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How Hops Can Effectively Fight Menopause And Breast Cancer
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There are a number of issues that women have to face on a regular basis. Menopause is surely one of them, and its symptoms are something that have to be tackled. Even more concerning is that with getting older, each woman has a one in eight chance of developing breast cancer.
While every woman goes through menopause, not every one of them suffers from the symptoms this condition brings. Menopause signals the end of a woman’s menstrual periods and results in the lowered chances of a woman being able to get pregnant on their own without fertility assistance.
Some of the symptoms that a woman may experience as she goes through menopause include excessive sweating at night, hot flashes that come on out of the blue, unexplained irritability and anxiety, and pain during intercourse.
It has been found that the herb, hops, can help deal with the symptoms of menopause. Night sweats and hot flashes are referred to as symptoms that are vasomotor as they have to do with the blood vessels of the body contracting and expanding.
Clinical Trials Regarding Hops and the Symptoms of Menopause
A clinical trial that was put on at Ghent University in Belgium put women who were going through menopause through the test during a three-month time frame. Some of the participants received hops extract (8-PN) and the others were given a placebo. When the group that was given the hops was tested at six weeks, and again at 12 weeks, they showed a major decrease in night sweats and hot flashes. With the positive results from the Belgium trial, another one was set up at the Dresden Technical University in Germany. This confirmed everything that the clinical trial determined regarding cutting down the symptoms of menopause.
How Do You Know If You Are Going Through Menopause?
It is hard to pinpoint a specific age where women begin to go through menopause. Besides it is happening naturally there are some things that women do that can bring it on more quickly. Smoking definitely will start up menopause faster than the average age of 51. Once you have not had your menstrual period for 12 months in a row you are considered to officially be going through menopause.
With hops extract being an effective way to deal with your menopausal symptoms, what other options do you have to choose from? One of the suggestions your doctor may have is hormone replacement therapy. A low dose would be recommended, but you still need to be careful as this form of treatment could lead you to breast cancer.
Other things you can try would be blood pressure medicine, certain birth control pills that are available in a lower dosage, antidepressants, and an estrogen cream that is used to treat vaginal dryness. There have been other natural herbs that have been tested, such as red clover, black cohosh, and dong Quai, but their effectiveness has never been confirmed.
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Photo credit: bigstock.com
Studies Show Hops Cuts Down the Chances of Breast Cancer
The other area that hops have been found to help with is breast cancer. Each year more than 245,000 women will come down with breast cancer. When a woman begins to experience a change in the amount of estrogen in her body, she has a higher chance of developing breast cancer. The University of Illinois was able to prove that Hops was able to inhibit, and even prevent, the expansion and growth of breast cancer.
Researchers have also been checking the extract of hops to see how they interact with cells from breast cancer. Once again, they found out that the prenylnaringenin called 6 prenylnaringenins, also known as 6-PN, creates an area in the mammary cells so that any possible breast cancer cells are not able to develop. It has also been shown to cut down on the risk of even getting breast cancer.
The 8-prenylnarigenin compound, or 8-PN, also works on eliminating breast cancer. It is not as strong as 6-PN so all it does is lowers the activity metabolically in the breast cancer cells. Many other strong compounds, such as xanthohumol and isoxanthohumol, were also tested and found they interfere with the estrogen receptor and “help defer estrogen-related dysfunction.”
While the entire hops herb strongly fights to eliminate the chances of breast cancer from growing, researchers are trying to break it down to find a smaller part of the extract that is just as effective on its own.
Another thing that was discovered was that the development of breast cancer was strongly related to hormone replacement. This was popular from 1980 to 1990. Once the popularity of hormone replacement began to drop, so did the rate of breast cancer patients.
How Do You Take Hops Extract?
If you are interested in taking the hops extract don’t think that sitting around getting drunk on beer is going to do it. All you have to do is go to a health food store and ask about a supplement you can take in either a liquid form or capsule. In addition to treating your menopause symptoms and preventing you from getting breast cancer, the hops extract can help you be less nervous, eliminate some of the pain you may have in your joints, and help you get a good night’s sleep.
READ ALSO: Celery: The Underrated Veggie That May Fend Off Breast Cancer
When you find a store that sells them, check with the health food clerk to find out the correct dosage to take for each situation. Always take the correct amount for treating your menopause as well as to protect you from getting breast cancer.
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