20 Things You Need to Know About Estrogen

1. There are different types of estrogen manufactured by the body, known as: 1. Estrone or El 2. Estradiol or E2 3. Estriol or E3. Estrogens have been used for hormone replacement therapy for many years. They are effective for treating the symptoms of menopause including hot flashes. Estrogens can slow down the rate of bone loss during the postmenopausal years and they can improve memory loss in selected patients. However, there are growing concerns about the use of estrogen treatment.
   
   - David Brownstein, Overcoming Thyroid Disorders
2. When estrogen levels are high, phytoestrogens may reduce the harmful effects of human estrogen by binding to receptor sites, crowding out human estrogen. There is some evidence this action may protect against hormone-related cancers. When estrogen levels are low, the weak estrogens may provide enough estrogenic activity to provide protection against diseases such as osteoporosis and heart disease.
   
   - Brenda Davis and Tom Barnard, Defeating Diabetes
3. Infants fed exclusively soy-based formulas have 13-22,000 times more estrogen compounds in their blood than babies fed milk-based formula. This is the estrogenic equivalent of five birth control pills a day!
   
   - Susan E. Scheck, The Live Food Factor: The Comprehensive Guide to the Ultimate Diet for Body, Mind, Spirit & Planet
4. Phytoestrogens mimic the effect of animal sex hormones such as estrogen. When animals eat too much of a plant that contains phytoestrogens, the overload of estrogen-like compounds wreaks havoc on their reproductive capability.
   
   - Dr. Sharon Mowlem, Survival of the Sickest: A Medical Maverick Discovers Why We Need Disease
5. Although excessive estrogen has been linked to higher rates of human breast and endometrial cancer, the effect of eating legumes is unknown. One researcher notes that prolonged weak doses of food estrogens may, in fact, function as ant estrogens, helping block the ill effects of an estrogen overload that might promote breast cancer. The theory: low doses of food estrogens might desensitize breast tissue to the ravages of too much estrogen—sort of the same way tiny doses of allergens in allergy shots desensitize a person to allergic reactions."
   
   - Jean Carper, The Food Pharmacy: Dramatic New Evidence That Food Is Your Best Medicine
6. Most clinical trials have found that using estrogen to treat Alzheimer's Disease is not effective, and a link has been established between estrogen therapy and breast cancer. A large study found that women who took estrogen alone or with a synthetic progestin were actually at increased risk of developing dementia.
   
   - Peter J. Whitehouse and Daniel George, The Myth of Alzheimer's: What You Aren't Being Told About Today's Most Dreaded Diagnosis
7. Estrogen levels can increase for a number of reasons, including excess weight and the use of estrogen replacement therapy during menopause. After menopause, when a woman's body produces as much as 80 percent less estrogen, fibroids shrink. And while all uterine tissue responds to estrogen, fibroid tissue is extra-sensitive to progesterone. Small fibroids may not need treatment, although they should be checked on a regular basis.
   
   - Phyllis A. Balch, CNC, Prescription for Herbal Healing: An Easy-to-Use A-Z Reference to Hundreds of Common Disorders and Their Herbal Remedies
8. Because DHEA may be converted into estrogen, women with breast, uterine, or ovarian cancer are advised not to begin DHEA therapy, which may increase the severity of their cancer.
   
   - Frank Lipman, Mollie Doyle, Spent: Revive: Stop Feeling Spent and Feel Great Again
9. Strawberries may play a role in reducing estrogen-driven cancer as they are rich in el-lagic acid, which may function as an estrogen blocker.
   
   - David W. Grotto, RD, LDN, 101 Foods That Could Save Your Life!
10. Estrogens are also present in naturally occurring forms in the environment, usually generated by plants (phytoestrogens).
    
    - Stephen Harrods Buhner, The Lost Language of Plants: The Ecological Importance of Plant Medicines for Life on Earth
11. For decades, doctors had been unwittingly fueling the rate of breast cancer in the United States by writing prescriptions for the estrogen pills. It can take a hundred years before all the risks of a medicine are known, explained Dr. Janet Woodcock, a top FDA official, in a presentation to a panel of experts who were reviewing the safety of the nation's drug supply in 2005. And in a stunning admission, Dr. Woodcock said that the FDA could no longer count on the nation's physicians to understand even the known risks of medicines.
    
