Estradiol and Melatonin

My husband brought home a book for me the other day and it says taking estradiol alone can be dangerous. its the most aggressive type of estrogen. it increases your risk of various cancers, and needs to be evened out with estriol. which says is the safest for of estrogen you can take. also for women having trouble sleeping you can take melatonin. it may be one of the safest and best hormones you can self medicate its natural and you can buy over the counter where all the vitamins are sold. it says it also slows down graying hair, lower stress.Study shows that it helps block cancer cells 75% helping prevent breast cancer. i never knew all this and i have been taking melatonin for 2 years to help me sleep. you can get 1 to 5mg its very mild it wont knock you out just helps make you sleepy. my doctor put me on the estradiol pills but after reading in this book im gonna talk to him about it on my 4 week check up on the 11th. In case your wondering the book is called The Health Detectives by Nan Kathryn Fuchs, PHD Just thought i would share some info i found.

wow, thank you so much. I have breast cancer in my family and my doctor knows that. He put me on 0.1mg patach of Estradiol. Now I'm really nervous. I'm going to look into other alternatives. Not sure how the progestrone creams work? Denise

has anyone read the studies by the WHI? I read them before i decided to go ahead and have my ovaries removed and I did not see enough research to support an increase in breast cancer by women using estrogen alone. There was an increase in women using the combo of estrogen and progesterone.

In addition, my doc. told me that the patches (vivelle, climera, et cetera) tend to carry less risk than oral meds b/c the medication is delivered directly into the blood stream versus oral where it has to be broken down by the intestines and liver.

Certainly we should all be conscious of what we are putting into our bodies, absolutely. Personally, my body was making so much estrogen on it's own that I would assume that to be more of a risk of cancer than the lower levels of HRT in my body.

Just another perspective to offer on the subject. I'm a data geak and I don't believe what the media tells me unless i really like the data

	Quote:
Originally Posted by Glassburn My husband brought home a book for me the other day and it says taking estradiol alone can be dangerous. its the most aggressive type of estrogen. it increases your risk of various cancers, and needs to be evened out with estriol. which says is the safest for of estrogen you can take.

Nan Kathryn Fuchs is not an MD; she is a nutritionist who writes books. She has no education in reproductive endocrinology. The last book she published before this one was extolling the virtues of Padma, an "ancient Tibetan herbal formula"

That said, if you look at page 220, secret#246 of the book mentioned in this thread, you'll see that she does refer readers to Dr. Uzzi Reiss' book "Natural Hormone Balance for Women" and says that one should work out what formulation is best with one's doctor (who is NOT her). She does not say that estradiol is dangerous and aggressive. She does say, and I think this is misleading, that it "may be the most procarcinogenic" estrogen. Note that she used the qualifier "may" (ie she doesn't know this) and she doesn't say it is carcinogenic (causes cancer) but rather procarcinogenic. What that means is that it may metabolize to molecules that can be carcinogenic. We know this. That's why some of us use DIM (diindolylmethane) -- because it shifts the metabolism of estrogens away from these procarcinogenic forms and towards anticarcinogenic ones. Here is a link with more info:

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/m...5/ai_111496956

Of more concern, since we seem to be discussing hormones and breast cancer risk, is that once breast cancer is already in existence, estrogens can encourage it to grow. However, the WHI study data show that women on estrogen-only HRT are not at increased risk of developing breast cancer. The women who took Prempro, though (Premarin plus the synthetic progestin Provera), did have a slightly increased risk.

One wrinkle in the data that isn't talked about much is that women on estrogen-only HRT who do develop breast cancer tend to develop forms of the disease with better prognosis. This may be because the estrogen encourages the cancer to grow while it is still non-invasive so it becomes large enough to be detected in a mammogram while it is not yet invasive - coupled with the fact that women on HRT tend to get more regular mammograms than women not on HRT. I know that has been my experience twice.

As for melatonin, it's true that it seems to be able to reduce the incidence of breast cancer and slow its growth (coupled with retinoic acid treatment) - at least in rats:

http://breast-cancer-research.com/content/7/4/R470

Obviously studies will need to be done in humans. I would not recommend running out and buying megadoses of melatonin and taking them to try to prevent breast cancer. Getting enough sleep will accomplish the same thing. I do take melatonin on the occasion when I stay up too late and know I have to get up early in the morning. It doesn't really help me go to sleep, though, and never has.

I think it's important when looking at all the information out there to consider the source. Look to see what actual research it's backed up by, and who did it/funded it (sometimes infomercials masquerade as "study results"). I'm not saying Ms. Fuchs doesn't have some helpful information in her book; just suggesting that she isn't saying we (women in surgical menopause, which she doesn't address at all) must never take estradiol unless we balance it with estriol. She is merely giving credit for the development of the original formula of bi-est and tri-est to Dr. Wright, where credit is due.

s,
-Linda

Actually it was estrogen plus progestins (Prempro) that were shown to carry an increase risk, not progesterone.

http://www.womeninbalance.org/research/general.html

This link came from one of the most respected surgical menopause resources out there--> Survivor's Guide To Surgical Menopause

http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/569399

I highly recommend this link. It puts the WHI in perspective....

	Quote:
Originally Posted by LOVEMONSTER This link came from one of the most respected surgical menopause resources out there--> Survivor's Guide To Surgical Menopause http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/569399 I highly recommend this link. It puts the WHI in perspective....

Thanks for the link!
Janelle