[Isabelle]

The next question is, of course, what science has found so far on the effect of PM on the cycle.

Bella's is right to recommend a lower dose:
http://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/jphs...e/-char/en
PM extends the follicular phase.
The title of another publication about the same experiment is very clear: "Ovulation block by Pueraria mirifica".
http://www.springerlink.com/content/f6221184631n82rl/

The long term effects were tested on mice:
http://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/jrd/...5/_article
The cycle was longer at 100 mg per kg body weight, but not at 10 mg per kg body weight. For a woman of 50 kg (110 lbs), that means 5,000 mg lengthens the cycle, and 500 mg doesn't. OK, we knew that.

The reprotoxicity was also checked, and found satisfactory: "Once the PM mice were able to copulate, they were capable of successfully becoming pregnant and mothering offspring. No abnormalities were observed in the external morphologies and reproductive organ weights of the 50-day-old offspring."

The conclusion starts with "Once the PM mice were able to copulate", because it wasn't that easy to get them to copulate. The researchers described the situation politely as "a decrease in mating efficiency". Many on the male forum have welcomed this effect as a liberation

[Isabelle]

Because PM messes up cycles, it would have been the last herb I would have trusted to make a cycle where there was none before, or to prolong cycles well into the menopause. The paper in the above post, however, goes much further: PM is no problem for a healthy reproductive life.

It's hard to predict how far this conclusion will go. Apparently, the researchers couldn't resist the possibilities for fertility or herbal HRT either:
http://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/jrd/...7/_article

[Isabelle]

The last sentence in this old thread finally told me how fenugreek increases insulin:
http://www.breastnexus.com/showthread.php?tid=8274
"Fenugreek contains 4-Hydroxyisoleucine, which assists the pancreas in the production of insulin."

The rest of the thread is also useful for my experiment with flax. I take my fenugreek at noon. Fenugreek increases insulin. Insulin binds to SHBG. SHBG has to let go of some testosterone to make room for the insulin. I should feel free testosterone as libido, that is, if the testosterone becomes DHT. But it doesn't, because my 5α-reductase is blocked by the xanthohumol in the hops of last night.

At night, I take hops again, with flax now. In the morning, my libido is highest, even before maca. It was this morning, I'll check again tomorrow morning. The 5α-reductase is blocked more efficiently by the hops, so the free testosterone cannot become DHT. If the insulin is released from the SHBG by now, the SHBG will bind to the free testosterone. If the flax can increase SHBG in one or two days, the extra SHBG will certainly bind to the testosterone too.

So the only thing that could have happened during the night, is that 100 g flax indeed inhibits aromatase, and that inhibition lasts longer than the block of 5α-reductase. I took less flax than yesterday, I'll check tomorrow.

I was never too worried about the inhibition of aromatase by flax, because of this publication:
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/art...609390022O
"The inhibition is competitive with respect to testosterone and androstenedione, and the lignan affinity is 1/75 - 1/300 that of these natural substrates."

But apparently, if I take 100 g flax, the inhibition is noticeable

[Isabelle]

Libido was good again this morning. Because of all the ifs and buts I listed in the previous post, that doesn't prove directly that flax inhibits aromatase noticeably, but I'm inclined to believe it right now. I'm not getting pimples, so the block of 5α-reductase is still sufficient too.

I have some flax left to continue the experiment for a few more days, and see if it affects my measurements. After that, I'm done with flax.

I was planning to try milk thistle as the second phyto-estrogen next, but what I'm really curious about is panax ginseng. It increases estriol, the estrogen of pregnant women. I've seen pregnant women grow cup sizes in weeks. How about that for boobie greed?

[Isabelle]

The higher libido is becoming annoying. As I wrote before, I have other things to do

But of course I couldn't resist checking the literature, to see if anyone else noticed, and, yess, flax increases libido. It was tested on boars:
http://en.cnki.com.cn/Article_en/CJFDTOT...108016.htm

Flax is succesful in treatment of diabetes and breast cancer, but it also downregulates IGF-1:
http://www.springerlink.com/content/w1112379v8k36th4/
http://www.encognitive.com/files/Dietary...sis%20.pdf
The jury is still out. Flax has so many effects, that it becomes really difficult to judge whether it is a useful addition to an NBE program.


L-arginine increases libido too:
http://www.nutritionreview.org/library/a...libido.php
so I better wait until the dark months get me almost depressed, before I start experimenting with L-arginine

[Isabelle]

Next week, I'm planning another experiment, and a trial with panax ginseng is high on the list. Because panax ginseng increases estriol, I wanted to know if estriol is useful for NBE. You won't believe it, but this has been studied:
http://cancerres.aacrjournals.org/content/1/1/55.short
Estradiol is 241 times more effective for duct growth than estrone. Estriol is 30 times less effective than estrone. There goes my panax ginseng experiment.

