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Xenoestrogens
Avoid Xenoestrogens
If one has elevated estrogen levels avoid xenoestrogens. If one has PLD avoid xenoestrogen.
What are xenoestrogens?
Up until 1991, the term, xenoestrogens did not exist. When I was in school I remember science projects of several friends. A youngster in high school was concerned about processed food heated in a microwave packaged in plastic. She observed some of these containers melted onto the heated food. During the 1930's plastic was developed as an estrogen drug. Plastic is now known as an estrogen disruptor. This became her science project. A local laboratory allowed use of their facilities for testing. She discovered by heating oil in the microwave with a saran wrap cover, this produced 100 times the allowable amount of foreign chemicals to permeate the food.
Independent of this, a second laboratory, in another part of the country, was using plastic test tubes to evaluate the effect of certain chemicals triggering breast cancer cell growth. The manufacturer of the test tubes had changed the chemical formula of the test tubes to include lexan. These nalgene tubes made from lexan resulted in a more durable test tube. The surprise outcome of this experiment was that all chemicals tested in the improved lexan test tubes caused breast cancer cells to grow at an accelerated rate.
Thus was born xenoestrogens. Research has identified a number of items including plastic that can interfere with hormone receptors
imbedded in the body. Liver cysts contain hormone receptors within their cell walls. These have become known as:
Xenoestrogens
Endocrine Disruptors
Hormone Mimickers
Estrogen Like Molecules
Avoid Estrogen Like Molecules with PLD
To keep a polycystic liver in optimal heath, AVOID all hormones and estrogen like molecules. Sometimes what is perceived as a weak estrogen disruptor, can become intensified by the combination of weak disruptors creating a super estrogen disruptor. This is what some have discerned has happened with soy, flaxseed, and oily fish— all to be avoided to keep liver cyst growth to a minimum.
Aluminum
Bleach
Caffeine
Chlorines
Can coatings
Endocrine disruptors
Estrogen
Eating things that come from the ocean
Fish and fish oil
Flaxseed
Herbicides
Mercury
Methylparabens in shampoo, conditioner, lotion
Nonylphenol
Phenols
Phthalates
Scents (candles, air fresheners, perfumes)
Pesticides
Plastic bottles, food containers, anything in contact with mouth
Paper receipts
Soy
Xenoestrogens
Purposefully limiting any exposure to additional estrogen like molecules may succeed in halting liver cyst growth. In addition to avoiding the list of estrogen like molecules, one may wish to consider alternatives to or avoiding the following:
Pregnancy
Birth control pills
Hormone replacement therapy
False estrogens
Certain plant phytoestrogens
Exogenous estrogen
Estrogen disruptors
Estrogen mimickers
Xenoestrogens
What Makes Liver Cysts Grow?
Liver cysts have receptors within their cell walls. These following compounds are similar. They ↑ liver size and cyst growth attaching to hormone receptors within the liver cysts.
BPA
Bleach
Endocrine disruptors
Hormones
Parabens
Phytoestrogens
Phthalates
Plastic
Xenoestrogens
Endocrine disruptors
Avoid eating foods that have been microwaved. Try using glass jars or glass containers to replace plastic. I opted to wait to have my liver resection surgery performed until the possible onset of a natural menopause occurred; but in fact this never happened. I had a very detailed and sophisticated assay performed called a saliva hormone test to determine how much estrogen I was producing. Written all over the laboratory sheet were question marks asking if this patient (me) was pregnant? This was because my estrogen was so incredibly high; it was as high as someone who was pregnant. For other additional reasons (family history of ovarian and breast cancer and a huge uterine fibroid contributing to anemia) I had my ovaries and uterus surgically removed at the same time as my liver resection. Following this surgical removal of many of the body's estrogen sources, I continued to have breast swelling and bloating once a month. I questioned the doctors and was told that I had kept myself thin, so hormones were not stored in fatty tissue; perhaps it was coming from the pituitary gland?
I have since learned that there is something called xenoestrogens (xeno meaning foreign) that exist in the environment. These are sometimes referred to as endocrine disruptors. I have hypothesized that it was exposure to hidden xenoestrogens in my immediate environment that caused the cycling menstrual symptoms that had previously occurred before my periods. Now with the onset of surgical menopause, the swelling continues though menses had stopped. This was a mystery. Where was this estrogen source? Even with limited exposure to xenoestrogens, to tiny quantities, the effects are cumulative over a lifetime and the smallest amount can trigger hormone receptors in the liver to start reproducing liver cysts. Exposure to xenoestsrogens can signal the body to produce as much as ten times the normal amount of estrogen. Even in infinitesimal portions, xenoestrogens can decrease sperm count, can cause fertility problems such as miscarriages, can cause PMS, can cause endometriosis, can cause breast cancer and in my own personal opinion, can cause liver cysts to grow. The body mistakes these false estrogen like molecules for true estrogen and utilizes them within the body to manufacture various hormones. In addition to this, a body with enlarging liver cysts continues, the liver slows down its metabolism of estrogen end products through the liver. There was a two fold process going: exposure to false estrogen and and a slowing down of processing estrogen waste through the liver resulting in an overall rise in circulating estrogen. This causes liver cyst growth.
Hormones
By avoiding caffeine and hormones (false estrogens, xenoestrogens, estrogen like molecules, phytoestrogens) all helps to diminish liver cyst growth. As a polycystic liver enlarges, ever growing, ever expanding; the metabolism of estrogen is lessened even more. I suspect that estrogen by product is very in high in pregnancy and in polycystic liver disease. The liver interprets estrogen look-a-likes as true estrogen and this triggers further liver cyst growth.
