EASY WAY #6
Know About Estrogen & Breast Cancer
Does Your body Produce Good or Bad Estrogen Byproducts?
Research over the past decade shows that the development of breast cancer appears to be related to how the body breaks down leftover or used estrogen. Estrogen must be eliminated from the body once it has performed its essential hormonal duties. High levels of estrogen are known to be a risk factor for breast cancer and too much estrogen also upsets the body’s delicate hormonal balance. In order to be eliminated from the body, these strong estrogens undergo a process called hydroxylation. These hydroxilated estrogens, called estrogen metabolites or byproducts, travel easily in the blood stream and can be eliminated through the urine.
As your body begins to break down or metabolize this estrogen, some individuals’ bodies can sometimes create cancerous byproducts or molecules. Other bodies, however, can take this same wandering estrogen and turn it into byproducts that are neutral or that even protect you from developing cancerous molecules.
Each woman’s body apparently breaks down or metabolizes her excess or free estrogen differently. This is why the ratio of these good byproducts to good byproduct is different for each person.
In 2000, studying data from over 10,000 women in Italy, researchers at the University of Buffalo found that pre menopausal women show a 40% lower risk of developing breast cancer if they have a high ratio of good molecules to bad.
To keep your body's circulating estrogen at safe, low levels:
- Drink milk without rBGH (bovine growth hormone)
- Eat local or organic foods grown without chemical pesticides (such as Atrazine)
- Eat lots of cruciferous vegetables, like kale, cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower
- Eat meat without added chemical or animal hormones such as grass-fed red meat, organic/free range chicken
- Eat fermented soy products including tofu, miso, soy sauce & tempeh
- Take a yearly estrogen metabolism test
rBGH in Milk (bovine growth hormones) and Breast Cancer
The most recent research on rBGH (or Posilac) shows a 3-to 7-fold increased breast cancer risk factor for pre-menopausal women who drink significant amounts of rBGH milk or eat rBGH dairy products. Additional research also links rBGH dairy products with an increased risk of prostate cancer in all men and an increased risk of colon cancer for both men and women.
Milk and dairy products that are labeled organic do not contain rBGH. Other products, although not certified organic, usually are proud to print on their label if their milk is rBGH free. The European Union banned the sale of all rBGH milk and dairy products in 1989, which means that all imported dairy products from Europe should be rBGH-free. Starbucks recently agreed to stop using rBGH milk in all of their stores; Ben & Jerry’s ice cream is also rBGH-free. Check labels before purchasing milk and other dairy products.
The Benefits of Soy
Eating phytoestrogens, such as fermented soy, offers the body a very weak type of estrogen that can successfully link to breast cells, replacing stronger circulating estrogens. Research shows that eating phytoestrogens significantly reduces the risk of developing breast cancer. This international research illustrates how and why fermented soy is the best thing a woman can add to her diet to prevent breast cancer. This pro-soy or pro-phytoestrogen research is often ignored by the U.S. medical world who promotes pharmaceutical drugs as the #1 way to fix medical problems. In addition, most medical professionals are not trained to understand the benefits of plant based or phyto estrogens.
Take An Estrogen Metabolism Test Annually
Watch this video about estrogen testing by Dr. Kara Fitzgerald.
The Metabolism of Estrogen in the Body
Research over the past decade shows that the development of breast cancer appears to be related to how the body breaks down estrogen. Do you know how your body is breaking down your used estrogen?Estrogen must be eliminated from the body once it has performed its essential hormonal duties. High levels of estrogen are known to be a risk factor for breast cancer and too much estrogen also upsets the body’s delicate hormonal balance. In order to be eliminated from the body, estrogen undergoes a process called hydroxylation. These hydroxilated estrogens, called estrogen metabolites, can travel easily in the blood stream and be eliminated through the urine.
As your body begins to break down or metabolize this estrogen, some individuals’ bodies can sometimes create cancerous molecules. Other bodies, however, can take this same wandering estrogen and turn it into molecules that are neutral or that even protect you from developing cancerous molecules.
