The Case of Natural Progesterone Therapy
By Sally Longden
The most wonderful aspect of Natural Progesterone Therapy is that it is natural, i.e. it is the bio-identical molecule to the progesterone molecule produced in our body, it is REAL progesterone. By applying natural progesterone we are merely filling the reservoir of the mother hormone and thereby allowing the body to balance and heal itself. Our bodies are amazing healing machines, give them the basic fuel they need and every cell, filled with innate intelligence, will respond by producing new healthy cells. Within a short period of time, we have new healthy organs and a state of optimum health.
Before I go any further, I must emphasise that there is a huge difference between this hormone and those produced by the pharmaceutical companies. The “so-called” progesterone found in the contraceptive pill and HRT is NOT progesterone at all, but rather drugs called Progestins. Progestins are very dangerous drugs producing serious side effects in the body . I want to emphasise the point here, because the drug-company reps have mis-informed so many of the doctors, which has led to great confusion.
Progesterone, as seen in the diagram, is one of the first hormones in the steroid pathway. It is called the mother hormone because so many other hormones are derived directly from it - the corticosteroids, the stress hormones, one pathway to women’s oestrogen’s and men’s testosterone. If the basic hormone is lacking, then this will cause deficiencies in all the hormones mentioned above.
Why do we now need to help our bodies whereas in our grandmother’s era, i.e. before the 1950’s, they led a pretty healthy life, only getting degenerative disease in old age? Why have the stats on cancer gone up so alarmingly? Why are we getting degenerative disease at such an early age? Why is the infertility rate soaring? Why are so many people depressed these days? Why is osteoporosis affecting even 26-year-old men?
The fact is the world we now live in has changed drastically in the last 50 – 60 years.
Man-made chemicals are the culprits. Prior to the 2nd World War, we had a clean world. Progressively, since then, with every decade, the world has become more and more toxic and for the first time in the history of mankind, we are not adapting to our environment. Our immune systems are being severely compromised; our hormonal balance is now seriously being affected by these toxic chemicals, many of which are endocrine disruptors (disrupting our hormones from the foetus and thereafter).
Many of these endocrine disruptors are now mimicking oestrogen. They are called Xeno-oestrogens and come from petro-chemicals and pharmaceutical drugs. In our homes we are exposed to them on a daily basis, in our foods, (synthetic hormones in our meat, pesticides and herbicides) the creams we put on our skins, all the chemicals we use to clean our houses and the solvents and paints we use.
To survive this new environment that we, man, has created, we are going to have to use our brains, take responsibility for our health and give our bodies all the help we can, in order to restore the balance. We need to increase our nutritional intake, especially with the anti-oxidant nutrients to neutralise free-radical damage; and we need to keep the xeno-oestogens under control with progesterone in order to restore hormonal balance.
Oestrogen’s are a very potent class of hormones. The only antagonist to oestrogen is Progesterone. One of the worst characteristics of oestrogen is that it switches on a gene called the BCL2 gene (a cancer gene). This then causes the cells to multiply, they do not differentiate and they do not apopoxis (die), if this condition is unopposed or balanced by adequate levels of progesterone, it can then lead to a cancer tumour, if the immune system is compromised. Progesterone switches off this BCL2 gene and switches on a protective gene, the P53, which gives the right message to the cells … they then mature, differentiate and die and are thereby replaced by other healthy cells.
Dr John Lee, who did much to re-awaken our interest in this wonderful hormone, from the 1970's until his death in 2003, found that not one of his cancer patients given Progesterone ever developed secondary cancers. WOW ! What a claim !!
When oestrogen is not balanced with it’s antagonist, progesterone, it gives rise to this dangerous state of UNOPPOSED OESTROGEN, which in turn produces many distressing symptoms referred to as “Oestrogen dominance”. These vary from P.M.S., infertility caused from Endometriosis, fibroids and poly-cystic ovaries and of course the low sperm count in men (that has fallen 50% in just 50 years) to increased cancer risks, depression, heart disease, gall bladder problems, thyroid problems … to mention just a few.
Apart from balancing oestrogen, Progesterone is the only known chemical natural or otherwise that stimulates bone building function thus being very beneficial in the reversal of osteoporosis.
Another mis-conception is that we can obtain progesterone from a wildyam cream. We cannot ! The diosgenin molecule from the Wild Yam is a great adaptogen, but it does not convert to progesterone through the skin, so cannot achieve hormonal balance.
Lastly I must mention that our modern levels of stress have a disastrous effect on our progesterone levels. If you look at the diagram you will notice that adrenalin and nor-adrenalin, and cortisol (one of the cortico-steroids) all come directly from progesterone. We now demand outputs of these stress hormones never experienced in our history before. We have become adrenalin junkies … producing it all day long, when we drive a car, watch scary movies, business deals, police, tax, dive out of aeroplanes etc.. As it is the survival hormone, our body will produce it before any other hormone. Consequently, due to the high demand, our progesterone levels are sucked dry, leaving not enough to balance the rest. Cortisol, likewise, is a drain on our progesterone levels as this is the hormone produced when we worry …. A national pastime !! Deficiencies in the other hormones then lead to early degenerative disease … a lack of the cortico-steroids results in increased allergies, auto-immune disease and inflammatory conditions, arthritis etc.
Rubbing on a little Natural Progesterone cream into your skin twice daily will therefore help a myriad of conditions that have resulted from this hormonal imbalance for which only man and our modern lifestyle is responsible.
