Since the birth of my daughter 6 years ago, my body has changed. But really I thought that's normal - everyone's body changes after child birth, right? I was constantly tired. I couldn't think clearly. Sleep was much harder than it had once been. I was easily irritated. And sex, what's that? And of course I'm nearing 40 and I have 2 kids (and a husband) and I work. So this is just part of life, right? Well, about 18 months ago, it was like a switch flipped. And then the worst thing happened - I could no longer maintain my weight. Okay, I know that's very vain. All of the other symptoms should have prompted me to make changes, but sadly, it was vanity that prompted me to figure out what was going on.
So I started Googling all of my symptoms and guess what I found out? There was something out of balance. That's about it. Turns out my symptoms can indicate lots of things -Estrogen Dominance, Low Estrogen, Low Progesterone, Low Testosterone, Protein Deficiency, Hypothyroid, Poor Adrenal Function. So really all I learned was something was out of balance. It's basically what is termed now as perimenopause or perithyroid. I tried talking to my doctors about it, which resulted in very little help, too. Their perspective was my blood work looked great, my weight was fine, I showed no signs of cancer or heart disease - So they were very unconcerned. They basically said, "Yeah, you are getting older and this is normal."
So I looked further, and I did find there were some differentiating symptoms:
This certainly gave me a few more clues. But why did so many of the symptoms point to so many different issues? It turns out your thyroid, sex hormones, and adrenal glands are all very connected. Therefore, if one is out of balance, it can throw everything off. I created another little chart to better explain the relationships.
As you can see if one piece of the puzzle is off, everything can be affected. So understanding these other symptoms and relationships helped me start putting the pieces of the puzzle together.
I started with protein. I was 100% sure I had protein deficiency and had probably had protein deficiency my whole life. I started having brittle, peeling nails in my 20's. I had always felt light-headed when I was hungry (didn't have enough protein to regulate my blood sugar). I had chicken-skin (bumps) on the back of my arms and legs, which actually was a result of the sugar. And in the past couple of years, I noticed I was losing muscle tone despite exercising regularly. Once I increased my protein intake to 80 grams a day and reduced my sugar/processed food intake, all of these symptoms improved. My nails are perfect now. I don't get light-headed any more. My skin is smooth. And I instantly started building muscle again. I had so much more muscle in my abs than I had had in years! Amazing.
So protein helped some, but...I still kept gaining weight. And I was still fatigued. And I sure didn't have a libido. I even occasionally had night sweats and hot flashes. What? And I wasn't sleeping well either. I knew I had low ferritin (iron stores) despite my protein-intake and iron supplementation. So I continued down the investigation path. It seemed highly likely that I didn't have enough Vitamin B-12, iodine (helps with iron absorption), and selenium in my diet. I felt like my diet or current supplementation covered magnesium, zinc, vitamin A, vitamin D, and vitamin C. So I added vitamin B complex, kelp (for iodine), and selenium supplements to my routine. Within a week, I could tell I had more energy and the weight gain seemed to stop...but still no weight loss.
So I continued. I had another data point. I was diagnosed with low ovarian reserve when I was 34. While my fertility doctor didn't address this at the time, I now know that indicates my ovaries haven't been producing adequate estrogen and progesterone for some time. So I added a natural progesterone cream to my routine. In two days, I was sleeping like a baby. Oh, and my boobs started in inflate. Seriously. I had no idea fixing my hormones could fix the sagging. I thought that was from being pregnant, and only a surgeon could make improvements. Okay, one more known problem solved and one great additional perk.
But still no weight loss, no libido and not as much energy as I had hoped. It seemed that estrogen was likely my last problem. The imbalance between estrogen and progesterone would explain the weight gain in my thighs. I had lots of other symptoms on the low estrogen list, too. But oddly, my cycles were normal. So why? Well, it occurred to me that when I increased my protein, I increased my intake of all of the hormones the food industry puts in our food. So after all of these years of resisting organic, my vanity finally pushed me over the edge. Well, the next month my cycle was 37 days long. Ridiculous. And I knew it was because I had a very long follicular phase (oh the things you learn in fertility treatment) and that was likely a result of low estrogen. It seemed that now that I had eliminated all of the foods mimicking estrogen, I could see what was really going on in my body. I added a supplement called maca root. It's like ginseng but found in Latin America. And it's known to help your body produce estrogen and balance your hormones. In two days, I felt like a million bucks. My runs were great - so full of energy. I was more relaxed. I was nicer to my kids. I was more affectionate with my husband. And despite eating chocolate for 3 days straight, I lost 3 pounds in a week. Absolutely amazing.
