        • Drink alkaline water in morning
        • Undigested protein can lead to autoimmune diseases as the body mounts a defensive antibody attack against the undigested protein
          • The antibodies will through cross mimicry attack other parts of the body
          • It is important to digest food totally
        • Digestive aides when eating
          • Ginger, bitter melon, apple cider vinegar
        • intermittent fasting: She advocates to become insulin sensitive
          • Stop eating at 7 PM
          • We excrete more insulin if eat later in evening
          • Generates stem cells, sirtuins
          • In 2016 in JAMA if patients fasted less than 13 hours had a 30 % increased risk of breast cancer
          • This allows body to repair overnight rather than focus on digesting
        • Start day with keto green

Cortisol

  • Catabolic breaks us down
  • Leads to inflammation, depression, isolation, burnout
  • Affects circadian rhythm
    • Cortisol should be high during day and low during the night (when melatonin increases)
    • Tired during the day and wired during the night
      • Wake up not feeling rested
        • Is an adrenal hypofunction not enough cortisol to wake us up
        • 3 am awakening is cortisol surge
      • Need to reset adrenals
        • Wake up at sunrise, get sun light into eyes
        • Avoid EMF and blue light at sunset

 

  • Cortisol is secreted during times of stress
    • During stress, hormone production is sacrificed
  • Oxytocin and cortisol naturally oppose each other
  • Increasing cortisol
    • Inflammation, high sugar levels, perceived stress, decreased sleep,
  • Decreasing cortisol
  • So increasing oxytocin can decrease cortisol

Adrenal dysfunction

  • Paraventricular nucleus shuts down action of cortisol

DHEA

  • Responsible for production of estrogen and testosterone
  • Peaks in mid-twenties then declines

Progesterone

  • Neuroprotective
  • in women peaks at age 35 and then declines
  • Produced in last half of menstrual cycle
  • Men and women both need progesterone
  • Is a mother hormones
  • Used for resilience, rebuilding brain and bone health

Estrogen

  • Neuroprotective
  • Shifts in forties with swinging levels of estrogen
  • Hot flashes
  • Irritability
  • Mood swings
  • Irregular cycles
  • Brain glucose utilization is an estrogen dependent phenomenon

Testosterone

  • Gradual decline
  • Produced by ovaries, testes and adrenal glands
  • With stress and toxic burden, reproductive organs suffer

Menopause

  • Problems involve hormone imbalance, inflammation and adrenal dysregulation
  • Stress exacerbates
  • Symptoms
    • Anxiety depression, irregular cycles, hot flashes, weight gain, weight loss resistance,
    • Brain fog
      • Is age of neurological vulnerability
      • Occurs because brain glucose utilization is an estrogen dependent phenomenon
      • We need to be aggressive in managing our health and hormones during this time
      • Compromised microcirculation through decreased nitric oxide
      • Loss of protective benefits of progesterone along myelin sheath
        • Can lead to dementia if we don’t optimize fuel / energy for the brain
      • Also can be due to toxins

 

Recommended tests

  • Daily urinary ketones and pH
    • pH tells how we manage stress
  • hemoglobin H1ac (Hba1c) to measure average blood glucose levels
  • hs crp (heart sensitive c-reactive protein) to measure inflammation
  • Vitamin D level
  • DHEA level
    • Associated with healthy brain, higher resilience, healthy bones

Bioidentical hormones

  • She uses bioidentical progesterone for neuroprotection during menopause
    • A progesterone deficiency can cause menopause symptoms
    • Many clinicians only give estrogen
  • She recommends transdermal DHEA

 

Statins

  • Cholesterol is needed
  • As we make 80 % of our cholesterol, one needs to ask why cholesterol is high
    • Is cholesterol high dud to thyroid malfunctioning
    • Is cholesterol high to protect the brain against toxins
  • Statins lower testosterone levels
  • We need to ask why we are taking statins

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