Bottom Line Health
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| In addition, tamoxifen is the only drug currently approved for breast cancer risk-reduction in premenopausal women—and it will probably stay that way, according to Dr. Victor Vogel, STAR protocol chairman. "We anticipate that if [Eli] Lilly gets approval [for raloxifene], the indication will only be for postmenopausal women, so tamoxifen will remain the drug of choice for reducing risk in premenopausal women," he says.
Trial participants who were taking raloxifene will continue to receive the drug until they have completed five years of treatment. |
Thomson Healthcare, Inc.
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 In stage I and II breast cancer, increased consumption of Green Tea was closely associated with decreased numbers of metastasized axillary lymph nodes among premenopausal patients and increased expression of PgR and ER among postmenopausal women. Long-term consumption of Green Tea (>5 cups daily) prior to clinical cancer onset was associated with significantly lower recurrence in stage I and II breast cancer. |
Tori Hudson, N.D.
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 Health-care practitioners can generally assume that a premenopausal, sexually active woman who is not pregnant, has not been recently treated with antibiotics, and does not have a history of a genitourinary tract abnormality has uncomplicated cystitis if she presents with dysuria (painful or difficult urination), frequent urination, or urgency. It is even likely that most postmenopausal women who do not have a genitourinary tract abnormality have uncomplicated UTIs. |
| The one trial that showed no effect was a study of premenopausal athletic women who were given 10 mg per day of vitamin Kj.) Even more impressively, fracture data was available in seven of the studies. The rates of hip fractures were reduced by 77 percent, other non-vertebral fractures by 81 percent, and vertebral fractures by 60 percent. |
| These pilot data suggest that dietary bladderwrack may prolong the length of the menstrual cycle and exert antiestrogenic effects in premenopausal women.20
Traditional Astringent Herbs. Astringent herbs form a large category of tannin-containing plants that are used to reduce blood loss from the reproductive tract as well as from the bowel, stomach, respiratory tract, and skin. In the reproductive tract, the astringent herbs are used to correct uterine or cervical bleeding. |
Ron Garner
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 Excess estrogen, or xenoestrogens, in the body can produce a myriad of undesirable symptoms. In premenopausal women, symptoms can include: fatigue, depression, weight gain, water retention, headaches, loss of sex drive, mood swings, inability to handle stress, irritability, fibrocystic breasts, uterine fibroids, endometriosis, low metabolism, symptoms of hypothyroidism, unstable blood sugar levels, sluggishness in the morning, and a craving for caffeine, sweets, and carbohydrates. |
J. Douglas Bremner
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 For women without heart disease or premenopausal women (even with risk factors for heart disease) there is no proven benefit to taking statins. However, this has not stopped a consortium of experts from advocating statins for women without heart disease.17
DIABETES AND STATINS
A couple of studies showing a reduction of heart attacks in diabetics without heart disease have received so much attention that the National Cholesterol Education Panel of the National Institutes of Health has been spurred to call diabetics "heart-disease equivalents. |
| The Women's Health Initiative (WHI) followed 36,282 premenopausal women ages fifty to seventy-nine who were randomly assigned to receive 1,000 mg of calcium with 400 IU of vitamin D3 or placebo daily for seven years to assess bone fracture. Supplementation did not reduce the risk of hip fracture. Although there was an increase in hip-bone density, there was also an increase in kidney stones. |
Ray D. Strand
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 Interestingly, premenopausal women have greater efficiency in breaking down methionine and thus have little buildup of homocysteine. This changes dramatically after menopause. Postmenopausal women have much higher levels of homocysteine. Could this explain in part both the increased risk of heart disease and osteoporosis in postmenopausal women?18 The fact remains these women need higher amounts of folic acid, vitamin B6, and vitamin B12.
Boron
Boron is an interesting nutrient when it comes to bone metabolism. |
Tori Hudson, N.D.
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| Between the ages of 30 and 60, and in each of the decades in this age group, women who have had either surgical or natural menopause have twice the rate of CAD compared to women in their age group who still have premenopausal ovarian function.11 Women who have had both ovaries removed have a higher rate of CAD at an earlier age than women who undergo natural menopause.12 The explanations for this are multiple, but the estrogen produced by the ovaries helps to maintain higher HDL levels, which protect the cardiovascular system, keep the LDL levels low, and slow the aging of the arteries. |
Hyla Cass, M.D.
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 Boron
3 mg
Needed for proper enzyme function
Copper Iron
2 mg
2 mg for premenopausal women; men and menopausal women don't need extra iron, unless prescribed by a physician and cellular energy production; boron is also important for bone building.
