Garcinia kola for Women’s Reproductive Health
Garcinia kola works through an inspired mechanism of action to restore balance to women's reproductive hormone levels.Estrogen is a hormone that initiates cell metabolism. It solicits the body for more proteins when proteins are needed. Proteins would be the steel beams and solid structure of the body in this. Estrogen, like a general contractor, orders more proteins for building when and where the body seems to need such a thing. It builds and develops the tiny organelles inside human cells – the microcosm of the human holograph. As such, estrogen impacts the entire body and it does so through attention to the tiniest of details – the organelles, DNA, mitochondria, etc. inside the cell. At the risk of being politically incorrect in an effort to create a memorable metaphor for readers, let’s say that estrogen cares for and decorates the interior of the house / cell and maintains the “productive capacity” within the cellular membrane. As such, estrogen plays a traditionally feminine role in the body by maintaining the organization of this “interior” space that ultimately lays the foundation for general health.
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Keep in mind though, as I expand on these metaphors, that all men need estrogen, the iconic female hormone, as well as women. And all women need testosterone, the iconic male hormone, as well as men.Testosterone and the androgens, in contrast, deal with the architecture of the body as a whole – the macrocosm of the human holograph. It produces a solid foundation of the whole structure. Testosterone initiates the large transitions in human life. Like estrogens, testosterones impact the entire body, but while estrogens provide healthy (or unhealthy) building blocks, testosterone takes those building blocks and assembles them into a holographic portrayal of what each human cell expresses as an individual unit. Estrogen arranges and constructs the interior of the cell, the home-life, if you will, while testosterone creates a larger unit that’s based, ultimately, on what’s happening inside the cell. If a person’s body is made up of cells that contain impoverished mitochondria that are malfunctioning or not functioning at all to fuel cellular healing, for example, the body as a whole will be sick. If a person’s body is made up of a large proportion of cells that have closed their membranes / doors and decided not to interact with other cells / houses in their community out of fear or a lack of resources or energy (from the mitochondria), the body as a whole will be sick. So, as with men and women (the masculine principle and the feminine principle), estrogen and testosterone work together in this way in the human body.
Meanwhile progesterone regulates reproduction and growth. The “pro-gest” part of the word “progesterone” acts to remind us that this hormone promotes gestation. But progesterone is the precursor hormone to both estrogen and testosterone so it literally gives birth to birth-giving and reproduction in a general way.
So all of these hormones impact the entire body in both men and women. None of these hormones, progesterone, estrogen, or testosterone are just reproductive in function despite the fact that they are hormones that all carry a strong stigma around either masculinity or femininity, gender and of course, reproductive-organ issues.
These ideas about the so-called “reproductive hormones” are important in terms of understanding how to get rid of chronic pain. Many people also mistakenly believe that estrogens, testosterones, and progesterone are the only reproductive hormones that impact reproductive organs. Further, we’ve been taught that reproductive organ health has little to no impact on chronic pain and other major disease processes. This is just not true.
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Chronic Pain and Reproductive Hormones
There are a number of different imbalances in the body that can lead to problems like fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome, rheumatism, arthritis, migraines or chronic headaches, complex regional pain syndrome, neuropathy and other chronic-pain conditions. But let’s talk about reproductive hormones specifically, how they can, in some patients, cause pain to be chronic.Let’s start with cortisol and the corticotropic “axis” or cascade of hormones.
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The Corticotropic Axis
The corticotropic axis is on the front lines as far as chronic pain is concerned because this is the axis that includes the mineral and glucocorticoids. The mineral and glucocorticoids are the natural hormones in the body that reduce inflammation and pain, after all. We might think of cortisol as a central hormone in the corticotropic axis that specifically pays attention to daytime and nighttime, as a fundamental environmental stimulus that helps the mind and soul (the animating principle) stay connected to earth and to our bodies. Cortisol taps us on the shoulder at the first sign of light on the skin or in the eyes, to cue the body to begin to wake up. Cortisol works in tandem with other hormones like melatonin (which belongs to the Pineal Axis) to cue the body to go into different brainwave states in response to specific types of lightness and dim-ness or darkness. Melatonin tells us that its time to go into alpha, theta, and delta brainwave states of sleep, for example. Cortisol deals more in alpha and beta brainwave states. So, if we return to our metaphor about a symphony orchestra, cortisol would be the hormone that turns on the lights in a dark auditorium to tell us that the reproductive-hormone-performance is starting.Cortisol, like GnRH, is rhythm-oriented and like many other hormones, it uses rhythm, tempo, and volume to communicate with the Gonadotropic Axis to tell it to initiate the reproductive-hormone-performance that begins with GnRH.
It isn’t hard to imagine how synthetic steroid treatments (e.g. cortisone shots for inflammation or steroid inhalers for asthma) that disrupt the Corticotropic Axis might disrupt the entire body if you know and understand that the Corticotropic Axis uses rhythm and not one-off “dosing” to establish and maintain balance. If you know that a steroid or cortisone treatment is going to potentially (likely) disrupt your Gonadotropic Axis of reproductive hormones, you might (in some cases) skip that treatment in favor of less disruption. There’s a time and a place, of course, for all medicines and sometimes pain gets the better of us and we choose to go for the quick fix. But if our body has been subjected to steroid treatments that have disrupted your hormone levels, you will have to seek out balance from nature and treatments that seek to restore the connection between natural rhythms as a starting point.
Cortisol Imbalance, Trauma, and Desynchronization
In psychology, trauma and mental illness or mood problems can be defined as a situation in which the mind is not in the present tense. It is dissociated into parts that exist primarily in the past (although sometimes also in the future). Trauma causes the mind to split into parts in order to survive the stress. Trauma leaves at least one part behind, in the unconscious mind, in the past, at the moment when the trauma occurred.In a person with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), for example, “flashbacks” bring back feelings associated with a traumatic moment. In a person with Major Depression or Bipolar Disorder, a trigger might cause the uprising of toxic and seemingly uncontrollable thoughts that create a sense of apathy and helpless hopelessness. In a person with any number of Anxiety disorders, a trigger might set a panic attack in motion that makes a person feel a powerful sense of doom or terror from a moment of trauma from the past. A woman who has recently given birth might experience something called D-MER when she breastfeeds, particularly when prolactin is released as part of the breastfeeding process. During a D-MER episode, she might feel a sense of doom or rage that is ultimately rooted in the experience of trauma during childbirth (though sometimes the trauma is rooted more deeply in another moment from the past). In all of these cases, people are essentially experiencing a “trigger” that pulls up a traumatic moment from the unconscious mind. This traumatic moment does not present itself as a memory though as the memory of the trauma is stored in the left, conscious mind. Rather, it presents a feeling…an emotion from the past that’s been disconnected or dissociated from the memory content in order to make the event tolerable to the conscious mind.
Meanwhile, physiologically, PTSD, major depression, anxiety disorders, postpartum depression, D-MER, psychosis of any kind (including postpartum psychosis, schizophrenia, and more), dysphoria, and even personality disorders like narcissism involve cortisol release that is either early or delayed. In other words, on a physiological level, hormonally we express the fact that a part of us is trapped in the unconscious realm of the mind in the past, at the moment of a trauma through disrupted cortisol release. And when cortisol release is disrupted by the experience and buildup of trauma that has not been integrated and released using trauma-informed therapies, our Gonadotropic Axis becomes hopelessly disrupted too.
While disrupted cortisol release leads toward a lack of proper levels of natural steroid hormones to reduce inflammation at the right moment, the disruption of gonadotropic hormones leads to a chronic state of overgrowth or undergrowth and a perpetuated sense of being disconnected from our own cells and our bodies.
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Follicle Stimulating Hormone (FSH) and Luteinizing Hormone (LH)
FSH and LH are perhaps even more important than estrogen, progesterone, and androgens in terms of men’s and women’s health. FSH and LH impact men’s health, but let’s talk about these hormones first, in terms of women’s reproductive health as women’s reproductive health is more complex. Women, after all, exist as four separate types of animal: The Non-Menstruating Girl, The Fertile Young Woman, The Pregnant Woman, and The Post-Menopausal Woman. Each life stage of a woman involves a different rhythm, tempo, and amplitude of FSH and LH.
FSH plays a role that’s usually complementary to estrogen, but the relationship between FSH and estrogen varies depending on the life-stage of the woman. In a young, fertile woman, for example, FSH tends to spur the release of estrogens in the body. As estrogen levels rise though, FSH is then inhibited. So these two hormones normally work together to keep each other balanced in a young, menstruating, non-pregnant woman. FSH is named for its task of maturing follicles inside the ovary (which contain ova that have not been released yet). In a post-menopausal woman, in contrast, FSH and LH both exist at a high level and estrogen is at a low level. Scientific studies have not been done to try to understand this impact on women’s psychology or health except to develop drugs that doctors can sell to women. So let’s just note for now that FSH and estrogen have a relationship but it varies and there isn’t necessarily a strict rule about how they work together or the levels that they need to be at in order for a woman to be healthy.
LH, in contrast to FSH, is responsible for spurring the formation of the corpus luteum, a temporary “glandular organ” that develops in the ovaries after the ova is released from the follicle. The corpus luteum is a bit like an open wound in the ovary that heals partially into an operational bit of tissue that releases progesterone during the last half of the menstrual cycle. The progesterone produced by the corpus luteum promotes the buildup of the endometrial tissues in anticipation of possible fertilization. During pregnancy, progesterone and estrogen must be produced by the corpus luteum until the placenta can take over to maintain the pregnancy with much higher levels of these hormones that drop to initiate birth. Normally, progesterone levels are like a bass drum beat, oscillating between high and low steadily throughout a woman’s reproductive life, but during pregnancy, progesterone is sustained at a high level until the end of the pregnancy.
