Magdalena on The Randy and Christa Show—Estrogen Dominance

Here is my interview on the Randy and Christa Show, a national TV show.  We talk about the big picture of using food to rebalance hormones, then we dive deeper into estrogen dominance to help you prevent breast cancer, and breast cancer reoccurrence when estrogen dominance is the culprit.

What You Will Learn from This Interview:

• Food is Biochemistry and Capable of Reversing Many Issues (Such a thyroid issues, going through perimenopause, menopause, dealing with terrible PMS, or having PCOS issues, high testosterone, and estrogen dominance)
• The Three Types of Breast Cancer
• Causes of Estrogen Dominance
• How to Support Progesterone and Which Foods to Eat
• Symptoms of Estrogen Dominance
• Foods to Prevent Estrogen Dominance
• Supplements for Estrogen Dominance

If you’re experiencing symptoms estrogen dominance, you can find out more by taking my Free Estrogen Quiz. The truth is estrogen dominance symptoms occur to 75% of women, but a whopping 90% of them don’t even realize they have it. I recommend taking this quiz to find out for yourself here.

(This interview was recorded in September 2018)

 

Magdalena and Christa Orecchio from The Randy and Christa Show

Christa O.:                    You’re watching the Randy and Christa Show, News That Makes You Healthier. I’m Christa Orecchio, and today we’re talking about a topic I know you’re going to be super interested in, using food to balance your hormones.

Christa O.:                    We’re going to talk about the big picture of that. And then we’re moving into estrogen dominance to help you prevent breast cancer and breast cancer reoccurrence when estrogen dominance is the culprit.

Christa O.:                    Here to talk about it is my good friend, nutrition and hormone expert, Magdalena Wszelaki, and she is the best-selling author of Cooking For Hormone Balance. This is a fantastic book, I’ve shared it with you all before. Magdalena, welcome to the show.

Magdalena W.:             Thank you. It’s such a great timing.

Christa O.:                    I love hanging out with you, and I love talking about using food as medicine. We bond on that all the time. You have helped so many women balance their hormones using food alone. That’s it.

Magdalena W.:             Yeah.

Christa O.:                    So tell me, how do you do that? Using the big picture of biochemistry.

Magdalena W.:             I know, it might sound a little bizarre that you would be balancing your hormones. You start getting a lot of times when you’re told that if you cannot do birth control pills, or do identical hormones, or it’s in your genes. It’s a very disempowering thought, right, that there’s nothing else that we could do for our hormones.

Magdalena W.:             And that is absolutely not true. Whether anybody is suffering from thyroid issues, going through perimenopause, menopause, dealing with terrible PMSs, or is having PCOS issues, high testosterone, estrogen dominance, which I’m so excited we’re going to talk about today.

Christa O.:                    Yeah.

Magdalena W.:             All of those conditions are completely reversible, and manageable with food. When you think about it, food is biochemistry. It’s no different from a medication or a supplement you’re putting in.

Magdalena W.:             The other thing I want to mention is that we look at hormones almost in isolation from everything else. I can tell you this now that hormones fail us, as women, or a man as well, when as an outcome of a lot of other things going wrong, digestion, liver health, sugar balance are the three main issues, that typically, way, way long before we have hormonal imbalances, these things start going out of control.

Christa O.:                    Exactly.

Magdalena W.:             We’re doing a lot of things, whether it’s living off alcohol and caffeine and eating a highly inflammatory diet. These body systems begin to fail, the outcome is hormonal imbalance.

Christa O.:                    And so this is what I love about using food as medicine to balance the hormones, versus what we were talking about in the green room is, it’s not always the best way to go using bio-identicals because you’re treating the issue downstream. You’re not getting to the root cause, and then you might have a bigger issue down the line.

Magdalena W.:             Absolutely.

Christa O.:                    Okay. So let’s talk about estrogen dominance. So we had dinner last night, and you said 85% of American breast cancer is due to estrogen dominance.

Magdalena W.:             Yep.

Christa O.:                    Before we get there, help our viewers understand the three types of breast cancer, the way that we get it, genetic, versus estrogen dominance, and then let’s start.

Three Types of Breast Cancer

Magdalena W.:             Yeah, so there is genetic breast cancer, and there’s lifestyle breast cancer. Most of the time, the genetic ones are in the minority. So things like, for example, when Angelina Jolie had her breast cancer, that’s a genetic breast cancer, which falls under such a definite minority.

Magdalena W.:             So let’s talk about the 85% of American women, where is that all coming from? When we say lifestyle, most of the time what’s happening is what we call estrogen receptor positive, breast cancer.

Christa O.:                    Yes.

Magdalena W.:             What it is, is that estrogen, and especially the dirty estrogen, is what I’m going to talk about in a second. It’s the dirty estrogens that are causing the proliferation of breast cancer cell’s growth.

Magdalena W.:             That’s why a lot of women who have breast cancer are given estrogen blockers, so those cells get blocked, so the estrogen doesn’t come through. It comes at a cost, like with a lot of medications. For example, your liver gets quite destroyed in that process.

