“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.

Read more: Estrogen – Fights Cancer?!

The ability of the body to break estrogen down in a healthy manner is most clinically promising for people suffering from hormonal imbalances, and poor breast, prostate and uterine health. Certain herbs and nutrients can encourage estrogens in the body to select certain enzymatic pathways that result in break-down products that are actually balancing for hormonal health.  As a result, they are cardio-protective, and cancer protective for certain tissues in the body including those found in the breast, prostate and uterus.

The effects can be measured in laboratory testing on urine.   When the body produces unhealthy estrogen break down products, they are measured in high levels, while the healthy breakdown products are measured in low levels.

The good news is that research has shown that these levels can be influenced with the proper formula of herbs and nutrients.

Read more: Hormone Balance - Hormonal Health