As with FSH and estrogen, LH has a relationship with progesterone. LH in healthy women, spikes briefly to cue follicles to release the ova. When LH spikes, it goes up to a higher level than FSH and then stays at a slightly higher level than FSH until it’s time for FSH to spur the development of a new follicle (toward the end of the menstrual cycle). When LH spikes, the ova is released into the fallopian tubes and at this time, it makes sense for the body to prepare a potential home for this egg, should it be fertilized. Progesterone creates this space in the womb for an embryo if the egg is fertilized. Estrogen is also produced by the corpus luteum because it also plays a role in designing the interior of this womb-space. Estrogen thus rises in tandem with progesterone.
FSH is related to estrogen levels in the body. FSH and estrogen often have a balancing relationship. At least, this is the ideal type of relationship between FSH and estrogen during the reproductive years of a woman. When FSH is released to spur the development of follicles in the ovaries, estrogen levels are supposed to rise in response. When estrogen levels reach a critical level, FSH levels go down. If this system of balance between FSH and estrogen is disrupted somehow, a variety of problems can develop including chronic pain and inflammation. A healthy FSH-estrogen balance means that when estrogen is low, FSH is increased, leading to a rise in estrogen. When estrogen gets to a certain critical level, FSH is inhibited, causing estrogen to also diminish. It’s important to understand this relationship in order to understand how Garcinia kola and Garcinia cambogia works to heal women’s health problems and chronic pain conditions.
Overly high FSH levels can hyperstimulate ovarian production of estradiol (except in post-menopausal women and girls who are not menstruating yet) which can lead to a disturbance in normal follicle development and multicystic follicular growth. Higher-than normal levels of estrogen during the follicular phase in the first part of the menstrual cycle can, in turn, lead to heavy menstrual bleeding. Garcinia kola and Garcinia cambogia are two herbs that can reset this imbalance and correct it by blocking FSH receptors in the ovaries to reduce the FSH hyperstimulation of the ovaries without disrupting the body’s normal production of this hormone.
Essentially, in menstruating women, there’s a barometer in the body that measures estrogen levels in the bloodstream. This barometer is a bit like a thermostat for a central air unit. When estrogen levels get too high, FSH turns off ovarian estrogen production. Estrogens are produced elsewhere in the body at this time when ovarian estrogen production drops off. For example, estrogen is produced by the adrenal glands to keep the rest of the body’s cells healthy and functioning. Adrenal estrogen production is where a lot of the post-menopausal estrogen comes from in older women. But LH turns the estrogen production back on again through the development of the corpus luteum in the ovary. The corpus luteum produces both estrogen and progesterone in anticipation of fertilization. The corpus luteum tends to produce a smaller amount of estrogen during the luteal phase (the second half) of the menstrual cycle though.
However, when things get imbalanced in a woman’s body, either as a result of trauma, or due to high stress and a lack of sleep (think: babies crying in the middle of the night plus an early rise to get older kids off to school), FSH might get triggered to spike more than one time during a normal menstrual cycle. A woman might then have more than one follicle developing at one time. She might have multiple cysts that are diagnosed as a problem like PCOS. LH might also spike more than once and a woman might end up with more than one corpus luteum producing more than the average amount of estrogen and progesterone. Endometriosis might occur as a result. At the doctor’s office, a woman is told to put her legs up in stirrups so that the doctor can look “up there” and tell her “what’s wrong”. This creates even more stress and, rather than solving the problem it usually adds to the woman’s sense that she can’t resolve the imbalance. Hormonal imbalance in women often results from the numerous stops and starts in a young woman’s schedule during the day, but it can also be caused by meddling doctors who are telling women to administer synthetic or bioidentical hormones that hijack their natural rhythms. Even xenoestrogens found in perfumes, lotions, shampoos, makeup, laundry detergents, and other personal care products add to this disrupted hormonal “rhythm”. Toxins like organophosphates and bromide / bromine or fluoride in the air or water supply serve to make these hormonal disruptions even more entrenched.
Nonetheless, FSH sets off ovarian follicle maturation and estrogen levels rise at the same time because estrogen builds and designs the interior of cells. Estrogen is the perfect hormone to do this work of follicle maturation in the ovary, of course. Estrogen levels rise in anticipation following the LH spike, as the corpus luteum acts to make pregnancy possible during the initial building and structuring of the placenta.
In some young, menstruating women, estrogen levels are high while FSH levels are low in the first part of their cycle. This is flip-flopped from how FSH and estrogen are supposed to be proportioned at this time of the month. This can happen if there are multiple follicles that end up developing into a corpus luteum, for example and these multiple corpus luteums are at different levels of maturation. Let’s say one corpus luteum has matured at the proper time in the cycle and it is producing high levels of progesterone and estrogen…and then another one comes of age a few days later such that now there’s a very high level of estrogen and progesterone being produced by two corpus luteums. The one that developed into a hormone-producing organ-gland stops producing progesterone and estrogen at the proper time in the cycle and estrogen and progesterone levels drop precipitously (but not all the way back to baseline as there are TWO corpus lutea making hormones now) and a woman gets her period as a result. That second corpus luteum might keep estrogen levels high for an additional 2-3 days (or longer) to cause a super heavy period. A woman with this kind of double-whammy hormone rise before her period might get exceptionally irritable as high progesterone and estrogen levels create discomfort and mood swings on par with postpartum states of depression or even psychosis.
We know that two or more corpus luteums can develop at the same time and release eggs because this is what happens when a woman has maternal twins or triplets (or multiples of any number). Though it isn’t common knowledge and doctors typically won’t mention the problem or explain it to patients (because they either don’t know about this problem or they have no means to treat it and thus see no reason to bring it up), this issue of multiple corpus luteum “organ-glands” producing super-high levels of estrogen and progesterone can create big problems for women.
Fixing the FSH barometer of estrogen requires an effort toward re-establishing the proper rhythm of hormone production and release. An increase in estrogen levels can lead to excessive menstrual bleeding or prolonged menstrual periods as well as breast discomfort, and headaches. High levels of progesterone, in contrast, can cause breast tenderness, fatigue, mood swings, bloating, and libido issues. A woman who has what seems like a perpetual production of corpus luteum organ-glands might, at times, have a number of things going wrong with her body, her mood, and her mental state. But women have always had to adapt to traumatic situations involving interruptions in routine, lack of organized schedules, and difficulty staying connected in a peaceful way, to nature. The modern woman is thoroughly challenged in this regard. Luckily though, there are herbs and treatments that can help.
For women who have entered menopause, FSH levels increase which initially maintains estrogen levels (although there are some different patterns in terms of menopausal hormone trajectory). With the full transition to menopause though, estrogen levels decline and then they remain lower as other structures like the adrenal glands take over production of this hormone. FSH levels increase and remain high for the rest of a woman’s life. The timing and magnitude of the increase in FSH varies among women. Estrogen, of course, is an important hormone that helps maintain a healthy interior of cells throughout the body. Luckily, a number of phyto-estrogens (estrogens found in plants that mimic natural human estrogen) exists to help women continue to have enough of this vital hormone if they require more than their bodies can produce.
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Natural Coumarins to Reduce Estrogen Levels That Are Too High
The breaking open of the corpus luteum often goes unnoticed, but it can be painful and it can involve noticeable vaginal bleeding even in normal, healthy women. In women who take blood thinners like warfarin, however, the corpus luteum can bleed prolifically such that it becomes problematic and dangerous. Warfarin, in fact, can cause pressure to rise in follicles which leads to the breakage of the capsule and hemoperiotoneum (blood in the peritoneal cavity). Warfarin is a synthetic drug that was developed originally from natural coumarin, found in plants. Natural coumarin inhibits estrogen synthesis, which can be useful in the treatment of some forms of endometriosis. Warfarin, in contrast, should generally be avoided by women because of its potentially negative impact on the female reproductive system. Natural, plant-based coumarin is found in many herbs and even foods like the vanilla bean. These foods and herbs can be used strategically, along with medicinal plant-derived substances like Diindoylmethane (DIM).
That being said, while a lot of women have used DIM to try to control a so-called “estrogenic state”, most of them don’t know why they’re “estrogenic”. Some of these women also smear wild yam (Dioscorea villosa) lotions on their wrists to try to increase progesterone levels at the same time. In some cases, this might be warranted, but a woman who has high estrogen levels is also likely to have progesterone levels that are also too high as the corpus luteum (or multiple corpus luteums) are the source of a lot of hormonal woe. In the defense of the young woman who is out there trying to figure out how to balance her own hormones (to try to avoid doctors, in most cases), there’s very little logical guidance out there that explains what’s happening in the body in a way that women can understand.
As a woman, if you have one of any number of menstruation issues, fertility issues, chronic pain or fatigue, mood, or mental health issues that seem to revolve around your menstrual cycle, it’s important to work with herbs that are “intelligent” and that will diagnose your issue and “decide” on your behalf whether to increase estrogen and progesterone, FSH, or LH or decrease them. Not all herbs have this kind of intelligence. When you work with herbs for womanly problems, work with them using womanly magic and expect for them to behave intelligently in your body.
There are herbs that can raise or lower estrogen or progesterone or FSH and LH, but I hope that by this point, dear reader, that you understand the challenge of finding the right rhythm and dosing amplitude for yourself. Using your conscious mind and logic isn’t likely to produce the desired results as the root cause of hormonal imbalance is usually stress, trauma, and specifically interruptions to conscious trains of thought as well as sleep. This is the lot of many women whether the woman in question is nursing a baby or nursing a new business. Women are creatures who are bound to cycles and interruptions that take us off course so that we can evolve. At the beginning of this discussion, I defined trauma as a dissociation of consciousness in which one part of us stays behind at a moment in the past that was (subjectively) traumatic. Trauma creates both an emotional imprint as well as a physiological cortisol-disruption imprint. Another definition for trauma that’s well accepted in the field of trauma-informed psychology is “incompletion”. Any act that is not completed and that we desire to complete, is experienced by the physical body as “trauma”.
