Coffee and Estrogen Dominance
Understanding Acid-Base Balance, Hormones, and Disease
If women understand the relationship between their diet, the acid-base balance in their bodies, and estrogen dominance, they can improve their ability to avoid disease.
What is estrogen dominance?
Estrogen dominance is a condition where the estrogen in a woman’s body is not balanced by progesterone. That doesn’t sound like a big deal on the surface, but, according to Dr. John Lee, it is thought to be a contributing factor in many diseases including allergies, breast and cervical cancer, endometriosis, PMS, breast and uterine cysts, decreased sex drive, infertility, hair loss, osteoporosis, and many other conditions.
Coffee contributes to estrogen dominance. The way that it contributes may be by making the body more acid. Once our bodies are too acid, the production processes of all hormones are altered; and we all know how dependent women are on hormones for their health and happiness.
It seems that when a woman’s body is too acid, it produces too much estrogen and not enough progesterone. Dr. Michael Lam of the American Academy of Anti-aging Research reports that in a small study of 500 women, those who consumed four or five cups of coffee per day had 70% more estrogen that those who drank less than one cup per day.
There is no research that proves that coffee reduces progesterone production but there are anecdotal reports from women that suggest that this is true. Kerri-Lynn Lapointe, N.D., writes in Menopause Myths Debunked that coffee and stress force the body to convert progesterone to cortisol which suggests a link between coffee and progesterone deficiency. Whatever the cause of a progesterone deficiency is, drinking coffee will make estrogen dominance worse by increasing the estrogen levels.
Coffee is such a delicious institution in many countries. It’s tempting to deny the facts in favor of the wonderful smell of a fresh pot. But there is no doubt that coffee makes the body more acid than it was designed to be.
Besides the acid-base problem, an article in Better Nutrition reports that there are 17 known carcinogens in coffee. There are hundreds more chemicals in the delicious brew that are yet to be evaluated. Coffee is a good example of a natural product that has some very deadly ingredients totalling 10 mg in each cup, including benzene and formaldehyde among others.
Is coffee the only cause of estrogen dominance?
No. There are other causes:
- Xenoestrogen exposure--pesticides, herbicides, beauty products, solvents, adhesives, birth control pills, etc.
- Eating non-organic meat which is fed estrogen to plump it up
- Stress
- Obesity
Is coffee the only cause of acid-base imbalance?
No. Much of the American diet causes an acid-base imbalance:
- Carbonated drinks
- Excessive protein in the diet, insufficient vegetables
- Artificial sweeteners
So what does this all mean?
If a woman is concerned with cancer, endometriosis, a lack of sex drive, or any of the other conditions in the first paragraph, she should be concerned about estrogen dominance. She should:
- explore all the factors that produce estrogen dominance and eliminate as many as possible from her life.
- learn what makes her body more acid and substitute things that make it more alkaline.
It would be nice if there was a single cause of cancer, of endometriosis or of the many other ailments that plague women. Then science could come up with a pill that would block that process--maybe even reverse it. But there isn’t a single cause, except perhaps living an unnatural lifestyle. But they can’t make a pill for that. So it’s really up to us to be aware of the dozens of things we do each day that stress our body's biochemistry, and avoid as many as possible--replacing them with natural health and wellness.
Resources:
- Lee, John R., Estrogen Dominance.
- Lam, Michael, “Estrogen Dominance: the silent epidemic,” downloaded from www.DrLam.com, 24 Sep 07.
- “Chemicals and cream - goodnews - chemical composition of coffee - Brief Article,” Better Nutrition, Sept, 2003
- Lapointe, Kerri-lynn, Menopause Myths Debunked.
- Anonymous, A Delicate Balance.