Manganese
5 mg
Potassium
99 mg
Chromium
200 meg
Helps balance blood sugar especially good for diabetics.
Iodine
150 meg
Required for proper function of the thyroid gland.
Selenium
200 meg
Works with vitamin E to protect against oxidation.
Molybdenum
300 meg
Needed by many of the body's enzymes. |
Jeffrey M. Smith
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 In a Lancet study, premenopausal US women below age 50 with high IGF-1 levels were seven times as likely to develop breast cancer. "With the exception of a strong family history of breast cancer," the authors warned, "the relation between IGF-1 and risk of breast cancer may be greater than that of other established breast-cancer risk factors."10 The International Journal of Cancer described a "significant association between circulating IGF-1 concentrations and an increased risk of lung, colon, prostate, and pre-menopausal breast cancer. |
Jonathan V. Wright, M.D. and Alan R. Gaby, M.D.
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 These conflicting observations aside, it is clear that "being premenopausal" does not seem to promote cancer, whereas conventional ERT may. Therefore, logic suggests that the safest ERT regimen would be a combination of the three human estrogens given in the same proportions as those produced by premenopausal women. Unfortunately, no one is sure exactly what those proportions are.
Natural Replacement Estrogen. In 1982, in an effort to formulate an "identical to natural" replacement estrogen, one of us (J.W) looked for data concerning the normal circulating levels of these three estrogens. |
Jonny Bowden, Ph.D., C.N.S.
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 An overweight, postmenopausal woman has more estrogen circulating through her body than a skinny premenopausal woman does, according to the World Health Organization.
The Risk of Hormone Replacement Therapy
Traditionally, moderate to severe menopausal complaints have been managed with hormone replacement therapy (HRT) using synthetic hormones. This is absolutely not the place to get into the enormous controversy generated by preliminary findings from the Women's Health Initiative that reported a slightly increased risk of heart attacks and breast cancer for women on HRT. |
Elaine Magee
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 In a recent diet analysis of the 90,000 premenopausal women enrolled in the Nurses' Health Study II, researchers found that the women who ate the most animal fat (23 percent of calories)—mainly from red meat and high-fat dairy foods—were 33 percent more likely to develop breast cancer, compared with women who ate the least (12 percent of calories) of those foods. |
Bill Sardi
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 But the use of aromatase inhibiting drugs is not indicated for premenopausal women with breast cancer who have normal ovarian function, nor for women with estrogen or progesterone-receptor-negative tumors. [J Clinical Oncology 19: 2596-2606, 2001]
Many studies are now underway with aromatase inhibitor drugs. One study has been ongoing for the past seven years. Even though tumor regression is prolonged, absolute freedom from relapse "appears to be very small so far, and no survival benefit has emerged. |
Kaayla T. Daniel, PhD, CCN
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 Researchers at the University of California at San Francisco who hoped to find that soy foods had a protective effect against premenopausal breast cancer found instead that six months' consumption of soy protein containing the isoflavones genistein and daidzein had a "stimulatory effect on the premenopausal female breast, characterized by increased secretion of breast fluid, the appearance of hyperplastic epithelial cells and elevated levels of plasma estradiol."38 Breast cancer risk is higher for women with abnormal cells in their breast fluid. |
Thomson Healthcare, Inc.
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| Short-term Soy treatment of premenopausal human breast tissue caused an up-regulation in progesterone receptor expression and an elevation in the number of proliferating epithelial cells. A trend toward increased expression of the proliferation antigen Ki67LI was observed. Radiographic, echographic, cytologic, and histologic examinations were performed for diagnosis. No estrogen antagonistic effects were found (McMichael-Phillips et al, 1998). |
Andreas Moritz
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 In 1991 Hsieh & Trichopoulos studied breast size and left/right handedness as risk factors, and noted in the findings that premenopausal women who do not wear bras had less than half the risk of breast cancer compared with bra wearers. The study was published in the European Journal of Cancer, 1991 ;27(2): 131-5.
Another more recent study (2000), published in Chronobiology International (the journal of biological and medical rhythm research), found that wearing a bra decreased melatonin production and increased the core body temperature. |
Dr. Steve Blake
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 Despite this fortification, most pregnant and premenopausal women receive less than the RDA for iron in their diet.
Balancing Deficiency and Overload of Iron
Iron is an unusual nutrient because the body has a very limited capability to excrete excess iron. The three main factors that affect iron balance are absorption, losses, and the amount in stores. Iron is lost in very small amounts, mostly in blood and cells that are excreted into the intestinal tract.