I'm not sure I have everything figured out. After all, you can certainly have too much supplementation (as my husband coincidentally figured out during this period which explained his fatigue). But after 18 months of research, I am armed with a lot more information and hope now. I will be taking my two handy charts above, along with my list of symptoms and currents supplements to my primary care physician when I have my physical in August. I want him to test my ferritin (because I know what it was previously), my T3 and reverse T3 (much better indicators of thyroid function than just TSH) and each of my hormones. He might not do it, of course, but hopefully when he sees my list of supplementation, he will be somewhat persuaded.
If or when you start feeling these mysterious aging symptoms that seem to be going around these days, don't buy into it and accept that you are just aging. Yes, it's true that your body can no longer deal with imbalances and nutrition deficiencies like it could in your 20's or even 30's. But if you make some simple diet or supplement adjustments, you could go back to feeling like you did in your 20's or 30's.
So I looked further, and I did find there were some differentiating symptoms:
As you can see if one piece of the puzzle is off, everything can be affected. So understanding these other symptoms and relationships helped me start putting the pieces of the puzzle together.
I started with protein. I was 100% sure I had protein deficiency and had probably had protein deficiency my whole life. I started having brittle, peeling nails in my 20's. I had always felt light-headed when I was hungry (didn't have enough protein to regulate my blood sugar). I had chicken-skin (bumps) on the back of my arms and legs, which actually was a result of the sugar. And in the past couple of years, I noticed I was losing muscle tone despite exercising regularly. Once I increased my protein intake to 80 grams a day and reduced my sugar/processed food intake, all of these symptoms improved. My nails are perfect now. I don't get light-headed any more. My skin is smooth. And I instantly started building muscle again. I had so much more muscle in my abs than I had had in years! Amazing.
So protein helped some, but...I still kept gaining weight. And I was still fatigued. And I sure didn't have a libido. I even occasionally had night sweats and hot flashes. What? And I wasn't sleeping well either. I knew I had low ferritin (iron stores) despite my protein-intake and iron supplementation. So I continued down the investigation path. It seemed highly likely that I didn't have enough Vitamin B-12, iodine (helps with iron absorption), and selenium in my diet. I felt like my diet or current supplementation covered magnesium, zinc, vitamin A, vitamin D, and vitamin C. So I added vitamin B complex, kelp (for iodine), and selenium supplements to my routine. Within a week, I could tell I had more energy and the weight gain seemed to stop...but still no weight loss.
So I continued. I had another data point. I was diagnosed with low ovarian reserve when I was 34. While my fertility doctor didn't address this at the time, I now know that indicates my ovaries haven't been producing adequate estrogen and progesterone for some time. So I added a natural progesterone cream to my routine. In two days, I was sleeping like a baby. Oh, and my boobs started in inflate. Seriously. I had no idea fixing my hormones could fix the sagging. I thought that was from being pregnant, and only a surgeon could make improvements. Okay, one more known problem solved and one great additional perk.
But still no weight loss, no libido and not as much energy as I had hoped. It seemed that estrogen was likely my last problem. The imbalance between estrogen and progesterone would explain the weight gain in my thighs. I had lots of other symptoms on the low estrogen list, too. But oddly, my cycles were normal. So why? Well, it occurred to me that when I increased my protein, I increased my intake of all of the hormones the food industry puts in our food. So after all of these years of resisting organic, my vanity finally pushed me over the edge. Well, the next month my cycle was 37 days long. Ridiculous. And I knew it was because I had a very long follicular phase (oh the things you learn in fertility treatment) and that was likely a result of low estrogen. It seemed that now that I had eliminated all of the foods mimicking estrogen, I could see what was really going on in my body. I added a supplement called maca root. It's like ginseng but found in Latin America. And it's known to help your body produce estrogen and balance your hormones. In two days, I felt like a million bucks. My runs were great - so full of energy. I was more relaxed. I was nicer to my kids. I was more affectionate with my husband. And despite eating chocolate for 3 days straight, I lost 3 pounds in a week. Absolutely amazing.
I'm not sure I have everything figured out. After all, you can certainly have too much supplementation (as my husband coincidentally figured out during this period which explained his fatigue). But after 18 months of research, I am armed with a lot more information and hope now. I will be taking my two handy charts above, along with my list of symptoms and currents supplements to my primary care physician when I have my physical in August. I want him to test my ferritin (because I know what it was previously), my T3 and reverse T3 (much better indicators of thyroid function than just TSH) and each of my hormones. He might not do it, of course, but hopefully when he sees my list of supplementation, he will be somewhat persuaded.
If or when you start feeling these mysterious aging symptoms that seem to be going around these days, don't buy into it and accept that you are just aging. Yes, it's true that your body can no longer deal with imbalances and nutrition deficiencies like it could in your 20's or even 30's. But if you make some simple diet or supplement adjustments, you could go back to feeling like you did in your 20's or 30's.
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