Methylation boosters - Managing Your Estrogen Load

Methylation boosters - Managing Your Estrogen Load

Methylation boosters. Methylation is one of the biochemical pathways used by the
liver to detoxify estrogens and other compounds, specifically raising 2-hydroxyestrone
levels and lowering harmful 4-hydroxyestrone levels. For this reason and because there
is a growing consensus that deficient methylation is a major contributor to not just
cancer but also many major degenerative diseases, we want to do all we can to
support healthy methylation. Cruciferous vegetables, the ultimate dietary multitaskers,
help this process along, as do foods high in vitamins B6, B12, and folate. You’ll get
abundant amounts of these nutrients by Eating for Health and taking a high-quality
foundational multinutrient.

Please note, however, that after age fifty, it becomes more difficult to absorb
vitamin B12 through the gut, and deficiency is common. Your doctor can check your
B12 status using simple blood tests. Some women can enhance B12 levels through
oral supplementation, while others need regular B12 injections.

To get a rough idea of how well you are methylating, your doctor can check the
homocysteine level in your blood, because elevated serum homocysteine is a classic sign
of a methylation defect. Try the previous suggestions and retest. If your homocysteine
remains stubbornly high (above 10 micromoles per liter), you’ll want to consider
adding other known methylation-enhancing nutrients like trimethylglycine (TMG),
choline, or S-adenosylmethionine (SAMe).

Vitamin D. Vitamin D protects us from breast cancer in a variety of ways, and here’s
yet another. Aromatase, the enzyme that activates estrogen synthesis, is essential for
the progression of ER+ breast cancer in postmenopausal women. This is why
postmenopausal women are frequently prescribed aromatase-inhibiting drugs for
estrogen-positive tumors.

Emerging evidence indicates that vitamin D “helps regulate the expression of
aromatase in a tissue-selective manner” (Krishnan et al. 2010). In other words, it
appears that vitamin D can limit the conversion of aromatase to estrogen in breast
tissue but not in the bones, where it is needed to preserve bone density. Thus it would
appear that vitamin D not only functions as a preventive but also has great potential
as an adjuvant treatment to existing protocols. This is something to watch with
excitement!