The three main types of estrogen produced within the body are estradiol, estrone, and estriol.Caffeine
Caffeine increases estradiol by 70%. Caffeine is a very potent cholesterol trigger. Caffeine increases cyclic AMP a protein that tells cysts to expand and fill with fluid.
Dairy
Avoid dairy. Fatty tissue of an animal or within the human body is where hormones are stored. Butter, cream, cheese, marbled meats are all high in hormones. Many commercial dairy farms give miking cows extra bovine lactating hormone to increase milk production. These cows produce 10-100 times more milk. The milk, cheese, butter, and meat from these cows not only is loaded with hormones but additionally they have grazed on lands previously contaminated with DDT or DDE. One way to avoid this is to eliminate dairy. Dairy is high in sodium and has many solutes that dehydrate the body increasing kidney workload. Especially avoid yellow, hard, dry, fatty, cheeses and mozzarella.
Soy
Avoid tofu, soy sauce, tempeh, soy milk, edamame, tamari. In New Zealand soy has been banned from all infant formulas. Soy formula fed infants developed undescended testicles up, early sexual changes, showed sterility when tested, developed secondary sex characteristics such as breasts and early menses in infancy. This was linked to the soy infant formulas.
Monsanto was developing genetically altered soy. This new soy would withstand a strong dose of weed killer poured over the soy plants. Roundup kills all surrounding vegetation except for the genetically modified soy developed for this purpose. Genetic manipulation of soy by Monsanto has started a food chain reaction attaching the weed killer Roundup (a known xenoestrogen) to all our foods. The European Union asked the United States to at least separate the two types of soy plants, but the USA refused.
Dry clean
Avoid this chemical used by the vast majority of cleaners - tetrachloroethylene, also known as perchloroethylene (or "perc"). This solvent is the latest in a long line of chemicals used to clean stained but delicate textiles. Individuals working in dry cleaning industry became ill from using these chemicals. Dry cleaning is thought to have been discovered by accident in 1825 when a worker in a French dye factory knocked a turpentine-fueled lamp on to a dirty tablecloth and noticed that when the spill evaporated, the stain disappeared too.
Plastic
Avoid Polyvinyl chloride. It was discovered in 1930 as an alternative to hormone therapy. It was superseded by the discovery of dietheylstilbesterol. Avoid BPA, plastics.
Flax
Avoid flaxseed. This contains strong phytoestrogens, almost super phytoestrogens likely due to the combination of pesticide and herbicide sprayed on young plants. Flax was not previously classified as a food. It could be sprayed with a number of chemicals not reserved for human consumption. Once this combination was used, flax became a super endocrine disruptor that neither chemical could exert on its own but in combination a synergistic effect has sprung up making flax really harmful to cystic livers causing pain, bloating, increasing size and number of cysts.
Pesticides Herbicides
Avoid. What's on my food?, the pesticide action network, has a searchable database for pesticides.
DDT
DDT was found to bind to the estrogen receptor sites. It is now considered one of the classic xenoestrogens.
DDT was banned in the United States. However, world wide production of DDT has never been higher. In fact, DDT
is manufactured in the United States
and shipped to third world countries. DDT is metabolized to DDE in the human body within a few months. DDE then
may last in the human body for several
decades. However, some medical doctors occasionally find DDT in the serum routinely following intensive sauna.
So where is this new exposure to DDT coming from?
The United States ships DDT to third world countries that spray it on vegetables and fruits. This
agricultural produce is shipped to United States supermarkets
where Americans consume it. In 1991, the United States exported 96 tons of DDT. Another source may come
from your living area. If your house is near or built
upon old agricultural land, DDT will persist in the soil for several centuries. DDT and a breakdown product
of DDT, DDE, and methoxychlor
(another synthetic pesticide known to bind to estrogen receptors).
In testing for toxicity among chickens, researchers found the feminization of the male's reproductive tracts.
Typical female cells were found in the testicles, and in cases of higher doses, the presence of an oviduct,
the egg-laying canal normally found only in females.
Despite all this internal disruption, the chick looked completely normal.
DDD
DDD is a metabolite of DDT. DDD is colorless and crystalline; it is closely related chemically and is similar in properties to DDT, but it is considered to be less toxic to animals than DDT. DDD is no longer registered for agricultural use in the United States, but the general population continues to be exposed to it due to its long persistence time. The primary source of exposure is oral ingestion of food. 1946 is the date of the earliest recorded use of DDD. It stands for dichlorodiphenyldichloroethane.
Limit Chemical Estrogen Exposure
Metalloestrogens
A new class of xenoestrogens has been discovered. These are called metalloestrogens. For more information. Certain metals react within the body and these stimulate estrogen hormonal receptors located within the body, increasing liver cyst growth and the possibility of reproductive cancers.
aluminum
antimony
arsenite
barium
cadmium
chromium (Cr(II))
cobalt
copper
lead
mercury
methylmercury
selenite
tin
vanadate
↑ Estrogen Metabolism Through the Liver ↓ PLD Cyst Growth
Artichoke
Boron (in cabbage juice)
Broccoli organic
Cabbage organic
Cruciferous vegetables
Cruciform Vegetables
DIMs
Grapefruit (caution can interfere with some medications) organic
Grapes organic
Lemons
Milk thistle (sylmarin) organic
Saffron organic
Saunas
Turmeric organic
Drinking copious amounts of water