Magdalena W.:             Well guess what, we can not only prevent it, but we can manage even women with breast cancer, even with tumors and fibrocystic breasts way earlier in the game than waiting for the diagnosis.

Christa O.:                    Okay, so let’s talk about how. Because I said to you last night at dinner, I said, “Do you have somebody close to you that you know with breast cancer?” And you did. When you asked me, I said, “Yes, my mom had breast cancer.” She’s a survivor.

Magdalena W.:             Yeah.

Christa O.:                    And I think any human that you ask, if they know someone close that’s had breast cancer, the answer is going to be yes. It’s this epidemic. But there’s so much power and control that we have.

Christa O.:                    So what causes, what are the, if you had to give maybe the five primary causes of estrogen dominance, and then what are the five things we can do right now, starting with our next meal, to start to lower estrogen dominance?

Causes of Estrogen Dominance

Magdalena W.:             Awesome. I think the first big one is you talk about stories. There are women who have a tendency to have hyper cystic breasts for example, for a very long time, 10, 20 years, who have lumps on their breasts. We go and see a doctor and we are told, that’s nothing to worry about. We get a diagnosis and it’s like, it’s benign, it’s all good.

Magdalena W.:             Well you know, I don’t know about you, but if I had a big growth here, I would do something about it. I would be worried about it. So it’s the same thing with breasts. We gotta be proactive.

Magdalena W.:             The good news is, there’s a lot of things we can do right off the bat. The first thing is elimination all sorts of … Let’s talk about external first, like plastics, for example, skin care products that are the main brands. It’s funny, we started here in the studio, and there was a plastic bottle of water standing right next to me, right?

Christa O.:                    Yeah.

Magdalena W.:             And I asked the guys to remove it, ’cause I brought my own, which is-

Christa O.:                    Right, you brought your own glass. So we’re proud of you.

Magdalena W.:             Especially in summer, we are here in San Diego. It’s really hot outside right now. The worst thing you can do is leave a plastic bottle in the car, in the water.

Christa O.:                    Yes.

Magdalena W.:             All of that gets leached in.

Christa O.:                    Yes.

Magdalena W.:             All these chemicals are known to be huge endocrine disruptors that are contributing to breast cancer growths. So get rid of all the plastics in your life, as much as possible, especially heating them. Clean up your skincare products. There are beautiful, amazing skincare brands that you are not using-

Christa O.:                    There are so many options for natural skincare brands out there. I mean I can think of five off the top of my head. There’s no need to work with the toxic things anymore.

Magdalena W.:             Exactly. And how do you know it’s toxic?

Christa O.:                    You can’t pronounce the ingredients, you’ve never heard of them before. Right.

Magdalena W.:             See them on television, leading magazines, you know that this is most likely the big budgets will mean big chemicals behind it. You know, the second thing is, believe it or not, stress can be a big one. Let me just explain the biochemistry behind this, ’cause we’ve heard so much about it, like, oh you gotta de-stress, and start meditation.

Magdalena W.:             But I think sometimes we gotta know what’s really behind the scenes that are going on in the body on a biochemical, at least I do, on a biochemical level, to really understand that. When we’re stressed out, there’s this condition called pregnenolone steal.

Magdalena W.:             Pregnenolone, think of it as a raw material, from which progesterone and cortisol are made. Cortisol is the stress response hormone. Progesterone is what makes us sleep really well, get pregnant. Progesterone, pro-gestation, right?

Christa O.:                    Right.

Magdalena W.:             So we can get pregnant, and remain pregnant. It makes us really calm and look beautiful. Have regular periods. Glowing skins-

Christa O.:                    Glowing skin. That’s where we get that skin glowing.

Magdalena W.:             Exactly. Be just really calm and loving and giving. It’s feminine, right. Well, guess what, when we are super stressed out, that raw material, pregnenolone gets channeled to cortisol to help us deal with stress, and guess what gets stolen away.

Christa O.:                    Progesterone.

Magdalena W.:             Progesterone, and then we become progesterone deficient. That’s one of the causes of estrogen dominance.

Christa O.:                    Yes.

Magdalena W.:             So long story short, get your sleep, get stress out of your life as much as possible, there is a huge difference.

Christa O.:                    Or change the way you react to it. Respond versus react.

Magdalena W.:             Absolutely.

Christa O.:                    Yeah, it’s such a big one.

Magdalena W.:             You know, and the third one, obviously food is a big issue. One of the big things you see with estrogen dominance is a couple of things that happen nutritionally. One is the health of our liver, how efficient is the liver? How clean the liver is can truly determine how well you detoxify estrogen from your body.

Magdalena W.:             So let me just unpack this a little bit. Estrogen gets produced, gets into the cells, does its job, gets back into the blood, gets filtered out through the liver, and we literally poop our hormones out.

Christa O.:                    Estrogen out. Yeah, the excess.

Magdalena W.:             Yeah. Estrogen, thyroid, all the hormones. So they get metabolized. They get broken down to the clean estrogens and the dirty estrogens. The dirty estrogens will get pooped out, literally. Something that we don’t think about.

Christa O.:                    So fiber is so important, yeah.

