Phytoestrogen and xenoestrogen

The following information on phytoestrogen and xenoestrogen are taken from this website :
http://breastcancer.about.com/od/estrogen/a/estrogen_types_2.htm


Phytoestrogens - from plants and botanicals that have an estrogen-like effect on your body. Some plants that contain phytoestrogens are soy beans, red clover, beans, cereal brans and flaxseeds. The effects of these plant estrogens are quite a bit weaker than estrogen produced by your ovaries. In alternative medicine, products that contain phytoestrogens may be used to treat menopausal symptoms. Not all of those herbal treatments are safe in regards to breast cancer.

Xenoestrogens – from chemicals present in our environment, many of which are petrochemicals. Xenoestrogens are much more potent than the estrogen your body makes, and too much exposure to them can result in problems with development, reproduction, and may cause cancer. We use products that contain xenoestrogens daily: plastics, electronics, medicines, foods, soaps and pesticides. Our environment (water, air, soil and plants) is being polluted by xenoestrogens from manufacturing runoff and the disposal of products containing xenoestrogens.

Synthetic Estrogens – made by pharmaceutical companies and included in prescription drugs. This kind of estrogen, like the xenoestrogens, is more powerful than natural estrogens. Before 2002, HRT was prescribed for a variety of reasons including treatment of menopause symptoms, and to help prevent heart disease, bone thinning, and certain cancers. The Women's Health Initiative Study, published in 2002, revealed that HRT actually increased the risk of breast cancer and provided limited or no benefit for heart disease or stroke. It is interesting that when large numbers of women stopped using HRT, the rates of new cases of breast cancer began to decline.

Herbs that breast cancer patients who are estrogen positive should not be taking are :

• black cohosh
  
• blue cohosh
  
• chasteberry
  
• dang gui   (angelica sinensis or Chinese angelica)
• ginseng
  
• hops (for making beer)
  
• licorice
  
• motherwort leaf
  
• saw palmetto
  
• rhodiola rosea
  
• red clover
  
• soy
  
• vitex berry
  
• wild yam

I have been fighting cancer for the past few years and I knew that I cannot take soy.  Some months back I learnt about licorice, and only recently I read that red clover is also a no, no for me.

I was stunned as, for about a year, I had been taking red clover together with other alternative herbal supplements for my condition.  Red clover is supposed to support kidney functions among other things.  However, it contained isoflavones, plant based chemicals that produce estrogen like effects in the body.

It was like I was using a chemical based weed killer (chemo) to kill the weeds (cancer cells) plus a herb (red clover) that I thought would assist in getting rid of the weeds.  It was a shock to find out that what I thought was a herbal weed killer turned out to be a fertilizer for the weeds instead.  How wrong I was!  I stopped taking red clover immediately, even though it had other good uses.

I had to go through my supplements to check if they contained any of the forbidden ingredients.