The Health Diva

Endometriosis symptoms can be triggered by a combination of factors including hormone imbalances, stress and nutritional deficiencies.

Hormonal imbalance in particularly increased oestrogen dominance is thought to be the primary trigger.

There are many reasons why women are becoming more and more oestrogen dominant; one of the main theories is that today we are exposed to high levels of Xenoestrogens.

Xeno literally means foreign. So xenoestrogens means foreign oestrogens.

Industrial, agricultural and chemical companies have introduced Xenoestrogens into the environment over the last 70 years.

Increasing numbers of chemicals are demonstrated to function as xenoestrogens, scientists are beginning to learn just how amazingly oestrogenic the industrialised world is. Nonylphenol, is a powerful xenoestrogen, found in plastics, and is an additive in detergents, pesticides, and spermicides. The banned pesticide DDT is a xenoestrogen, so is the unbanned pesticides endosulphan, and atrazine, the most commonly used weed killer in US cornfields. Livestock are also sources of xeonestrogens, cattle in particular are actively given hormone treatments to improve meat quality and milk production.

There are many ways that we can cut down our exposure to xenoestrogens, probably the best way is to try and eat as much organic foods as possible, organic fruits and vegetables are grown using traditional farming methods, thus omitting powerful chemical pesticides, choosing organic or RSPCA backed freedom foods, meat and dairy products also reduces your overall toxic load.

Finally it has been proven that overtime plastics can react with their content and leach xenogestrogens into the food chain, so avoid fizzy drinks in plastic containers, also micro waving foods in plastic containers can speed up that leaching process, combined with the fact that micro waving foods actually disturbs the molecular structure of nutrients, destroying their biological activity, and is therefore best avoided.

Back to the old fashioned methods, food can still be quick and easy even without the microwave, stir-frying can take minutes and is fresh and delicious, and streaming fish, rice and vegetables is a quick and nutritious option.