Marshall Editions
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 Soy phyto-estrogens as well as the phytoestrogens found in celery, parsley, whole grains (flax in particular), and alfalfa are weak estrogens that may be helpful. Plant medicine that contains estrogens includes Dong Quai, licorice root, chaste berries, and black cohosh. |
Ron Garner
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 Other food products such as those made from soy contain phytoestrogens, naturally occurring estrogens that are reported to be at much higher levels than those found in meat products. Several scientific studies have linked high levels of phytoestrogens to many hormonal problems, including early puberty in girls.31
When we understand how such foods are grown, processed, chemicalized, and promoted to the public, these hormonal side effects should not be too surprising. Excess estrogen, or xenoestrogens, in the body can produce a myriad of undesirable symptoms. |
Marshall Editions
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| Adding phyto-estrogens (plant estrogens), compounds found in plants that produce an estrogen-like effect in the body, to the diet can be helpful for women who suffer from incontinence. In most cases, adding phyto-estrogens to the diet is safe and easy. They can be found in roasted soy nuts, soy milk, tempeh, textured soy protein, and tofu.
Supplements: Take 3-4 g of fish oils a day; 1 tbsp of flaxseed oil a day; 500 mg of vitamin C two to three times a day; and 400 IU of vitamin E a day for antiinflammatory support.
Herbs: Take 400 mg of bromelain three times a day in between meals. |
J. Douglas Bremner
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 Fennel, celery, parsley, and all legumes are excellent sources of phytoestrogens (natural estrogens found in plants).
Hot flashes can be treated with several commonsense noninvasive approaches. Keep cool. Drink ice water throughout the day. Even a slight increase in your body's core temperature can trigger a hot flash. If you dress in layers you can remove and add clothing as your feelings of warmth rise and fall. Simple as it sounds, opening windows and using fans or air conditioners, even in the winter and especially at night when you are sleeping, helps keep you cool. |
Bottom Line Health
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| These seasonings contain very small amounts of phytoestrogens (plant-based estrogens, such as lignans and isoflavones, that occur naturally in certain foods) and can help restore hormone balance.
•Cut down on caffeine. Caffeine stimulates the adrenal glands, leading to a spike in blood sugar levels followed by a plunge in blood sugar to levels even lower than before. This stresses the body and aggravates menopausal woes.
If you don't want to give up coffee completely, have one cup a day with food. Don't use coffee as a stimulant between meals. Instead, eat frequent small meals for energy. |
Dr. Paula Baillie-Hamilton
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 So it's alarming to discover that our own natural estrogens have been classified as known human carcinogens. Nonetheless, this darker side goes some way toward explaining the increasingly numerous reports finding that estrogens in the contraceptive pill and hormone replacement therapy are a cause of breast cancer.
This cancer-provoking effect appears to arise from the natural ability of estrogens to switch on breast cell growth and turnover. |
Alan R. Gaby, M.D., Jonathan V. Wright, M.D., Forrest Batz, Pharm.D. Rick Chester, RPh., N.D., DipLAc. George Constantine, R.Ph., Ph.D. Linnea D. Thompson, Pharm.D., N.D.
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 Some prescriptions contain both estrogens and progestins in a single tablet (Prempro, Prem-phase). Some products add methyltestosterone to esterified estrogens (Estratest) to help enhance sex drive.
Dietary changes that may be helpful
Soybeans contain compounds called phytoestrogens that are related in stmcture to estrogen, though some reports show soy's estrogenic activity to be quite weak.1 Soy is known to affect the menstrual cycle in premenopausal women.2 Societies with high consumption of soy products have a low incidence of hot flashes during menopause. |
Gerald E. Markle and Frances B. McCrea
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 As it turned out, estrogens are effective in controlling menopausal hot flashes. Otherwise, each and every one of these medical claims proved to be false.
Nonetheless, between 1963 and 1975, dollar sales for prescription estrogen replacements quadrupled. As one Harvard researcher noted:
"Few medical interventions have had as widespread application as exogenous estrogen treatment in postmenopausal women." By 1975, with prescriptions at an all time high of 30 million, estrogens had become the fifth most widely prescribed drug in the United States. |
Michael T. Murray, N.D.
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 Phytoestrogens are components of many medicinal herbs historically used to treat conditions now treated with estrogens. Phytoestrogen-containing herbs offer significant advantages over the use of estrogens in the treatment of menopausal symptoms. While both synthetic and natural estrogens may pose significant health risks, including increasing the risk of cancer, gallbladder disease, and thromboembolic disease (strokes, heart attacks, etc.), phytoestrogens have not been associated with these side effects. |
Dan Buettner
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 I asked, thinking about DHEA supplements, precursors to sex hormones (androgens and estrogens), which some believe can slow the effects of aging.
"Yes, but it doesn't work that way. The supplements are not the same as the hormones your body generates. DHEA probably has no effect on age-related changes in body composition and function."