Magdalena W.:             So absolutely, taking care of your liver a big issue. Let’s talk about in a second,  what are the foods that we can do to support a liver. I’m a fan of a couple of those, they can be super easy quick fixes.

Magdalena W.:             The second thing is, just general inflammation in the body is going to cause that cortisol response that I was talking about. When you’re living off sugar, you’re living off caffeine, you’re constantly eating gluten, dairy. Things that you know can inflame you, things that we hear all about it, but these foods are not our best friends.

Magdalena W.:             That inflammatory response in the body also causes a cortisol response. And that’s, again, stealing progesterone away from us.

Christa O.:                    Or just general gut issues, right?

Magdalena W.:             Exactly.

Christa O.:                    Where if you have pathogens constantly proliferating, causing metabolic waste, you’re living in this state of inflammation.

Magdalena W.:             You talk about candida all the time, so let me also mention that candida and any gut biosis can interfere with something called the estrobolome. The estrobolome is a subset of bacteria in the gut, that guess what, produces enzymes that are coding for breaking down those estrogens to the dirty and the clean estrogens.

Christa O.:                    They lose those.

Magdalena W.:             So who would have thought that, right?

Christa O.:                    Right.

Magdalena W.:             Somebody having digestive issues is having breast cancer potentially, because of those estrogens not being broken down properly.

Christa O.:                    It makes perfect sense. This is why we have to learn to heal from the root cause.

Magdalena W.:             Right.

Christa O.:                    Yeah. There’s one other cause I want to talk about, because I recently, for the first time ever, tested my hormones after having a baby, and my estrogen was very high. Never had that before.

How to Support Progesterone

Christa O.:                    So just talk about that progesterone drop you get after having a baby. I consumed my placenta to step down the hormonal drop, and that still happened. Stress, of course, was something I was working with. But I think it’s really important that women get their hormones tested three months after having a baby.

Magdalena W.:             Absolutely. So very vulnerable time, right?

Christa O.:                    Yes.

Magdalena W.:             And it’s a big stressor for what your body has gone through. So post-natal, it’s a very common issue of the progesterone not coming back up again.

Magdalena W.:             So let’s talk a little bit about maybe nutrients that support body’s natural way of producing progesterone. I’m a very big fan of Zinc, Vitamin E, Vitamin B6, L-Arginine are some of the four. Let’s just talk about that. So where are they found in food? Well, zinc, they’ll be oysters is the highest.

Christa O.:                    Yep, all your shellfish, right.

Magdalena W.:             Yep, all the shellfish. You can’t beat that.

Christa O.:                    Okay.

Magdalena W.:             When you talk about vitamin E, I’m a big fan of sunflower seeds.

Christa O.:                    Yep. Avocados.

Magdalena W.:             So that’s part of … Avocados will be also high in that. I love vitamin B6. So whether somebody is doing it in supplemental forms, or in nutrition, in all the grains that you can find vitamin B6 in salmon and avocado as well.

Magdalena W.:             And L-Arginine is an interesting one because it helps with the blood flow to get into the places which produce progesterone, so the ovaries and the corpus luteum, which produce progesterone, so you’re nourishing those parts with L-Arginine and that will be your chickpeas, lentils, wild-caught salmon, all very rich in L-Arginine. Who would have thought, right?

Christa O.:                    Yes.

Christa O.:                    It’s magic medicine, and it’s right in our refrigerator and our pantry.

Magdalena W.:             And you’re enabling your body to produce its own. That is the whole point. I get asked a lot of times, so what about do I need hormones to rebalance my … For some women it is absolutely true, that we need. But I think set the foundation first for it.

Christa O.:                    Yeah.

Magdalena W.:             When you give your body the nutrients that it … Giving the raw materials, it’s like this factory that just starts operating and making things on their own. You might not even need to go the hormone route.

Christa O.:                    You may not. I just had this funny flash of … I don’t know if you watched the second Sex and the City movie. Did you watch that? Where Samantha, she’s eating hummus, chickpeas, by the vat, and she says, “I’m going to align my progesterone by the time … She’s 50.

Christa O.:                    She goes, “By the time we get back from this trip I’m going to be 35.” I love it. It’s true, right. We can use food to help us look, and feel younger. That’s a byproduct of hormonal balance as well.

Magdalena W.:             Absolutely.

Christa O.:                    Yeah, okay. Great. So what else, in terms of estrogen dominance and really lowering your chances? I would love to hear some success stories, of people who came to you, they had breast cancer, they want to prevent reoccurrence.

Magdalena W.:             Yeah.

Christa O.:                    How did that work? What did you do for them, exactly?

Magdalena W.:             So let me start off first by saying, I do get quite a lot of calls, and emails from women who we had, we met five, seven years before at an event, or I did a talk somewhere. There was always that … And I get an email five, seven years later saying, “Remember how we had this talk. I wanted to work with you, but I didn’t because of.” You fill in the gap, right. Either it was because of money, or because I didn’t want to change my diet, or because I was too scared, or because I had no time for myself. Those are the common reasons. “Unfortunately, I’ve just been diagnosed with breast cancer, what do I do?”

Christa O.:                    Or thyroid cancer even, right?

