Great Sex, Naturally (46 page)

Outline of Meals and Supplements
During Your 21-Day Dietary Cleanse
(for Your Great Sex Detox)

The following is a day-by-day outline of the meal and supplement portions of your three-week cleanse in
Chapter 2
. (Some supplements recommended can be found in
Appendix C
; others, as described in
Chapter 2
, are available at health-food stores.)

As you can see, your daily protocols change over the course of the 21 days, most notably in the number of magic smoothies you’ll have daily. Depending on personal preference, you can vary your meal menus, snacks, and the way you take your flax oil, but it’s essential to follow these guidelines regarding the number of magic smoothies you have each day and the particulars of your supplement routine.

—
Days 1-3.
Breakfast:
One magic smoothie, and two lipotropic-formula pills, two chlorella pills, one capsule of antioxidant formula, two multivitamin tablets, and one antibug herbal pill.

Midmorning snack:
Rice cake with almond butter.

Lunch:
A large multicolored salad with skinless chicken breast or salmon, brown rice or quinoa, and a side of steamed vegetables like broccoli or kale. Add one tablespoon of flax oil to your salad dressing, or pour it over your steamed vegetables. Take at least one billion organisms of friendly bacteria, and one antibug herbal pill.

Midafternoon snack:
Macadamia nuts and walnuts (a maximum of five of each).

Dinner:
Vegetable bean soup with steamed vegetables, or brown rice or quinoa with fish and vegetables. Take two lipotropic formula pills, two chlorella pills, one capsule of antioxidant formula, two multivitamin tablets, and one antibug herbal pill. All of your dinners, throughout your 21-day plan, should be light, and eaten early enough that you won’t be too full when you go to bed.

—
Days 4–7.
Breakfast:
One magic smoothie, and repeat all of the supplements you took with breakfast on days 1 through 3.

Midmorning snack:
An apple with almond butter.

Lunch:
Salad or steamed vegetables with chicken or beans, or brown rice or lentils topped with nuts and seeds. Add one tablespoon of flax oil to your meal, and take at least one billion organisms of friendly bacteria and one antibug herbal pill.

Midafternoon snack:
Coconut yogurt (dairy-and soy-free), or a handful of walnuts or sunflower seeds.

Dinner:
One magic smoothie and two lipotropic-formula pills, two chlorella pills, one capsule of antioxidant formula, two multivitamin tablets, and one antibug herbal pill. If you’re still hungry, have a salad or steamed greens with chicken or salmon.

—
Days 8–15.
Breakfast:
One magic smoothie, and repeat all of the supplements you took with breakfast on days 1 through 3.

Midmorning snack:
Rice cake with almond butter or avocado.

Lunch:
One magic smoothie, and one tablespoon of flax oil (either in your smoothie or in capsule form), at least one billion organisms of friendly bacteria, and one antibug herbal pill. If you still feel hungry, have a small salad topped with chicken or turkey; however, it’s best to have only magic smoothies for lunch, and as little solid food as possible, during days 8 through 15.

Midafternoon snack:
Walnuts and seeds.

Dinner:
One magic smoothie, and repeat all the supplements you took with dinner on days 4 through 7. If you’re still hungry, have a small salad with chicken or salmon; but again, it’s preferable to have only magic smoothies for dinner, with as little solid food as possible, during days 8 through 15.

—
Days 16–18.
For these three days, repeat the protocol you followed during days 4 through 7.

—
Days 19–21.
Repeat the protocol you followed for days 1 through 3.

APPENDIX E

Testing Your Hormones

To test your hormones, you can request that your doctor order laboratory tests. If the chart in the “Evaluating Your Hormones” section of
Chapter 4
indicates that you have hormone imbalances, testing can give both you and your doctor direction on how to create optimal hormonal health. The following tests give you the most valuable information about your hormone levels:

—
Comprehensive hormone testing.
Sometimes referred to as a comprehensive hormone profile, comprehensive hormone testing is the ultimate way of assessing your levels of estrogen, progesterone, DHEA, testosterone, and cortisol. (The test measures your thyroid hormone, too, but if it shows that your thyroid-hormone level is abnormal, you’ll want to follow up with the thyroid-hormone test described below.) If you’re in your menstruating years, this test should be done on day 21 of your menstrual cycle to provide adequate information about your progesterone level.

The most reliable types of comprehensive hormone testing are saliva tests and 24-hour urine collection tests. These aren’t generally considered “standard” hormone tests, so you may need to find a licensed naturopathic physician (see
Appendix B
) or other qualified holistic doctor to order them for you. Some laboratories provide saliva tests that give you information on your hormones over your entire menstrual cycle, rather than a single day only. This can be especially useful if your cycles are irregular.

Saliva and 24-hour urine tests are dependable because they measure the levels of unbound (“free”) hormones in your saliva, or the levels of hormones in your urine—the best way to get a clear reading of your hormone levels. Blood tests are also available for comprehensive hormone testing, but less accurate because the hormones in your blood are bound to proteins (which means these tests don’t show you how much free hormone is actually in circulation).