Soy products that contain phytoestrogens are probably better than hormone supplements, he said. Some researchers speculate that they may impart many of the benefits of estrogen without the cancer dangers. |
Gerald E. Markle and Frances B. McCrea
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| Sales of estrogens amounted to $85 million, of which the brand, Premarin, were $70 million.
Then came the discovery in 1975 that ERT increased by four to twenty times the likelihood of endometrial cancer, followed by research that linked ERT to increase the risk of heart attacks, artery disease, blood clots, and diabetes. No one should have been surprised, for the link between estrogens and various diseases, especially cancer, was well known. |
Mehmet C. Oz., M.D. and Michael F. Roizen, M.D.
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 You get benefits by increasing the levels of estrogens that bind to receptors 2 and 3, but risks when too much estrogen binds to receptor 1. That's why we're seeing, and will be seeing, an
Should You Have Hormone Therapy if You've Had Preast Cancer?
Almost all breast cancers are classified as to whether they're estrogen-receptor positive or negative-meaning whether or not they're stimulated to grow in the presence of estrogens. About half are and half aren't. |
Connie Bennett, C.H.H.C. with Stephen T. Sinatra, M.D.
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 Phytoestrogens, or plant estrogens, may protect against some cancers."
What's more, Dr. Willett adds, "the bran layer of many grains contains essential minerals, such as magnesium, selenium, copper, and manganese that may be important in reducing the risk of heart disease and diabetes." should we trust new whole-grain cereals from food companies?
Enter a grocery store today, and you'll see cereals galore trumpeting— usually in big, bold lettering—that they contain "whole grains." Often, they even feature the American Heart Association seal of approval. |
David Brownstein M.D.
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 The same argument holds for estrogens?Premarin should never be used (unless you are treating a pregnant horse). When estrogen therapy is indicated, natural, bioidentical estrogens should be used. For more information about bioidentical hormones I refer the reader to The Miracle of Natural Hormones, 3?Edition.
While this book was in publication, researchers from the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center reported that in the U.S., rates of the most common form of breast cancer dropped 15% from August 2002 to December 2003. |
Mark Sircus
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 Estrogen is not one hormone, but many, and our bodies continue to make estrogens all of our lives. The adrenals, the fat tissues, and perhaps the uterus make estrogens.
Menopause is brought on by the natural decrease in the body's production of estrogen and progesterone.
Estrogen causes a higher absorption and use of magnesium and zinc. Estrogen is normally associated with pregnancy. During pregnancy the body needs more minerals and estrogen takes care of the higher absorption. The estrogen enables a female to get just enough magnesium out of a low-magnesium diet. |
Gabriel Cousens
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 Dorris Rapp, MD, a leading pediatric allergist, asserts that environmental and food estrogens are responsible for the worldwide reduction in male fertility.36
For women, female children fed the estrogens in soy formula and products hit puberty early, sometimes as young as age 6 to 8.37 Eating soy products during pregnancy may affect the sexual differentiation of the fetus toward feminization; studies even show malformations of the reproductive tract or offspring born with both male and female sexual organs.38 Kaayla T. |
Mark Stengler, N.D.
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 Thus, they are referred to as phytoestrogens (plant estrogens). But even though they resemble powerful hormones, the plant forms are much weaker, carrying about one-thousandth the potency of estrogen.
This is thought to be a good thing. Soy isoflavones may block strong or toxic estrogens from binding to receptor sites on hormone-dependent tissues such as the breast, uterus, and prostate. By occupying these sites and effectively taking the place of the more powerful forms, the phytoestrogens help prevent cancer growth. |
Gerald E. Markle and Frances B. McCrea
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| Another gynecologist promoted estrogens as "an energizer, tranquilizer and antidepressant that stimulates mental capacity, memory, and concentration, restores the zest for living, and gives a youthful appearance." Yet another wrote that without estrogen "a women comes as close as she can to being a man." They "live in a world of intersex. Having outlived their ovaries, they have outlived their usefulness as human beings."
What an amazing collection of health claims, none backed by research, but all surrounded by a large dose of misogyny! |
Dr. Paula Baillie-Hamilton
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| Both natural and synthetic estrogens dock onto highly specialized receptor sites in breast tissue, which turns on the inbuilt switch for triggering cell division. Then, almost as soon as the cell is switched on, this mechanism is turned off, because the estrogen is grabbed by a highly specialized protein that binds to it tightly, preventing it from getting free and stimulating more tissue.