Each woman’s body apparently breaks down or metabolizes her excess or free estrogen differently. This is why the ratio of these good molecules to bad molecules is different for each person.
In 2000, studying data from over 10,000 women in Italy, U.S researchers at the University of Buffalo found that premenopausal women show a 40% lower risk of developing breast cancer if they have a high ratio of good molecules to bad.
The Estrogen Metabolism Test
It's important to find out if your body is breaking this free or homeless estrogen into dangerous, harmless or beneficial molecules. An estrogen metabolism test is a simple urine test that measures your estrogen metabolism; your current ratio of good to bad molecules. Once you know your estrogen metabolism ratio, you can take simple steps to modify your diet and food supplements accordingly to change the ratio of bad to good molecules if necessary.
Improving Estrogen Metabolism to Prevent Cancer
The lesson of this story: Your body’s current metabolism is not static. If you find that you currently have a pro cancer profile, you can turn your body’s processing style or estrogen metabolism around, by adding specific vegetables, food supplements, fish oils and flax seeds to your diet.
Suggested Supplements for Improving Estrogen Metabolism"At least two different vegetable extracts are able to do this for the large majority of women. These are Indole-3-carbinol (I-3-C) and Diindolylmethane (DIM). I3C and DIM are found in broccoli, cauliflower, brussel sprouts and other vegetables. Eating these foods is also protective. However, for optimal results, you have to eat quite a lot — about two pounds of greens each day. So for practical purposes, taking I-3-C or DIM supplements makes sense if your body’s current estrogen metabolism leans toward producing the dangerous or pro-cancer molecules. Other dietary components that can help your body begin producing beneficial or neutral molecules include eating omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (fatty fish) and lignans in foods like flax seed." — From Estrogen Metabolism and Breast Cancer Prevention, Dr Richard Podell, www.drpodell.org |
FAQ's of Managing Estrogen Levels
Q: Why do many U.S. physicians down play the importance of eating fermented soy (tempeh, miso, soy sauce) to our diet as an important way to help prevent breast cancer?A: Most U.S. doctors have no education or knowledge of how a low estrogen diet can protect a person from developing breast cancer. Physicians are instead trained in how to prescribe toxic drugs to fix most problems. Also, U.S. physicians’ malpractice insurance usually protects them when they prescribe pharmaceutical options.
Q. Why does the American Cancer Society and most other national breast cancer organizations and foundations promote using tamoxifen and arimidex instead following a low estrogen diet?
A. The American Cancer Society receives hundreds of millions of dollars each year from pharmaceutical companies that make these and other cancer related drugs. There may be a connection between these major financial gifts and the breast cancer prevention education information offered by these foundations. For example, AstraZeneca the pharmaceutical company that first patented tamoxifen and now holds the patent on arimidex, gives the American Cancer Society a $10 million annual gift.
Q How can I find out how my body is currently metabolizing estrogen ?
A. A simple morning urine test has recently become available that can measure how much of your free estrogen is broken down into carcinogenic, beneficial or neutral molecules or pathways. About half of women tested tend toward the pro-cancer pathway. Future breast cancer risk, especially among younger or pre-menopausal women seems to depend in part on this balance.
Q. What should I do if the urine test shows that my body is breaking down my homeless estrogen into high amounts of harmful molecules/ into pro-cancer pathways?
A. Relax! According to Dr Richard Podell, a medical doctor in Summit, New Jersey who specializes in preventative or functional medicine, it is usually fairly easy to shift a woman’s estrogen metabolism system away from the pro-cancer path over to the anti-cancer one.
Q.What type of health practitioner can help me follow a prevention lifestyle?
A. Naturopathic physicians are trained in using diet, exercise and food supplements to help patients maintain a cancer-free lifestyle.
