Calcium-D-Glucarate:
The Newest Breast Cancer Prevention
from "Let's Live" magazine, August 1998
by Sherry A. Rogers M.D.
The medical community has known for many years that prescribed
estrogens, used in oral contraceptives and postmenopausal and post-
hysterectomy estrogen replacement therapies, increase the risk of
breast cancer. This led women who opted not to use oral contraceptives
or estrogen replacement to think that they could rule estrogen off
their own risk lists for this often deadly disease. Now, however,
evidence is surfacing that suggests that these estrogen mimics pose a
risk for all of us.
Scientists studying a high rate of breast cancer in Long Island
found that women with breast cancer had higher levels of pesticides
such as DDT in their breasts than women with normal breasts. What is
the link between pesticides and estrogen? It turns out that many
pesticides mimic the action of estrogen once they get into the body,
including triggering cancer. DDT is one of these chemicals. Atrazine,
the most common herbicide used on corn, is another.
But the plot thickens. The plastic wrap you use on your vegetables,
fruits and meats also contains these estrogen mimics. And the plastic
bottles that hold your soda, spring water and even baby's formula all
contain this same class of chemicals. They leach into food and drinks
and are most likely contributing to the epidemic increase in breast
cancer.
Scientists around the world are astounded at how many estrogen
mimics the average person is exposed to. Even though these everyday
chemicals don't resemble the estrogen molecule in chemical structure,
they nevertheless cause potent estrogenic activity once in the body.
Proof is mounting that these widespread environmental chemicals called
xenobiotics or xenoestrogens are partially responsible not only for
cancers, but also for the escalating rate of infertility and other
unusual animal and human symptoms.
Environmental estrogen mimics were accidentally discovered in a
research laboratory because the xenoestrogens in plastic test tubes
were interfering with other chemicals being studied. One of the most
common environmental estrogens is a group called alkylphenolic
compounds.
Once these compounds are in the body, they wreak havoc in several ways.
First, they bond with estrogen receptors like a woman's
estrogen-estradiol.
After attaching to a receptor, they transmit a messsage that tells
breast
cancer cells to grow. Second, estrogens signal the release of a chemical
known as "tumor growth factor." And third, xenoestrogen can even cause
the number of receptor cells to proliferate. Once activated, they
stimulate breast cancer cell growth; hence, they contribute to several
of cancer's mechanisms.
Scientists have estimated that 50 to 95 percent of cancers are
caused by diet and environment; xenoestrogens are present in both for
most women. They are very common in paints, textiles, paper products,
pesticides, herbicides, plastics and plastic wraps. Some of the highest
levels come from detergents that are used heavily in commercial
enterprises and end up in municipal water supplies. And, they also
migrate into foods from packaging.
The best news is that you can rev up or supercharge your body's
estrogen detoxification pathway to get rid of these xenoestrogens more
efficiently. You have control over the amount of estrogenic compounds
that the body detoxifies and eliminates, rather than storing. Here's
how:
In order to detoxify an estrogen-like compound, the liver hooks a
heavy molecule into it called a glucuronide. This estrogen-glucuronide
complex is carried out of the liver into the bile and down the gut. But
intestinal bacteria make an enzyme that rips the glucoronide conjugate
off the estrogen. Then, the estrogen is free to be absorbed back into
the body to do its damage.
This nasty reabsorption is called "entero-hepatic circulation,"
meaning the estrogen-mimic comes out of the gut and into the liver
again, from which it can return to the bloodstream. The result is that
the body has wasted energy and nutients in detoxifying it, only to have
it return. Hence, you are worse off than when you started, because
you've lost nutrients in the process.
Luckily, there are at least three ways to control how much
estrogen is reabsorbed into your bloodstream. One way is to eat a
no-meat diet, because eating meat raises the level of glucuronidase
in the gut.
Second, since the phytochemical indole-3-carbinol also revs up the
glucuronidation pathway, you can eat at least two vegetables from the
indole-rich cruciferous family, such as broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage,
Brussels sprouts, kale and collards, every day.
The third option is to take Calcium-D-glucarate, which prevents
the bacterial enzyme glucuronidase from ripping the glucuronide off.
Calcium-D-glucarate helps the estrogen-glucuronide complex to keep
moving through the bowel and out of the body.
Calcium-D-glucarate is so potent that when it was given to rats
specially bred to have a 100-percent risk of breast cancer, only 56
percent got it. And the animals that did get it had 87.5 percent fewer
tumors than normal. In fact, Calcium-D-glucarate is so promising as an
adjunct cancer therapy that the National Institutes of Health is
studying its use by women.
Unfortunately, the environment is loaded with estrogen mimics that
can be carcinogenic in adults, as well as children. The good news is
that Calcium-D-glucarate can cut the risk. And by taking other steps
to reduce your total load - cutting down on exposure sources, eating
six to nine servings of fresh fruits and vegetables a day, eating less
meat, plus taking antioxidants - you'll have an increased chance of
preventing not only breast cancer, but other forms of chemically-
induced cancers.