Fat Cells Make Estrogen And What You Can Do About That

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Fat Cells Make Estrogen (And What You Can Do About That)

Why are we continually being told in order to cut our breast cancer risk, we need to lose weight?  Because fat cells make estrogen and that can cause big problems. Here’s why.

The more fat you carry, the more estrogen you produce and vice versa.  The biggest majority of breast cancer tumors are fueled by an over-abundance of estrogen circulating through the body. To complicate matters, fat cells are loaded with aromatase, an enzyme required for the biosynthesis of estrogen.  The higher your percentage of body fat, the more estrogen you can produce and the fatter you will be unless you stop the cycle through better nutrition, exercise and stress reduction steps.

Estrogen can come from an abundance of sources, not just the body’s own estrogen.  High levels of estrogen can also come from high stress levels because cortisol (the hormone secreted when you’re under stress) causes the body to store more belly fat. More fat, more estrogen.

Estrogen can also come from xenoestrogens (false estrogens) from the environment or chemically-laden body care products. See my article Protect Yourself from Xenoestrogens and Estrogen Dominance for more information on that subject.

High calorie, fat-filled foods are also to blame for higher levels of estrogen. They affect the body in many ways and have a strong influence on hormonal activity.  Things like fried foods, refined sugars, white bread, and so on should be avoided.

Estrogen is a normal and essential hormone for both women and men, but the more estrogen there is circulating in the blood, the greater the driving force behind some kinds of breast cancer.  When women adopt a low-fat diet, their estrogen levels drop noticeably in a very short time.  Please note it is very important to have healthy fats in your diet like walnuts, avocados, freshly ground flaxseed, nut and seed butters, olives,  and black seed oil (Nigella sativa). These healthy fats will not increase your breast cancer risk and, in fact, are extremely beneficial for risk reduction.

5 Tips To Get You On The Right Path

  1. Make Sure You Are Properly Hydrated – There is an inverse relationship between water consumption and fat accumula­tion in the body. The less water you drink, the more you will want to eat. The more you eat, unless you are physically active, the more you store fat and there are specific reasons for that.  The sensations of thirst and hunger are generated simultaneously by your brain to indicate the brain’s needs for energy.  We often do not recognize the sensation of thirst and interpret both indicators as the urge to eat, doing so even when the body really just wants water.  Water is required for all physiological functions of the body.  Water has two direct effects in preventing obesity — firstly, by providing hydration for the brain, it avoids the storage of fat from excess food intake, and secondly, by constantly activating fat-burning enzymes, water helps with breaking up fat reserves when the body is going through the process of recycling its fat stores.  How much water should you drink?  Half your body weight (lbs) in ounces, for instance if you weigh 120 lbs, you should drink 60 oz of water daily.  Also, add a 1/2 teaspoon of salt WITHOUT IODINE for every ten glasses of water you drink to replace what you’re washing through you.
  2. Seek Some Emotional Support – Obesity is often the result of an emotional upset.  Who hasn’t had a fight with their spouse and then reached for the chocolate?  These patterns need to be addressed and a new routine adhered to. Counselling in this regard is extremely important, but the patient must be cooperative in wanting to change their diet and lifestyle.  Fad diets rarely work since the underlying emotional patterning is almost never addressed, paving the way for a return to old eating and lifestyle habits.
  3. Get More Exercise – This part may seem obvious, but many often skip it, in favor of the popular diet of the week.  Nothing is better than old fashioned exercise and it doesn’t need to something you don’t like.  If you aren’t crazy about gym workouts, go to a dance class.  Go hiking.  Get on a bicycle and go somewhere fun!  Have fun with it.  If you need to consult with a qualified instructor to consider any ancillary health problems caused by obesity, please do that.  Aim to build up to 30 minutes of exercise five days a week. Research shows that just a healthy plant-based diet, along with regular exercise and a good support network has been associated with a huge decrease in breast cancer risk.
  4. Get Your Vitamin D Levels Checked – Vitamin D suppresses the aromatase enzyme and has many other important biological functions.  Studies have shown that most women diagnosed with breast cancer are hugely deficient in vitamin D3.
  5. Juice Fresh Fruit and Vegetables – Your body finds it difficult to metabolize fat when it lacks the proper nutrients and minerals. It is hugely beneficial to begin juicing (see my articles on that) so as to provide your body with the needed nutrients, especially if you have not been eating healthy foods. Juicing provides almost all of the nutrition your body needs when you are losing weight and it will help you to lose that weight.

 

If you would like my help with getting through breast cancer in an inspiring and ultra-healthy way, please sign up for my free newsletters on the right, and/or “like” me on Facebook (Marnie Clark, Breast Health Coach).