Magdalena W.:             Right, I had my thyroid removed. I’ve been diagnosed with auto-immunity. Or I had, another classic one would be, “I had Hashimoto’s seven years ago. I’m in my 50s. I’ve just been diagnosed with Lupus.”

Christa O.:                    Yeah, the body is screaming, it tells us through symptoms, and you’re right. We have to create the time, the energy, the effort, whatever it is, to heal ourselves now.

Magdalena W.:             So don’t wait.

Christa O.:                    Don’t wait.

Magdalena W.:             My message is very simple. It’s what I talk about in the book, enabling women to start acting now. Don’t wait. Do it right now. You know, just because you have a breast lump, and your doctor’s saying, “It’s got nothing.” He’s like, “Don’t worry about it. Just observe. Come back in six month’s time.”

Christa O.:                    You shouldn’t have breast lumps.

Magdalena W.:             Do not wait for it. A breast lump shows you there’s abnormality going on in the tissue. Just by bringing in magnesium, foods that are high in magnesium are cashews and cacao for example, being some of them. Detoxifying, reducing your stress, sleeping more, not relying on caffeine. Women’s breast lumps disappear in a month after-

Christa O.:                    Without caffeine.

Magdalena W.:             Without caffeine, or even just introducing magnesium to the equation. Absolutely, one of the biggest success stories we have is with women … It’s really, Christa, across the board, I mean we look at hormones, and yes we have stories of, “I cannot believe it, that I’ve given up gluten and dairy, and I’m not drinking seven cups of coffee anymore, but maybe I’m down to two, and my breast lumps have disappeared.”

Magdalena W.:             I mean we have success stories with fibroids disappearing, endometriosis getting much, much better. A lot of autoimmune conditions going away, antibodies for Hashimoto’s dropping tremendously.

Magdalena W.:             But I think more importantly, just along with all of this, there’s never one thing that disappears. When your breast lumps disappear, most likely you sleep better, and you’ve got more energy, and you look more fabulous, and your hair is getting healthy again, and you feel good in your body, and you got that sexy on again. You don’t need to go to a sexy workshop. It just is, ’cause it resonates.

Christa O.:                    Yeah. You’re vital.

Magdalena W.:             And that’s the kind-

Christa O.:                    You’re vibrant, and you’re able to fully live.

Magdalena W.:             Totally. So I think as always, think of hormones as the outcome of what is going on in the body. That’s what the hormones really manifest in so many ways. If we take care of our digestion, blood sugar balance, and liver, that’s really what the premise of my book is. Like a three-legged stool, if you want to sit comfortably on a three-legged stool, all the legs need to be firmly in place, right?

Christa O.:                    Yeah. Your book is phenomenal, the way that it really explains everything, it drives you to be motivated and inspired, to eat this way. Magdalena talks about seed cycling, and mapping your cycle accordingly to improve PMS, to balance your hormones.

Christa O.:                    There’s so much power and control you have with literally just reading a book. It doesn’t have to be this long, big expensive thing where you’re seeing a doctor and buying all these supplements.

Christa O.:                    So let’s talk about a couple of other foods that we can use, ’cause now I’m thinking about, we talked about broccoli sprouts and pomegranates, you really use these foods as medicine. And then I want you to end on a couple of supplements, and talk about if you can’t get enough cruciferous, to get rid of the estrogen, or help your body detox it better, talk about DIM.

Magdalena W.:             Yeah, let’s do that. Would you be okay if I mention a few symptoms that are related to estrogen dominance, how it manifests? ‘Cause we talked about breasts.

Symptoms of Estrogen Dominance

Christa O.:                    Of course, yeah, we need to know.

Magdalena W.:             Yeah, so we already talked about the breasts, or the breast tissues, right. But it goes further from that. It goes from anything, for any benign, like the terrible PMSs that you just want to rip somebody’s head off. And you have those headaches and terrible moods, or your irregular periods, or spotting, cycle spotting. Or periods that go on for 22 days. Also things like thyroid nodules. Where we store our fat around our body like thighs and hips, very estrogen related.

Christa O.:                    Dominant. So you were saying if you have cellulite, a lot of cellulite in that area, thighs, and hips, that’s a sign of estrogen dominance?

Magdalena W.:             It can be, definitely.

Christa O.:                    Where you’re not detoxing it properly.

Magdalena W.:             More so than any other hormonal imbalance for sure.

Christa O.:                    Right.

Magdalena W.:             You know, fibroids, endometriosis, they’re all estrogen dominance. It breaks my heart to see women having such invasive procedures done when all of that can be reversed absolutely completely with food.

Christa O.:                    Yeah. The power, which is why we’re here, talking about this today, to spread the word of how much power and control you have.

Foods to Prevent Estrogen Dominance

Magdalena W.:             So you asked about foods. Broccoli sprouts my absolute favorite. They contain a substance called sulforaphane, which is a natural estrogen blocker. Who would have thought? Just a cup of broccoli sprouts contains a sufficient amount of sulforaphane to block and actually reduce … There are clinical studies showing a reduction of breast cancers.

Christa O.:                    How much broccoli sprouts should we have a day?

Magdalena W.:             A cup.

Christa O.:                    One cup a day?

