Women’s Health

By Eve Prang Plews
Licensed Nutrion Counselor
(Originally published in Sarasota's Natural Awakenings magazine May, 2010)

NOW they tell us.  After a lifetime of thinking that a couple of classes at the gym every week would do it – research indicates women need an HOUR of exercise DAILY to maintain weight.  Yikes!  Work that in between your meditation, bread baking and knitting scarves for the orphans in Bomlovia.

Super woman.  It’s what we expect from ourselves.  Do it all.  Be it all.  We want to be super partners, super Moms, super daughters, super girlfriends and super contributors to society.  We can do it all – but at what cost to our future.

Frequently in my practice, I see 40 plus year old female clients whose primary complaint is fatigue.  They have tried every Pep-up formula in the check out aisle of the health food store with little results other than a thinner wallet.  They ask, “Is it my thyroid or my adrenals or my caffeine deficiency?”  Let’s go through the list to find out why women are so tired.  So, so tired.

That magic thyroid gland in your neck need L-tyrosine (an amino acid,) B6, zinc selenium and that critical and underrated nutrient, iodine to make thyroxin, the thyroid hormone known as T-4.  If the TSH (thyroid stimulating hormone) goes above 2. on your annual blood work, your thyroid is losing optimal functional capacity.  Even though the “within normal limits” number for TSH may go as high as 4 or 5, depending on the lab, over 2 indicates that this gland is not operating efficiently.  Hyperactivity of the thyroid is most frequently a nutrient dependent pathway that is malnourished.  In other words, your thyroid is STARVING for what it needs to operate well.  The most common deficiency seen is low iodine.  Buy regular iodine and paint a 2” square of it on your belly with 1-2 drops.  It will stain you skin a yellow-brown.  Check the spot hourly to see how quickly  it disappears.  If there is no trace of stain left in 24 hours, you are likely iodine deficient and need to be supplemented so your thyroid can help you make more cellular energy and keep your body temperature normal, even in a cool room.  The seaweed (Nori) used on sushi – even the vegetarian version – is one of the best dietary sources of iodine.  Seaweed salad is good and good for you.

The adrenal glands are walnut sized glands that sit on top of the kidneys (also called renals).  Hence the name ad (on top of) renals. Adrenals make dozens of hormones including cortisol and norepinephrine.  These fight, flight or freeze compounds are over stimulated in our too fast society where you have too many call to make, too many appointments to keep, too many crisis to calm and all that before lunch.  Why not stop right now and take 3 deep, looooooong breaths – in the nose, out the mouth – and feel yourself relax.  Do it.  Do it now.  What are you waiting for? Do you like feeling stressed?

Don’t you feel better already?  We hammer our adrenals first by not getting enough sleep.  Everyone who says they do fine on less than 7 hours nightly is just delusional.  Years of sleep research has demonstrated that we need 50 + hours of sleep weekly to perform well physically, mentally and emotionally. 

Adrenals need sleep; they need B5 & B6 and surprisingly cholesterol to make their payload of hormones.  Adaptogen, herbs like licorice and rhodiola rosea help support the adrenals rather than flog them to perform.  There are easy questions to discover your adrenals health:  Do you wake foggy and tired only to head directly for a double shot of caffeine wake up juice?  Do naps make you worse?  Are you bright-eyed with the “second wind” and ready to work at 9 o’clock at night?  Then you have overtaxed your adrenals.  Get real with your sleep and your schedule.  Repeat after me—“No.” That’s a power word, “No.”  No, I can’t/won’t do one more thing.  Your emergency is not cause for me to be alarmed.  I have a calm center where I choose to live.  Chill out.  Adrenal fatigue can be recovered, adrenal exhaustion can not.

The dilemma is not to reduce your performance criteria or even your expectations.  It is to choose more wisely what you can do well, the activities that nourish and serve you (and others.)  Learn to love and respect those little glands.  Who knew that a few tiny glands were the keys to vitality?  Take care of them and they serve you all your life.  Abuse them, don’t feed them well and they’ll show you who is boss.

Eve Prang Plews, a licensed Nutrition Counselor, has been in practice at her Sarasota clinic, Full Spectrum Health, for 22 years. You may contact her at 941 952-1200 or fullspectrumhealth.com.  Her previous articles are available at eveplews.com.  Eve’s radio show, No Nonsense Nutrition, airs Mondays at 9 AM on WSLR 96.5 FM, or stream it live at wslr.org.