198 Achieving pH Balance to Treat Specific Ailments
effort to ensure adequate nourishment of the fetus, raises blood sugar
too high, estrogen triggers the production of additional insulin to take
the excess glucose out of circulation. (The excess glucose is converted
to fatty acid and stored in the adipose tissues.) Or if progesterone causes
the metabolism of too much fatty acid, estrogen reduces it—thus less-
ening the risk of heart disease. On the other hand, when estrogen spurs
an overgrowth of tissue and blood in the uterus, progesterone slows
estrogen down.
Estrogen and progesterone are considered balanced in menstruating
women if they adhere to the following rhythmic cycling: On the fi rst
three days of the menstrual month, both estrogen and progesterone
levels are low. Then estrogen starts climbing until it reaches its highest
point on day 12, in the middle of the menstrual month. This peak
causes the discharge of an egg from the ovary (ovulation) and also trig-
gers the fl ow of progesterone. Estrogen drops slightly while progester-
one gradually rises until its peak is reached on day 21. Then it starts to
fall. The drop in progesterone signals the body to start menstruating.
Thus these two hormones work in tandem, seesawing back and forth.
When one reaches its peak, it spurs the fl ow of the other, which is at its
lowest ebb. In short, while estrogen and progesterone occasionally fl ow
at the same rate, normally they fl uctuate in opposite directions.
Overall health and the prevention of breast, uterine, endometrial,
and ovarian cancer in menstruating women depends on maintaining
the monthly rhythmic cycle of estrogen and progesterone. Yet it is out
of balance in most women.The blame falls on many shoulders, includ-
ing pesticides and other synthetic chemicals that have the same molec-
ular structure as estrogen so that once inside the body they mimic
estrogen’s functions, in effect, increasing the body’s overload of
estrogen.
Other factors that increase estrogen levels, thus upsetting the
monthly estrogen-progesterone cycle, are toxic wastes that thicken the
blood so that there is not enough space for vital nutrients to be trans-
ported to the reproductive system; poor diet; late-life pregnancies; the
rejection of breast feeding in favor of formula; and mental stress, which,
by raising blood levels of cortisol, causes estrogen levels to rise.
With estrogen sky high, progesterone, even in some young women,
is nonexistent. Without progesterone, ovulation does not occur, and