Milk Thistle with Calcium D-Glucarate

chico1

Hello gals,

Wanted to know from you knowledgeable ladies your take on Milk Thistle....is it safe to take once had breast cancer?  Have been down the Aromastise Inhibitor road, then Tamoxifen and just could not handle.  My naturopath suggests the Thorne brand of Calcium D-Glucarate with Milk Thistle, but the pharmacy at the cancer clinic said to stay away from Milk Thistle as it contains hormones. Naturopath thinks it would be perfectly safe....once again, confusion????

Would appreciate any kind of feed back. 

luv_gardening

Silymarin (Milk Thistle) contains lignans, but so do berries, other fruits, seeds, grains and some vegetables.  Flaxseeds and soy contain massively more phytoestrogens than most other foods and I wonder why anyone would make a point about those with lesser amounts of phytoestrogens.  As milk thistle is a strong antioxidant, and I'm trying to research them at the moment, it's frustrating that I can't find out if there's enough phytoestrogens in this and other antioxidants such as resveratrol to avoid them.  I suspect that the amount in a couple of capsules a day won't be any more than in a punnet of strawberries, but I could be horribly wrong.  Maybe someone working in the nutrition field will be able to find a reliable table as I'm stumped as to where to look.  This list at least shows that a lot of the fuss is about nothing for most foods other than a few at the top of the list.

 http://www.dietaryfiberfood.com/phytoestrogen.php
 
Total phytoestrogen content presented below is the sum of isoflavones (genistein, daidzein, glycitein, formononetin), lignans (secoisolariciresinol, matairesinol, pinoresinol, lariciresinol), and coumestan (coumestrol).
 
Phytoestrogen food sources Phytoestrogen content (µg/100g)

Flax seed 379380
Soy beans 103920
Tofu   27150.1
Soy yogurt 10275
Sesame seed 8008.1
Flax bread 7540
Multigrain bread 4798.7
Soy milk 2957.2
Hummus 993
Garlic 603.6
Mung bean sprouts 495.1
Dried apricots 444.5
Alfalfa sprouts 441.4
Dried dates 329.5
Sunflower seed 216
Chestnuts 210.2
Olive oil 180.7
Almonds 131.1
Green bean 105.8
Peanuts 34.5
Onion 32
Blueberry 17.5
Corn 9
Coffee, regular 6.3
Watermelon 2.9
Milk, cow 1.2
 
 
Other sources of Phytoestrogen
In addition to these phytoestrogen foods there are a number of phytoestrogenic herbs which are also known for their high phytoestrogen content. Such herbs include:
• Don quai
• Red clover
• Ginseng
• Soy
• Ginkgo biloba
• Black cohosh

Anonymous

The Susan Komen for the Cure website (ww5.komen.org/BreastCancer/Milkthistle.html) states the following: "Theoretically, because milk thistle plant extract might have estrogenic effects, women with hormone sensitive conditions should avoid milk thistle above ground parts. Some of these conditions include breast, uterine, and ovarian cancer, endometriosis, and uterine fibroids. The more commonly used milk thistle seed extracts are not known to have estrogenic effects."

I am switching to N-acetyl-cysteine (NAC). It is thought to be a better method of boosting cellular glutathione levels.