Hormone therapy vs natural

Sonrisa, excuse me for being blunt, but be glad you're young enough to take Tamox!The AIs give SEs that actually make life a living hell!They stop all supplimental estrogen(what we make AFTER menopause) We LIVE from that supplimental estrogen.It makes us hear, see, smell, taste, not have arthritis, have decent memory, have energy..

Without it--quality of lie is VERY low.Yet we take it because it WORKS.Although many refuse it, in favor of QOL.

Tamoxifen, on other hand, simp;ly blocks the estrogen receptors in the breasts, preventing recurrence.

Take it, Girl!It's easy, and it works!

Should you actually be one of the few who have unacceptable SEs from Tamox, you can always stop and take the natural suppliments.

And the bc diet cant hurt anyone, on hormone therapy or not.

Good luck!Be happy!

Hugs from old Joan, croaking after 3 amd 1;2 years on Femara

Sonrisa, I too will begin taking Tamoxifen very soon and have my concerns about the side effects, but the data is out there that it decreases recurrence considerably.  I will give it my best shot and pray for the best!  I meet with my Onc. next week to discuss next steps and I am fairly sure that I will opt out of Chemo and just do Tamoxifen.  I am basing this decision on my Oncotype DX score and all of the women for these trials have been on Tamox.  And, I think that my BS is the best doctor in the whole world and he says to do it - so I will.  Good luck!!

Georgie,

Could you tell me what natural hormone reducing things you have done.  I would be very interested.  I too have been doing the natural way to reduce hormones.  It's a personal decission that I made and feel so much better for it.

Cathy 

Well there are an entire list of things to eat and take, but because you had an invasive cancer you might want to think about taking tamox a little more.

By the way, they say that diet doesn't work but you have to go with the research that was done for individual foods cause you really want to give yourself the best chance of success.  Here's the list:

Calcium

Magnesium

B6 - low dose

Vitamin C

co Q 10

D3 1000-2000 IU's

Vitamin E TOS

omega 3 fish oil

ellagic acid

grape seed or grape leaf extract

resveratrol

DIM or eat dim veggies.

2 tbls of olive oil daily.

turmeric/curcumin

Don't supplement A, B1 and B12.  Hopefully, you'll get plenty of these vitamins in foods anyway.

You'll have to drink a berry fruit smoothie every day or so, w/ 1 tsp of cinnamon, for their antioxidants.  It will be good to know the list of high antioxidant foods, it's good be eating them alot.

ground flax seed 2 1/2 tbls daily

cranberries, craisins

broccoli

spinach

cauliflower

fresh ginger or ginger powder

kale

broccoli sprouts

barley grass and seaweed, I forgot the name of the other grass.

melons

avocado

apple

radishes

bok choy and cabbage raw

for dessert: dark chocolate 72+% cocoa

Try to do as much organic as possible. 

Then you really should give up meat and all white anything:  bread, pasta, and rice replacing them with brown.  Eating fish, because of the pollutants, should be kept to a minimum.  Wild salmon might be a better choice if you like, or any small fish like sardines.

Eating high fiber 25-35 grams a day supposedly helps to escort the estrogen out of our bodies. 

Juices:  pom, cranberry, concord grape.

caffeine is still ok to do

green tea 2-8 cups daily

That's the short list of things to eat and take.  I'm sure there's more, but it's from memory.  Or, you can just take one tamoxifen daily.