Magdalena W.:             And it has to be raw, so not cooked. So that’s one amazing … Pomegranate is my, one other absolute favorites. Pomegranates contain something called SERM, selective estrogen receptor modulator. Who would have thought that just having those pomegranates with the seeds, and the juice? You don’t want to just be juicing, ’cause that’s a lot of sugar and no fiber.

Magdalena W.:             But we want to have the whole seed, putting it into salads, or just smoothies can help us with regulating how estrogen enters the cell. I mean you’re talking about some serious biochemistry here, with the food, that no wonder, traditionally it’s been used in Judaism, in India, in Iran, for generations, for women to either get pregnant, or mitigate their hot flashes.

Christa O.:                    Yeah, it’s just so beautiful. So how often would you consume pomegranates let’s say? I think your smoothie sounds like, if you’re using them as medicine, ’cause how many can you eat in a salad?

Magdalena W.:             Yeah.

Christa O.:                    So what would you do in a quarter of a cup in a smoothie?

Magdalena W.:             As a prevention, I would do a quarter of a cup. If you’re talking about using it more medicinally, already somebody who is struggling, I would do half a cup a day, of pomegranate seeds, yeah.

Christa O.:                    Okay.

Supplements for Estrogen Dominance

Magdalena W.:             And supplements is a good way to bring it in when we clean up our diet. We’ve got, we’re on an anti-inflammatory diet, we got rid of all the nasty foods that are inflaming us, right?

Christa O.:                    Yes.

Magdalena W.:             Bring on the supplements to amplify healing. I love supplements for that. I think the name implies that it’s a supplement, you supplement something core, and the core is food.

Christa O.:                    Yes.

Magdalena W.:             A couple of really great ones will be DIM, diindolylmethane. That is also found in cruciferous vegetables.

Christa O.:                    Which is a highly concentrated compound

Magdalena W.:             Exactly, just like a compounded … And some women just can’t do cruciferous vegetables, maybe because you don’t like it, or you don’t have access to them. Cruciferous vegetables will be things like kale, or the cabbage, this is a cabbage family, all the cabbages. My favorite, arugula, broccoli, broccoli sprouts of course.

Christa O.:                    Right.

Magdalena W.:             So those are the cruciferous vegetables. Real amazing superfoods. You don’t have to eat them raw, they can be also slightly cooked or steamed is a wonderful addition.

Christa O.:                    Yes.

Magdalena W.:             I personally try to aim for three, to four cups a day, to add that to my diet.

Christa O.:                    Good for you.

Magdalena W.:             So DIM is an amazing one. I would just go back to the basics, bring on the magnesium. I see incredible changes in women’s … You know, Christa, women’s breast lumps disappearing, PMS is completely regulating, women being able to sleep again, just adding on large amounts of magnesium. As you know, I’m a fanatic about food.

Christa O.:                    Yes.

Magdalena W.:             But sometimes, if somebody’s truly depleted in magnesium, it’s very hard to replenish that. How many cashews can you eat? How much cacao can you eat?

Christa O.:                    Yeah. And stress is a real thing, so if you know you’re hitting a more stressful period, then great, we have these supplements.

Magdalena W.:             Bring it on.

Christa O.:                    Absolutely.

Magdalena W.:             To replenish your levels, and then switch to food as a form of maintenance. Being on the road with the book, I’ll be honest, was three months of a lot of very hard work and being in troubles, and being constantly on, being on so many podcasts and shows.

Magdalena W.:             I felt depleted, and magnesium was my go-to source. It helped me sleep much better. Kept me calm. I managed to get away without having any breast lumps, which I typically do for when I get really exhausted and stressed out. An amazing mineral.

Christa O.:                    So good for you, to go through such an intense period with more grace, and taking care of yourself, which is a wonderful message for all of you. You know life is going to happen. We’re going to get stressed. We’re going to have issues, but we can use food as our anchor.

Christa O.:                    I love that, to create this balance, and to maintain this balance. We can’t give away our power anymore, to any, whether it’s our doctor, or whoever, we have to learn this for ourselves, ’cause we have to eat three times, or four or five times every single day.

Christa O.:                    So, I think this is beautiful. I highly recommend you get Cooking For Hormone Balance. I’ve been using this cookbook for the last three or four months since it first came out, we love it. The recipes are delicious. It affects such positive change in such a simple way. So thank you for doing what you do, and any final words of wisdom for our viewers?

Magdalena W.:             Start early, don’t wait.

Christa O.:                    Yeah.

Magdalena W.:             Just be preventative. Get into the mode of surrounding yourself with incredible recipes that are tasty, easy. Just because you will be cutting out dairy maybe for a while, or because you’re cutting out gluten and sugar, and this might be feeling like the end of the world for some women. Think of it as, what’s ahead of you is this incredible, healthy, vibrant life. Surround yourself with recipes that provide all of that.

Christa O.:                    And you provide great, alternatives in your cookbook. Dairy is a real addiction, and I get it. So coconut butter can give you that same flavor, and taste, and sense of emotional comfort, which I think is why we go for dairy.

Magdalena W.:             Yeah.

Christa O.:                    So thank you so much for being here.