As a woman, rather than working with herbs that raise or lower progesterone and estrogen levels, it’s important to take a more holistic approach emotionally and spiritually to this problem of disrupted hormones and whole-body-mind meltdown. We have to ask herbs to act like healers for us and trust them and give them respect. We have to acknowledge what’s incomplete in our lives and what we seek to complete every day. What are the things that we’re driven to complete each day? What are the things that can remain incomplete for a short period of time (a few days?...a few weeks?) and…what are the things that could remain in a state of incompletion forever if necessary?
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Garcinia kola and Garcinia cambogia
Garcinia kola are herbs that has powerful peripheral balancing effects on reproductive hormone levels. Studies indicate that Garcinia kola does not impact reproductive hormone levels centrally. Rather, at the top of the hormone cascade in the gonadtropic axis, FSH and LH are released normally, at normal levels even when you’re taking a moderately high dose of these herbs. But in the outer periphery of the body, at the ovaries or in the testes, for example (and in other areas of the body distant from the pituitary gland), FSH and LH receptors are blocked by Garcinia kola.
By blocking FSH and LH receptors temporarily, Garcinia kola is able to calm the reproductive organs and restore balance to reproductive hormones levels. As FSH and LH are blocked temporarily, the breakdown of the estrogens and progesterones in the body are temporarily blocked which leads to higher serum levels of these hormones. In some women, higher serum levels of estrogen and progesterone could be uncomfortable, if not undesirable, of course, but evidence exists in some studies that when women don’t need higher estrogen or progesterone levels, Garcinia kola and Garcinia cambogia don’t cause these hormones to become elevated.
High levels of estrogen and progesterone, of course, trigger the pituitary gland to naturally reduce FSH and LH from being released. Normally, without Garcinia kola working peripherally to rebalance hormones, reduced levels of FSH and LH would lead to a gentle, natural reduction in estrogen and progesterone levels in the body. If FSH is not spurring the maturation of follicle-after-follicle…and if LH isn’t constantly causing those follicles to turn into corpus luteums, hormone levels should normalize. Garcinia kola and Garcinia cambogia work through a mechanism of action that lowers FSH and LH in women while increasing estrogen and progesterone in women who need an increase in these hormones. In women who don’t need more estrogen and progesterone, these herbs create balance.
Garcinia kola and Garcinia cambogia are some of just a few herbs that can be used by women specifically, to overcome hormone imbalances. In low to moderate doses, they can help the body get out of a vicious, hormone-imbalanced cycle. Garcinia kola could theoretically be helpful for women who have recently given birth, women who have been on birth control pills, or women who have done bioidentical or synthetic hormone replacement therapy, but who want to quit the treatments. These herbs can help women who have had major stressors or traumas in their lives. They can help women who are juggling multiple children in the home and multiple schedules.
Indeed, Garcinia kola is also an herbal remedy for hyperprolactinemia (prolactin levels that are too high) and there are reasons to believe that Garcinia cambogia would also provide relief from the problem of high prolactin levels too. Many women who experience postpartum depression are also suffering from Dysphoric Milk Ejection Reflex or D-MER, an issue that’s correlated with the release of prolactin during breastfeeding. Though D-MER and postpartum depression are separate issues, they can and often do co-exist. Both may be based on prolactin issues that can be corrected by Garcinia kola or Garcinia cambogia, however women should not endeavor to work with these herbs during breastfeeding. Indeed, both are strictly contraindicated during pregnancy because they can cause birth defects. Garcinia kola and Garcinia cambogia lower prolactin levels which means that they can reduce milk production. As such, if you wish to continue breastfeeding, these herbs should be avoided during lactation as well.
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Kola Nut for Women
NOTE: While bitter kola nut / Garcinia kola has been shown to produce deformities in animals being treated with this herb in high doses, it is commonly used in high doses during pregnancy among women in various areas of the world to prevent morning sickness. Readers should be aware of this contradiction between anecdotal experiences and scientific studies. We note in other areas on this site that bitter kola nut is safe during pregnancy because women eat bitter kola nut during pregnancy in many cultures without seeing birth defects in their children.
In female animals, the Garcinia kola seed extract at a dose of 200 mg/kg body weight had a profound effect on the estrus cycle and ovulation. In animal studies of kola nut, the estrus cycle was altered for the first 2 weeks after beginning to dose with the extract, but it returned to normal starting from the 3rd week of treatment. Ovulation was partially blocked.
In female rats, studies have shown that the kola nut lowers luteinizing hormone (LH), follicle stimulating hormone (FSH), and prolactin levels in a dose-dependent fashion over periods lasting from 3 to 30 days. On the other hand, estradiol and progesterone levels were significantly increased during the study. In the study, the dose varied from 350 to 2000 mg per kilogram body weight in the animals studied.
Garcinia cambogia: Herbal Remedy for PCOS
Garcinia cambogia, which is related to Garcinia kola has been studied specifically in terms of its ability to cure Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome / PCOS, but Garcinia kola may have similar effects as an herbal remedy for PCOS because of its known reducing impact on Follicle Stimulating Hormone (FSH) and Luteinizing Hormone (LH).In animal studies examining Garcinia cambogia for PCOS, a water-based extract was used at a dose of 100, 300, and 500 mg/kg body weight. Animals received treatment at one of the 3 doses over the course of 10 weeks. At the end of the 10 weeks of treatment, ovaries showed a dose-dependent reduction in ovary weight, the number of ovarian cysts, and improvement in terms of follicle growth. In other words, the rats who were given higher doses (500 mg/kg body weight daily) reduced the number of ovarian cysts and the weight of ovaries, and improved follicle growth.
Hormonal analysis in these studies showed a significant improvement in hormone balance. Women with FSH, LH, estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone imbalances developed a much more balanced hormone profile after 10 weeks at 500 mg/kg body weight as a dose. Their lipid profiles also improved.
Lower Prolactin Levels Naturally: Kola Nut
Prolactin works with oxytocin after pregnancy during the postpartum period to spur the production of milk in women’s breasts. High prolactin levels inhibit the secretion of FSH. Menstruating women with low FSH may have absent or irregular periods, low libido, infertility, hot flashes, and fatigue. Hyperprolactinemia (high prolactin levels), in other words, can suppress ovulation. This is one of the reasons why women who are breastfeeding often don’t become pregnant.Low FSH Levels: Herbal Remedy
Low FSH levels can lead to chronic pain issues. But Garcinia kola doesn’t lower FSH release from the pituitary gland so it won’t worsen the problem of low FSH, if this is your particular issue. Rather, the kola nut reduces ovarian response to FSH by blocking FSH and LH receptors. And at the same, kola nut increases estradiol and progesterone levels in the bloodstream by preventing their breakdown by the liver. Increasing estrogen levels in the blood should trigger a woman’s body to begin producing natural FSH again. This could take several menstrual cycles of treatment, but in menstruating women, kola nut is able to help women restore hormone balance through this mechanism of action.
Hyperprolactinemia, PTSD, and Garcinia kola
Prolactin is a hormone that has hundreds of actions in the human body, but for the most part, if you try to do research on prolactin, the only thing you’ll find (without digging enthusiastically into this topic) is information about how prolactin functions in the production of breastmilk.A little known fact about prolactin, though, is that it is pleiotropic in nature, which means that it can change shape. It’s a shape-shifter. As such, prolactin can impact many different tissues throughout the body, not just the breast tissues in women and it can, in fact, take on different shapes to accomplish different effects in the body. This is not widely known and it isn’t widely propagated in mainstream science. In fact, the NIH begins its discussion of prolactin by saying:
“Prolactin is a polypeptide hormone responsible for lactation, breast development, and hundreds of other actions needed to maintain homeostasis.”
The NIH web content does not, however, do a good job of explaining the “hundreds of other actions” of prolactin unfortunately. Nonetheless, prolactin plays many functions in the human body to keep our bodies functioning at a balanced, homeostatic level. Prolactin, in fact, is also produced by men (though they do not usually produce breastmilk) and while, in mainstream, pop-science, prolactin is nothing more than a hormone that pertains to breastfeeding, prolactin, in fact, does many things in the body.
Prolactin can be grouped into the Prolactin / Growth Hormone / Placental Lactogen family of hormones that all come from a common ancestral gene. It belongs to the somatotropic axis. Pituitary production of prolactin is regulated by dopamine via the hypothalamus though the mammary glands, uterus, immune system, and central nervous system can all produce prolactin too, but it is also responsive to Thyrotropin Releasing Hormone (TRH). TRH stimulates prolactin release while dopamine stimulates its production. As such, prolactin sits at a crossroads between the influence of TRH and dopamine, making it one of the most important hormones involved in mental and emotional health.
While dopamine represents the left, logical side of the brain, TRH represents the right, emotional side of the brain. As such, prolactin plays a role in the body’s attempts to release and integrate trauma at certain times of the month, certain times in a person’s life, and at certain times of the year (namely during the equinoxes when geomagnetic shifts cause a switch from dopamine-dominance to TRH-dominance for several weeks around the equinoxes each year). Dysregulation of prolactin levels has been implicated in the development of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder / PTSD and other stress-related disorders, for example. A disordered relationship between right-brain TRH and left-brain dopamine can be used to explain most of the mental health disorders and a number of the sexual dysfunctions listed in the DSM diagnostic manual used by psychologists and psychiatrists and prolactin sits squarely at this intersection. But prolactin is not straightforward in terms of its impact in the body. However, it is well-known that it modulates the stress response during pregnancy and lactation. Prolactin helps the female brain to adapt to pregnancy and the various changes that can happen in the lives of women as a result of pregnancy. In order for a new mother to adapt to pregnancy and later, a new baby, the brain has to rewire itself. Prolactin assists with this rewiring and hyperprolactinemia is adaptive during eras of life when there is a need for profound change and adaptability.
