* Transcription of the words of Jonathan Léger Raymond, herbalist and Ayurvedic therapist, during a meeting with him.
Ayurveda has advantages and strengths in its natural approaches. It is not the only way; it is a path, pleasant and relatively easy to follow, facilitating.
It's about working as much as possible on what's around you, and then having an intervention at a more hormonal level, whether with hormonal regulators - plants - which will work from the master glands. It's an infinitely subtle work and with the body.
The detox aspect
The detox aspect is important, because before trying to help the hormones, you have to help the liver. Every day, the liver has to "deconjugate" hormones, get rid of old hormones that age badly and quickly.
This will already remove a layer of problems. It will also cause less heat because toxins often translate into heat - as if water started at 20 degrees instead of 60 degrees; it will reach boiling point less quickly! So, before you get upset at the thought of boiling, you can remove some heat from the body through detox.
There are several ways to detox. The liver is an absolutely central organ. The kidneys are too, but the liver stands out a bit. Over the decades, we end up accumulating a certain amount of delay.
There are medicinal plants, but in food, there are also bitter plants that are neglected in the diet. There is only one people I know who values them anymore, and that is the Italians. There are no other cultures that showcase bitter plants so much.
Bitterness is good for the liver. Over the generations, we have reduced the amount we consume, and today there are several plants that we no longer consume.
Liver Cure
It's always the weather, and even more so with the changing seasons. Liver cleanses can be done anytime.
There are certain plants that can be harvested year-round. Normally, we ate them every day.
At this time of year, 200 years ago, most farmers, people who had land, would dig up burdock.
Burdock
Everyone knows burdocks; they're the "pic-pics" that cling (the ancestor of Velcro!). This plant has a root that tastes very good. It's eaten a bit like beetroot. It's eaten raw, but it's better to grate it. It's a bit stiff. Otherwise, cooked, it's very good. It has a rather mild bitterness. There was a time when it was very common.
Burdock has several other known & studied effects:
- Good for the kidneys
- An alteravite plant that seeks out toxins in the nooks and crannies and brings them back to the surface
- Prebiotic
- Chelator that chelates heavy metals
- For women in heat, it is a refreshing plant.
Which plants are used daily?
I take 6 to 8 plants per year, including Andrographis.
Androgaphis
This is a plant that is best known in China and India. It is a tincture. It is also very good for colds and flu. It is the king of bitters, the most bitter plant I know.
Taste bitterness; it's important to get used to it. Part of the effect goes through the brain. About 50% of the effect. So, it's important to taste it. You end up getting used to it. The idea is to expose yourself to it often, a little bit.
Ayurveda offers a qualitative view, a qualitative analysis.
In herbalism and science, we look at medicinal properties. In Ayurveda, we also look at energy.
Perimenopause and Hormones - The Importance of the Estrogen/Progesterone Ratio
Taking care of our liver will set the stage for better hormone management.
In perimenopause, there are a lot of variations, so we end up with excess hormones. Even if there is a drop in hormones over time, it's a bit like the stock market, we can draw a line, knowing if it has gone up or down over time, but there can be big variations, great volatility.
So there is a lot of hormone volatility in perimenopause. Levels drop, but for example, all of a sudden progesterone will drop much more than estrogen.
What happens is that women will still secrete estrogen, but sometimes they won't ovulate. If they don't ovulate, there's no corpus luteum. If there's no corpus luteum, there's no progesterone. So, estrogen drops, but there's a gap where, because there hasn't been ovulation, there's no progesterone. At that point, estrogen becomes overpowering because normally, these two hormones balance each other out. It's always a question of ratio more than anything else. There are other important notions, but there is a question of ratio. The ratio can be disrupted.
I ovulate, so estrogen and progesterone follow each other closely. The following month, I don't ovulate. So, even though estrogen has dropped, progesterone has dropped drastically. So I find myself in hyperosteogeny, and that's when the hot flashes are worst. That's when perimenopause "hits us!"
When it hits us, it means we are in hyperosteogeny, that's when the major symptoms occur. So we have to balance all of that.
These hormones remain in the blood. So, if I have estrogen from the previous cycle that hasn't been eliminated, not only do they remain in the blood and continue to unbalance normal levels, but they also become altered and their chemical message isn't as good. This creates distortions.
So, the liver aspect is important. It will loosen the ground. Sometimes, that's enough.
Then we move on to the next steps. There's another step you talk about a lot at Maison Jacynthe: the adrenal gland adaptogen aspect. That's the other big chapter.
