Doctor Michael shares scientific facts on how to prevent breast cancer naturally. Foods like soy can block estrogen producing enzymes of breast cancer cells.
It is possible to know how to prevent breast cancer with soymilk, given that the product contains phytoestrogens. Phytoestrogens are plant-based estrogens, similar to those found in soy and other legumes. They work like estrogen in the body, exerting similar influences on cancer cells that mimic those of estrogen. Estrogen is known to cause breast cancer, so eating soy is a proactive step towards prevention. The phytoestrogens in soymilk mimic the effects of estrogen in breast tumors. When tumors grow in the breast, they create tissue similar to that found in the mammary glands. When women consume large amounts of soy, they may see their risk of developing breast cancer go down. For now, it's too early to draw conclusions based on studies, but at least some evidence points to the idea that soymilk might be helpful for breast health. If you want to give it a try, check with your local nutritionist or a doctor to find out how much soy to take, and what type of soy to get. Remember, too, that each woman's body will vary, and you don't have to consume large amounts to reap the health benefits. So, now you know how to prevent breast cancer with soymilk. If you're already worried about the effects of phytoestrogens in soy, you can look forward to enjoying soy products as a healthy part of your diet. Don't wait - start today! Many women have started taking it as a preventive measure for breast cancer. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/how-to#English https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/prevent https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breast_cancer https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/naturally Article Links License - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/ Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0)
Prevention is better than cure.
The vast majority of breast cancers start out hormone-dependent,
meaning the primary human estrogen, called estradiol,
plays a crucial role in breast cancer development and progression.
That's one of the reasons why soy food consumption
appears so protective against breast cancer,
because soy phytoestrogens, like genistein, act as estrogen blockers.
They block the binding of estrogens, like estradiol, to breast cancer cells.
But wait a second.
The majority of breast cancers occur after menopause,
when the ovaries have stopped producing estrogen.
What's the point of eating estrogen blockers if there's no estrogen to block?
It turns out the breast cancer tumors themselves produce
their own estrogen from scratch to fuel their own growth.
Estrogens may be formed in breast tumors by multiple pathways.
The breast cancer takes cholesterol, and using the romatase enzyme,
or two hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase enzymes, produces its own estrogen.
So there's two ways to stop breast cancer.
One is to use anti-estrogens, estrogen blockers,
like the soy phytoestrogens or the anti-estrogen drug tamoxifen.
However, another way to block estradiol is by using anti-enzymes
to prevent the breast cancer from making all the estrogen in the first place.
And indeed, there are a variety of anti-aromatase drugs in current use.
In fact, inhibiting the estrogen production has been shown to be more effective
than just trying to block the effects of the estrogen,
suggesting that the inhibition of estrogen synthesis
is clinically very important for the treatment of estrogen-dependent breast cancer.
Turns out soy phytoestrogens can do both.
Using ovary cells taken from women undergoing in vitro fertilization,
soy phytoestrogens were found to reduce the expression of the aromatase enzyme.
What about in breast cancer cells, though?
Breast cancer cells, too.
Not only suppressing aromatase activity,
but the other estrogen-producing enzyme, too.
But this isn't a Petri dish.
Does soy suppress estrogen production in people, too?
Well, circulating estrogen levels appear significantly lower
in Japanese women than American white women,
and Japan does have the highest per capita soy food consumption,
but you don't know it's the soy until you put it to the test.
Japanese women were randomized to add soy milk to their diet,
or not, for a few months.
Estrogen levels did seem to drop about a quarter
in the soy milk supplemented group.
Interestingly, when they tried the same experiment in men,
they got similar results, a significant drop in female hormone levels,
with no change in testosterone levels.
These results, though, are in Japanese men and women
that were already consuming soy in their baseline diet,
so it's really just looking at higher versus lower soy intake.
What happens if you give soy milk to women in Texas?
Circulating estrogen levels cut in half.
Since increased estrogen levels are a marker for high risk for breast cancer,
the effectiveness of soy to reduce estrogen levels
may help explain why Chinese and Japanese women
have such low rates of breast cancer.
And what was truly remarkable is that estrogen levels stayed down
a month or two even after they stopped drinking it.
This suggests you don't have to consume soy every day
to have the cancer-protective benefit.