Magdalena W.:             Thank you Christa.

Christa O.:                    There you have it. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Don’t wait. Start early. Share this information with everyone you know, all the women, and let’s prevent breast cancer collectively. Thank you so much for being here, and we’ll catch you next time on the Randy and Christa Show.

 

---

Magdalena and Randy Alvarez from The Randy and Christa Show

Randy Alvarez:              You’re watching the Randy and Christa Show. I’m Randy Alvarez. Today’s topic is hormonal balance. We’re talking about balancing the hormones naturally with food. With us, we have an expert on the topic, we have Magdalena Wszelaki, welcome to the program.

Magdalena W.:             Thank you.

Randy Alvarez:              Now, for people that don’t know your book, tell us about it.

Magdalena W.:             It’s Cooking for Hormone Balance.

Randy Alvarez:              Who should read it? I should say.

Magdalena W.:             Yeah, every woman.

Randy Alvarez:              Okay.

Magdalena W.:             Randy, have you met many women in your life, who did not have a hormonal issue?

Randy Alvarez:              Well I hear about it. Now that I’m in my 50s, what happens is, women that I know in their 40s, 50s, they say, “Well Randy, you have these doctors on the show, what do they say?” And there’s a trend where people are balancing their hormones naturally. That’s why when Christa told me about you, we had to have you on the program.

Magdalena W.:             Yeah, thank you.

Randy Alvarez:              So the book, what will they learn from the book?

Magdalena W.:             You know, everything from setting the context first. I treat my readers as highly intelligent, highly inquisitive women who want to know, “Why do you want me to eat these foods?” So before we come to the recipes, there is a whole section, about a third of the book sets the context of the connection between food and hormones. The real signs behind it.

Randy Alvarez:              Okay.

Magdalena W.:             My publisher watches the clear for research. So everything is backed up with solid claims. The claim is backed up. It really … I go into the detail of how our digestion, sugar balance, and liver are all impacting how our hormones are expressing. When we fix those three things, everything falls into place.

Magdalena W.:             The other thing I talk about at the beginning of the book is the, my favorite foods, the 20 superfoods, and 20 power herbs and spices that will change your life. That’s what the foundation of the recipes is all built on these 40 foods being incorporated as much as I could to those recipes.

Randy Alvarez:              You spoke to Christa about estrogen dominance.

Magdalena W.:             Yes.

Randy Alvarez:              This seems to happen, I guess in the 40s, 50s. What are the symptoms?

Magdalena W.:             Even earlier.

Randy Alvarez:              How does a woman know that she is estrogen dominant?

Magdalena W.:             Yeah, so you know, this is all happening now, even to girls who are just beginning to menstruate, having terrible periods, as in horrible PMS, headaches, migraines, bad moods, having water retention going on. Just feeling really, absolutely fatigued. All of that can be due to estrogen dominance.

Magdalena W.:             Also, younger women who can’t get pregnant, infertility, in infertility is one of the leading causes, is estrogen dominance. If you’re talking to women who are in their 30s and 40s, who are beginning to experience things like lumpy boobs.

Randy Alvarez:              Okay.

Magdalena W.:             When you see a doctor and you’re told everything is fine, it’s benign, come back in six month’s time. Why wait? There is an abnormality on your breast. Do something about it. So estrogen can be the cause of growth.

Magdalena W.:             Younger women who are suffering from fibroids, endometriosis, you end up with very invasive procedures in order to address those conditions. There can also be too, most of the time it happens due to estrogen dominance.

Magdalena W.:             More on the serious side of things, you talk about cancer. Estrogen and cancer, such as thyroid cancer, breast cancer, which is-

Randy Alvarez:              Does it seem to feed, or ignite cancer’s growth?

Magdalena W.:             Yes. The dirty estrogen, so those ovarian and uterine cancers, most of them are estrogenic cancers. I don’t want to demonize here, Randy, estrogen. Because that’s not the purpose. You know, even you guys need a little bit of estrogen to function properly. As women, I am a woman because I have estrogen.

Magdalena W.:             The point is, that how the body breaks down those estrogens, and I call it a dirty estrogen and clean estrogens, which guess what, the gut and the liver are largely responsible for breaking down those estrogens is what matters.

Magdalena W.:             It’s the dirty estrogens that are causing all the symptoms we talked about, for example, breast cancer, the growth of the cancer cells happens, it’s fueled by the dirty estrogens. All of that can be measured. There are lab tests that can be done to confirm all of that. And guess what, we can completely manage that with diet.

Randy Alvarez:              So with food, you can lower that estrogen dominance?

Magdalena W.:             You can, by doing it in two ways, one is how the estrogen is broken down in the gut and the liver. We can control that with nutrition.

Randy Alvarez:              Okay.

Magdalena W.:             And then we can also use certain foods, for example, pomegranates, that actually, or cruciferous vegetables, that contain substances such as diindolylmethane, or sulforaphane, that actually block the receptors, the estrogen receptors on the malignant tissue, malignant cell, and the estrogen doesn’t come through to do the pro filiation and the damage.

Randy Alvarez:              Now you mentioned, with Christa, and I wrote this down.

