Forgive me if I rave about the Phytoestrogen Essential Complex but it literally has been life changing - 2 years ago I was fed up with migraines. Having ruled out stress and lack of sleep as a cause - thank you essential oils for sorting that out I concluded that it was hormonal! Now I know all about phytoestrogens which I will explain more about in a bit and I ate at least 200g of tofu a day as I love it, not to mention soy milk but still these migraines would floor me! Starting late afternoon, raging by bedtime, would wipe me out the next day with dizziness and continue to day 3 as they waned leaving me exhausted. Out of curiosity and desperation I tried the phytoestrogen complex….. 2 years I have not been troubled by one of these pesky hormonal migraines! The complex balanced what I needed and the rest as they say is history.
Hormones influence virtually every function in a woman’s body. A balance of normal hormone levels will influence a woman’s good health and emotional well-being from her early teens to her transition through menopause - phytoesetrogens can help maintain this balance.
Phytoestrogens are compounds that naturally occur in plants so if you eat a lot of fruit and veg, legumes and whole grains you will already be eating them. Phyto comes from the Greek word meaning plant and oestrogen is a female hormone that regulates functions in both women and men. So phytoestrogens function much like animal estrogens in humans and when we eat them our bodies respond to it. Now you have probably heard that certain oestrogens can be responsible for breast cancer but this is where the magic happens unlike endogenous or exogenous oestrogens the phyto variation doesn’t act on the same receptor therefore they've actually been found to be protective against certain forms of cancer rather than being agonists for cancer like ostrogen receptive breast cancer.
In a 2014 (1) review of studies it showed that phytoestrogens greatly reduced hot flushes and other research in 2016 (2) also found positive effects for hot flashes and other perimenopausal symptoms
Further studies show that phytoestrogens could help prevent bone loss in women and natural oestrogen is known to help maintain normal bone density as well because when women age calcium levels drop making a woman more vulnerable to osteoporosis and fractures.
Phytoestrogens can also be used as natural alternative for relieving menstrual issues or irregularities, the as when oestrogen levels drop at certain times in the menstrual cycle it can cause uncomfortable symptoms and if oestrogen is replaced by phytoestrogens or through the pill the symptoms may be relieved.
If you have acne and it's hormone-related then treating it with phytoestrogens may be ideal because the idea is that phytoestrogens encounter androgens which are male hormones that contribute to acne in women and balance out the effects.
Using a phytoestrogen complex that is naturally derived from plant based food is really essential if you're going to use it rather than using a synthetic one as they can actually increase the risk for obesity, cancer,reproductive disease and cardiovascular disease. These same risks are not being shown when taking plant-based estrogens. One such example is soy a fabulous plant-based source of a protein that we should all eat more of as it contains these wonderful phytoestrogens in particular ones called isoflavones and long-term clinical studies have shown these are not linked to an increased risk of breast cancer and can be protective against it. In fact a 2009 (3) study showed that these sorts of foods were found to decrease breast cancer recurrence and death.
A 2020 (4) review of studies showed that phytoestrogens may actually have a protective effect for the following cancers - breast cancer, colorectal cancer and endometrial cancer. We also know by looking at countries where soy is consumed in much larger quantities than in the west such as Asia there is a lower risk of cardiovascular disease and dementia as well and they also found that type 2 diabetes was also reduced in women whose diet was high in phytoestrogens.
Now unfortunately it isn’t always possible to eat as much of the good stuff as we intend to or even in my case I found I needed the extra boost but that should not stop you adding in those beneficial products such as soy.
So lets look at the wonderful Phytoestrogen Essential Complex I love to rave about this natural supplement includes a potent soy extract and is standardized for 64 percent isoflavone content and a minimum of 50 percent genistein, these phytoestrogens can bind with oestrogen beta receptor cells to provide a number of health benefits. The increased estrogen-like activity provided by these phytoestrogens studies have found could help balance hormones and hormone metabolites, and keep them from binding to other cells.
This supplement also contains a concentrated flax seed extract which is suggested to be useful in managing potentially harmful oestrogen metabolites. Hormones are metabolized in the liver and so they create a host of bioactive metabolites. An imbalance in some of these metabolites may increase the risk for a number of health concerns and so the concentrated flax seed extract contained within the complex could help maintain a healthy balance of these metabolites as well as potentially yield other benefits that flaxseed is known for.
The Phytoestrogen Essential Complex also includes a standardized pomegranate extract that provides supplemental phytoestrogens and powerful antioxidant support which support hormonal balance and are also important for overall health not to mention the phytoestrogens contained in the pomegranate extract have a gentle oestrogenic activity to help support hormone homeostasis.
All that in a little capsule! Want to learn more about adding them to your daily regime -
drop me a message for a personalised chat.
Information given here is not intended as a substitute for medical consultation - the author has no liability nor responsibility with respect to any issues occurring out of use such as damage, loss, injury.
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.3109/13697137.2014.966241
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2529629
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/185034
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13697137.2020.1863356