Adrenal gland adaptogens
The adrenals, during perimenopause, must increase their estrogen production in anticipation that everything will decrease overall. The adrenals must compensate so that the woman does not end up with practically zero estrogen at the end of the story.
This will also help to ease any symptoms.
They're not called adaptogens for nothing! These are plants that help you adapt. They generate adaptation, but we're the ones adapting. This will help you navigate the perimenopause shift in general, but also specifically with estrogen production.
There is a directly inverse, opposing relationship between stress and the production of sex hormones because literally, the adrenals have to choose at some point between producing cortisol or estrogen. The more stressed we are, the more they will "choose" to produce cortisol. With this, we age more quickly.
Constantly producing cortisol ages us and makes it difficult for us to negotiate. Lowering estrogen levels too much will affect the skin, as estrogen is good for the skin and helps maintain moisture.
There are cures for the liver, but apart from a cure, you need to have strategies to support it in the long term.
How to take adaptogens?
In principle, an adaptogen can be taken permanently. I take them permanently. Sometimes, adaptogens have stimulating aspects. Some are stronger, like ashwagandha and licorice. It's not the adaptogenic aspect as such, but the stimulating aspect that's also there; it's stimulating for the adrenals. This is very true for licorice, for example, which you could take in excess.
So, some adaptogens might lead to a plateau where you have more energy, and then eventually you might overdo it.
However, generally it just gives us some breathing room. I have a little more energy and I use it to be comfortable.
If I immediately push my limits further... The expression I say to my clients: "Here, I'll give you a little rope with the adaptogens, but don't hang yourself with it!"
For me, adaptogens can be maintained for a very long time. We need to find adaptogens that work with us.
Sometimes when you take a formula, there's a balance in it, an average that's achieved. In Ayurveda, for example, we'll give ashwagandha and shatavari, which have very different profiles. So often, the formulas will balance each other out a little.
Sometimes it will be interesting to cut them into pieces and go and take some more specific plants to marry with our needs. This is where Ayurveda comes into play more, where it becomes a little more complicated.
Adaptogens and sports performance
Adaptogens can be used to enhance performance. Athletes can increase their performance by about 10% with them.
Shatavari
Fascinating plant! It's a plant that's best for people who have a more vata and pitta nature, are more slender, and who might end up losing a little too much weight.
People who have to eat often because they don't have much reserve.
We are far from people who have Kapa excesses who are in a slightly larger body for whom perimenopause is likely to go a little better because they have more reserves, exceed their limits less, their skin is more hydrated. With this profile, we have a kind of abundance that is there in the body, reserves.
I imagine the shatavari as a kind of Japanese goddess, a goddess of femininity with all kinds of fabrics floating around her in white and pink, Goldilocks style.
Shatavari is almost a caricature of female femininity.
Her name is interesting. It means having 100 husbands.
It's also a plant that gives a kind of abundance on a sexual level, it's a plant that is excellent for recovering libido. Because exhausted people no longer have libido. People who don't have reserves no longer have libido.
It is a plant that is very effective for vaginal dryness and lubrication.
It is also a hormonal regulator that passes through the master glands, that is to say that it harmonizes the hypothalamus and the pituitary gland.
It's so refined. It works with the body without necessarily directing it anywhere, just gently inviting it.
It can help with conception. In fact, it can be used throughout the entire pregnancy, from beginning to end.
Phytoestrogens
There are some basic things that are not well known about them. For example, the protective role of phytoestrogens.
The only way to overdo it is to eat a block of tofu a day and drink 1 liter of soy milk a day. Soy is perhaps the plant-based product I know that is richest in phytoestrogens. Otherwise, the doses are marginal.
These doses will have a protective effect because they will occupy an estrogen receptor site (on the cell). The phytoestrogen binds there, and the estrogen passes through and cannot bind to the cell. So, the overall estrogenic stimulation decreases, which normalizes. If there is a lack of estrogen, the body is able to transform phytoestrogens into active estrogen. So you would really have to flood the body with a quantity of phytoestrogen to give more of an estrogenic effect, because normally, it modulates the estrogenic effect.
Bibliographic references:
Aviva Romm, MD, Botanical medicine for women's health, Éditions Elsevier Canada, March 29, 2017, 672 p., ISBN-978-0702061936
Sarah-Maria LeBlanc - I Love My Hormones, Éditions Jouvence, May 31, 2022, 128 p., ISBN-978-2889536092
Jonathan's Webinar:
https://academie.ayurvedarevolution.ca/rediffusion-webinaire
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