Hyperprolactinemia can also cause serious issues though, including infertility and PTSD among other things. But if prolactin is always working on our behalf to promote survival, it’s likely that hyperproduction of this hormone is caused, in many cases, by overload of trauma, which gives the body the “felt sense” that it can’t adapt to the present moment.
The general impact on the body of prolactin is to regulate the pace of endocrine function and the body’s ability to self-protect and self-sustain. Prolactin is one of the most diverse hormones in humans in terms of its effects on the human body. It sits at this right-brain, left-brain crossroads, but it also has a privileged impact on the pacing all of the five endocrine axes. In the symphony orchestra of hormones in the human body, prolactin acts to determine the tempo of the song that our bodies produce.
Garcinia kola, of course, is an herb that alters estrogen levels in the body by preventing estrogen breakdown in the liver. Estrogen stimulates the secretion of prolactin, but high prolactin levels, in turn, suppress estrogen secretion. But estrogen, in all but women of menstruating age, is a locally produced hormone that doesn’t typically circulate in large quantities in the blood. In young, non-menstruating girls, men, and older women who have gone through menopause, estrogen is a hormone that is produced locally, in the areas of the body where it is needed. In women of child-bearing age with functional ovaries, estrogen is released in large quantities and it circulates throughout the body in the bloodstream as an endocrine hormone. Estrogen levels in menstruating women can “go off the rails” and be either too high or too low in relation to other hormones that play a role in reproductive organ function and the menstrual cycle. Prolactin is stimulated by estrogen in the bloodstream of menstruating females and it acts in lactating females to promote the production of milk in the breasts during lactation.
Men generally have low levels of prolactin as do non-lactating females, but hyperprolactinemia can happen in males and non-lactating females, of course. For example, dopamine antagonists / antipsychotics, can lead to high prolactin levels or hyperprolactinemia, presumably as prolactin seeks to help the body connect the right-brain to the left-brain to release trauma. In conventional medicine, hyperprolactinemia is sometimes associated with structural changes to the pituitary gland. Doctors don’t work with this problem in terms of emotions or life-stress and instead recommend some form of treatment to repair the structural issue or cancer.
In conventional medicine, of course, reproductive hormones like prolactin are presented to patients as “medicinal substances” that can be administered or “controlled” in a dose-oriented fashion to accomplish some specific effect. But hormones don’t really work that way and prolactin is no exception. Many hormones, including prolactin and the other reproductive hormones, accomplish their effects on the body through rhythm, tempo, and sometimes amplitude, rather than in terms of “hormone levels / amounts or hormone doses”. As such, patterns of release are more important than the amount of release of a given hormone. The endocrine system is musical in terms of how it functions and patterns and synchronization matters more than the amount of any one given hormone. Prolactin has a rhythmicity to its output with two peaks. One is in the morning to support cortisol production for adaptation to stress. The second peak is during sleep to promote growth and repair of the body (anabolism). Prolactin production and release is different in menstruating women than it is in men and in women and girls at different stages of life.
Importantly, prolactin secretion is regulated very differently from other pituitary hormones. This is relevant to anyone with hyperprolactinemia, mental health or mood issues, infertility, or any number of health problems that originate with high prolactin levels. While most pituitary hormones must be stimulated by a hormone that comes from the hypothalamus, prolactin release is prevented by hypothalamic hormones.
Prolactin is the only anterior pituitary hormone that lacks a classical hormonal feedback mechanism. Dopamine, which is regarded primarily as a neurotransmitter, also plays a role as a hypothalamic hormone when it regulates prolactin levels. This explains why herbs like Mucuna pruriens, that contain dopamine precursors to spur dopamine production, can cause a woman’s milk supply to dry up, presumably through inhibition of prolactin. In men and women who are not breastfeeding or even menstruating though, Mucuna pruriens can also inhibit prolactin secretion to some extent, especially if used in tandem with a dopamine-releasing agent like caffeine.
Let’s return to our discussion of Garcinia kola though. This is an herb that can lower prolactin levels naturally, but Garcinia kola contains caffeine which might explain at least some of this prolactin-lowering effect. Theoretically though, Mucuna pruriens could be administered along with Garcinia kola to increase dopamine production in neurons and provide a more solid prolactin-lowering effect.
On the anterior pituitary gland, there are dopamine D2 receptors that, when activated, inhibit prolactin secretion. A lack of dopamine D2 receptors can lead to hyperprolactinemia, but Mucuna pruriens is specifically used to regrow dopamine receptors in those who have suffered from some form of addiction that might have damaged the receptors. Dopamine receptor regrowth usually takes 5 months of continuous dosing with Mucuna pruriens at 6000 mg daily (1500 mg administered every 4-6 hours of the day).
In males and non-lactating females, prolactin has no target. In lactating females, the breast tissues act as a prolactin “target”, spurring breastmilk production. In men and non-lactating females, prolactin is normally regulated through a short-loop negative feedback mechanism involving prolactin-responsive neurons that increase their firing rate with greater prolactin stimulation, causing an eventual dopamine release. In any case, prolactin secretion is usually low under most conditions except when women are breastfeeding. When prolactin levels are too high (due to pituitary adenoma or the administration of antipsychotic dopamine antagonists), a range of adverse effects can take shape including:
- Mood disorders
- Weight gain
- Infertility
- Osteoporosis / low bone density
Garcinia kola can help restore balance in terms of dopamine and prolactin, however. The kola nut is an herbal remedy for hyperprolactinemia. It works in a dose-dependent fashion with greater prolactin-lowering effects with increasing dose up to 500 mg / kg body weight.
Environment Stimuli That Impact Prolactin Production and Hyperprolactinemia
Below are environmental-type stimuli that can cause the body to produce prolactin in the breasts, uterus, immune system, or in the nervous system:
- Smells
- Light exposure
- Nipple stimulation
- A woman who has never been pregnant can produce breastmilk with frequent nipple stimulation.
- Stress
- Estrogen
- Antipsychotic medications / dopamine antagonists
- Thyrotropin Releasing Hormone (TRH)
- Reproduction and hormonal cues
- Circadian stimuli
- General physiological health
Garcinia kola is an herb that specifically assists in the rebalancing of reproductive hormones in women. Women who experience mood problems after one or more pregnancies can work with this herb to lower prolactin levels and re-establish balance in terms of dopamine and prolactin. Administration of Mucuna pruriens in tandem with Garcinia kola can help women regrow dopamine neurons that have damaged by addictive substances, psychoactive drugs, or even addictive behaviors. Mucuna pruriens will help in terms of recharging neurons with plenty of dopamine and assisting in the regrowth of dopamine receptors while Garcinia kola contains a small amount of caffeine as well as theobromine to provide a gentle boost of energy (without jitters) and a dopamine release that can help in controlling prolactin levels.
In countries where coca matcha (Erythroxylum coca) leaf is legal and available, this herb can further assist in the release of dopamine combined with enhanced oxygenation of cells. Erythoxylum coca / coca matcha can be administered with Mucuna pruriens and Garcinia kola to reduce prolactin levels and control corresponding mood-related or mental health issues. This combination of herbs can help women overcome postpartum depression, treat D-MER naturally, and adapt to life after childbirth and breastfeeding more quickly.
Resources:
• Masuku, N. P. et al. (2020). Garcinia kola. Retrieved March 4, 2025 from https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/pharmacology-toxicology-and-pharmaceutical-science/garcinia-kola
• Braide, V. B. et al. (2003). Effect of Garcinia Kola Seed Alkaloid Extract on Levels of Gonadal Hormones and Pituitary Gonadotrophins in Rat Serum. Retrieved March 4, 2025 from https://www.bioline.org.br/pdf?np03014
• Rana, S. et al. (2023). Dose Dependent Effects of Aqueous Extract of Garcinia cambogia Desr. Against Letrozole Induced Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome in Female Adult Rats with Possible Mechanisms Exploration. Retrieved March 5, 2025 from https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10103256/
• Andueza, N. et al. (2021). Risks Associated with the Use of Garcinia as a Nutritional Complement to Lose Weight. Retrieved March 5, 2025 from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/348889606_Risks_Associated_with_the_Use_of_Garcinia_as_a_Nutritional_Complement_to_Lose_Weight
• Lybrae (2025). Benefits of Kola Nut and Its Side Effects. Retrieved March 5, 2025 from https://www.lybrate.com/topic/benefits-of-kola-nut-and-its-side-effects
• Igbinoba, S. I. et al. (2016). Effect of dehusked Garcinia kola seed on the overall pharmacokinetics of quinine in healthy Nigerian volunteers. Retrieved March 5, 2025 from https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4871276/
• Igbinoba, S. I. et al. (2016). In vitro study of interaction between quinine and Garcinia kola. Retrieved March 5, 2025 from https://www.tjpr.org/home/abstract.php?id=530&aTitle=In%20vitro%20study%20of%20interaction%20between%20quinine%20and%20Garcinia%20kola
• Tauchen, J. et al. (2023). Garcinia kola: a critical review on chemistry and pharmacology of an important West African medicinal plant. Retrieved March 5, 2025 from https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11101-023-09869-w
• Erukainure, O. L. et al. (2021). Kolaviron: A Biflavonoid with Numerous Health Benefits. Retrieved March 5, 2025 from https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33185157/
• Olajide, O. A. et al. (2021). Garcinia kola and garcinoic acid suppress SARS-CoV-2 spike glycoprotein S1-induced hyper-inflammation in human PBMCs through inhibition of NF-kappaB activation. Retrieved March 5, 2025 from https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8661957/#:~:text=Garcinia%20kola%20extract%20reduced%20spike,when%20compared%20with%20unstimulated%20cells.
