Collin County Living Well Magazine Winter 2013 | Page 20

The Safe Natural Estrogen-Estriol
By Dr. Donna Barsky, D.Ph., R.Ph.

B

ecause we hear mostly bad press about
hormones and nutritionals from our media,
I would like to give you the scoop on many
products––hormone, thyroid, nutritional,
etc.––just to let you know what benefits they
supply. Because this is much entailed,
this article may be printed over several issues. So, please, be patient,
and we will try to cover all the good
things that you never hear.
Oftentimes we hear from our
friends or our healthcare providers about how all estrogens are
bad for our health, but what most
people do not know is that all
of the bad studies, including
the Women’s Health Initiative
(WHI) study, were not studied
with the natural products, but
with esterified estrogens from
horses or synthetics. But
the truth is that hormone
replacement, balanced
correctly, is safe and will
protect your heart, reduce
cancer, maintain healthy
bones, reduce weight, and
maintain a sharp
memory.
To understand
menopause, it’s
imperative to
know more about
your hormones,
estrogen and progesterone. When a
woman hits her 30s, blood levels of estrogen and progesterone
gradually decline as nature intended because the childbearing
years are over.
In the ’60s, more than half of the 30 million postmenopausal women in this country were prescribed esterified
estrogens (usually from a horse) as the antidote to aging.
However, about that same time, studies began showing that
these women were five times more likely to develop uterine
cancer and an increased prevalence of breast cancer than
the women who did not take this estrogen replacement
therapy.
There are three types of estrogens in a woman’s body that
work like a symphony to safely produce the desired effects.
The three types of estrogen are estrone (E1), estradiol (E2),
and estriol (E3). However, estrone and estradiol have now
been shown to be carcinogenic when given by themselves
unopposed with progesterone, while estriol has been found
to be anti-carcinogenic and therefore protects the body

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Collin County Living Well Magazine • Winter 2013

from the harmful effects of the other two.
Because natural products in this country cannot be
patented, all of the current estrogen drugs used in this
country are combinations of synthetic copies of estrone
and estradiol.
Estriol is considered the “forgotten” estrogen. It has
been labeled historically in the U.S. as a weak or ineffective estrogen. However, in Europe, estriol
has been recognized for its benefits and
has been used for years. I like to call
estriol the anti-estrogen, and the need
to use a safer form of estrogen seems
crucial at this time. One of the most
exciting things about estriol is the fact
that it exhibits considerable evidence
showing that it protects against breast
cancer and even shows promise
in reducing the brain lesions of
multiple sclerosis. Fear of cancer prevents many women from
restoring youthful hormone
levels. We have also found when
large quantities of estrone and
estradiol need to be removed
from the blood stream, probiotics, vitamin B6, fiber, fish oil,
and calcium-D-glucarate (you
find this in apples and oranges),
will also help the elimination
process. The pith
of tangerines
and oranges is
especially good
for this. When
estriol is applied
through the topical (transdermal)
route; estriol is not
associated with increased cancer risk because estriol has
a much lower affinity for binding to blood protein as compared to estradiol; therefore, a greater percent is available
for biological activity. Other methods women can use to
prevent hormone-related cancers include consuming abundant vitamin D, cruciferous vegetables, soy, D-glucarate,
and lignans, while minimizing meat and high-fat dairy intake.
In 1966, H. M. Lemon, M.D., demonstrated that women
with breast cancer have lower estriol levels. Later he
showed that women without breast cancer had naturally
higher estriol levels.
In 1978, A. H. Follingstad, M.D., wrote an article for the
Journal of the American Medical Association, calling for the
use of estriol instead of estrone and estradiol. When given
small doses of estriol, 37% of the women with metastatic
breast cancer experienced either a remission or a complete
arrest of the metastasized lesions.