Wednesday Bubble: red or white? Can wine choice affect breast cancer risk?
Hey all you wine lovers out there! There’s encouraging news out of last month’s North American Menopause Society meeting: red wine may work in the body the same way that aromotase inhibitors (agents that are used to block the production of estrogen and halt breast cancer) do!
In this study, researchers assigned 36 pre-menopausal women to red wine first (cabernet savignon) and then white wine (chardonnay). Each participant drank 8 ounces of the wine in the evening with food, did not drive afterward (for safety) and agreed to avoid other alcoholic beverages or grape products. Each “treatment” lasted one menstrual cycle (~1month) and included a break to “wash” the body of the prior wine type. All participants had their blood collected during the early follicular (day 5-8) and mid-luteal (days 17-21) phases in the period just before the study and during the two “treatment” cycles.
The results showed that compared to white, red wine significantly increased levels of freely circulating testosterone in the body and also led to lower levels of sex hormone binding globulin (SHBG) and estradiol. In other words, this means that similar to aromatase inhibitors, red wine helped prevent testosterone from converting to estrogen, thereby leading to lower levels of estradiol and estrone, which in turn, would provide a means of starving an estrogen dependent tumor.
Although these findings are VERY preliminary, they do give hope that researchers might be on the cusp of realizing more natural ways to prevent breast cancer tumor growth. Let’s keep hope alive! Donate to breast cancer research.
Good health and cheers!
Read MoreWednesday Bubble: We Ain’t No April Fool’s
Jane Brody. You disappoint me. I wonder why you would lend your name and esteemed reputation to a rather narrow treatise on diminishing sexual desire during menopause and treatments half-answers to an issue that is not just physical but also emotional.
In all fairness, in an article published yesterday’s New York Times Health section Brody provides a thorough introduction to the “why’s” underlying changes in sexual desire. Indeed, I encourage readers of this blog to check it out as the personal anecdotes coupled with scientific information are nteresting and informative. But that’s where the article stops to inform and turns to the old paradigm “menopause as a disease.”
Brody suggests that Estrotest (a drug containing estrogen and testosterone) and transdermal (through the skin) estrogen formulations may help. She also recommends lubricants, and use of the antidepressant Wellbutrin. And she does give self-stimulation a blip, even though that’s where she stops.
So in the most respectful way possible, I’d like to suggest that we ain’t no fools. In fact, with regards to testosterone, data have been anything but favorable as of late. So, ladies, let’s take a look at a positive, empowering non-therapeutic approach that encompasses wellness and self-esteem.
The following was written last November. I am reposting it today to lend another perspective on the issue of hormones and sexual desire.
I’ve written several posts about the use of testosterone for sexual dysfunction in menopausal women and its less than pleasant side effects, such as unwanted hair growth and development of the metabolic syndrome.
Fortunately, Dr. Christiane Northrup has a different and much healthier perspective about sexual dysfunction during the transition.
One of the first things she writes, in her newly published “The Secret Pleasures of Menopause,” is that an important key to achieving health and healthy sex during and after the menopause is to boost one’s nitric oxide levels. Nitric oxide, she explains, is a free radical produced in the lining of blood vessels, by lung and white blood cells, and nerve cells in the brain, that “resets your power grid and reboots your body, a secret weapon for optimal health.”
In order to produce more nitric oxide, you need to engage your mind, body an spirit in positive activities, such as:
- associating with positive people
- eating healthily and exercising
- being kind/taking pride in yourself
- realizing you are what you believe
- letting go of the past and embracing the present
- understanding that health and sex go hand-in-hand
Dr. Northrup suggests that we become “ardent explorers” of our own pleasure, in essence, become our own partners in sex. Turn ourselves on and tell ourselves often that a turned on woman is irresistible. Recognize and release anger as much as we can. Commit to regularly exploring our pleasure potential and live our lives in ways that “excite, motivate, and turns on” other people in our lives.
A few additional tidbits:
- Think heartwarming, sexy, uplifting, kind, loving and positive thoughts about yourself and others EVERY DAY
- Strive for commitment, trust and vulnerability with your partner
- Do things that keep you in touch with your life force…cultivate your inner pleasure and exchange it for stress, and decide that this half of your life is really the best
- Get out of your head and into your body….regularly
Desire pleasure, know that you deserve it, believe you can bring it into your life, overcome your resistance to accepting it, and embrace it.
Honestly, I’m not usually into this touchy feely stuff. But I encourage you to read Dr. Northup’s book and start to practice some of these positive, life affirming, love affirming steps. Pleasure truly starts within by changing our mindsets about our limitations, we can fine tune our bodies in ways that make us and others feel great.
As Dr. Northrup says, our bodies were made to experience unlimited pleasure.
And of course, pleasure begets pleasure….
Read MoreWednesday Bubble: Reproductive cancers and estrogen
I’ve written previously about HRT and its definitive link to increased breast cancer risk. But how much of a role does natural estrogen play? Moreover, is exposure time important?
I ran across an interesting study in the the journal Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention that suggests that the amount of time a woman spends in the transition to menopause may influence risk for reproductive cancers. The reason: overall exposure to total levels of natural estrogen and unopposed estrogen (i.e. estrogen with little or no progesterone as the result of aging).