• Ibanga, I. E. et al. (2020). Hypoglycemic and Hypolipidemic Effect of Bitter Kola (Garcinia kola) Seed Extract on Alloxan-Induced Diabetic Albino Rats. Retrieved March 5, 2025 from https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Hypoglycemic-and-Hypolipidemic-Effect-of-Bitter-on-Etim-Etukudoh/891f6d37e3f5d9419a37b1fa9507495b4bf03bd1
• Barbuscia, M. et al. (2010). Etiopathogenetic and clinical considerations of corpus luteum cysts. Retrieved March 8, 2025 from https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20426922/
• Kumar, N. et al. (2023). Estradiol-Progesterone Balance Paradigm: Heavy Menstrual Flow. Retrieved March 8, 2025 from https://link.springer.com/referenceworkentry/10.1007/978-3-031-08956-5_867-1
• Bogers, J. W. et al. (1991). Complications of anticoagulant therapy in ovulatory women. Retrieved March 8, 2025 from https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/1671974/
• Phillipps, H. R. et al. (2020). Patterns of Prolactin Secretion. Retrieved March 8, 2025 from https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0303720719303818
• Al-Chalabi, M. et al. (2023). Physiology, Prolactin. Retrieved March 8, 2025 from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK507829/
• MacMurray, R. W. (2001). Estrogen, prolactin, and autoimmunity: actions and interactions. Retrieved March 8, 2025 from https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1567576901000455#:~:text=Based%20on%20their%20endocrinologic%20interactions,suppress%20estrogen%20secretion%20%5B1%5D.
• Faron-Gorecka, A. et al. (2023). The Involvement of Prolactin in Stress-Related Disorders. Retrieved March 10, 2025 from https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9959798/
BEFORE YOU READ THIS ARTICLE...
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Garcinia kola for Women’s Reproductive Health
Garcinia kola works through an inspired mechanism of action to restore balance to women's reproductive hormone levels.Estrogen is a hormone that initiates cell metabolism. It solicits the body for more proteins when proteins are needed. Proteins would be the steel beams and solid structure of the body in this. Estrogen, like a general contractor, orders more proteins for building when and where the body seems to need such a thing. It builds and develops the tiny organelles inside human cells – the microcosm of the human holograph. As such, estrogen impacts the entire body and it does so through attention to the tiniest of details – the organelles, DNA, mitochondria, etc. inside the cell. At the risk of being politically incorrect in an effort to create a memorable metaphor for readers, let’s say that estrogen cares for and decorates the interior of the house / cell and maintains the “productive capacity” within the cellular membrane. As such, estrogen plays a traditionally feminine role in the body by maintaining the organization of this “interior” space that ultimately lays the foundation for general health.
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Keep in mind though, as I expand on these metaphors, that all men need estrogen, the iconic female hormone, as well as women. And all women need testosterone, the iconic male hormone, as well as men.Testosterone and the androgens, in contrast, deal with the architecture of the body as a whole – the macrocosm of the human holograph. It produces a solid foundation of the whole structure. Testosterone initiates the large transitions in human life. Like estrogens, testosterones impact the entire body, but while estrogens provide healthy (or unhealthy) building blocks, testosterone takes those building blocks and assembles them into a holographic portrayal of what each human cell expresses as an individual unit. Estrogen arranges and constructs the interior of the cell, the home-life, if you will, while testosterone creates a larger unit that’s based, ultimately, on what’s happening inside the cell. If a person’s body is made up of cells that contain impoverished mitochondria that are malfunctioning or not functioning at all to fuel cellular healing, for example, the body as a whole will be sick. If a person’s body is made up of a large proportion of cells that have closed their membranes / doors and decided not to interact with other cells / houses in their community out of fear or a lack of resources or energy (from the mitochondria), the body as a whole will be sick. So, as with men and women (the masculine principle and the feminine principle), estrogen and testosterone work together in this way in the human body.
Meanwhile progesterone regulates reproduction and growth. The “pro-gest” part of the word “progesterone” acts to remind us that this hormone promotes gestation. But progesterone is the precursor hormone to both estrogen and testosterone so it literally gives birth to birth-giving and reproduction in a general way.
So all of these hormones impact the entire body in both men and women. None of these hormones, progesterone, estrogen, or testosterone are just reproductive in function despite the fact that they are hormones that all carry a strong stigma around either masculinity or femininity, gender and of course, reproductive-organ issues.
These ideas about the so-called “reproductive hormones” are important in terms of understanding how to get rid of chronic pain. Many people also mistakenly believe that estrogens, testosterones, and progesterone are the only reproductive hormones that impact reproductive organs. Further, we’ve been taught that reproductive organ health has little to no impact on chronic pain and other major disease processes. This is just not true.
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Chronic Pain and Reproductive Hormones
There are a number of different imbalances in the body that can lead to problems like fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome, rheumatism, arthritis, migraines or chronic headaches, complex regional pain syndrome, neuropathy and other chronic-pain conditions. But let’s talk about reproductive hormones specifically, how they can, in some patients, cause pain to be chronic.Let’s start with cortisol and the corticotropic “axis” or cascade of hormones.
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The Corticotropic Axis
The corticotropic axis is on the front lines as far as chronic pain is concerned because this is the axis that includes the mineral and glucocorticoids. The mineral and glucocorticoids are the natural hormones in the body that reduce inflammation and pain, after all. We might think of cortisol as a central hormone in the corticotropic axis that specifically pays attention to daytime and nighttime, as a fundamental environmental stimulus that helps the mind and soul (the animating principle) stay connected to earth and to our bodies. Cortisol taps us on the shoulder at the first sign of light on the skin or in the eyes, to cue the body to begin to wake up. Cortisol works in tandem with other hormones like melatonin (which belongs to the Pineal Axis) to cue the body to go into different brainwave states in response to specific types of lightness and dim-ness or darkness. Melatonin tells us that its time to go into alpha, theta, and delta brainwave states of sleep, for example. Cortisol deals more in alpha and beta brainwave states. So, if we return to our metaphor about a symphony orchestra, cortisol would be the hormone that turns on the lights in a dark auditorium to tell us that the reproductive-hormone-performance is starting.Cortisol, like GnRH, is rhythm-oriented and like many other hormones, it uses rhythm, tempo, and volume to communicate with the Gonadotropic Axis to tell it to initiate the reproductive-hormone-performance that begins with GnRH.
It isn’t hard to imagine how synthetic steroid treatments (e.g. cortisone shots for inflammation or steroid inhalers for asthma) that disrupt the Corticotropic Axis might disrupt the entire body if you know and understand that the Corticotropic Axis uses rhythm and not one-off “dosing” to establish and maintain balance. If you know that a steroid or cortisone treatment is going to potentially (likely) disrupt your Gonadotropic Axis of reproductive hormones, you might (in some cases) skip that treatment in favor of less disruption. There’s a time and a place, of course, for all medicines and sometimes pain gets the better of us and we choose to go for the quick fix. But if our body has been subjected to steroid treatments that have disrupted your hormone levels, you will have to seek out balance from nature and treatments that seek to restore the connection between natural rhythms as a starting point.
Cortisol Imbalance, Trauma, and Desynchronization
In psychology, trauma and mental illness or mood problems can be defined as a situation in which the mind is not in the present tense. It is dissociated into parts that exist primarily in the past (although sometimes also in the future). Trauma causes the mind to split into parts in order to survive the stress. Trauma leaves at least one part behind, in the unconscious mind, in the past, at the moment when the trauma occurred.In a person with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), for example, “flashbacks” bring back feelings associated with a traumatic moment. In a person with Major Depression or Bipolar Disorder, a trigger might cause the uprising of toxic and seemingly uncontrollable thoughts that create a sense of apathy and helpless hopelessness. In a person with any number of Anxiety disorders, a trigger might set a panic attack in motion that makes a person feel a powerful sense of doom or terror from a moment of trauma from the past. A woman who has recently given birth might experience something called D-MER when she breastfeeds, particularly when prolactin is released as part of the breastfeeding process. During a D-MER episode, she might feel a sense of doom or rage that is ultimately rooted in the experience of trauma during childbirth (though sometimes the trauma is rooted more deeply in another moment from the past). In all of these cases, people are essentially experiencing a “trigger” that pulls up a traumatic moment from the unconscious mind. This traumatic moment does not present itself as a memory though as the memory of the trauma is stored in the left, conscious mind. Rather, it presents a feeling…an emotion from the past that’s been disconnected or dissociated from the memory content in order to make the event tolerable to the conscious mind.
Meanwhile, physiologically, PTSD, major depression, anxiety disorders, postpartum depression, D-MER, psychosis of any kind (including postpartum psychosis, schizophrenia, and more), dysphoria, and even personality disorders like narcissism involve cortisol release that is either early or delayed. In other words, on a physiological level, hormonally we express the fact that a part of us is trapped in the unconscious realm of the mind in the past, at the moment of a trauma through disrupted cortisol release. And when cortisol release is disrupted by the experience and buildup of trauma that has not been integrated and released using trauma-informed therapies, our Gonadotropic Axis becomes hopelessly disrupted too.
While disrupted cortisol release leads toward a lack of proper levels of natural steroid hormones to reduce inflammation at the right moment, the disruption of gonadotropic hormones leads to a chronic state of overgrowth or undergrowth and a perpetuated sense of being disconnected from our own cells and our bodies.
