[Isabelle]

Hi Pansy Mae,

Since April, 31st, 2011, the 2002 EU directive for supplements has become effective. It requires importers to supply the data showing the supplement is safe. Since then, supplements like Solgar PM phytogen complex have completely disappeared from the shelves here. As far as I know, there is no PM on the shelves. The importers operate from the EU, but ship directly from outside the EU, which makes it a customs responsibility to keep an eye on it.

UK professional associations of herbalists have lobbied for the "herbalist exemption", which has become part of the directive. So in the UK, importers can legally sell unregistered supplements to you as long as they are prescribed by an herbalist. Technically, that is allowed anywhere in the EU, but here in the Netherlands there is still debate on who is an herbalist. In the UK, if e.g. Pueraria.co.uk would employ one registered herbalist, they're in the clear.

I haven't heard about a crackdown on PM yet. There has been one on licorice in the Netherlands though. Imported licorice was analysed for heavy metals and such, and a lot of it was taken off the market. The amounts involved were sufficient to drive up the price. The Dutch eat licorice all the time, so the incentive for a crackdown is a lot higher than for something rare like PM, though.

I wrote on PM and dopamine here:
http://www.breastnexus.com/showthread.php?tid=8419&pid=36473#pid36473

You are right about the headaches being a normal estrogen dominance symptom. What I was pointing out is that for hops, Eve M's program and Wahaika give clear guidelines on how much FG to use with hops. For PM, I haven't found a guideline on how much FG or WY to use with it, and above what dose of PM. I admit that it only takes a few easy experiments to find out.

Sorry for writing the reasons why I don't use PM in shorthand. The point I was trying to make is that it's a large set of practical details, as opposed to one major showstopper. I'm willing to elaborate further on any one of them, though.

[Nila]

Hi Isabelle,

I came across this article which seems to suggest that excess prostaglandin D2 may be the cause of male pattern baldness. I figured you may be interested, seeing as you are such an information hound You'll probably find a herbal means of counteracting PGD2.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cg...-M18ZW.DTL

[Isabelle]

Yes, Nila,

I saw it today too. It's kinda puzzling: D2 makes men bald, and F2 α makes eyelashes longer. Maybe the borage oil or EPO users on the forum have some experience to report: GLA is a prostaglandin precursor.

[mochaccino]

I always feel like I'm bothering you by posting a question here, so I never do, but I'm dying to hear your opinion on this. I hope you don't mind
What do you think about the possibility of using topical estrogen similar to the bioidentical PC that's already so popular around here? I've been strongly considering it.

[Isabelle]

Hi mochaccino,

I don't mind. About the topical estrogen, it will work, but be sure to be very careful in applying the same dose every day, and balancing it in some way with progesterone. Otherwise it's asking for estrogen dominance.

Another problem that can come up is low Luteinizing Hormone (LH). If it happens, you will probably notice it first because of rashes, inflammation, stomach pain, etc. because of low cortisol. In that case, lower the estrogen dose.

I was still thinking about Nila's post. I remember posting before that borage oil is effective against hair loss. I found the post; it's this one:
http://www.breastnexus.com/showthread.php?tid=8419&pid=41363#pid41363

[Isabelle]

I went back to the original publication about hops needing digestion to turn into a really potent estrogen:
http://jn.nutrition.org/content/136/7/1862.full

Two years later, the intestinal bacteria were identified: Eubacterium limosum
http://jn.nutrition.org/content/138/7/13...l.pdf+html

And yes, they proved that rats that did not respond to hops could be colonized with these bacteria. Only the procedure is a little invasive

[Isabelle]

I made a spread sheet to speed up the calculations I do every tape day, which is every two weeks on a Monday. Only, I can't seem to upload it here. I can still e-mail it to anyone who's interested. I even programmed the band size of Anastasia's US bra size calculator into it:
http://www.breastnexus.com/showthread.php?tid=10387&pid=38915#pid38915

I learned a few things:

I thought I had a growth spurt at the end of last year. But I made a plot that shows a steady growth of one cup size every 45 days since July. That's G cups by end August

I thought body mass index (BMI) has a huge effect on breast size. But if I were to correct my breast size for BMI now, I would subtract 1 cm for a BMI that is one point high. No more.

My Waist Hip Ratio has shown a steady decline too. At this rate, it would take nine more months to slim to a really feminine 0.7.

[Pansy-Mae]

'morning Isabelle,

I made a spread sheet to speed up the calculations I do every tape day, which is every two weeks on a Monday. Only, I can't seem to upload it here.

No, I've found much the same when I try to simply cut and paste my results, which I keep on Excel

I can still e-mail it to anyone who's interested.

Yes please

I learned a few things:

I thought I had a growth spurt at the end of last year. But I made a plot that shows a steady growth of one cup size every 45 days since July. That's G cups by end August

Lucky you...I wish!

I thought body mass index (BMI) has a huge effect on breast size.

I had assumed that too ( see below)

But if I were to correct my breast size for BMI now, I would subtract 1 cm for a BMI that is one point high. No more.

I'm not sure what you mean here, sorry . When you say 'correct', do you mean that if you take breast size ( cup size?) and BMI when you started, and the same again now, it gives an average volume decline of 1cm per 1 BMI unit?

My Waist Hip Ratio has shown a steady decline too. At this rate, it would take nine more months to slim to a really feminine 0.7.

Well, I've lost weight and waist size steadily over the past few months, and BMI has declined as well, obviously,( Since 3rd Jan my weight has dropped from 163lbs to 149lbs and BMI from 24.2 to 22.02 ) and although I feel that my boobs are somehow growing,( they FEEL bigger/ firmer somehow) neither the photos nor tape show any changes at all, and I have wondered if I am still growing actual underlying breast tissue but losing fat deposits at the same rate of volume, giving a net zero change.

[Isabelle]

Hi Pansy Mae,

The BreastNexus e-mail facility doesn't support uploading files either, but step by step, we're getting there.

When I plot the difference between bust and underbust versus time, there is scatter. I can reduce the scatter if I lower the breast sizes measured at high BMI, and increase the breast sizes measured at low BMI. This "correction" is no higher than 1 cm per BMI point. I don't know if my excel starter version on this netbook supports a linear regression of

Breast-Underbust = a*time + b*BMI + c

but I'll try it later.

I admire your discipline in achieving the weight loss. However, it's quite rapid. If you would apply the above correction to your data, you will probably notice that a, the underlying real growth, is significantly higher than zero.

In my rapid weight loss during the past month, I noticed firmer breasts too. The problem in your data set is that time and BMI are no independent variables, as you have consistently lost weight over time. Once we get the math right, and estimate b, you will find a.

[Isabelle]

I found a good review on the effects of hops on sleep. Most of what's in it, I already wrote here, but it does say something new about how hops affects the Central Nervous System. It binds to serotonin receptors:
http://omicsgroup.org/journals/JSDT/JSDT-1-e102.php
but the reference cited
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15636177
is a study on a hops-valerian mixture of herbs, so it's not certain that it's really the hops that is binding to the serotonin receptors.

Binding to a receptor is one thing, activating it is another. So if hops would bind to the serotonin receptor without activating it, that could explain why it's depressing. I've never heard of valerian being depressing, though. So maybe I should try that to prevent depression from hops.