1 reason why you should be worried about estrogen-dominance

Have you ever wondered why we love to reminisce about the past when it comes to diet, culture, and lifestyle? It’s because now, all of us, male and female are ridden with estrogen-dominance – and you can thank the modern commercialization of farming and artificial estrogen for that.

So, I am just a little over the week reporting now on my week 2 experience.

You can read my week 1 experience here.

Still doing lots of research and finding lots of helpful individuals like Frank Tufano on YouTube who did the carnivore diet and actually had to come out of it because he developed metal toxicity (particularly iron), dysbiosis (gut bacteria being unbalanced), SIFO, SIBO, Candida (ooh ladies, we know this one) and other things which got me thinking… is the carnivore diet the next ‘vegan’ trend?

My week 2 was okay, got a bit of the flu but only for like a day, but noticed that I was getting heart palpitations all of a sudden when I was praying. I thought it was an interesting observation since Frank also talks about heart palpitations and so do many others who have done the carnivore diet.

My aim with this diet, is like I said, to eliminate as many sources of inflammation as I can – that includes dairy even though it is the LOML (sorry husband).

Week 2: Carnivore Diet

Day 8 – very tired, wanted to give up but also kind of couldn’t because I was doing a religious fast
Day 9 – felt the flu the whole day, slight heart palpitations, slight general anxiety
Day 10 – recovering from flu, slight anxiety at random times during the day
Day 11 – same as yesterday, no notable differences
Day 12 – was doing a religious fast so felt more tired and lethargic (probably not a good idea to fast this soon into the diet), broke my fast with fruit salad (yum, yes I know I cheated) full-on cheat day, Takis, Cheetos, rice (this gave me a bad reaction, definitely cutting it out)
Day 13 – Eid is upon us! — didn’t eat much because wasn’t hungry from previous indulgence, but went a bit lax on the meat and had a bit of pasta and rice, dessert was lotus biscuit cheesecake
Day 14 -(1) – starting over because I want to see the effects of just carnivore on me

So, yeah, I’m starting over. But interestingly, it’s not the holy grail diet I was told that it was – like every other person – probably unsurprising, but struggling with inflammation makes you kind of obsessed with diet and nutrition.

It’s not so simple to easily dismiss when doctors like Shane Baker and many others who recommend the carnivore diet are in on this. What’s the agenda? Will probably have to check who they are funded by. I have no problems supporting something that is actually good for me, and proven to be too, but not just something that has a lot of harp behind it because of who ‘invented’ it.

Carnivore Diet – estrogen dominance?

Now, I’ll be the first to say, that I don’t believe there is a ‘perfect’ diet for everyone, simply because genetics and environment play a huge role in what we can all metabolize as individuals — not as a species. So when you add all the individual variance in the world, the puzzle becomes much harder to solve specially if you have been diagnosed with something.

For this reason, I won’t bash smaller creators or influencers who have tried both vegan and carnivore diets and feel amazing on either – because how they react is probably favorably, if they keep doing so.

But we all know that just because you feel amazing doesn’t exactly always indicate something isn’t going on beneath the surface – which is why we need to have certain measures in place so that we’re not deluded.

We know that red meat is high in iron, which can lead to problems such as liver disease, heart problems, diabetes or hemochromatosis.

However, there are various studies showing how copper and iron interact which makes this much more important to study. For example, proper regulation of both copper and iron transport is critical to avoiding neurological disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, and Huntington’s disease.

Copper-iron dyad

Interestingly, copper and iron interact very similarly to each other. Copper is responsible for moving oxygen and is the only one that activates oxygen. Vitamin A is also important for iron to be recycled, and not having enough iron can lead to low blood cell count, which impacts oxygen levels in cells (fatigue, tiredness, lethargy, etc).

So copper is the car, iron is the passenger. Without a car, iron cannot go anywhere, and then there is simply excess iron in your liver. Copper is how we make energy (ATP) and we need vitamin A to use it. Copper deficiency has also been linked to hypothyroidism, where symptoms of feeling cold are indicative of a slow metabolism.

Injecting your body with more iron will likely not get rid of your ‘iron deficiency’. Most of the time, the iron is not getting re-absorbed properly, which is why it shows up as ‘low iron’ when it is actually ‘low copper’. Copper also helps with our stress response, keeping serotonin optimal because too much leads to gut issues; anxiety, and depression and it is important for our immune system – which is why it’s important for things involving estrogen dominance (endometriosis, PCOS, breast cancer).

What are some copper-rich foods?