Even more surprising was this paragraph:
"During the past several years increasing evidence has
accumulated indicating that this mammary hyperplasia
is due not to a direct action of estrogen upon the
mammary gland but instead to an increased rate of
secretion of anterior pituitary hormones which have
been called mammogen. Data recently published indicate
that this consists of 2 factors: a duct-growth factor
and a lobule-alveolar-growth factor."

The "past several years" should be put in perspective: the publication is from 1941. But I didn't know breasts have their own growth factors, let alone two separate ones. This probably means I should forget about IGF-1, and look for an herb that increases the mammogenic growth factors.

[Isabelle]

Well, I can't forget about IGF-1. It is important for NBE:
http://www.springerlink.com/content/n7525g188m200723/
http://www.springerlink.com/content/h5178p13520r7kq3/
http://joe.endocrinology-journals.org/co.../473.short
and so is epidermal growth factor 1:
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/art...068890317X
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/art...0287802400
and fibroblast growth factors:
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/art...0298758187

Tansforming growth factor-β inhibits growth:
http://www.biomedcentral.com/content/pdf/bcr299.pdf

So growth factors for NBE are a complex subject. A complete overview is in this publication of 2011:
http://informahealthcare.com/doi/abs/10....011.554425
Who can scoop up the full text for me, please?

[Isabelle]

Quite a few people ask me about my NBE diet. I only follow the general guidelines of:
low carb (certainly no "fast" ones like sugar, white rice and pasta, white flour products, but I'm also careful with potatoes and even fructose from fruits)
high protein (usually meat and eggs)
lots of dark green leafy vegetables (usually lettuce, spinach, broccoli)

Your diet and multivitamin combined should have
25 mg iron, if you menstruate regularly, and lose iron with the blood
> 50 mcg vitamin B12 (meat, or added to soy milk)
vitamin B6 between 2 and 10 mg a day (added to soy milk too)
http://www.breastnexus.com/showthread.php?tid=8419&pid=35070&highlight=vitamin+B6#pid35070
400 mcg folic acid (vitamin B9 or B11) or folates (dark green leafy vegetables)
http://www.breastnexus.com/showthread.php?tid=8419&pid=29912#pid29912
between 12 and 35 mg zinc (oysters or other seafood, meat, chicken, dairy, oats. Never skip a day: the body can't store zinc)
http://www.breastnexus.com/showthread.php?tid=8419&pid=29783#pid29783
http://www.breastnexus.com/showthread.php?tid=8419&pid=29907#pid29907
http://www.breastnexus.com/showthread.php?tid=8419&pid=29955#pid29955
Use the http://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/ to add up vitamins and minerals in your diet.

Waist size increases if your insulin level (from eating carbs) and/or your cortisol level (from stress or long, strenuous exercise) are too high.

I don't supplement MSM, gelatin, or collagen. I trust my body to synthesize collagen from aminoacids and silicic acid. Aminoacids are available from the digestion of proteins. Silicic acid has become rare in a modern western diet. It used to be in millet porridge and in oats, but who eats that nowadays? I eat my apples with the core, because that contains silicic acid. Horse tail (equisetum arvense) too, and that's in my hair skin nails multivitamin.

You need enzymes to make one steroid from another. Enzymes are in fresh vegetables and fruit, especially mango. Forget 90% of the supermarket for enzymes: they are not in processed foods, and certainly not in jars or cardboard boxes. Enzymes decrease from the moment the vegetable or fruit is picked, cut, or uprooted. If it's kept for too long, enzymes will ultimately start eating each other: they are just simple biochemical machines that facilitate one specific chemical reaction each, on whatever raw materials they find. Most diet gurus emphasize the importance of fresh produce nowadays, but I read large parts of the US have to do without. That is why I often give directions for finding herbs and foods in their unprocessed forms, as fresh as possible.

[itsjust4fun91]

I'm not sure I would ever not take msm from now on. The health benefits from it have made me a fan for life. It cleared up my psoriasis within weeks. NOTHINGS ever been able to do that....

[Isabelle]

Thank you Mel,

I'll put it on my list to try, maybe as the first next experiment, because I'm running out of ideas for a good experiment in October. I never had psoriasis, but I'll look out for lashes, hair, skin, nails. Are there any other signs that it's working?