Hi
@WoolPippi,
Thankyou so much for the compliment
It's very nice to be appreciated
Progesterone is super-important for a huge range of critical functions, including effective pick-up of thyroid hormones, protecting (women in particular) against the oestrogen-driven cancers by balancing oestrogen levels, acting as a natural diuretic, promoting weight loss (because free oestrogen is regarded as being such a danger to the animal body that it stores any excess in a nice secure unit called a fat cell, which is also the reason why cows and chickens are fed oestrogen, since increasing their weight increases their value at market), regulating blood sugar, normalising zinc and copper levels, and promoting new bone formation (osteoblasts - osteoBlasts Build new bone, osteoCLasts clear old bone so that new bone can be laid down on a stable foundation) - all kinds of non-gyny-related functions.
John Lee has done some great work on progesterone and oestrogen - a bit about it here -
http://www.johnleemd.com/physiological-effects-estrogen-progesterone.html
I remember the first time I applied Wellspring's "Serenity" progesterone cream. Within 20 minutes, I just went "Ahhhhhhhhhh....." and felt relaxed for the first time in months. Magical stuff, progesterone. It struck me when I was working with Barry Peatfield (who introduced me to progesterone) that every last one of the thyroid and adrenal patients who came to his clinic had oestrogen dominance, i.e., a progesterone deficiency. An awful lot of thyroid and adrenal issues can be greatly improved, and sometimes completely resolved, by supplementing progesterone.
It HAS to be bio-identical, and not synthetic progestins, in order to work properly, though, despite what conventional medicine says on the subject. It also can't be Yam, one of the biggest scams going. The human body does NOT convert yam into progesterone, as is claimed by the natural medicine industry. That's a massive con.
Adrenal and thyroid function are so inter-dependent. Dysfunction in either will cause dysfunction in the other, especially with the hypo/ insufficiency states.
The amount of progesteone (and oestrogen) produced by the adrenals is tiny by comparison to the amount produced by the ovaries, but is nonetheless crucial. I'm not sure where else men produce it, but I think the male body, logically, must have another source of progesterone to balance their oestrogen....or maybe their adrenal production is greater than ours....I honestly don't know, because it's not something I've ever researched. Hmmm. That's got me wondering now!
Agreed re: low BP. It is
not always desirable to have low BP, especially when it's dropped from 70/60 to 60/45 on standing. It drove me mad when those nurses kept telling me how fit I was when I could barely crawl out of bed to use the loo. The sitting/standing test should be done
immediately on standing to accurately reflect how promptly the adrenals are responding to the gravity-induced drop when you stand up, and yet my endo clinic insist on me standing up for 5 whole minutes before they re-test. Standing up kills me, so causes stress, which increases my BP, plus 5 minutes is more than enough time for slow adrenals to work up at least some level of response, so, IMHO and according to what I was taught and have learnt since, having someone wait for 5 minutes makes it a pointless exercise.
Talking during BP tests also raises your BP (which may be why having visitors, seeing friends, chatting on the phone, etc, might initially make us feel better) and the staff at my clinic seem intent on asking me questions during the standing part of my BP tests. Anyone would think they were doing all they could to avoid finding a postural drop.......
Or maybe I'm just too cynical for my own good.
90/60 is still low. Have you been checked for postural hypotension? Do you know if it drops even lower when you stand up? Do you go dizzy, lightheaded, wobbly, when you stand up "too quickly" (which is a nonsense pseudo-reason, because healthy adrenals respond
instantly, however fast you stand up) ? Are you meeting your salt cravings? Is it perhaps worth trying to take more salt to try and get your BP up into a healthier range, just while you're still trying to get to the bottom of your weak adrenal function? Just a thought
That's very interesting about the link between your colon and your insomnia. Thanks for explaining that. I enjoy getting new information. Gives me more puzzle-pieces
Incidentally, GH is produced during NREM sleep, not REM sleep. Non Rem includes the stuff so many of us lack, the Stage 3 Deep Sleep restorative stuff. Pls see here, although this article says S4 is part of Deep Sleep, too, which is slightly different from the info on sleep stages I've before -
https://sleepfoundation.org/how-sleep-works/what-happens-when-you-sleep
I'm so pleased you've managed to resolve your "interesting colon", LOL, through dietary changes. (Isn't it satisfying when you manage to fix a broken bit?) Something else you might like to check/try is drinking more water. It occurs to me that if a low-fibre diet is helpful for your gut, then it could be that it isn't getting enough water to facilitate peristalsis. If high-fibre causes things to get stuck, it sounds like things are too dry in there.
Don't worry too much about then needing a wee in the night if you increase your water intake, because as long as you enter Deep Sleep, your body will make ADH (anti diuretic hormone), which will stop you from needing to pee. Only happens in the night if you reach Deep Sleep, so waking up in the night for the loo can be an indication of
not achieving S3/S4 Deep Sleep. - I'm always thrilled if I make it through the night without needing the loo! (
@Mary @Learner1 - is your sleep interrupted by needing to pee?)
Many thanks again for your response, WoolPippi
(Sorry for yet another really long post - there always seems so much to discuss!)