Excessive stimulation of these receptor sites from higher levels of either natural or synthetic estrogens is thought to be one of the main factors behind normal cells turning cancerous. |
| Chemical Xenoestrogens
While you may think that this ability of chemicals to mimic estrogens is largely accidental, in some instances this could not be further from the truth. Take, for example, the plastic known as bisphenol A. Its adaptability has made it into one of the most commonly used plastics today, and it can be found in a whole range of products, from the inside coating of food tins to dental fillings and milk bottles for babies. However, few realize that this plastic was first developed in the 1930s as a potential synthetic form of estrogen. |
Andreas Moritz
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 Doctors believe that these changes (and the symptoms) are caused by a decrease in the production of the female hormones, estrogens and progestogens, which the body uses to conduct the monthly cycles, pregnancy, and birth, among other rhythms. To postpone the onset of the dreaded illness "menopause," which is often seen as a sign of rapid aging, and to reduce or eliminate the accompanying symptoms, doctors commonly prescribe a combination of hormones known as Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT) (Or at least they used to until the recent media scare). |
Devra Davis
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 During the 1940s, he wrote editorials for the Journal of the American Medical Association on the cancer risks of solar radiation, aromatic amines, estrogens, coal tar products, arsenic, asbestos and other environmental hazards. In 1948 he began work with the fledgling National Cancer Institute, heading its first environmental cancer section. At first this must have seemed kismet. Under Hueper's leadership, in 1950 the NCI issued a blunt pamphlet for the general public, depicting a number of avoidable causes of cancer. |
Andreas Moritz
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| Red Clover is also one of the richest sources of isoflavones (water-soluble chemicals that act like estrogens and are found in many plants). The isoflavones found in Red Clover have been studied for their effectiveness in treating some forms of cancer. It is thought that the isoflavones prevent the proliferation of cancer cells and that they may even destroy cancer cells.
Sheep Sorrel is a rich source of oxalic acid, sodium, potassium, iron, manganese, phosphorous, beta carotene, and vitamin C. This native Ojibwa tea ingredient is a mild diuretic, mild antiseptic, and a mild laxative. |
Gerald E. Markle and Frances B. McCrea
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| Even so, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) concluded that estrogens were still "grossly overused." Fran's analysis of 1979 prescriptions revealed that 31% were still written for such vague diagnostic categories as "symptoms of senility," "special conditions without sickness," and "mental problems"—all in explicit violation of FDA specifications.
That should have been the end of the story. Menopause had been inappropriately medicalized. A disease had been invented for which a treatment, estrogen, was a cure. The idea was nonsense, though very profitable nonsense. |
| Neither estrogens or COX-2 inhibitors are miracle drugs. The former do not accomplish much and in fact cause considerable morbidity and some mortality. The latter are no more effective in relieving pain than less powerful substances; what they do is kill people.
Many of the presumed diseases treated by prescription drugs are not pathological, but rather clusters of symptoms, the origins of which are either social, psychological, or from the natural process of aging— or most likely, a combination of all three. |
| This particular telling of the story begins in the early 1960s, when the medical profession hailed estrogens as the fountain of youth and beauty, and as the elixir of femininity and sexuality. Prominent gynecologists "discovered" that menopause was a deficiency disease, just like diabetes. And just like diabetes, it had a cure. A bold promise was made that so-called estrogen replacement therapy (ERT) would let women avoid menopause entirely and keep them "feminine forever," the title of a popular and widely quoted book by gynecologist Robert Wilson. |
Andreas Moritz
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| In fact, some evidence suggests that estrogens actually contribute to osteoporosis. Women experience significant bone loss during the 10 to 15 years before menopause, despite an ample supply of estrogen. During this time there is an almost total decline of progesterone, another female hormone. Synthetic progesterone, called progestins, is now given, combined with estrogen, but the combined drug has no less serious side effects than estrogen does alone. On the other hand, natural progesterone, as contained in wild yam, for example, has no negative side effects. |
| When absorbed by the skin, they act as the most powerful estrogens ever known. And abnormal estrogen levels cause cancer. Synthetically produced musk is linked to skin irritation, hormone disruption, and cancer as well. Natural fragrances emitted from aroma oils are beneficial for the body. Synthetic aromas, on the other hand, disrupt hormonal communication, and they accumulate in your body. |
Devra Davis
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| We do know that we live in a sea of synthetic estrogens and other hormones and routinely are exposed to materials that never previously existed. The producers of these agents take comfort in the fact that any one of them, tested by itself, looks fairly benign when gauged by various scientific measures of carcinogenic potency.
Still, it defies common sense and basic biology to assume that just because a single agent looks all right when tested on its own, we can safely encounter hundreds of such materials all at once. |
Thomson Healthcare, Inc.
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 In vitro bioassays using a human endometrial cell line led to the identification of a potent phytoestrogen in hops, 8- prenylnaringenin, which showed equal or greater estrogenic activity than other established plant estrogens. The authors indicated that previous discrepancies over the potential estrogenic activity of hops were probably due to the variable nature of the extracts and the variety of assays used (Milligan et al, 1999). The effective use in hyperexcitable males is thought to be due to estrogenic, antiandrogenic, and antigonadotropic activity (Salvador, 1994). |
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