I have researched this a lot because I felt my thydroid was not functioning 100% as no one has worked as hard as I have the past 2 years to get my self in shape and I hit a brick wall with that a while back and could not drop the last 7-10lbs.  I also felt cold all the time and slow to rise in the morning. Never felt like getting up at all and when I did I felt fatigued.  My immune system was shot at and I had a bout of several infections one after the other and then started with the endometriosis. 

Here’s what I have done:

1. I altered my body clock by leaving my curtains open so that I wake earlier.

2. I get up, drink a ton of water and take a 45 minute walk.  If it’s raining I forgo the walk and get on my elliptical.  I never exercise beyond 50% of my maximum heart rate now as this raises cortisol levels too high for me.  Three days of the week I do my weight training but I restrict this to 30 minutes and it is now high reps and less weight.  I found heavy weight seemed to heavy on my joints.

3. I drink a lot of green tea.

4.  I take the St Johns Vitex in the day which raises progesterone levels naturally.

5. I have started to try 5HTP at night because this is said to raise seratonin and melatonin levels at night.  This combined with the full hour of sunlight I make sure that I get during the day ensures I get a better quality of sleep.

6. At day 5 and 6 in my cycle when my symptoms arise I use natural progesterone cream to quell the symptoms.  At the moment this seems to help me with the symptoms but I would suggest if your wanting to regulate your menstrual cycle to use it from the 14th day to the 28th day. 

7. For three days in the month from day 14 to day 17 I sleep with an 100 watt light bulb on in my bedroom all night---facing towards the ceiling to diffuse the light enough to sleep.   Boosts estrogen at that time and helps to reset your cycle.

8. The last one I’d say is working at reducing my body fat levels.  I used to do a lot of high intensity cardio, but as I said it really does create problems for me as a type A where building mass is concerned.  I found I couldn’t move any further forwards with my fitness and I also felt exhausted all the time which is not the way your meant to feel when your doing this stuff.  I find the change of approach works better for me at the moment. 

8.  I take vitamin c - 1 gram twice per day, 400 iu’s vitamin E twice a day, ZMA twice a day (zinc/magnesium/B6) and I drink a spirulina smoothie once a day. Folic acid 300mcg twice a day.  Pharmaceutical grade fish oil 1 gram twice a day.

9.  I sprinkle LSA mix on my breakfast.  Thats easy to make up.  Just but some flaxseed (linseed), almonds and sunflower seeds and grind them in a blender and shove that in a plastic container and freeze.  It freezes well and doesn’t go solid and I just get that out each morning and sprinkle 3 tablespoons on my breakfast (oats,water and soy milk sliced fresh apricots) and it has a good mix of omega 3 and 6’s in that and is cheap to make up. 

10. My diet is low glycemic.  I eat a lot of fresh fruits and vegies that raw within the recommended group for my blood type.  I have cut saturated fat down to less than 10 grams per day.  At times of the month when I have symptoms I’ll cut it out altogether often and just get my fish oil and lsa mix.

11.  I took up craft, painting and listening to classical music again.    It relaxes me.

I’ve never felt better to be honest.  Some would think that I’ve gone over the top, but I feel like I have found the right diet for me and the right mix of self help.  I’ve made those changes for a month amongst a battery of others I won’t go into and it’s made a very big difference.

Not to say that this will solve anyone elses medical problems here.  If you have a serious thydroid condition and need medication, you need it.  But if you are just starting to have these symptoms, it is very reversible IMO. Even if you ARE on thydroid medication, it would benefit you a great deal to make such changes on top of taking the medication because I should imagine that taking thydroid medication in no way addresses estrogen dominance.

Yours in health,