by Eileen Eva

Created on: September 24, 2010

Any woman going through menopause knows how harsh low estrogen levels can be. For men or women who have no clue what low estrogen does to the body here is a quick lesson. Estrogens are female sex hormones responsible for an array of things counting use in oral contraceptives. Estrogens when occurring naturally are in three categories:-

• Estrone (E1): Produced when women undergo menopause

• Estradiol (E2): Usually predominant in non-pregnant women

• Estriol (E3): The basic estrogen during pregnancy.

Importance of Estrogen in the body

Estrogens are responsible for, speeding up metabolism, amplifying fat storage, boosting uterine growth, enhancing vaginal lubrication, formation of female secondary sex characteristics, increasing bone formation, reducing muscle mass making you look feminine, stimulating endometrial growth and thickening the vaginal wall.

Dangers of low Estrogen levels

As you can already guess, low estrogen levels will have dire consequences like thinning of the vaginal walls, hot flashes, low vagina lubrication, decreased sexual desire, weight gain, skin losing elasticity leading to wrinkles, rapid pulse rate, bloating, osteoarthritis and constant headaches.

What leads to or causes low Estrogen levels

The pituitary regulates how much estrogen is produced by the ovaries and when a woman stops ovulating (menopause) or the pituitary gland is infected, estrogen levels will drop. Unhealthy eating also leads to low estrogen level production. On “Importance of Estrogen in the body” we learnt that estrogen is responsible for reducing muscle mass, remember? This means that women who workout to build muscles (female body builders or athletes) will have their bodies producing low estrogen levels so as to support muscle growth.

Hormone Replacement Therapy is used to revamp low estrogen levels but the dark side of this is this therapy increases your chances of getting ovarian cancer. Unless very necessary, avoid hormone replacement therapy and increase your estrogen levels naturally using foods that we will discuss.

Foods that increase Estrogen

• Soy Products:  Soy products be it soy milk, tofu, etc will increase your estrogen levels. To prove that soy is good for you, there is an ongoing argument on use of soymilk formula for infants with some claiming that the phytoestrogens present affect male infants. As a woman phytoestrogens will be good for your levels.

• Spear Mint Tea: Spearmint (Mentha spicata) is consumed to control excessive hair growth in women by reducing testosterone in women. Consuming two cups daily will help boost your estrogen levels.

• Yams/Sweet potatoes/ Cassava: The wild yam root has been used for ages to boost estrogen levels. In African tribes, consuming Cassava flour, Sweet potatoes and Yams has been believed to boost estrogen levels and fertility as well. This explains why some African women could give birth to 6 or more kids with no fertility problems.

• Flax: Besides being a colon cleanser, flax seed has phytoestrogens just like soy and these will be good for your estrogen levels. Flax has high levels of fiber and should be accompanied with a lot of water to avoid blockage.

• Other foods that will increase estrogen include Anise, Unicorn root, Squawvine, Sarsaparilla, Sage, Raspberry, fresh fruits and vegetables, Fennel and Black cohosh

Source:

BBC News - Tea 'controls female hair growth'

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