In the final segment of Functional Medicine Back to Basics Dr. Rutherford discusses the female hormones.

Note: The following is the output of a transcription from the video above. Although the transcription is largely accurate, in some cases it is incomplete or inaccurate due to inaudible passages or transcription errors.

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I really really makes me get up in the morning and do this so female hormones yo-yo. Why? I am. Why is this the last in this series? This is the last in the series because, as my mentors would say, everything flows downstream to the female hormones if female hormones are affected by everything, particularly if you’re, still, menstruating and and to a degree, even if you’re in Menopause and I’m gonna talk about both of those.

So let’s. First talk about let’s, just first talk about and female hormones and and like the natural cycle of what a female hormone should look like. So the natural cycle of a female hormone is, I’m gonna start with the brain and, and there’s a there is a structure in your brain called the hypothalamus.

What you need to know about the hypothalamus is it &? # 39 s, this, it’s, this little organ in the brain. It’s, not an organ, but it’s. This little this little yeah it’s, an organ in the brain that senses all of the balances of chemicals, particularly hormones in in your system, in your in your bloodstream, and so it senses how much estrogen that a woman has okay and then, if It’s.

If, if there’s, not enough estrogen, there then being produced by the ovaries, then your hypothalamus talks to another organ, that’s called your pituitary gland. Many of you may be familiar with it, and that is called the master gland, because it sends signals to all it pretty much controls all the hormones it sends signals to the thyroid.

It sends signals out for you to make growth hormone. It sense they goes out for you to make estrogen testosterone. It’s, the master gland. So when it is told that you do not have enough estrogen, it then tells your ovaries to make estrogen okay, but that’s, not the end of it.

The over the estrogen then has to be made, and it has to go out to the cells that needed and and and in women, that’s, certainly that it goes. It goes into your brain. It gives you it gives you better mood.

Estrogen certainly controls how your ovaries work and, and so because there’s, a lot of feedback in there relative to medical periods and and having them and along with progesterone having proper cycles and and so and then estrogen in women.

Well, the next step would be once it hits all of the cells, the frontal lobe cells, and it gives you good mood and and and and and it just ultimately has to be cleared after it goes to all the cells. So it goes through these cells and then it – and so the estrogen goes to the cell.

This is a cell, it hits the cell, the cell opens it goes in there. The cell uses it when it when it uses it. It has mechanisms to detox itself to send the the and the unused estrogen and they use it and and the they kind of used estrogen now has to be cleared from your body.

This is a very, very, very important, salient point, so it gets so when it gets when it gets cleared. It gets cleared like anything else that gets there’s, a certain pathway in your liver that clears your estrogen.

Then it has to be cleared through your gall bladder, because gall bladder takes all of the toxins there’s, bio form, the gall bladder spits it out into your intestines. It has to be cleared through your intestines.

There is a there is a enzyme in your intestines called beta glucuronidase that actually further clears your estrogens. If that enzyme is too high, it’ll, actually reconstitute estrogens and make inactive estrogen into active estrogen that was supposed to go into the toilet.

The enact that was supposed to go into the toilet or talk about that in a few minutes, so you and then it can go in and then it also can be. Estrogen can also be stored in your fat cells, so women are estrogenic and and and it’s natural for women to have estrogen in their fat cells.

There was this kind of cool little mechanism there that if a woman starts getting too much testosterone first before they develop polycystic ovarian syndrome, which is caused, which is it has too much testosterone as a feature it’ll, get stored in your fat.

In your fat cells in your adipose tissue, and so this is the cycle of estrogen, and you have to kind of remember that, as as I’m walking through this, so so things that affect any of those. Any of those processes are going to alter your estrogen function, so I think today I guess the next, because the next step to go to is today most people come in here with female hormonal problems.

Aren’t coming in here, expecting that I’m, going to talk to them about their liver or talking to them about their their intestinal dysfunction. We’re talking to them about blood, sugar or essential fatty acids or all of the things or their stress, or all of the things that ultimately go into making your hormones.

They’re, not usually expecting me to talk to them about their cholesterol, and this is a point that I don’t see made enough today we are, we are subject to a whoever makes these decisions that are making this decision, that Our cholesterol should be down below 150 or 100, and that’s.

Incorrect based on the understanding of physiology, because when your cholesterol starts getting down that low – and this happens in a lot of thin patients when it gets down that low and your doctors telling you how great it is, it’s, pretty well understood that That bulow, 150 and cholesterol – it’s, difficult to make hormones.

Almost all of our hormones are made out of cholesterol. They’re. Almost all of our hormones made out of something called cholesterol. I’m pregnant alone, and, and so so these are all things that in the functional world we look at if a person is coming in here with scanty blood flow, excessive blood flow they’re coming in here with periods that are All over the place they’re coming in here with facial, hair and and acne, and we might be looking at and we’re gonna talk about polycystic ovarian syndrome in a separate in a separate video.

So it’s, not technically going to be part of this series, but we’re going to talk about that, and actually we have videos online already on polycystic ovarian syndrome. If you want to look those up, but you so we could be talking about polycystic ovarian syndrome there, which also has a lot to do with all of these imbalances and all these organs that I talked about.

But we’re, going to be looking. First, at all of those things, because, because all of them have our play a role in particularly in the menstruating female, all of those play a role in making your in making your estrogen balanced.

So if you are, if let’s, so let’s. Say you’re, not any! Let’s say you’re, not eating of cholesterol. Maybe you went on one of these, like low-fat diets. Low flat diets and and and maybe you’re, really got a lot of low fat and all sudden you start getting all these symptoms like what is going on here and you go and they take your estrogen and your estrogen is low.

They give you Harmon replacement therapy, let ‘ S say that your intestines has too much of this enzyme that I briefly mentioned called called beta glucuronidase beta glucuronidase will cause the estrogen that is supposed to have been detoxified and then going into the toilet.

Because remember your brain knows how much estrogen you need, but this if this beta glucuronidase is too high because of a number of things that could be going wrong with your intestines, irritable, bowel syndrome, SIBO any of the autoimmune diseases like celiac or cross, or anything like That you’re, going to reconstitute your estrogen before it goes into the toilet, and it’s, going to be reabsorbed, and you’re, going to be estrogenic.

You’re gonna have too much estrogen too much estrogen by the way, creates the same symptoms, frequently as too little estrogen, and the reason is because if you take a Carmo replacement therapy and and and you have again in the cycle of what The hormones supposed to do is supposed to be made and that’s supposed to be used by being used, and the hormone actually gets on this little protein.

It gets over here to the cell and then there’s, an enzyme that cleaves that off and then the cell goes opens up and it goes in. But if you, if you give yourself too much estrogen like from creams and stuff, then that estrogen will cause this to become resistant, this receptor site, you know, like I got enough – I’ve got enough, and eventually this receptor site just won’t open if it doesn ‘

T open and estrogen is not getting in. You’re going from you and and they take and they take it and they take a lab of your estrogen or going like. Well, you’re, a she’s like 900. You have like too much of it.

You’re and and and you’re, getting like low estrogen symptoms. This is why, and it’s and it’s fairly common. If somebody comes in – and I’ll put this in line with what we’re talking abo