Phytoestrogens

So here's the short of it,
Last night I went to a symposium about phytoestrogens.  I learned that we have very mixed information.



And here's the long

Last night I attended a Symposium lead by Dr. Brooke Daniel of Chattanooga Oncology and Hematology Associates.  It was concerning Phytoestrogens, -What are they?  Where are they?  What you should know.  She discussed the role they play in breast cancer, answered a few questions, and posed a few things that raised even more questions.

It seems that in women who have not ever had breast cancer phytoestrogens can offer protection against the kind of cancer which is estrogen positive.  The theory seems to be that the phytoestrogen is much milder than the estrogen that our bodies produce, so if that estrogen attaches to the cells it prevents the more powerful estrogen from attaching to the cells.  At least that's how I understood it. 

For women who have had estrogen positive breast cancer, phytoestrogens in supplement form or in foods where they are especially high should be avoided.  Most of us are on either Tamoxifen or an aromatase inhibiter (which prevents our bodies from making estrogen).  So the object is to keep estrogen away from those cells for which estrogen would fuel cancer. 

Dr. Daniel assured us that there is no way to avoid having phytoestrogens in your diet, and that should not be a concern.  So the advice is to stay away from those foods which have very high concentrations of phytoestrogens, and not to obsess about trying to keep all phytoestrogens out of my diet.  I've not been eating soy since my diagnosis, and so for now I'll just keep that up.  I do miss my tofu teriyaki! 

There was one really interesting take away that I hope everyone who reads this will share with people who have girl children. Of course it is very much conjecture at this point, but apparently many of the researchers are saying that a low fat diet high in phytoestrogens - soy in particular  and flax may be very beneficial for pre-menstrual girls in giving them protection against breast cancer.  - at least the kind that is estrogen sensitive.

So who knows what to do.  Asian women who have diets high in estrogen have a much lower rate of breast cancer than we western women do, but when those women immigrate to western countries and adopt a western diet their risk increases to similar levels as western women. So is it really diet or could it be something else in our western world. On the other hand, these women who eat soy, don't injest it in the form of infant formula, or supplements, or other highly concentrated forms, they eat it in a natural food form.  So it seems we should eat a healthy, balanced diet that is rich in vegetables (preferably locally grown and pesticide-free!) including soy products. Introduce children, (especially girls) to soy products early in their development, as part of their regular diet. But stay away from concentrated or isolated forms of soy derivatives, including genistein pills.

One more time, we heard that the biggest factor in moving forward is lack of money to fund research.  So I'm thinking that maybe we should ask all NFL and NBA teams to donate the proceeds of at least one of their games to cancer research.