Rah! Raw Broccoli: Indole 3-carbinol (I3C) and breast cancer
This excerpt is from the Hormone Negative Blog Spot by Pat Prijatel
"A diet rich in cruciferous vegetables, like kale, cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, can help fight breast cancer, according to research published in the journal Carcinogenesis. Studies in Milan show much the same effect.
Cruciferous veggies have high amounts of Indole-3-carbinol (I3C) , which has been shown in tests to combat the development of breast cancer cells. The Carcinogenesis researchers, from the University of California-Berkeley and the Kochi Medical School in Japan wrote that “Indole-3-carbinol (I3C), a naturally occurring compound of brassica vegetables, has promising anti-cancer properties.” The Italian studies used synthetic I3C and concluded that it “may be a considered a new, promising therapeutic agent for both ER+ and ER- breast cancer.”
So, the juice I started when I was first diagnosed, thanks to my sister Phyllis and the juicer she sent me, turns out to be a solid cancer fighter. My husband, God love his vegetable-slicing heart, juices 1-2 cups of kale, a half cup of cabbage, 2-3 ounces of wheatgrass, 2-3 carrots, and half an apple, to make roughly 2 cups of juice. Occasionally he adds a beet. It tastes about how you would expect, sort of like grazing in a swamp. I don’t care—if it keeps cancer away, I’ll even grow a cud. Lately, he has added about a quarter of a lemon and that makes the thing a whole lot more palatable.
I also have about a cup of raw broccoli every day with homemade humus—my daughter Ellen’s recipe—for a mid-afternoon snack. That is actually tasty. Rah! Raw broccoli."
Estrogen Articles
September 2009, Journal of Oncology — Breast Cancer Patients Unknowingly Dosing Themselves With Estrogen by Using Topical Moisturizers
August 2009, The Medical News — Tamoxifen drup poses increased risk of developing ER negative breast cancer
Cancer Research 2009 — Adjuvant Hormonal Therapy for Breast Cancer and Risk of Hormone Receptor-Specific Subtypes of Contralateral Breast Cancer
Medical Hypothesis — Personal care products that contain estrogens or xenoestrogens may increase breast cancer risk
Estrogen Metabolism and Breast Cancer Prevention — Richard N. Podell, M.D., M.P.H.
Oct 17, 2000 — The Pathway of Estrogen Metabolism Affects Breast Cancer Risk, UB Research Shows — University of Buffalo, the State University of New York.
November 2000, et al Epidemiology — Estrogen Metabolism and Risk of Breast Cancer: A Prospective Study of the 2:16a-Hydoxyestrone Ratio in Pre menopausal and Post menopausal Women — Results of this prospective study support the hypothesis that the estrogen metabolism pathway favoring 2-hydroxylation over 16alpha-hydroxylation is associated with a reduced risk of invasive breast cancer in pre menopausal women.
January 2006, et al Epidemiology — Estrogen Metabolism and Breast Cancer — These data provide support for the hypothesis that the 2/16 ratio is associated with reduced breast cancer risk. The most consistent associations were observed with invasive cancer in pre menopausal women.
Organic Consumers Association on rBDH
Eli Lilly (exclusive manufacturer of rBGH) Milking Cancer video and info at Think Before you Pink
Estrogen and Breast Cancer Risk: Factors of Exposure — Cornell University's Sprecher Institute for Comparative Cancer Research discusses the role estrogen plays in breast cancer.June 2009, American Journal of Clinical Nutrition— Adolescent and adult soy food intake and breast cancer risk: results from the Shanghai Women's Health Study
August 20, 2003, Journal of the National Cancer Institute — Obesity, Estrogen Linked to Breast Cancer
Estrogen Blamed in Weight-Linked Cancer
Food as Medicine: The Role of Soy and Phytoestrogens (from Breast Cancer Beyond Convention (Mary Tagliaferri MD, Atria Books, 2003)
Honest Health Articles
August 14, 2009 — Does soy prevent breast cancer?
September 4, 2000 — The American Cancer Society: Protecting People or Profits
September 25 2009 — The Financial Battle Behind the War on Cancer