Nourish Your Hardworking Hormone Producers

Hello again, dear reader, and happy spring equinox! As I drove this last weekend I couldn’t help but once again be in awe of what a beautiful area we have chosen to call home. The rolling green hills are now covered with the promise of new flowers and the trees are beginning to bud with this year’s new life. However, today my wife began to sneeze and I overheard someone saying that dreaded allergies were just starting.

I immediately told my wife to come down to S&S and get a box ofHerbs, Etc., Aller-Releaf (of course, I will probably have to be the one to buy it!). Aller-Releaf is our newest generation of allergy-relief herbal medicine.Formulated by Daniel Gagnon, master herbalist for Herbs, Etc., it contains all of the usual antihistamine, antiinflammatory herbs, but it also contains nutritional support to build an immunity to springtime allergies. I think it is the most complete product we have for allergies to pollens. Try it and tell me your success story.

Thinking about our beautiful green environs reminds me of the stark barren desert I visited last year, when I attended the Natural Products Association show in Las Vegas and heard Dr. Lorna Vanderhaege, MD, give a seminar about the female hormone triangle: the ovaries, the thyroid gland, and the adrenal glands. What an amazing seminar and how much information it supplied about how the adrenals, thyroid, and ovaries depend on each other for support. For me it is helpful because I see so many women whose adrenal glands (the stress glands) are so overworked from trauma, fear, worry, and anxiety from everyday life that it is throwing off their ovary hormone cycle and also giving many women symptoms of subclinical hypothyroidism.

And if a woman reaches menopause and has overstressed her adrenal glands, she has even more problems because as the ovaries decline in estrogen production the adrenal glands become the primary estrogen-producing gland. When the adrenals are exhausted (by the way, our medical establishment does not recognize adrenal exhaustion), this results not only in low estrogen levels but also puts a strain on all other hormone production, including that of the thyroid gland.

So what I recommend is (a) yoga and relaxation techniques—calm down those overstressed adrenals, and (b) support the adrenals and thyroid. Two good supplements for that are Thyro-Sense and Adrena-Sense by Natural Factors. Dr. Vanderhaege designed them herself for women who are overworked and overstressed. We sell Thyro-Sense at S&S, and it is great support for your thyroid gland whether you are on medication or not. For the adrenal glands I have been pointing to Mega Foods’ Adrenal Strength supplement and Gaia Herbs’ Rhodiola Rosea. (This has been necessary for now because Dr. Vanderhaege’s formula Adrena-Sense is not yet available in the United States.)

Because the adrenal glands are such workhorses of our bodies they use an enormous amount of nutrition to process and manufacture so many of our hormones, nutrients such ascalcium, magnesium, vitamin E, vitamin C, and all of the B-complex vitamins, especially pantothenic acid. The adrenals also use many of the more rare bioflavonoids and carotenes found only in eating a wide variety of fruits and vegetables. To lend this extra nutritional support I always use Country Life’s Co-enzymated B-complex, and I love Country Life’s new completely organic line of supplements.Once again Country Life becomes the leader in creating supplements that are pertinent to our needs today. These high-stress, toxic, and traumatic lives we lead require more nutrition, not less, contrary to what many of our so-called health authorities would have us believe.

So as we fluidly pass through this season I pray you take a deep (uncongested) breath (no allergies) and relax amid our beautiful environment (adrenals relaxed) and give gracious thanks every step of the way.

Blessings and light always,

Donald Payne

S&S Produce & Natural Foods