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Follicle Stimulating Hormone (FSH) and Luteinizing Hormone (LH)
FSH and LH are perhaps even more important than estrogen, progesterone, and androgens in terms of men’s and women’s health. FSH and LH impact men’s health, but let’s talk about these hormones first, in terms of women’s reproductive health as women’s reproductive health is more complex. Women, after all, exist as four separate types of animal: The Non-Menstruating Girl, The Fertile Young Woman, The Pregnant Woman, and The Post-Menopausal Woman. Each life stage of a woman involves a different rhythm, tempo, and amplitude of FSH and LH.
FSH plays a role that’s usually complementary to estrogen, but the relationship between FSH and estrogen varies depending on the life-stage of the woman. In a young, fertile woman, for example, FSH tends to spur the release of estrogens in the body. As estrogen levels rise though, FSH is then inhibited. So these two hormones normally work together to keep each other balanced in a young, menstruating, non-pregnant woman. FSH is named for its task of maturing follicles inside the ovary (which contain ova that have not been released yet). In a post-menopausal woman, in contrast, FSH and LH both exist at a high level and estrogen is at a low level. Scientific studies have not been done to try to understand this impact on women’s psychology or health except to develop drugs that doctors can sell to women. So let’s just note for now that FSH and estrogen have a relationship but it varies and there isn’t necessarily a strict rule about how they work together or the levels that they need to be at in order for a woman to be healthy.
LH, in contrast to FSH, is responsible for spurring the formation of the corpus luteum, a temporary “glandular organ” that develops in the ovaries after the ova is released from the follicle. The corpus luteum is a bit like an open wound in the ovary that heals partially into an operational bit of tissue that releases progesterone during the last half of the menstrual cycle. The progesterone produced by the corpus luteum promotes the buildup of the endometrial tissues in anticipation of possible fertilization. During pregnancy, progesterone and estrogen must be produced by the corpus luteum until the placenta can take over to maintain the pregnancy with much higher levels of these hormones that drop to initiate birth. Normally, progesterone levels are like a bass drum beat, oscillating between high and low steadily throughout a woman’s reproductive life, but during pregnancy, progesterone is sustained at a high level until the end of the pregnancy.
As with FSH and estrogen, LH has a relationship with progesterone. LH in healthy women, spikes briefly to cue follicles to release the ova. When LH spikes, it goes up to a higher level than FSH and then stays at a slightly higher level than FSH until it’s time for FSH to spur the development of a new follicle (toward the end of the menstrual cycle). When LH spikes, the ova is released into the fallopian tubes and at this time, it makes sense for the body to prepare a potential home for this egg, should it be fertilized. Progesterone creates this space in the womb for an embryo if the egg is fertilized. Estrogen is also produced by the corpus luteum because it also plays a role in designing the interior of this womb-space. Estrogen thus rises in tandem with progesterone.
FSH is related to estrogen levels in the body. FSH and estrogen often have a balancing relationship. At least, this is the ideal type of relationship between FSH and estrogen during the reproductive years of a woman. When FSH is released to spur the development of follicles in the ovaries, estrogen levels are supposed to rise in response. When estrogen levels reach a critical level, FSH levels go down. If this system of balance between FSH and estrogen is disrupted somehow, a variety of problems can develop including chronic pain and inflammation. A healthy FSH-estrogen balance means that when estrogen is low, FSH is increased, leading to a rise in estrogen. When estrogen gets to a certain critical level, FSH is inhibited, causing estrogen to also diminish. It’s important to understand this relationship in order to understand how Garcinia kola and Garcinia cambogia works to heal women’s health problems and chronic pain conditions.
Overly high FSH levels can hyperstimulate ovarian production of estradiol (except in post-menopausal women and girls who are not menstruating yet) which can lead to a disturbance in normal follicle development and multicystic follicular growth. Higher-than normal levels of estrogen during the follicular phase in the first part of the menstrual cycle can, in turn, lead to heavy menstrual bleeding. Garcinia kola and Garcinia cambogia are two herbs that can reset this imbalance and correct it by blocking FSH receptors in the ovaries to reduce the FSH hyperstimulation of the ovaries without disrupting the body’s normal production of this hormone.
Essentially, in menstruating women, there’s a barometer in the body that measures estrogen levels in the bloodstream. This barometer is a bit like a thermostat for a central air unit. When estrogen levels get too high, FSH turns off ovarian estrogen production. Estrogens are produced elsewhere in the body at this time when ovarian estrogen production drops off. For example, estrogen is produced by the adrenal glands to keep the rest of the body’s cells healthy and functioning. Adrenal estrogen production is where a lot of the post-menopausal estrogen comes from in older women. But LH turns the estrogen production back on again through the development of the corpus luteum in the ovary. The corpus luteum produces both estrogen and progesterone in anticipation of fertilization. The corpus luteum tends to produce a smaller amount of estrogen during the luteal phase (the second half) of the menstrual cycle though.
However, when things get imbalanced in a woman’s body, either as a result of trauma, or due to high stress and a lack of sleep (think: babies crying in the middle of the night plus an early rise to get older kids off to school), FSH might get triggered to spike more than one time during a normal menstrual cycle. A woman might then have more than one follicle developing at one time. She might have multiple cysts that are diagnosed as a problem like PCOS. LH might also spike more than once and a woman might end up with more than one corpus luteum producing more than the average amount of estrogen and progesterone. Endometriosis might occur as a result. At the doctor’s office, a woman is told to put her legs up in stirrups so that the doctor can look “up there” and tell her “what’s wrong”. This creates even more stress and, rather than solving the problem it usually adds to the woman’s sense that she can’t resolve the imbalance. Hormonal imbalance in women often results from the numerous stops and starts in a young woman’s schedule during the day, but it can also be caused by meddling doctors who are telling women to administer synthetic or bioidentical hormones that hijack their natural rhythms. Even xenoestrogens found in perfumes, lotions, shampoos, makeup, laundry detergents, and other personal care products add to this disrupted hormonal “rhythm”. Toxins like organophosphates and bromide / bromine or fluoride in the air or water supply serve to make these hormonal disruptions even more entrenched.
Nonetheless, FSH sets off ovarian follicle maturation and estrogen levels rise at the same time because estrogen builds and designs the interior of cells. Estrogen is the perfect hormone to do this work of follicle maturation in the ovary, of course. Estrogen levels rise in anticipation following the LH spike, as the corpus luteum acts to make pregnancy possible during the initial building and structuring of the placenta.
In some young, menstruating women, estrogen levels are high while FSH levels are low in the first part of their cycle. This is flip-flopped from how FSH and estrogen are supposed to be proportioned at this time of the month. This can happen if there are multiple follicles that end up developing into a corpus luteum, for example and these multiple corpus luteums are at different levels of maturation. Let’s say one corpus luteum has matured at the proper time in the cycle and it is producing high levels of progesterone and estrogen…and then another one comes of age a few days later such that now there’s a very high level of estrogen and progesterone being produced by two corpus luteums. The one that developed into a hormone-producing organ-gland stops producing progesterone and estrogen at the proper time in the cycle and estrogen and progesterone levels drop precipitously (but not all the way back to baseline as there are TWO corpus lutea making hormones now) and a woman gets her period as a result. That second corpus luteum might keep estrogen levels high for an additional 2-3 days (or longer) to cause a super heavy period. A woman with this kind of double-whammy hormone rise before her period might get exceptionally irritable as high progesterone and estrogen levels create discomfort and mood swings on par with postpartum states of depression or even psychosis.
We know that two or more corpus luteums can develop at the same time and release eggs because this is what happens when a woman has maternal twins or triplets (or multiples of any number). Though it isn’t common knowledge and doctors typically won’t mention the problem or explain it to patients (because they either don’t know about this problem or they have no means to treat it and thus see no reason to bring it up), this issue of multiple corpus luteum “organ-glands” producing super-high levels of estrogen and progesterone can create big problems for women.
Fixing the FSH barometer of estrogen requires an effort toward re-establishing the proper rhythm of hormone production and release. An increase in estrogen levels can lead to excessive menstrual bleeding or prolonged menstrual periods as well as breast discomfort, and headaches. High levels of progesterone, in contrast, can cause breast tenderness, fatigue, mood swings, bloating, and libido issues. A woman who has what seems like a perpetual production of corpus luteum organ-glands might, at times, have a number of things going wrong with her body, her mood, and her mental state. But women have always had to adapt to traumatic situations involving interruptions in routine, lack of organized schedules, and difficulty staying connected in a peaceful way, to nature. The modern woman is thoroughly challenged in this regard. Luckily though, there are herbs and treatments that can help.
For women who have entered menopause, FSH levels increase which initially maintains estrogen levels (although there are some different patterns in terms of menopausal hormone trajectory). With the full transition to menopause though, estrogen levels decline and then they remain lower as other structures like the adrenal glands take over production of this hormone. FSH levels increase and remain high for the rest of a woman’s life. The timing and magnitude of the increase in FSH varies among women. Estrogen, of course, is an important hormone that helps maintain a healthy interior of cells throughout the body. Luckily, a number of phyto-estrogens (estrogens found in plants that mimic natural human estrogen) exists to help women continue to have enough of this vital hormone if they require more than their bodies can produce.
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Natural Coumarins to Reduce Estrogen Levels That Are Too High
The breaking open of the corpus luteum often goes unnoticed, but it can be painful and it can involve noticeable vaginal bleeding even in normal, healthy women. In women who take blood thinners like warfarin, however, the corpus luteum can bleed prolifically such that it becomes problematic and dangerous. Warfarin, in fact, can cause pressure to rise in follicles which leads to the breakage of the capsule and hemoperiotoneum (blood in the peritoneal cavity). Warfarin is a synthetic drug that was developed originally from natural coumarin, found in plants. Natural coumarin inhibits estrogen synthesis, which can be useful in the treatment of some forms of endometriosis. Warfarin, in contrast, should generally be avoided by women because of its potentially negative impact on the female reproductive system. Natural, plant-based coumarin is found in many herbs and even foods like the vanilla bean. These foods and herbs can be used strategically, along with medicinal plant-derived substances like Diindoylmethane (DIM).
