From Belly Fat to Belly Flat: How Your Hormones Are Adding Inches to Your Waist and Subtracting Years from Your Life -- the Medically Proven Way to Reset Your Metabolism and Reshape Your Body by Genie James

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Unpleasant things start to happen with one's body w more

Unpleasant things start to happen with one's body when one hits a certain age. In this woman's case, it was an unexpected and unwelcome weight gain of almost 15 pounds that happened in the course of about 2 months. No amount of cutting back on food, eating healthier food, or exercise stopped the gaining. Even worse were the other symptoms very similar to those of menopause. Which led to a lot of reading and research. In the course of that research I came across this little gem of a book. In a little over 100 pages, Dr. Randolph explains what happens as we women (and men) experience fluctuating levels of hormones, specifically estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone. All affect our health in many ways. He focus of his book is estrogen dominance, which occurs when the levels of estrogen versus progesterone are too high. Please note that this may not be everyone's problem. Other issues may also be causing weight gain, such as a thyroid problem or diabetes. He strongly suggests that one see a doctor to have hormone levels checked. One tidbit I gained from this book which I didn't know is that estrogen and thyroid hormones oppose each other, too much estrogen blocks the effects of thyroid hormone leading to weight gain. (I also heartily recommend Mary Shomon's excellent books regarding thyroid problems titled "Living Well with Hypothyroidism" and "The Thyroid Diet.") Dr. Randolph presents three steps to decreasing excess estrogen in the body: Step 1: eat certain foods and decrease certain foods, presented in easy to read charts with recommended servings and a whole month of daily menus (over 60 recipes are included in a later section of the book) as well as the effects chemicals in the environment and personal products have on estrogen levels (Appendix B lists the steps to take in two pages. For more in depth reading about this topic there are several excellent books including "The Green Beauty Guide" by Julie Gabriel which specifically addresses toxins in beauty products) Step 2: use progesterone cream to supplement declining levels, with recommendations of what to look for in a cream and how to use it, and the effects which it has in the body in a very short summary. Step 3: take specific supplements (I personally am not taking all recommended in the book based on my research and I recommend you also research supplements before taking them) The remainder of the book talks about the effects of stress on the body and specifically the adrenal glands. I also recommend the book "Adrenal Fatigue" by Dr. James L. Wilson regarding this topic. Appendix C is very helpful with information on how to locate a doctor willing to address this issue with a patient, hormone testing labs one can contact directly, recommended supplement manufacturers, links to safer housecleaning products and foods, further recommended reading, and newsletters. So, after putting into effects most of the doctor's recommendations, I am happy to report that I have lost the 15 pounds I gained, and am continuing to lose more! Thank you Dr. Randolph. Another excellent book on the topic of estrogen dominance is Dr. John R. Lee's "What Your Doctor May Not Tell You About Premenopause" which covers this topic in much more detail.
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