“Estrogen can fight cancer? I thought it caused cancer.”
This is the puzzled question I get from my patients when we discuss healthy estrogen metabolism. When you figure out how estrogen breaks down in the liver, you quickly learn that while the type of estrogen you take makes a big difference – what your body does with that estrogen, makes all difference in the world.
Whether you take it or you make it… estrogen must break down in the liver. Once in the liver, it faces different pathways or opportunities for breakdown. It can break down in a healthy good way or it can choose a bad path.
When estrogen breaks down in the healthy good way, it makes substances that balance hormonal symptoms (such as PMS), resolves hormonal challenges (such as bad mammograms, lumpy breasts, ovarian cysts, and abnormal menstrual periods) and that prevent and fight cancerous changes in the body. These substances are shown to be protective for estrogen sensitive tissues (breast, ovarian, uterine and cervical tissue) as well as lung and colon tissue as well.
In all fairness to the popular press, when estrogen follows the bad path in the liver, many undesirable situations arise. These toxic metabolites create greater risk for bad mammograms, lumpy breasts, ovarian cysts, abnormal menstrual bleeding and estrogen-related cancers. We don’t want that!
When a woman suffers from PMS, ovarian cysts, fibrocystic breasts, bad mammograms, uterine fibroids or endometriosis – she may be breaking her estrogen down in an unhealthy way in her liver. Re-directing that activity can deliver health and reduce risk going forward.
Did you know, that as men age… they make more estrogen and they tend to process it more down the bad pathway in the liver? Not only does this increase the risk for breast cancer in men, but it aggravates prostate health. 80% of men are found to have some degree of prostate cancer, on autopsy. Prostate health is an important health issue for the men in your lives.
Diindolylmethane, when properly absorbed, can completely re-direct those pathways toward good pathways. Further, targeted nutritional support for the liver can further enhance the health and function of those good pathways. Diindolylmethane is tricky, though. I have worked with doctors all over the country where they are using various diindolylmethane (DIM) formulas that simply do not work in the clinical setting. I have always used a patented form of it that guarantees “bio-availability” or absorption and have had predictable and dramatically effective results. So quality matters in this case!
Further, Calcium D Glucarate (not like the calcium you take for your bones) and Potassium D Glucarate (not like the potassium you take for your heart) can support the timely elimination of estrogens and fat soluble toxins in the bowel. This means that when your liver prosses estrogens and toxins and dumps them into the bowel so that they will leave the body… that they actually do leave the body instead of being reabsorbed… which would not be good!
My recommendation? If you choose to pursue Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT) make a bio-identical choice and dose those hormones in a bio-identical way. Further, attend to the way your body breaks those estrogens down in the liver to maximize the health benefits of HRT.
Targeted Nutrtional Formulas that I use in my practice every day, to achieve better estrogen health for my patients include:
Est Right – Non-hormonal symptom balancing support for estrogen in the liver, which contains the patented DIM combination that works!
Estro Smart – Non-hormonal symptom balancing support for estrogen in the liver – important for all of the biochemical pathways in the liver that support estrogen breakdown.
Smart Fish – Non-toxic omega 3 fish oil to support estrogen and whole body health
Thank you for continuing to educate on the subject of hormone balance and how to achieve it. The information you provide is very valuable. I send many customers to your site for information, and for those in your area, I recommend they call for an appointment.
Thank you for your support, Carla! It is my mission in this life to make a positive difference and to make sure that people know that they have real options! Keep getting the word out.