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Edible Hormones Health Support for Women
by Sayer Ji and Tania Melkonian I
n addition to relieving symptoms of menopause and andropause and help- ing maintain a normal, balanced hor- mone system, healthy eating can yield many other benefits. According to U.S. National Library of Medicine research reports, these include weight manage- ment, bone health and fertility and natu- ral defenses against breast and prostate cancers and osteoarthritis symptoms. Despite drug-free approaches to hormone health that predate synthe- sized 20th-century hormone replace- ment therapy, the pharmaceutical industry has all but vanquished eating appropriately nutritious foods as a means to balancing hormones. Why do people embrace external sourc- ing when natural internal function- ing is the better, less costly and more permanent solution? Even the current bio-identical upgrade of hormone replacement therapy (BHRT) may lead to some biological dependency on these substances. Appropri- ate BHRT should include an analysis of how the individual uniquely metabolizes hor- mones and functional foods that can help.
An edible approach to hormone health provides deep nourishment for glands, enabling increased production of what they lack due to changes associ- ated with age or illness. Healthy eating likewise reduces the activity of excess hormones already in the body, beneficially mimicking their previous function without the unwanted
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side effects. Here are some leading food aids to get us there.
Pomegranate The resemblance of the inner topog- raphy of a pome- granate to an ovary is more than poetic homage. Pre-Renaissance Western herbal- ists commonly held that a plant food’s visual similarity to a human organ indicated a positive health correlation. Research published in the Journal of Ethnopharmacology on pomegranates by Japanese scientists revealed that the seeds and fleshy capsules within which they are suspended, called arils, contain estrogens structurally similar to those found in mammals.
Preclinical results published in
Phytochemistry may explain why extracts of these plant-derived bio- identical hormones mimicking estradiol, estriol and estrone are capable of replacing the function of an ovary. A Japanese study published in the Journal of Ethnophar- macology reported that female mice whose ovaries had been removed and were later fed pomegranate juice and pomegranate seed extract for two weeks showed reversals in bone loss, uterine weight loss and anxiety.
Broccoli Cruciferous vegeta- bles such as broccoli and Brussels sprouts, collard and mustard
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