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Why Iron is Important for Your Body

8/4/2015

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Iron is one of the most critical elements needed for your body to function properly. Most commonly known for its’ role in carrying oxygen in the blood and delivering it to the tissues in the body, iron is also necessary for many other biochemical pathways including the production of energy in every cell in the body. The mitochondria are the energy producers of the cells and generate ATP to use as energy through a process called oxidative phosphorylation or cellular respiration. Iron is required in order to complete this reaction and produce energy for the cells.

Symptoms of iron deficiency commonly include fatigue, hair loss, anxiety, heart palpitations, restless legs, shortness of breath, tingling or numbness and insomnia.

Lab testing for iron levels can be done in a variety of ways, but the most accurate is by testing Ferritin levels which measures the amount of iron that is stored in the body. Testing iron levels in the blood directly can give a false normal as the body is able to draw the iron from the Ferritin to make the iron levels look normal. Iron deficiency symptoms can occur as the Ferritin levels drop even though the iron levels appear to be normal. Ferritin also can give you an idea of generalized inflammation and chronic disease occurring in the body if the levels are too high.

If your Ferritin levels are low it is important to supplement with a high quality iron as soon as possible as iron levels increase slowly. We prefer to use iron in the bisglycinate form as it has been found to increase iron stores quicker and maintain them for longer than other forms like ferrous sulfate.  We also find that there are little to no side effects when using bisglycinate. Foods can help to maintain iron levels, but do not contain enough iron to raise Ferritin. Foods that are higher in iron content include meat, eggs, dark leafy green vegetables, molasses and beans.

It is possible for iron toxicity to occur if levels are too high or you have a rare genetic condition known as Hemachromatosis. Therefore, it is extremely important to consult a health care practitioner and have your Ferritin checked prior to starting any supplementation with iron.


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Feeling hot? - Simple Solutions for Your Hot Flashes

3/10/2014

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Menopause is a natural process that typically requires some therapeutic support.  A common medication given for menopause is hormone replace therapy.  Women report that they still have symptoms, like hot flashes, years later even after being on this treatment and that could be because it is not focusing on the underlying causes of the symptoms.  Hormone replacement therapy increases the risk of blood clots and breast cancer, however, helps to prevent osteoporosis and may be necessary in some women.  Other prescription medications are given as well to help with hot flashes like antidepressants or anxiolytics which can also help with psychological symptoms. 

Naturopathic medicine can really help support women during this time and help reduce symptoms by addressing the cause.  It has been shown that increasing exercise causes a decrease in symptoms associated with menopause like hot flashes.  It is also important to reduce alcohol and smoking as these both increase symptoms.  Adding ground flaxseeds and organic soy milk to the diet daily can help reduce hot flashes.  (If you are skeptical about soy – see our previous blog post on the soy controversy)  Flaxseeds and soy are both phytoestrogenic which means they act like estrogen in the body, but are not nearly as strong as they reversibly bind the receptors; so if there is too little estrogen as in menopause they increase it, but if there is too much estrogen they work to lower it, therefore overall both have a balancing effect.  Flaxseeds also offer a lot of fiber which can benefit the digestive system and help lower cholesterol.  Soy is a complete protein source which means it offers all the amino acids or building blocks that are needed for proper cellular function.  Examples of soy products are soy beans, tofu, soy milk and tempeh.  It is important for soy to be organic as it is heavily sprayed with pesticides as well as it being a crop that is highly genetically modified.  Soy is also not for everyone as some people have a food sensitivity to it and it is not recommended in women who have thyroid issues.  Red clover is an herbal medicine that works in a similar manner to flaxseeds and soy that could be added in as a tea or sprouts (see our blog on sprouting).  Other herbs that could be combined in tea form to help reduce the symptoms associated with menopause are: don quai, chamomile, sage and/or hops. 

Not all women experience a hormone imbalance related to a lower amount of estrogen.  In some cases progesterone and testosterone may also be out of balance.  Salivary hormone testing is a great way to identify hormone imbalances and specifically treat what’s going on in each individual woman’s body.  Adrenal gland function is also tested which is important to assess as the adrenals take over for some of the estrogen and progesterone production in the body after menopause.  Salivary hormones seem to be a more accurate representation of which hormones are actually getting into the tissues and not just what is transiently in the blood.   

If you are interested in these treatments, testing or other herbal medicines that could help with your menopausal symptoms please consult with a Naturopathic physician or book an appointment with us today.


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The Soy Controversy

7/3/2013

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A look into the scientific research on soy.