—
Individual-hormone saliva testing.
Any of the six hormones explored in
Chapter 4
can be tested separately with an individual-hormone saliva test. If you want accurate information on your level of a particular hormone, and you don’t need the comprehensive profile, this may be your best bet. As with comprehensive hormone testing, you can use this method to gauge your thyroid-hormone level, but if it shows abnormal results, you’ll want to assess further with the thyroid-hormone test below.

In the case of saliva testing for cortisol, you need to repeat the test four times over the course of a day—for example, at 6
A.M.
, noon, 6
P.M.
, and midnight. One saliva test that measures cortisol, known as an Adrenal Stress Index, also measures your progesterone and DHEA.

—
Testing your estrogen metabolism.
All estrogen in your body—whether produced by your own body or taken as supplemental estrogen—is converted by your liver into either “friendly” or “unfriendly” forms. It’s important to know how well you’re converting estrogen: friendly forms decrease your risk of estrogen-related conditions like breast cancer, breast cysts, heavy periods, and premenstrual syndrome, but high levels of unfriendly forms are linked with increased risks of estrogen-related cancers. To assess how much estrogen you have and to measure your levels of friendly and unfriendly estrogen, I recommend a 24-hour urine collection test known as an estrogen metabolism test. This is essential if you’re taking synthetic or natural hormones, and invaluable if you’re a menstruating woman concerned about your hormone balance.

As you can see from the diagram below, the two predominant estrogens in your body,
estradiol
and
estrone
, can convert into one another, and into various other forms. Estrone is less friendly than estradiol because it has the potential to convert into two unfriendly hormones. The estrogen metabolism test monitors your levels of the friendly and unfriendly estrogens, as shown in this diagram.

Conversion of estrogens in your body into “friendly” and “unfriendly” forms.

If your estrogen metabolism test reveals that you’re converting too much estrogen into an unfriendly form, you can take many steps to support healthier estrogen metabolism. See
Chapter 4
for tools and tips, including nutritional supplements and dietary changes, for promoting your friendly estrogen production.

—
Testing your thyroid hormone.
Standard laboratory blood tests can evaluate your thyroid-hormone status; in this case, blood testing is more accurate than saliva or urine testing. As
Chapter 4
points out, you have more than one thyroid hormone, and your TSH (thyroid stimulating hormone) is typically tested to determine your thyroid-hormone level. If this test shows your TSH level is high, you’re diagnosed with low thyroid hormone; if it shows your TSH level is low, you’re diagnosed with excessive thyroid hormone.

Other tests that measure different forms of your thyroid hormone, including T4, T3 (your active thyroid hormone), and Reverse T3, can give you a more complete picture of your overall thyroid-hormone level. The most helpful tests, in addition to the TSH test, are referred to as the Free T4 test, the Free T3 test, the Reverse T3 test, and the T3 Total test. It’s a good idea to have all of these done, as well as two other tests to measure your thyroid antibodies—an antimicrosomal antibody test, and an antithyroglobulin antibody test. The combined results of all these tests can tell you a lot about what’s going on with your thyroid hormones, and the antibody tests can also detect whether you have an autoimmune condition called
Hashimoto’s thyroiditis
, which can cause serious problems for your thyroid gland, resulting in low thyroid hormone.

Another tool that may be helpful in assessing your thyroid-hormone status is known as a basal body temperature test. You can easily do this test at home by taking your temperature before you get out of bed in the morning with a basal thermometer (available at many drugstores). If you’re in your menstruating years, take your temperature on the second, third, and fourth mornings of your cycle; if you’re menopausal, take it on ten consecutive mornings any time of month. If your basal body temperature is consistently below 97.8 degrees Fahrenheit, you may have low thyroid-gland function or a low level of thyroid hormone in circulation.

As explained in
Chapter 4
, if laboratory testing shows normal results but you have persistent symptoms of low thyroid hormone, a licensed naturopathic physician can offer a more thorough assessment and help clear up whether or not you have the condition known as
subclinically low thyroid hormone
.

The saliva and urine tests listed above, which may run from $100 to $350, typically aren’t covered by insurance, but blood tests commonly are. For laboratories that provide hormone testing, see
Appendix C
.

APPENDIX F

How to Use Bioidentical Hormones

As you discovered in
Chapter 4
, transdermal (through the skin) application of bioidentical hormones is more effective, healthier, and safer than taking them orally in pill form because it allows hormones to be absorbed immediately into your bloodstream. If you take hormones as transdermal oils or creams, they bypass your liver, circulate through your body, and go directly to your target tissue—
before
they’re transported to your liver to be broken down. Thus, you need to take only the amount you actually require. Since hormones in pill form have to be taken at much higher doses in order to achieve the same effects, transdermal oils or creams result in far less hormone in your body. It’s always best to use the lowest possible dose of any hormone to achieve your desired therapeutic goal.