This gene can be quite the problem with both your adrenals and your most well-known female hormone, Oestrogen.
Before I jump in, what is a gene?
A gene tells the body to make an enzyme which then directs a chemical reaction. If that’s a bit too much to think about, then in a more simplistic way, visualise one of those domino cascades that you see. You start the push over with your finger (that’s the gene) then the dominos (the enzymes) and at the end the last domino it sends a ball rolling and that is like the chemical reaction.
I’m going to jump straight into the nitty gritty of this particular gene, because I hear it often expressing itself in the symptoms of my clients.
If you have had horrible experiences with your periods, heavy periods, I mean, change your pad or tampon every 30 mins or wake to find you have slept in a blood bath and have to put your sheets on soak in the middle of the night. Or when you go to the toilet, there are big clots left on your pad or fall into the bowl. That kind of heavy.
And your belly feels as if it’s dragging on the ground and the pain is unbearable. You just wanna lie on the couch with a hottie and cancel your day. You may have even been told you have fibroids or endometriosis.
Also you have lumpy sore breasts, fluid retention and weight gain before your period and you’re also feel low and moody.
This can be a sign of Oestrogen dominance. If you have read my blogs on Progesterone you will have learned that Progesterone and Oestrogen cohabitate in a balance, and if progesterone is low, particularly due to stress, then Oestrogen will naturally be high.
This scenario has a similar outcome, but the cause is different. It is a Gene with an acronym named COMT.
This stands for Catechol-O-Methyltransferase.
This big name breaks down the two different ways that this gene works.
One way works on Oestrogen and the other way is with your sense of achievement and Adrenals. I’ve covered Adrenals in another blog.
Before I continue, I just need to take you back one step.
Each one of our inherited genes is a pair. One half from our Mum and the other from our Dad.
Research is amazing and has discovered that there are common faults in our genes. This fault is referred to a snp. Single Nucleotide Polymorphism. I prefer to call it a ‘wonky gene’ for ease. They usually slow or speed up the function of the enzyme that they code to make.
What is interesting is that the same wonkiness is the same for many people and not only that, some genes can be wonky without having any difference to the functioning of the body and yet there are some significant ones, of which COMT is one.
So, what does COMT do? Well, for the heavy periods, fibroids and endometriosis, I mentioned before, that is a sign of a slow enzyme. This means that Oestrogen is not able to break down very well and is being backed up or becomes ‘dominant’.
Usually clinical symptoms will let us ‘hear’ this enzyme. Testing your genes also gives us the exact outcome of the snp, and you can also find this information from a DUTCH, (Dried Urine test for Comprehensive Hormones), which is an optional test to consider in my Hormone Harmony Method. In the DUTCH test we can learn how your Oestrogen is clearing, by assessing the metabolites, which is the broken-down parts of Oestrogen that is cleared by the body.
Not only do you then have an issue with the self-regulating of your natural Oestrogens, throw into the mix a little bit (quite a lot usually) of stress which will then lower your progesterone, remember that when progesterone gets stolen to help make cortisol when we are stressed, then this gets lower. Also, there is so many environmental factors these days that attribute to Oestrogen dominance, in that, once they are ingested, they accommodate the same receptor sites that Oestrogen normally do, with a net result of high Oestrogens.
Once Oestrogen dominance has been established, then look at…
- Is stress a major contributor?
- Are environmental toxins a major contributor?
- Do you have a wonky COMT gene?
If you’d like to know more, you are welcome to join my free membership on facebook. Thyroid, Metabolic, Hormone Harmony Hub.
I’d love to see you there
Inspiring Wellness
Beth
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