Soy has been one of the most polarizing herbs used in natural health care. Soy food is a rich source of isoflavones--a class of phytoestrogens that has both anti-estrogenic and anti-carcinogenic properties. Some believe it has great benefits for hormone balancing as well as reducing cancer and cardiovascular risks while others feel that it is a harmful plant that destroys both the earth and wreaks havoc on the human body. The answer we believe is somewhere in the middle and ultimately depends on what form of soy you are speaking about. The genetically modified (GM) version of the plant is most likely the culprit behind all of the negative exposure and ill effects that soy may cause, whereas organic, non-GM soy can have many positive effects in the body. We utilize soy a great deal in our clinical practice mostly to balance female hormones so we wanted to get to the bottom of the controversy and take a look at the scientific literature available on soy. What we found was slightly surprising in the fact that it was nearly impossible to locate any studies that showed soy to have a negative effect. The only information we came across that lead us to believe soy was harmful came from a Google search leading to various blogs and magazine articles. Searching reputable sources such as Pubmed and the Cochrane library only directed us to countless articles showing positive effects which we have briefly summarized below. As a disclaimer, we understand that clearing rainforests and fields to monocrop the GM version of the plant is harmful both to the planet and humans and we always advocate for the use of organic non GM soy.

Phytoestrogens

Phytoestrogens are plant sources of estrogen-like compounds and are often misunderstood to act solely as excess hormone in the body and therefore said to be harmful in conditions that are worsened by estrogen. This is misleading and does not explain how phytoestrogens work on the receptors in the human body. To quickly clarify, phytoestrogens act as weak estrogens in the body. This means that if your estrogen is too high the phytoestrogen will weakly bind to estrogen receptors and block the excess or harmful estrogen from having an effect and it will be eliminated from the body with proper liver support. On the other hand, if you have low estrogen levels the phytoestrogen will again weakly bind to the receptors and have a slight estrogenic effect to help increase the amount of estrogen in the body. Therefore, phytoestrogens are helpful in both high and low estrogen situations.

Soy and Cancer

The studies that have been published in this area show that soy has protective effects in cancers that are hormone related. We came across many journal articles and we have summarized a few of the meta-analyses below.

Post-diagnosis Soy Food Intake and Breast Cancer Survival: A Meta-analysis of Cohort Studies.
Chi F, Wu R, Zeng YC, Xing R, Liu Y, Xu ZG.
Asian Pac J Cancer Prev. 2013

11 602 patients studied

This meta- analysis showed that soy food intake might be associated with better survival, especially for ER negative, ER+/ PR+, and postmenopausal patients.

Soy intake and risk of endocrine-related gynaecological cancer: a meta-analysis.
Myung SK, Ju W, Choi HJ, Kim SC.
BJOG. 2009

The results of the current study showed protective effects of soy intake on the risk for endocrine-related gynecological cancers.

Association of soy and fiber consumption with the risk of endometrial cancer.
Goodman MT, Wilkens LR, Hankin JH, Lyu LC, Wu AH, Kolonel LN.
Am J Epidemiol. 1997

High consumption of soy products and other legumes was associated with a decreased risk of endometrial cancer.

Similar reductions in risk were found for increased consumption of other sources of phytoestrogens such as whole grains, vegetables, fruits, and seaweeds.

Legume, soy, tofu, and isoflavone intake and endometrial cancer risk in postmenopausal women in the multiethnic cohort study.
Ollberding NJ, Lim U, Wilkens LR, Setiawan VW, Shvetsov YB, Henderson BE, Kolonel LN, Goodman MT.
J Natl Cancer Inst. 2012

A reduced risk of endometrial cancer was associated with total isoflavone intake (highest vs lowest quintile, ≥7.82 vs <1.59 mg per 1000 kcal/d, RR = 0.66, 95% CI = 0.47 to 0.91), daidzein intake (highest vs lowest quintile, ≥3.54 vs <0.70 mg per 1000 kcal/d, RR = 0.64, 95% CI = 0.46 to 0.90), and genistein intake (highest vs lowest quintile, ≥3.40 vs <0.69 mg per 1000 kcal/d, RR = 0.66, 95% CI = 0.47 to 0.91).

This study suggests that greater consumption of isoflavone-containing foods is associated with a reduced risk of endometrial cancer in this population of nonhysterectomized postmenopausal women.

