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Estrogen Dominance (Part 3)- How Do You Help Your Liver Break Down Estrogen?
Can you influence the breakdown of estrogen? Yes, you can!In this follow-up tip on estrogen dominance, I will discuss how your liver breaks down estrogen. Just remember: not all estrogen dominance is caused by high estrogen! These tips will only help you when dealing with high levels of estrogen and detoxification is a problem.
How do you know if these are a problem? You will have to test.
The DUTCH test can provide you insight into the levels of your estrogen and how you break them down. The test is easy to do: you just pee on a piece of paper for science!
Let’s first explain how estrogen is broken down:
Meet the Estrogen Family!
We talk about estrogen as if it is just one hormone. But it isn’t! Let’s talk about the different estrogen family members:- Estrone (E1) – is the primary form of estrogen that your body makes after menopause.
- Estradiol (E2) – is the primary form of estrogen in your body during your reproductive years. It’s the most potent form of estrogen.
- Estriol (E3) – is the primary form of estrogen during pregnancy.
- Estetrol (E4) – which is only made during pregnancy and won’t be the focus of today’s article.
Let’s assume that it’s time for the estrogens to leave the body. We usually talk about the 3 phases of estrogen detoxification. The first 2 phases of estrogen breakdown will happen mostly in the liver. The 3rd phase is related to the gut.Because estrogen detoxification is such a complicated topic, I will only talk about phase 1 detoxification here.
How does Phase 1 Detoxification Work?
In the first phase, the liver will attach an alcohol (or -OH) group to estrogen. The enzymes doing this are liver enzymes and are called CYP enzymes. Different enzymes will stick the -OH group on different parts of the estrogen molecule.For example
- E1 becomes 4OH-E1 under the influence of the liver enzyme CYP1B1.
For simplicity’s sake, I will call 4-OH E1 Red Estrogen Detox Pathway - E1 becomes 16OH-E1 (under the influence of the liver enzyme CYP3A4)
For simplicity’s sake, I will call 16OH-E1 Yellow Estrogen Detox Pathway - E1 becomes 2-OH-E1 (under the influence of the liver enzyme CYP1A1 and CYP1A2)
E2 becomes 2-OH-E2 (again under the influence of the liver enzyme CYP1A1 and CYP1A2)
For simplicity’s sake, I will call 2OH-E1/E2 the Green Estrogen Detox Pathway
This is called phase 1 detoxification of estrogen.What is the best way to detoxify estrogen?
We prefer in phase 1 that estrogen is broken down to 2-OH E1 (Green Estrogen Pathway). The 4-OH E1 (Red Estrogen Pathway) is the least favorite because it could lead to DNA damage & cancer. The 16-OH E1 (Yellow Estrogen Pathway) metabolite is still estrogenic and can cause growth. This is good for bones. Bad for breast cells. The 16-OH E1 isn’t good, but it isn’t necessarily bad either. With breast cancer, we don’t like to detoxify estrogen via the yellow estrogen pathway as well.Can Diet and Supplements Improve Phase 1 Detoxification?
Yes, of course! And here is how:-
DIM (which is made from I3C)
I3C (short for Indole-3-Carbinol) is found in the brassica vegetable family. So for example, when you eat broccoli, kale, Brussels sprouts or cabbage, the I3C goes to your stomach. When I3c hits your stomach acid, it will convert into metabolites. Around 10-60% of the I3C will break down into DIM (short for Di-Indolyl-Methane).DIM increases the conversion of E1 and E2 via the green pathway (resulting in 2OH-E1 and 2OH-E2) and it reduces the conversion of E1 and E2 via the red pathway (resulting in the 4OH-E1) in vitro and animal studies.
You can buy it as a supplement (for example this brand). The typical dosages used in research are between 100mg – 300mg of DIM per day. After 24 hours DIM is totally broken down.
If your test results on the DUTCH test show you prefer the red pathway and the green pathway is for some reason low and you are in your reproductive years, DIM might be a good choice for you.
If your estrogen has dropped (for example you are menopausal), DIM might not be the best choice for you since it might lower your estrogen further. This could make complaints potentially worse.
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Eating Broccoli
In this study they examined the effect of eating 500 grams of broccoli per day in postmenopausal healthy women. They found that this increased estrogen breakdown on the green pathway. Other articles are writing that to get the anti-cancer effect of DIM in vegetables from the brassica family you would need to eat 600 grams (2.5 cups) per day of broccoli for several years.I do believe (and this is my personal opinion) that eating vegetables with all its polyphenols have a bigger impact on health and anti-cancer risks then these articles can estimate right now.
But if you do have high level of estrogens in your body, you might not want to wait years before broccoli & vegetables reduce those risks and a supplement might help you better. But you do need to eat your broccoli!
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Quercetin
You might know this as an anti-histamine supplement. Quercetin is found in onions, apples, citrus fruits, blueberries, olive oil, tomatoes and broccoli.Quercetin is an inhibitor of the red pathway. What it does is it decreases the production of the liver enzyme CYP1B1.
Typical dosages that have been used in research are between 250 and 1000 mg per day. A supplement that I recommend to my clients is quercetin from Pure Encapsulations.
Contraindications: Don’t use quercetin in combination with antibiotics and blood thinners. If you have a slow COMT enzyme (I will go into more depth on the COMT enzyme in Part 4!) quercetin might not be the best choice for you as well. The COMT enzyme is also needed in the next step of estrogen detoxification in phase 2. Occupying the COMT enzyme can lead to a faster phase 1 detox and a slower phase 2 detox. We don’t want that!
If your phase 2 detoxification is slow, quercetin might right now not be the best choice either. But that is a topic for the next article!
How do we know if Quercetin is a good supplement for you? We test (for example with The DUCTH test complete)!
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Coffee (not caffeine)
Good news and bad news for coffee drinkers: coffee can ‘turn on’ the green pathway. The bad news is that coffee is heavily sprayed and is very prone to mold and can influence phase 3 detoxification of estrogen.Make sure your coffee is organic and mold free, especially if you have gut issues going on.
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NAC (N-Acetyl-Cysteine)
If you prefer the red pathway your risk of DNA damage increases. How? Because the 4OH-E1 can lead to so-called DNA adducts, which means some unwanted molecules get stuck to the DNA. NAC can inhibit and lower adduct formation. -
Resveratrol
Resveratrol does inhibit the green pathway a bit. But it inhibits the red pathway much much stronger (According to this study and this study). Yes Resveratrol is in red wine, but so is alcohol, which can impair estrogen detoxification. Peanuts, pistachios, grapes, blueberries, cranberries, bilberries, dark cacao & chocolate all are foods that are high in resveratrol as well.
Hopefully you have some good ideas on how to help your liver breakdown estrogen in the first phase.In the next article, I will provide you with some tips that can help you with the phase 2 detoxification of estrogen.
I know estrogen is complicated! If you have any questions even if they feel ‘dumb’, please, please, ask! You are probably not the only one having these questions!
Stay Healthy
Daniel
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1 Reply
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loving this series! Thank you for sharing.
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