The amount of iron in the body is largely controlled by varying the absorption rate. |
Jonny Bowden, Ph.D., C.N.S.
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| Wonderful advice on diet and lifestyle for the premenopausal woman by the First Lady of Nutrition!
Pregnancy and Postpartum
Books
Natural Guide to Pregnancy and Post-Partum Health by Dean Raffelock, D.C., C.C.N., and Robert Roundtree, M.D.
This is the book I give everyone in my life who is either pregnant, thinking about becoming pregnant, or has just had a baby. It's that important.
Reflexology
Online Resources www.americanacademyofreflexology. |
Bill Sardi
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| Fenretinide, a derivative of vitamin A, has been shown to inhibit the recurrence of breast cancer among younger premenopausal women. [Journal of the National Cancer Institute 91:1847-1856, 1999]
Vitamin A has been found to work in a synergistic manner with Tamoxifen, but not Fenretinide. [Journal Endocrinology 183: 395-404, 2004; Journal Clinical Oncology 24: 129-35, 2006]
Breast tumor cells can become resistant to vitamin A. But agents that control genes, known as histone deacetylase inhibitors, such as resveratrol, can overcome this resistance. |
Thomson Healthcare, Inc.
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| Xu et al, 2000). premenopausal women fed a diet containing 60 g of Soy protein/day (equivalent to about 45 mg of isoflavones) had reduced luteinizing and follicle-stimulating hormone levels during their midcycles (Wardle, 1998).
Renal Effects: Soy protein contains, in small amounts, several agents that may contribute to its beneficial actions in renal disease. |
Bill Sardi
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| Cancer Causes Control 7: 56-68, 1996]
Researchers appear puzzled, asking "why only among postmenopausal women is increased breast cancer risk associated with either general obesity or abdominal obesity, and why is per capita fat intake related more to breast cancer incidence in postmenopausal than premenopausal women?" [Breast Cancer Research Treatment 38: 239-46, 1996] Restriction of dietary fat for 10-22 weeks in healthy postmenopausal women is reported to reduce circulating estrogen levels by 17% on average. |
| Breast cancer surgery, when performed among younger premenopausal women, can provoke the growth and spread of remaining tumor cells. Researchers have noted that 20 percent of pre-menopausal breast cancer patients undergoing surgery, whose cancer had spread to lymph nodes, experienced relapse within 10 months of surgery to remove the primary tumor. [Breast Cancer Research 6:R689-96, 2004]
Breast cancer researchers from Britain say that:
"A new crisis is upon us now in that trials of early detection have resulted in unexpected disadvantages to certain subgroups... |
| Journal American Medical Assn 295: 629-42, 2006]
A survey comparing breast cancer patients with healthy family members found vegetable oils and fat were associated with reduced risk for breast cancer among premenopausal women and consumption of carbohydrates and sweetened beverages increased risk. |
Thomson Healthcare, Inc.
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| Forman MR, Johnson EJ, Lanza E, et al: Effect of menstrual cycle phase on the concentration of individual carotenoids in lipoproteins of premenopausal women: a controlled dietary study. Am J Clin Nutr 67(l):81-87. 1998.
Forman MR, Yao SX, Graubard BI, et al: The effect of dietary intake of fruits and vegetables on the odds ratio of lung cancer among Yunnan tin miners. Int J Epidemiol 21(3):437-441. 1992.
Franceschi S, Bidoli E, Baron AE, et al: Nutrition and cancer of the oral cavity and pharynx in north-east Italy. Int J Cancer 47(l):20-25. 1991. |
| Menopausal Symptoms: Breast Cancer Survivors
A significant reduction in frequency and severity of hot flushes in premenopausal breast cancer survivors was observed following a 12-month treatment with Black Cohosh. Severe hot flushes included 5 or more daily episodes of heat, accompanied by sweating, sleep disturbances, irritation, and anxiety. At the end of the 12-month study, 46.7% of participants in the Black Cohosh group were free of hot flushes compared with none in the control group; 24.4% still suffered from severe symptoms compared with the control group (73.9%), and 28. |
Hyla Cass, M.D.
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| Needed supplements: Take vitamin A (20,000 IU), vitamin E (100 milligrams [mg] in tocotrienol form, see below for more information), vitamin D (400-2,000 IU), folic acid (400 micrograms [meg]), vitamin K (80 meg), calcium (1,000 mg), iron (15 mg, if you're premenopausal), magnesium (400-600 mg), vitamin B12 (200 meg), and zinc (25 mg), and omega-3 fatty acids (1,000-3,000 mg). |
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