Magdalena W.:             Yeah.

Randy Alvarez:              You are seeing lumps in the breast go away, just from food? You’re seeing fibroids go away?

Magdalena W.:             Absolutely.

Randy Alvarez:              Really?

Magdalena W.:             Absolutely.

Randy Alvarez:              Just from eating differently?

Magdalena W.:             Yeah. Randy, I can’t tell you how many success stories we’ve had. Women disappear, do their thing for three months, and then they come back in our online community saying, “Oh my God. I cannot believe this. I just came from having a scan with my doctor, and she says, ‘What have you been doing? Because your fibroids are gone.'”

Randy Alvarez:              Really?

Magdalena W.:             Absolutely. I cannot tell you how many followers and our patients have told the doctors that, and given my website address to them, just to be contacted, and saying, “Figure out, what is it that she’s been doing?” Just learn more about it. I hardly ever get contacted by anyone.

Randy Alvarez:              Now, you know, I told you, I met the guy that coined, I interviewed him 22 years ago. The guy that coined estrogen dominance. Back then, this Dr. Lee and I’m slightly summarizing, but basically, at dinner, he’s you got estrogen raises, you give an opposing progesterone, and that’s the cure to everything. He was very light on nutrition and heavy on just giving hormones to oppose that estrogen and balance it that way.

Magdalena W.:             Yeah.

Randy Alvarez:              So why is that possibly a mistake?

Magdalena W.:             Yeah, so estrogen dominance happens in two situations. One is when you break those estrogens down to those dirty and clean that I talked about.

Randy Alvarez:              Okay.

Magdalena W.:             And the other situation is when you have too much of estrogen, especially the aggressive estrogen, as compared to progesterone. So Dr. Lee’s method works when you bring in progesterone in the second situation when you’re truly low on progesterone is to oppose that estrogen.

Randy Alvarez:              Okay.

Magdalena W.:             But in the first situation, when you’re breaking down, even if you have sufficient progesterone, but you’re breaking down those estrogens in a way you’ve got too many of the dirty ones, progesterone alone is not going to do the job.

Magdalena W.:             This is the reason why a lot of women who are doing progesterone, whether it’s topical, whether it’s dropped, will say, “It worked, for the first three, six months, and I slept so well, and my breast felt really so much better. My PMS is gone. My fibroids have shrunk. But then guess what, it’s not working anymore.” This is when you know, progesterone alone, or any kind of, it’s bioidentical hormone alone is not enough.

Randy Alvarez:              So we’re short on time. So the recipes in the book, you talk about supplements, you talk about ways to lower cortisol with supplements, things like that.

Magdalena W.:             Yeah.

Randy Alvarez:              It’s all there for you.

Magdalena W.:             Yeah.

Randy Alvarez:              So it’s more than just … I read it like it was a cookbook. But it’s not. It’s a book about hormone balance.

Magdalena W.:             Yeah.

Randy Alvarez:              Is that right? But also, you show cooking tips.

Magdalena W.:             Yeah, well two-thirds of the book is recipes because I really want women to go to the kitchen and actually implement the changes.

Magdalena W.:             But yes, like I said, the beginning part really says the context. My readers are smart women. They want to know why. So it’s not just the how and the what I’m eating, but why am I eating it? And I think that’s really important. What’s the big deal about flaxseed?

Randy Alvarez:              Okay.

Magdalena W.:             You know, ground flaxseed, incredible. I mean not only does it contain natural occurring estrogen, so phytoestrogens that help you to slightly boost estrogen levels, especially for women who are going through the perimenopause, menopause when estrogen starts dropping, but you also talked about. Flaxseed helps to boost those a little bit.

Magdalena W.:             But guess what, because of the fiber and the lignins in flaxseed, it also helps you to break those estrogens that are towards the clean sides, and the fiber helps you to evacuate things, which is great for a bowel movement. We have to have a bowel movement in order to evacuate those hormones.

Magdalena W.:             So just like, this is amazing things in just one little tiny seed. That’s why I’m so fascinated by food, and the biochemistry behind that, and creating these amazing recipes just to bring it on and make it happen.

Randy Alvarez:              And what about those people that are taking synthetic progestin, or estrogens, or they’re taking birth control because it makes them feel better?

Magdalena W.:             Yeah.

Randy Alvarez:              Do you have any of those people, where they’re able to get off, those women who are able to get off those and just heal it with nutrition and supplements?

Magdalena W.:             Absolutely.

Randy Alvarez:              Really?

Magdalena W.:             If you’re taking any form of synthetic hormones, you’ve gotta get off those pronto, or work … Birth control pills sometimes is hard, so work with somebody to help you get off those.

Magdalena W.:             But absolutely, that is, if somebody really wants to do hormones, bioidentical form would be recommended, but I always say, it’s like a pyramid, at the foundation of your pyramid is your food, followed by supplements to amplify that healing with the food, and only then it’s hormones to make you feel fantastic, but it’s only when you get your food dialed in.

Randy Alvarez:              Okay, good. I want to thank you for coming on the program. Very interesting. Now, the book, where can we get it?

