Natural Hormones

What Are Natural Hormones?

are an FDA approved class of products, mass produced by pharmaceutical companies, on the market for over 20 years. They are called natural hormones, and classified as bioavailability bio-identical, because their chemical formulas closely resemble the structure of the steroid sex hormones produced by our bodies.

Natural hormones are made from plants and they mimic the chemical structure of human hormone in its entirety. Short of human hormones, natural hormones are the closest in chemical structure, actions and interaction to our own hormones.

Effects Of Natural Hormones

Because they are so similar in structure to our own body's sex hormones, the action of natural hormones is gentle and safe, and above all, effective. Human cell receptors are areas on the cell membrane that specifically recognize substances they need to use to maintain the body's health. Estrogen progesterone receptors recognize natural hormones as their own.

Symptoms of hormone imbalance, as we get older, occur because of a deficiency of hormones in the body. This deficiency requires supplementation in order for the imbalance to be righted and symptoms to resolve. The action of natural hormones in our bodies directly target the root cause of symptoms of hormone deficiency. Because they are made from plants and have no foreign molecules in their make-up, they do not compete with human hormone receptors. They supplement and enhance the action of human hormones. They do not displace or replace our own hormones from receptors on our cells. Thus, their function is not competitive with that of our own hormones.

Whether estrogens (estriol, estradiol, estrone) or progesterone, natural hormones do not interfere with, displace, or replace human hormones. Their action is gentle and they are read by the human body as part of their own. Administered in a well-supervised, scientifically designed setting, natural hormones safely treat the root cause of hormone imbalance, and deficiencies, and their attendant symptoms.

Natural Estrogen and Progesterone

Natural Progesterone, commonly referred to as micronized progesterone, has the same chemical formula as the normally occurring sex steroid, progesterone, in humans. Short of human progesterone, not presently available on the market, natural progesterone is the next best thing. Because its chemical formula is the same as the human progesterone, its actions are similar as well. Cellular receptors for progesterone recognize natural progesterone as their own and accept it. Results are remarkable, the lack of endogenously produced progesterone gets rapidly supplemented by natural progesterone.

Natural Estrogen includes the same group of three hormones- estriol, estradiol and estrone- as those made by the human body. Natural estrogens are made from soy. Their chemical formula is the same as the hormones manufactured by the human body. For this reason they are known as bio-identical hormones. Just like with progesterone, natural estrogen is recognized by cellular receptors for estrogen as their own and the supplementation offered by natural estrogens is accepted by the body as its own.

While natural hormonesare derived from soy and yams, buying wild yams cream and other types of low dose progesterone creams over-the-counter, will not give you the benefits derived from natural hormones.

Many over-the-counter products include the name natural and progesterone on the label. These labels serve only to confuse you. They are not the same products in the same concentrations as the natural estrogen and progesterone I am referring to in this chapter. Our bodies do not have the enzymes and chemical pathways necessary to transform soy or yams from their natural forms, into usable hormones. (see Chapter 5-phytoestrogens and bioavailability). The active molecules of estrogen in soy, and progesterone in yams, cannot be utilized by our bodies directly from the raw materials. If you buy yam cream and put it on your skin, the progesterone in the yam is not bioavailabileto your body- the human system cannot process that cream and transform it into the progesterone we so desperately need.

The same for soy. Any soy product we ingest cannot be transformed into the real estrogen we can use. Only by special processing in laboratories can the active hormones be extracted from soy and yams. Only in this highly refined form, can our bodies take advantage and use the estrogens in soy and the progesterone in yams.

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