Phytoestrogen intake and endometrial cancer risk.
Horn-Ross PL, John EM, Canchola AJ, Stewart SL, Lee MM.
J Natl Cancer Inst. 2003

Isoflavone (OR = 0.59, 95% CI = 0.37 to 0.93 for the highest versus lowest quartile of exposure) and lignan (OR = 0.68, 95% CI = 0.44 to 1.1) consumptions were inversely related to the risk of endometrial cancer. These associations were slightly stronger in postmenopausal women.

Obese postmenopausal women consuming relatively low amounts of phytoestrogens had the highest risk of endometrial cancer

Adolescent and adult soy food intake and breast cancer risk: results from the Shanghai Women's Health Study.

Lee SA, Shu XO, Li H, Yang G, Cai H, Wen W, Ji BT, Gao J, Gao YT, Zheng W.
Am J Clin Nutr. 2009

Adult soy food consumption, measured either by soy protein or isoflavone intake, was inversely associated with the risk of premenopausal breast cancer, and the association was highly statistically significant (P for trend < 0.001).

High intake of soy foods during adolescence was also associated with a reduced risk of premenopausal breast cancer (RR: 0.57; 95% CI: 0.34, 0.97). Women who consumed a high amount of soy foods consistently during adolescence and adulthood had a substantially reduced risk of breast cancer.

This large, population-based, prospective cohort study provides strong evidence of a protective effect of soy food intake against premenopausal breast cancer.


All of the studies show lower rates and/or recurrence of cancer in populations that consume the highest amounts of soy. These are not all of the studies done showing positive effects but we had to omit the others due to time and limited space of this blog. We were unable to locate any studies that showed negative effects of soy with cancers. From this we must conclude that benefits of soy for cancer vastly outweigh the risks.  

Soy and Cholesterol

Soy has been shown numerous times to lower cholesterol levels and reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease. The results of a meta-analysis done in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition in 2005 by Siyan Zhan and Suzanne C Ho titled A Meta-analysis of the effects of soy protein containing isoflavones on the lipid profile show that Soy protein containing isoflavones significantly reduced serum total cholesterol, LDL (bad) cholesterol, and triacylglycerol and significantly increased HDL (good) cholesterol. Again, studies showing negative effects of soy on cholesterol and cardiovascular health could not be found.

Soy and Men

Soy has been thought to increase a man’s estrogen levels and lead to female characteristics. Although a few case studies of very high dose soy consumption may have resulted in feminization, scientific evidence in humans shows that low to moderate doses of soy in the diet have beneficial effects for men as well and do not result in female features. We have summarized some of the studies below.


Clinical studies show no effects of soy protein or isoflavones on reproductive hormones in men: results of a meta-analysis.
Hamilton-Reeves JM, Vazquez G, Duval SJ, Phipps WR, Kurzer MS, Messina MJ.
Fertil Steril. 2010

No significant effects of soy protein or isoflavone intake on T, SHBG, free T, or FAI were detected regardless of statistical model.

The results of this meta-analysis suggest that neither soy foods nor isoflavone supplements alter measures of bioavailable T concentrations in men.

Hormonal effects of soy in premenopausal women and men.
Kurzer MS.
J Nutr. 2002

Thus, studies in women have mostly been consistent with beneficial effects, although the magnitude of the effects is quite small and of uncertain significance. Only three intervention studies reported hormonal effects of soy isoflavones in men. These recent studies in men consuming soy foods or supplements containing 40--70 mg/d of soy isoflavones showed few effects on plasma hormones or semen quality. This data does not support concerns about effects on reproductive hormones and semen quality.

Soybean isoflavone exposure does not have feminizing effects on men: a critical examination of the clinical evidence.
Messina M.
Fertil Steril. 2010

The intervention data indicate that isoflavones do not exert feminizing effects on men at intake levels equal to and even considerably higher than are typical for Asian males.

Soy and Thyroid

The one area where soy has been shown to have a negative effect is on the thyroid gland, specifically blocking the uptake of the synthetic thyroid hormone Synthroid. If you do not have a thyroid condition and are not taking Synthroid then soy should not negatively affect your thyroid.

Conclusion

After extensively searching through the scientific literature on soy we have come to the conclusion that the benefits outweigh the harms of soy and we will continue to use organic, non-GM soy as a treatment in our clinic. Any belief that soy is harmful may be based solely on theory, personal opinion, or case studies. The studies that did show little or no effect of soy were using only isoflavone isolates and not the whole bean. The research performed on soy showing positive effects is overwhelming, but as with any treatment the form and dose are critical. We always recommend consulting with your health care professional before starting any soy or supplementation routine.


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    Chris and Darcie

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