    - Melody Petersen, Our Daily Meds: How the Pharmaceutical Companies Transformed Themselves into Slick Marketing Machines and Hooked the Nation on Prescription Drugs
12. Soy isoflavones, found in most soy products, are compounds that resemble estrogen, and in fact bind to human estrogen receptors. But it is unclear whether these so-called phytoestrogens actually behave like estrogen in the body or only fool it into thinking they're estrogen. Either way the phytoestrogens might have an effect (good or bad) on the growth of certain cancers, the symptoms of menopause, and the function of the endocrine system. Because of these uncertainties, the FDA has declined to grant GRAS ("generally regarded as safe") status to soy isoflavones used as a food additive.
    
    - Michael Pollen, In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto
13. Nine million women in the United States take some form of estrogen daily for menopause symptom relief.
    
    - Stephen Harrods Buhner, The Lost Language of Plants: The Ecological Importance of Plant Medicines for Life on Earth
14. When shedding occurs during per menopause or menopause, it is usually from a combination of poor sleep, low estrogen, and excessive dieting. Female pattern hair loss (anlagen effluvium) is common among menopausal women and is most common in forty- to fifty-something women when there is an imbalance of female and male hormones.
    
    - Phuli Cohan, The Natural Hormone Makeover: 10 Steps to Rejuvenate Your Health and Rediscover Your Inner Glow
15. The WHI study showed that the closer a woman was to menopause when she began using estrogen, the less likely she was to develop heart disease. This finding has provoked debate about the importance of when to start taking hormones, particularly for prevention of heart disease, dementia, and even Parkinson's disease. Timing has little to do with age and everything to do with falling hormone levels. For example, a fifty-four-year-old woman could have been menopausal for ten years or for two years, but what appears most critical is the amount of time she is menopausal.
    
    - Phuli Cohan, The Natural Hormone Makeover: 10 Steps to Rejuvenate Your Health and Rediscover Your Inner Glow
16. Hot flashes and night sweats are caused by the hypothalamus (the part of the brain that controls body temperature) responding to fluctuating levels of estrogen in the blood.
    
    - John Abramson, Overdosed America: The Broken Promise of American Medicine
17. An article in the Journal of Applied Toxicology reported evidence that aluminum salts, which appear in concentrations of up to 25 percent in some anti-perspirants, exhibit the same effects as estrogen in a way that could stimulate the onset of breast cancer, making aluminum salts a hormone disrupter.
    
    - Samuel S. Epstein, Randall Fitzgerald, Toxic Beauty: How Cosmetics and Personal Care Products Endanger Your Health . . . And What You Can Do about It
18. Benzene, a chemical similar to estrogen in its effects, is another hormone disrupter commonly found in sunscreens. Its effects have been highlighted by a University of California-Riverside research teams discovery of evidence in 2006 that oxybenzone had transformed the males of two coastal fish species into feminized fish carrying ovary tissue. Two-thirds of the male fish examined had been feminized in this way.
    
    - Samuel S. Epstein, Randall Fitzgerald, Toxic Beauty: How Cosmetics and Personal Care Products Endanger Your Health . . . And What You Can Do about It
19. Osteoporosis afflicts more women than men, particularly postmenopausal women, since their ovaries are no longer producing estrogen, which helps to maintain bone mass.
    
    - Tom Boater, Everything You Need to Know About Enzymes to Treat Everything from Digestive Problems and Allergies to Migraines and Arthritis
20. Researchers have linked unnatural concentrations of estrogen and other hormones to a number of cancers, including breast, testicular, ovarian, and uterine.
    
    - Deirdre Emus, Growing Up Green: Baby and Child Care: Volume 2 in the Bestselling Green This! Series

This book summary may not be copied or distributed in any form without the permission from HealthBookSummaries.com. HealthBookSummaries.com assumes no responsibility for the use or misuse of this material. Always work with a qualified health professional before making any changes to your diet, prescription drug use, lifestyle or exercise activities.