Beef liver, duck liver, and chicken liver – in that order. I don’t think there are any vegetarian/vegan ways to get copper in because they are also in shellfish and oysters. I’ve also read that vitamin A from animal products is much better metabolized by our bodies vs the beta carotene (that comes from plants) that needs to be converted into retinol – and as we know too much of anything in the body, does not actually get converted, but simply is ‘unbound’ in the body. Just like excess testosterone that is made in PCOS and doesn’t get converted to estrogen fast enough, resulting in both weight gain and hirsutism (basically, a beard and balding head).

Also, vitamin A needs saturated fat to be absorbed (yes, beef liver once again) and grass-fed dairy (ideally).

Copper, infertility, and estrogen dominance

Copper and estrogen – kind of like Dustin and Steve Henderson – an unlikely duo until you delve deeper into their history. Now, most of us ladies unfortunately take birth control. Even your ‘non-hormonal’ types of birth control alter your estrogen, unfortunately (I’m looking at you, copper IUD). The copper IUD increases copper levels in the female body, and stores in our tissues, and when this ‘unbound’ copper increases, estrogen increases with it. If you know anything about estrogen, you know she likes to cook up something called ‘inflammation’ every time she comes into the picture.

Now, for someone like me who can’t entirely quit copper IUD just yet, an easier way to help tamper this estrogen down (apart from allowing my natural process of birth to just be), is to ingest vitamin A (beef liver) and whole-food vitamin C, this will make the copper more bioavailable and able to be used instead of inflaming the body and going under the radar.

However, it is not just the copper IUD that increases copper levels in our bodies, it is also the progestin-only pills – so basically birth control is trying to kill us, for lack of a better term. Birth control is not healthcare – by any means. It is simply the avoidance of ‘pregnancy’.

Also, neither very high levels nor low levels of copper are optimal for the human body. God has created humans so delicately that the tiniest thing can tip us off. For example, since our soil has been depleted by commercial farm use, we do not get adequate zinc, copper, magnesium, and the like – and so low levels of copper lead to difficulty in egg implantation (explains the rising rates of infertility and miscarriages).

Unbound copper, PCOS, and estrogen-dominance

There are three types of estrogen in our bodies as they occur in different stages: estrone (during menopause), estradiol (men and women produce this), and estriol (during pregnancy).

The problematic one is estradiol as too much can result in acne, loss of sex drive, osteoporosis, depression, and obesity. Very high levels can lead to breast and uterine cancer. I have personally struggled with medium-severe depression, bad anxiety, and just general mood swings. Also, there is this stubborn layer of subcutaneous fat right on my stomach that just won’t go away. No matter what I do.

So, when I first was diagnosed with PCOS, I frantically looked for supplements and found some that have worked.

Diindolylmethane or DIM

DIM, Progesterone, and Estrogen

DIM hasn’t been heavily researched, unfortunately. But I took it anyway and started to notice almost immediate mood changes, I didn’t feel ‘great’, but I felt normal. I didn’t feel depressed and dull, and normal is more than good enough for me. Basically, DIM is a phytoestrogen (basically has the same shape and behaves like estrogen) but it is an estrogen-receptor antagonist, meaning that it is a wolf in sheep’s clothing, but for good this time. So, it binds to estrogen receptors but doesn’t give them what they want. It’s the best type of foolery there is!

In-vitro studies have shown DIM to have anti-cancer activities in cancer cells including prostate, breast, endometrial, and pancreatic cancers. It reduces tumor development by 50%. DIM, for me, helped with this excess estrogen that my body was storing and I feel a difference between me now (taking it for a month) than me before. I’ve taken 1-2 day breaks and the anxiety comes back bad. I haven’t taken it today though, and I feel good. Maybe it’s the carnivore diet?

DIM is basically produced when we eat cruciferous vegetables – and because I’m genetically predisposed to excess estrogen – I will probably continue to take this, even if it doesn’t ‘fit’ the carnivorous diet. Plus, DIM helps the body to produce progesterone, which is the actual female hormone and balances out the excess estrogen.

I predict that my different phases of life where I took birth control at 19 for acne, 21 for contraception and I’m currently on a copper IUD – have messed me up big-time. This is probably why my PCOS was still hiding until it became too much. It doesn’t help that estrogen is increasing in our tap water and soil. How, you ask? Also, birth control.

It’s not like they filter for estrogen when they filter that crap tap water that we drink – which is why men are so much more feminized these days and that leads women to be more rebellious (and also more estrogenic).

You thought we were just talking about food? No, we are talking about all of the effects of food, on life, on health, and how it plays out in the social field.