Researchers from Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston examined levels of eight different sex and growth hormones in blood samples collected from nurses up to nine years before their health information was recorded. The investigators found that the highest levels of circulating estrogens (estrone and estrogen), prolactin, and androgens (testosterone, androstenedione, DHEA, or DHEA-sulfate) were each associated with between a 50 and 200 percent increased risk of developing breast cancer.

A woman with elevated levels of one hormone had a 10 percent increased risk, while the risk was doubled for those with elevated levels of five or six hormones, and tripled for those with elevated levels of seven or eight hormones, the study authors explained in a journal news release. . . Aside from obviously risky synthetic hormones, which popular foods are estrogenic? Coffee, garlic, yucca, and less obvious dang quai (AKA tang kuei) However, Peruvian maca, a yam, tends to normalize hormone production for men and women. It is reputed as an energy/sexual tonic.