In this study, researchers collected daily urine samples from 108 women (ages 25 to 58 years) for 6 months annually over a total of 5 years and tested them for total estrogen levels. Using models that evaluated variations in the length of the participants’ menstrual cycles, they also estimated where study participants were in the menopausal transition.
The findings
The results showed that mean levels of total estrogen increased with age in the pre- and peri-transition stages and decreased in the late transition stages. What’s more, the number of days of exposure to unopposed estrogen was higher during the transition to menopause compared with the pre-transition period; it also did not decline until after the menopause.
What these results mean
In general, the study results indicate that women are spending more time exposed to both total levels of estrogen and unopposed estrogen than previously thought. However, because the time spent in perimenopause varies from women to women, exposure to natural estrogen also varies.
The bottom line? Because studies have linked reproductive cancers to lifetime exposure to estrogen, determining the length of time that a women spends in perimenopause may help researchers determine cancer risk.
Stay tuned – these findings could ultimately impact how we go through the menopause and what we can do to conquer our risk of developing certain cancers afterwards!
Read MoreTalking the talk: hormone therapy
Is your healthcare provider more or less likely to suggest hormone therapy (HT, estrogen only) when you see them for menopausal symptoms? What’s more, how do you know?
Results of a study in the Ahead of Print edition of the journal Menopause suggest that certain factors do influence prescriber habits.
Researchers measured how often 249 primary care (i.e. internists and family practitioners) and ob/gyns prescribed HT to their patients (ages 45 to 80) in a given year based on electronic pharmacy data. In addition to examining information on the providers themselves, data on perceptions of patients’ views on the Women’s Health Initiative trial results (WHI, which examined the link between HRT and heart disease), provider views on the WHI study and how prepared they felt to counsel patients were also analyzed. 57% of the providers in the study were women.
The findings? How often HT was prescribed appeared to vary by geographical location and the number of years a provider had been at a specific organization (which may reflect the age of the provider). More than half of those surveyed believed that they had expert knowledge about data coming out of recent HT trials.
In fact, primary care providers who felt that they had this degree of knowledge were significantly more likelier than their colleagues who did not to recommend hormone therapy. In contrast, ob/gyns who were more likely to prescibe HT were those who believed that they well prepared to counsel their female patients on hormone therapy. These practitioners also tended to believe that the results of the trials had been exaggerated.
Regardless of specialty, younger patients and patients who did not have other diseases that may exacerbate risk were most often prescribed HT.
So, what do these study results mean exactly?
The researchers write that HT prescribing may be “driven by factors outside of evidence-based medicine,” such as prescriber self-perception and age. If this is true, then the lack of provider bias could potentially influence prescribing habits and in turn, exposure to HT.
As the researchers say, “women, who when inquiring about HT risk and benefits, deserve unbiased and well informed counseling to make informed decisions.” And that it “is likely that some doctors need additional training to ensure this level of advice.”
For you, this means to be sure to be prepared when you make that first appointment to discuss therapeutic options for troublesome menopausal symptoms. Do the homework before you enter your provider’s office so that you are ready to ask the right questions.
In addition to the link provided above, which discusses the WHI data in detail, I encourage you to visit the following sites for unbiased information about menopause and its treatment:
The bottom line is that if your provider is talking the talk, be sure that you know why you’re going to walk the walk.
Read MoreBreast cancer risk and HRT – what matters most?
Data from the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium last month provided definitive evidence that HRT increases the risk of breast cancer by 26% in menopausal women. However, does route of administration (e.g., patch, oral) or type of HRT matter?
According to a study in the journal Breast Cancer Research and Treatment, route of administration does not matter. But the progestagen component does.
Data were extrapolated from 80,377 postmenopausal women living in France and participating in E3N (a study designed to investigate risk factors for cancer) between 1990 and 2002. At the study’s start, the average age of participants was 53 years. HRT types included estrogen only and estrogen plus progesterone, dydrogesterone combinations or other types of progesterone.
Over the study period 2,354 cases of invasive breast cancer occurred. Compared with women who never used HRT, women using estrogen alone had a 1.29-fold increased risk of developing breast cancer. However, breast cancer risk varied significantly depending upon the type of progestagen:
- Risk was significantly lower with estrogen-progestagen HRTS containing progesterone or dehydrogesterone than with estrogen combinations involving other types (e.g., nomegestrol acetate, norethisterone acetate, medroxyprogesterone acetate)
- The aformentioned combinations Ii.e. estrogen plus progesterone or dehydrogesterone) were associated with no or only a slight increase in breast cancer risk (1 fold greater or 1.16 fold greater, respectively).
- The results remained the same when analysis was restricted women whose age at the start of menopause could be most accurately determined.
Although the effect of progestagen remains somewhat unclear, and factors such as experimental conditions, length of time taking them and dose can influence results, the researchers did conclude that some HRT combinations may be safer than others.
Researchers also emphasize that further study is needed, and that medical experts are still unsure how HRT combinations affect other disease risks, such as heart disease, stroke and colorectal cancer.
Meanwhile, if you are taking HRT, talk to your health practitioner and find out which progestagen you’re taking. Better safe than sorry, right?!
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