Magdalena W.:             Barnes & Nobles, Amazon online, all the traditional culprits.

Randy Alvarez:              Okay, good. I want to thank you again for coming on the program.

Magdalena W.:             Thank you.

Randy Alvarez:              You’ve been watching the Randy and Christa Show. I’m Randy Alvarez. We’ll be right back.

Randy Alvarez:              So great interview. Very interesting topic. You read the book.

Christa O.:                    I read the book, cooked from the book. Yeah, Magdalena is a wealth of knowledge. She is helping so many women. I hope every woman watching this show reads the book and starts making a positive change.

Randy Alvarez:              So you are following some of the recipes in the book, and you are telling your tribe about the book?

Christa O.:                    Yes, Magdalena is been introduced to my tribe several months ago with glowing results. So I think they’ll be really interested to be able to go deeper into the whole estrogen issue, because we shouldn’t live, as women, we shouldn’t live with impending fear. ‘Cause we know so many people that have been affected by breast cancer. Of, is it going to happen to me? It’s like, well, look at all this power and control you have to do everything to make sure that it doesn’t.

Randy Alvarez:              Now you just had a baby. So because of that, I guess you’re going through hormonal changes.

Christa O.:                    Yeah.

Randy Alvarez:              So this is supposed to help with that as well. I mean food is your medicine, as you always say.

Christa O.:                    Food is your medicine, yeah. So I’m taking DIM to detox estrogen, and I’m lowering my pro-estrogenic foods, to Magdalena’s point, and increasing my progesterone driving foods, and I’m sure I’ll test my hormones again next month, it’ll be three months.

Randy Alvarez:              Okay.

Christa O.:                    I’m sure there’ll be a positive change.

Randy Alvarez:              Now you went to dinner with Magdalena, you read her book. I mean you know a lot of stuff. People that follow your program, know that you know a lot about nutrition, about prevention, about longevity, things like that. What’s your takeaway? After reading the book, and meeting her face-to-face?

Christa O.:                    It’s the same thing. We are food is medicine sisters. How she talks about biochemistry. Food is powerful. Don’t underestimate its power. With every bite, it is affecting your biochemistry and your hormones. Every time you pick up your fork, you have a chance to feed your vitality. You have a chance to feed disease, and it’s your choice every single time.

Randy Alvarez:              And as the clinical nutritionist that you are, the same challenge Magdalena’s having. Getting people to switch off of no gluten, dairy, soy, etc. are you finding that more and more women now, because it’s become mainstream, are making that switch?

Christa O.:                    Yeah, I think the idea is-

Randy Alvarez:              It’s more acceptable, easier to.

Christa O.:                    It’s more acceptable. It’s easier. It’s what you have to do is teach them how to upgrade. It’s like, “Great. You may not be eating these two foods. But look at all these amazing replacements that taste fantastic.” Right.

Randy Alvarez:              Okay.

Christa O.:                    But no negative interaction in the body. So it’s much less of a sacrifice. The only trouble that happens, and even with myself is with travel it gets harder. We can all control what happens in our own home, and in our own kitchen, and choose our local restaurants. But the travel factor is where you have to become prepared. Otherwise, you may have some troubles.

Randy Alvarez:              ‘Cause you to pay attention to all of those things. Like the oil, I tried to have dinner with you or lunch with you here in San Diego, and you don’t go to places just because of the oil that they cook their food in.

Christa O.:                    Well yes, a lot of places use soy oil or canola oil, and a vast majority, they’ve got to keep that restaurant budget down.

Randy Alvarez:              Okay, good.

Christa O.:                    So it’s not that I won’t ever, ’cause you don’t want to make it too awkward to be eating out. But you really should know. We should know, we’re putting it in our body. We should know what’s in it.

Randy Alvarez:              So do you call the restaurant ahead of time? Or do you ask them-

Christa O.:                    I ask them usually when I’m there, “What oil do you use to cook your food?”

Randy Alvarez:              Do they say, “Oh, Christa’s here. Change the oil.”?

Christa O.:                    Change the oil. You can say, hey, I have an issue with canola or an allergy with soy. Can you cook my food in butter, or olive oil, or steam it, or change.

Randy Alvarez:              Okay, good.

Christa O.:                    Change the modality.

Randy Alvarez:              Okay Christa. Well, it was another great interview you did.

Christa O.:                    Yeah, hopefully, it’s very helpful to a lot of women.

Randy Alvarez:              Final message.

Christa O.:                    Final message, I’m just going to echo Magdalena’s words, final message, don’t wait, make your decision with your very next meal to balance your own hormones.

Randy Alvarez:              Alright, thanks. You’ve been watching the Randy and Christa Show. I’m Randy Alvarez for now. We wish you good health. This is News That Makes You Healthier.

Want to get my cookbook for yourself? In Cooking For Hormone Balance, you’ll find over 125 easy, delicious recipes to nourish your body and balance your hormones without calorie restriction or deprivation.

All of the recipes are based on 20 hormone-supporting superfoods and 20 hormone-supporting super herbs—with modifications for Paleo, Paleo for Autoimmunity (AIP), anti-Candida, and low-FODMAP diets.

You can get a copy of the cookbook here.