That being said, while a lot of women have used DIM to try to control a so-called “estrogenic state”, most of them don’t know why they’re “estrogenic”. Some of these women also smear wild yam (Dioscorea villosa) lotions on their wrists to try to increase progesterone levels at the same time. In some cases, this might be warranted, but a woman who has high estrogen levels is also likely to have progesterone levels that are also too high as the corpus luteum (or multiple corpus luteums) are the source of a lot of hormonal woe. In the defense of the young woman who is out there trying to figure out how to balance her own hormones (to try to avoid doctors, in most cases), there’s very little logical guidance out there that explains what’s happening in the body in a way that women can understand.
As a woman, if you have one of any number of menstruation issues, fertility issues, chronic pain or fatigue, mood, or mental health issues that seem to revolve around your menstrual cycle, it’s important to work with herbs that are “intelligent” and that will diagnose your issue and “decide” on your behalf whether to increase estrogen and progesterone, FSH, or LH or decrease them. Not all herbs have this kind of intelligence. When you work with herbs for womanly problems, work with them using womanly magic and expect for them to behave intelligently in your body.
There are herbs that can raise or lower estrogen or progesterone or FSH and LH, but I hope that by this point, dear reader, that you understand the challenge of finding the right rhythm and dosing amplitude for yourself. Using your conscious mind and logic isn’t likely to produce the desired results as the root cause of hormonal imbalance is usually stress, trauma, and specifically interruptions to conscious trains of thought as well as sleep. This is the lot of many women whether the woman in question is nursing a baby or nursing a new business. Women are creatures who are bound to cycles and interruptions that take us off course so that we can evolve. At the beginning of this discussion, I defined trauma as a dissociation of consciousness in which one part of us stays behind at a moment in the past that was (subjectively) traumatic. Trauma creates both an emotional imprint as well as a physiological cortisol-disruption imprint. Another definition for trauma that’s well accepted in the field of trauma-informed psychology is “incompletion”. Any act that is not completed and that we desire to complete, is experienced by the physical body as “trauma”.
As a woman, rather than working with herbs that raise or lower progesterone and estrogen levels, it’s important to take a more holistic approach emotionally and spiritually to this problem of disrupted hormones and whole-body-mind meltdown. We have to ask herbs to act like healers for us and trust them and give them respect. We have to acknowledge what’s incomplete in our lives and what we seek to complete every day. What are the things that we’re driven to complete each day? What are the things that can remain incomplete for a short period of time (a few days?...a few weeks?) and…what are the things that could remain in a state of incompletion forever if necessary?
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Garcinia kola and Garcinia cambogia
Garcinia kola are herbs that has powerful peripheral balancing effects on reproductive hormone levels. Studies indicate that Garcinia kola does not impact reproductive hormone levels centrally. Rather, at the top of the hormone cascade in the gonadtropic axis, FSH and LH are released normally, at normal levels even when you’re taking a moderately high dose of these herbs. But in the outer periphery of the body, at the ovaries or in the testes, for example (and in other areas of the body distant from the pituitary gland), FSH and LH receptors are blocked by Garcinia kola.
By blocking FSH and LH receptors temporarily, Garcinia kola is able to calm the reproductive organs and restore balance to reproductive hormones levels. As FSH and LH are blocked temporarily, the breakdown of the estrogens and progesterones in the body are temporarily blocked which leads to higher serum levels of these hormones. In some women, higher serum levels of estrogen and progesterone could be uncomfortable, if not undesirable, of course, but evidence exists in some studies that when women don’t need higher estrogen or progesterone levels, Garcinia kola and Garcinia cambogia don’t cause these hormones to become elevated.
High levels of estrogen and progesterone, of course, trigger the pituitary gland to naturally reduce FSH and LH from being released. Normally, without Garcinia kola working peripherally to rebalance hormones, reduced levels of FSH and LH would lead to a gentle, natural reduction in estrogen and progesterone levels in the body. If FSH is not spurring the maturation of follicle-after-follicle…and if LH isn’t constantly causing those follicles to turn into corpus luteums, hormone levels should normalize. Garcinia kola and Garcinia cambogia work through a mechanism of action that lowers FSH and LH in women while increasing estrogen and progesterone in women who need an increase in these hormones. In women who don’t need more estrogen and progesterone, these herbs create balance.
Garcinia kola and Garcinia cambogia are some of just a few herbs that can be used by women specifically, to overcome hormone imbalances. In low to moderate doses, they can help the body get out of a vicious, hormone-imbalanced cycle. Garcinia kola could theoretically be helpful for women who have recently given birth, women who have been on birth control pills, or women who have done bioidentical or synthetic hormone replacement therapy, but who want to quit the treatments. These herbs can help women who have had major stressors or traumas in their lives. They can help women who are juggling multiple children in the home and multiple schedules.
Indeed, Garcinia kola is also an herbal remedy for hyperprolactinemia (prolactin levels that are too high) and there are reasons to believe that Garcinia cambogia would also provide relief from the problem of high prolactin levels too. Many women who experience postpartum depression are also suffering from Dysphoric Milk Ejection Reflex or D-MER, an issue that’s correlated with the release of prolactin during breastfeeding. Though D-MER and postpartum depression are separate issues, they can and often do co-exist. Both may be based on prolactin issues that can be corrected by Garcinia kola or Garcinia cambogia, however women should not endeavor to work with these herbs during breastfeeding. Indeed, both are strictly contraindicated during pregnancy because they can cause birth defects. Garcinia kola and Garcinia cambogia lower prolactin levels which means that they can reduce milk production. As such, if you wish to continue breastfeeding, these herbs should be avoided during lactation as well.
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Kola Nut for Women
NOTE: While bitter kola nut / Garcinia kola has been shown to produce deformities in animals being treated with this herb in high doses, it is commonly used in high doses during pregnancy among women in various areas of the world to prevent morning sickness. Readers should be aware of this contradiction between anecdotal experiences and scientific studies. We note in other areas on this site that bitter kola nut is safe during pregnancy because women eat bitter kola nut during pregnancy in many cultures without seeing birth defects in their children.
In female animals, the Garcinia kola seed extract at a dose of 200 mg/kg body weight had a profound effect on the estrus cycle and ovulation. In animal studies of kola nut, the estrus cycle was altered for the first 2 weeks after beginning to dose with the extract, but it returned to normal starting from the 3rd week of treatment. Ovulation was partially blocked.
In female rats, studies have shown that the kola nut lowers luteinizing hormone (LH), follicle stimulating hormone (FSH), and prolactin levels in a dose-dependent fashion over periods lasting from 3 to 30 days. On the other hand, estradiol and progesterone levels were significantly increased during the study. In the study, the dose varied from 350 to 2000 mg per kilogram body weight in the animals studied.
Garcinia cambogia: Herbal Remedy for PCOS
Garcinia cambogia, which is related to Garcinia kola has been studied specifically in terms of its ability to cure Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome / PCOS, but Garcinia kola may have similar effects as an herbal remedy for PCOS because of its known reducing impact on Follicle Stimulating Hormone (FSH) and Luteinizing Hormone (LH).In animal studies examining Garcinia cambogia for PCOS, a water-based extract was used at a dose of 100, 300, and 500 mg/kg body weight. Animals received treatment at one of the 3 doses over the course of 10 weeks. At the end of the 10 weeks of treatment, ovaries showed a dose-dependent reduction in ovary weight, the number of ovarian cysts, and improvement in terms of follicle growth. In other words, the rats who were given higher doses (500 mg/kg body weight daily) reduced the number of ovarian cysts and the weight of ovaries, and improved follicle growth.
Hormonal analysis in these studies showed a significant improvement in hormone balance. Women with FSH, LH, estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone imbalances developed a much more balanced hormone profile after 10 weeks at 500 mg/kg body weight as a dose. Their lipid profiles also improved.
Lower Prolactin Levels Naturally: Kola Nut
Prolactin works with oxytocin after pregnancy during the postpartum period to spur the production of milk in women’s breasts. High prolactin levels inhibit the secretion of FSH. Menstruating women with low FSH may have absent or irregular periods, low libido, infertility, hot flashes, and fatigue. Hyperprolactinemia (high prolactin levels), in other words, can suppress ovulation. This is one of the reasons why women who are breastfeeding often don’t become pregnant.Low FSH Levels: Herbal Remedy
Low FSH levels can lead to chronic pain issues. But Garcinia kola doesn’t lower FSH release from the pituitary gland so it won’t worsen the problem of low FSH, if this is your particular issue. Rather, the kola nut reduces ovarian response to FSH by blocking FSH and LH receptors. And at the same, kola nut increases estradiol and progesterone levels in the bloodstream by preventing their breakdown by the liver. Increasing estrogen levels in the blood should trigger a woman’s body to begin producing natural FSH again. This could take several menstrual cycles of treatment, but in menstruating women, kola nut is able to help women restore hormone balance through this mechanism of action.
Hyperprolactinemia, PTSD, and Garcinia kola
Prolactin is a hormone that has hundreds of actions in the human body, but for the most part, if you try to do research on prolactin, the only thing you’ll find (without digging enthusiastically into this topic) is information about how prolactin functions in the production of breastmilk.A little known fact about prolactin, though, is that it is pleiotropic in nature, which means that it can change shape. It’s a shape-shifter. As such, prolactin can impact many different tissues throughout the body, not just the breast tissues in women and it can, in fact, take on different shapes to accomplish different effects in the body. This is not widely known and it isn’t widely propagated in mainstream science. In fact, the NIH begins its discussion of prolactin by saying:
“Prolactin is a polypeptide hormone responsible for lactation, breast development, and hundreds of other actions needed to maintain homeostasis.”
