Can This Common Supplement Actually Contribute to Cancer?

You already know that hormone-related cancers (breast, prostate, uterine, and ovarian) are epidemic. You also know autoimmune and chronic inflammatory diseases are rampant. If you, a friend, or a loved one has any of these diseases, you know how devastating they are.

But what you may not know is that there is growing evidence a popular supplement can fuel these diseases. That is right! Researchers are finding this supplement may actually contribute to cancer or make autoimmune diseases even worse. In fact, the supplement could be in your kitchen cabinet.

Researchers from Texas A&M University showed in 1996 that this supplement damaged the testicular lining cells of male rats. At one-fifth the usual human dose, the rats had reduced sperm production and cellular damage.

Another group of researchers showed ovarian damage in rats when exposed to the supplement at 10 times the usual human dose.

And in 1994, Dr. Midori Yoshida, who is a top cancer researcher for the Sasaki Institute in Tokyo, Japan, published a study demonstrating that this same popular supplement can induce endometrial cancer (cancer on the inside of the uterus) in animals. While all of these studies were done on animals, there is good reason to believe humans may find similar trouble with this supplement. Let me explain.

As we have already established, cancers of the breast, prostate, uterus, and ovaries are predominantly caused by abnormal hormone activity. Even many autoimmune and inflammatory diseases are influenced by hormonal abnormalities.

Your body makes a lot of hormones. When you put food, drinks, supplements, drugs, or anything else into your body, it affects these hormones. You already know that the type of food you eat will determine how much insulin (a hormone) your body produces to metabolize the food. Well, insulin and other hormones respond to every stimulus we put in our body.

Hormones are tricky to work with. They are absolutely required for the body to function properly. But if you have too much or too little, they can cause significant problems. Take the thyroid hormone for instance. Too little causes hypothyroidism. Too much causes hyperthyroidism. Neither of which are desirable conditions.

One of the trickiest hormones to work with is estrogen. Estrogen is required for many bodily functions, especially the sexual and reproductive functions in women. Both men and women require estrogen, though, just in different proportions. However, we now know that excess estrogen causes cancer.