New Summaries

Browse All »

20 Things You Need to Know About Lycopene 20 Things You Need to Know About Zeolites 20 Things You Need to Know About Resveratrol 18 Things You Need to Know About Maca 20 Things You Need to Know About GMO 20 Things You Need to Know About Perimenopause and Menopause 20 Things You Need to Know About Estrogen 20 Things You Need to Know About Cordyceps 20 Things You Need to Know About Ginger 20 Things You Need to Know About Ashwagandha 20 Things You Need to Know About Arthritis 20 Things You Need to Know About Insulin 20 Things You Need to Know About Serotonin 20 Things You Need to Know About Bisphenol-A 20 Things You Need to Know About Holy Basil 20 Things You Need to Know About Caffeine 20 Things You Need to Know About Diet and Diabetes 20 Things You Need to Know About Vitamin B12 Deficiency 18 Things You Need to Know About Vitamin D and Cancer The War on Bugs By Will Allen Mad Sheep: The True Story Behind the USDA's War on a Family Farm By Linda Faillace Spiritual Nutrition: Six Foundations for Spiritual Life and the Awakening of Kundalini By Gabriel Cousens, M.D. Cholesterol & The French Paradox By Frank Cooper The Complete Master Cleanse: A Step-by-Step Guide to Maximizing the Benefits of The Lemonade Diet By Raymond Francis with Kester Cotton Never Be Sick Again: Health is a Choice, Learn How to Choose It By Raymond Francis with Kester Cotton The Lost Language of Plants: The Ecological Importance of Plant Medicines for Life on Earth By Stephen Harrod Buhner The ADD and ADHD Cure: The Natural Way to Treat Hyperactivity and Refocus Your Child By Jay Gordon, M.D. The Amazing Liver and Gallbladder Flush: A Powerful Do-It-Yourself Tool To Optimize Your Health And Wellbeing By Andreas Moritz The Revolution Will Not Be Microwaved: Inside America's Underground Food Movements By Sandor Ellix Katz The Natural Hormone Makeover: 10 Steps to Rejuvenate Your Health and Rediscover Your Inner Glow By Phuli Cohan, M.D. The Cure: Heal Your Body, Save Your Life By Dr. Timothy Brantley Cancer is Not a Disease - It's a Survival Mechanism By Andreas Moritz Beyond Medicine: Exploring a New Way of Thinking By Dr. Keith Scott-Mumby Virtual Medicine: A new dimension in energy healing By Dr. Keith Scott-Mumby The Food Mood Solution By Jack Challem Perfect Health: The Natural Way By Mary-Ann Shearer The Anti-Aging Solution: 5 Simple Steps to Looking and Feeling Young By Vincent Giampapa, M.D, Ronald Pero, Ph.D. and Marcia Zimmerman, C.N. The Thrive Diet: The Whole Food Way to Lose Weight, Reduce Stress, and Stay Healthy for Life By Brendan Brazier Health Begins in the Colon: The Ultimate Guide for Cleansing Your Colon, Body, Mind & Home! By Dr. Edward F. Group III, DC, ND, DACBN Keep Your Brain Young: The Complete Guide to Physical and Emotional Health and Longevity By Guy McKhann, M.D., and Marilyn Albert, Ph.D. The Sunfood Diet Success System By David Wolfe Reverse Heart Disease Now: Stop Deadly Cardiovascular Plaque Before it's too Late By Stephen T. Sinatra, M.D. and James C. Roberts, M.D., with Martin Zucker Fight for Your Health: Exposing the FDA's Betrayal of America By Byron J. Richards, CCN JavaTrekker: Dispatches from the World of Fair Trade Coffee By Dean Cycon, Founder & Owner, Dean's Beans Organic Coffee The Vitamin D Cure By James E. Dowd, M.D. and Diane Stafford Shrink Yourself: Break Free from Emotional Eating Forever! By Roger Gould, M.D. Astaxantin - Natural Astaxanthin: King of the Carotenoids By Bob Capelli with Dr. Gerald Cysewski Green for Life By Victoria Boutenko The Genie in Your Genes:Epigenetic Medicine and the New Biology of Intention By Dawson Church Appetite for Profit: How the Food Industry Undermines our Health and How to Fight Back By Michele Simon Selling Sickness: How the World's Biggest Pharmaceutical Companies Are Turning Us All into Patients By Ray Moynihan and Alan Cassels The Biology of Belief: Unleashing the Power of Consciousness, Matter and Miracles By Bruce H. Lipton, PH.D Natural Health Solutions: And the Conspiracy to Keep You From Knowing About Them By Mike Adams