The NIH web content does not, however, do a good job of explaining the “hundreds of other actions” of prolactin unfortunately. Nonetheless, prolactin plays many functions in the human body to keep our bodies functioning at a balanced, homeostatic level. Prolactin, in fact, is also produced by men (though they do not usually produce breastmilk) and while, in mainstream, pop-science, prolactin is nothing more than a hormone that pertains to breastfeeding, prolactin, in fact, does many things in the body.
Prolactin can be grouped into the Prolactin / Growth Hormone / Placental Lactogen family of hormones that all come from a common ancestral gene. It belongs to the somatotropic axis. Pituitary production of prolactin is regulated by dopamine via the hypothalamus though the mammary glands, uterus, immune system, and central nervous system can all produce prolactin too, but it is also responsive to Thyrotropin Releasing Hormone (TRH). TRH stimulates prolactin release while dopamine stimulates its production. As such, prolactin sits at a crossroads between the influence of TRH and dopamine, making it one of the most important hormones involved in mental and emotional health.
While dopamine represents the left, logical side of the brain, TRH represents the right, emotional side of the brain. As such, prolactin plays a role in the body’s attempts to release and integrate trauma at certain times of the month, certain times in a person’s life, and at certain times of the year (namely during the equinoxes when geomagnetic shifts cause a switch from dopamine-dominance to TRH-dominance for several weeks around the equinoxes each year). Dysregulation of prolactin levels has been implicated in the development of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder / PTSD and other stress-related disorders, for example. A disordered relationship between right-brain TRH and left-brain dopamine can be used to explain most of the mental health disorders and a number of the sexual dysfunctions listed in the DSM diagnostic manual used by psychologists and psychiatrists and prolactin sits squarely at this intersection. But prolactin is not straightforward in terms of its impact in the body. However, it is well-known that it modulates the stress response during pregnancy and lactation. Prolactin helps the female brain to adapt to pregnancy and the various changes that can happen in the lives of women as a result of pregnancy. In order for a new mother to adapt to pregnancy and later, a new baby, the brain has to rewire itself. Prolactin assists with this rewiring and hyperprolactinemia is adaptive during eras of life when there is a need for profound change and adaptability.
Hyperprolactinemia can also cause serious issues though, including infertility and PTSD among other things. But if prolactin is always working on our behalf to promote survival, it’s likely that hyperproduction of this hormone is caused, in many cases, by overload of trauma, which gives the body the “felt sense” that it can’t adapt to the present moment.
The general impact on the body of prolactin is to regulate the pace of endocrine function and the body’s ability to self-protect and self-sustain. Prolactin is one of the most diverse hormones in humans in terms of its effects on the human body. It sits at this right-brain, left-brain crossroads, but it also has a privileged impact on the pacing all of the five endocrine axes. In the symphony orchestra of hormones in the human body, prolactin acts to determine the tempo of the song that our bodies produce.
Garcinia kola, of course, is an herb that alters estrogen levels in the body by preventing estrogen breakdown in the liver. Estrogen stimulates the secretion of prolactin, but high prolactin levels, in turn, suppress estrogen secretion. But estrogen, in all but women of menstruating age, is a locally produced hormone that doesn’t typically circulate in large quantities in the blood. In young, non-menstruating girls, men, and older women who have gone through menopause, estrogen is a hormone that is produced locally, in the areas of the body where it is needed. In women of child-bearing age with functional ovaries, estrogen is released in large quantities and it circulates throughout the body in the bloodstream as an endocrine hormone. Estrogen levels in menstruating women can “go off the rails” and be either too high or too low in relation to other hormones that play a role in reproductive organ function and the menstrual cycle. Prolactin is stimulated by estrogen in the bloodstream of menstruating females and it acts in lactating females to promote the production of milk in the breasts during lactation.
Men generally have low levels of prolactin as do non-lactating females, but hyperprolactinemia can happen in males and non-lactating females, of course. For example, dopamine antagonists / antipsychotics, can lead to high prolactin levels or hyperprolactinemia, presumably as prolactin seeks to help the body connect the right-brain to the left-brain to release trauma. In conventional medicine, hyperprolactinemia is sometimes associated with structural changes to the pituitary gland. Doctors don’t work with this problem in terms of emotions or life-stress and instead recommend some form of treatment to repair the structural issue or cancer.
In conventional medicine, of course, reproductive hormones like prolactin are presented to patients as “medicinal substances” that can be administered or “controlled” in a dose-oriented fashion to accomplish some specific effect. But hormones don’t really work that way and prolactin is no exception. Many hormones, including prolactin and the other reproductive hormones, accomplish their effects on the body through rhythm, tempo, and sometimes amplitude, rather than in terms of “hormone levels / amounts or hormone doses”. As such, patterns of release are more important than the amount of release of a given hormone. The endocrine system is musical in terms of how it functions and patterns and synchronization matters more than the amount of any one given hormone. Prolactin has a rhythmicity to its output with two peaks. One is in the morning to support cortisol production for adaptation to stress. The second peak is during sleep to promote growth and repair of the body (anabolism). Prolactin production and release is different in menstruating women than it is in men and in women and girls at different stages of life.
Importantly, prolactin secretion is regulated very differently from other pituitary hormones. This is relevant to anyone with hyperprolactinemia, mental health or mood issues, infertility, or any number of health problems that originate with high prolactin levels. While most pituitary hormones must be stimulated by a hormone that comes from the hypothalamus, prolactin release is prevented by hypothalamic hormones.
Prolactin is the only anterior pituitary hormone that lacks a classical hormonal feedback mechanism. Dopamine, which is regarded primarily as a neurotransmitter, also plays a role as a hypothalamic hormone when it regulates prolactin levels. This explains why herbs like Mucuna pruriens, that contain dopamine precursors to spur dopamine production, can cause a woman’s milk supply to dry up, presumably through inhibition of prolactin. In men and women who are not breastfeeding or even menstruating though, Mucuna pruriens can also inhibit prolactin secretion to some extent, especially if used in tandem with a dopamine-releasing agent like caffeine.
Let’s return to our discussion of Garcinia kola though. This is an herb that can lower prolactin levels naturally, but Garcinia kola contains caffeine which might explain at least some of this prolactin-lowering effect. Theoretically though, Mucuna pruriens could be administered along with Garcinia kola to increase dopamine production in neurons and provide a more solid prolactin-lowering effect.
On the anterior pituitary gland, there are dopamine D2 receptors that, when activated, inhibit prolactin secretion. A lack of dopamine D2 receptors can lead to hyperprolactinemia, but Mucuna pruriens is specifically used to regrow dopamine receptors in those who have suffered from some form of addiction that might have damaged the receptors. Dopamine receptor regrowth usually takes 5 months of continuous dosing with Mucuna pruriens at 6000 mg daily (1500 mg administered every 4-6 hours of the day).
In males and non-lactating females, prolactin has no target. In lactating females, the breast tissues act as a prolactin “target”, spurring breastmilk production. In men and non-lactating females, prolactin is normally regulated through a short-loop negative feedback mechanism involving prolactin-responsive neurons that increase their firing rate with greater prolactin stimulation, causing an eventual dopamine release. In any case, prolactin secretion is usually low under most conditions except when women are breastfeeding. When prolactin levels are too high (due to pituitary adenoma or the administration of antipsychotic dopamine antagonists), a range of adverse effects can take shape including:
- Mood disorders
- Weight gain
- Infertility
- Osteoporosis / low bone density
Garcinia kola can help restore balance in terms of dopamine and prolactin, however. The kola nut is an herbal remedy for hyperprolactinemia. It works in a dose-dependent fashion with greater prolactin-lowering effects with increasing dose up to 500 mg / kg body weight.
Environment Stimuli That Impact Prolactin Production and Hyperprolactinemia
Below are environmental-type stimuli that can cause the body to produce prolactin in the breasts, uterus, immune system, or in the nervous system:
- Smells
- Light exposure
- Nipple stimulation
- A woman who has never been pregnant can produce breastmilk with frequent nipple stimulation.
- Stress
- Estrogen
- Antipsychotic medications / dopamine antagonists
- Thyrotropin Releasing Hormone (TRH)
- Reproduction and hormonal cues
- Circadian stimuli
- General physiological health
Garcinia kola is an herb that specifically assists in the rebalancing of reproductive hormones in women. Women who experience mood problems after one or more pregnancies can work with this herb to lower prolactin levels and re-establish balance in terms of dopamine and prolactin. Administration of Mucuna pruriens in tandem with Garcinia kola can help women regrow dopamine neurons that have damaged by addictive substances, psychoactive drugs, or even addictive behaviors. Mucuna pruriens will help in terms of recharging neurons with plenty of dopamine and assisting in the regrowth of dopamine receptors while Garcinia kola contains a small amount of caffeine as well as theobromine to provide a gentle boost of energy (without jitters) and a dopamine release that can help in controlling prolactin levels.
In countries where coca matcha (Erythroxylum coca) leaf is legal and available, this herb can further assist in the release of dopamine combined with enhanced oxygenation of cells. Erythoxylum coca / coca matcha can be administered with Mucuna pruriens and Garcinia kola to reduce prolactin levels and control corresponding mood-related or mental health issues. This combination of herbs can help women overcome postpartum depression, treat D-MER naturally, and adapt to life after childbirth and breastfeeding more quickly.
Resources:
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