Study: Honey can alleviate hot flashes in breast cancer patients
Study: Honey can alleviate hot flashes in breast cancer patients
reference
Münstedt K, Voss B, Kullmer U, Schneider U, Hübner J. Bee pollen and honey for relieving hot flashes and other menopausal symptoms in breast cancer patients. mol Clin oncol . 2015; 3 (4): 869-874.
Design
a prospective, randomized crossover study in breast cancer patients who receive anti-hormonal treatment
participant
A total of 46 patients were recruited for the study, but only 31 closed both phases, with most of them broken down during the pollen phase because they found the taste of the pollen mix as uncomfortable. The average age of the participants was 60.8 years.
All participants had completed surgery for breast cancer and had been treated with anti -hormonal therapy for at least 3 months before the study. Exclusion criteria included reading distant metastases, pregnancy, bees pollen and/or honey allergy, comorbidities, psychiatric diseases, application of other treatments for menopause or inability to read German.
medication and dosage study
The patient received 1 tablespoon of a mixture of pollen and honey (pollen group) or pure honey (honey group) for 2 weeks. After a wash -up phase, the participants received the alternative treatment for another 2 weeks.
target parameter
Menopause complaints were assessed with the menopause rating scale (MRS) by Schneider and Heinemann. Blood samples were removed in every phase of the study and tested on triglycerides, high-density-lipoprotein (HDL), low-density-lipoprotein (LDL) and estradiol.
important knowledge
All participants reported significant improvements during the study: 68.3 % of the patients who received honey, and 70.9 % of the patients who received pollen. The differences between the groups were not significant; Both honey and pollen loved menopausal symptoms caused by adjuvant treatment of breast cancer. These improvements were found 3-4 days after the start of the treatment, regardless of whether the patients received tamoxifen or an aromata seed or were in the honey or pollen group. Patients who received pollen and Tamoxifen had a trend towards higher improvement rates (86.7 vs. 58.8 %), but this difference was not significant. No differences in serum cholesterol, triglycerides or estradiol were observed. Patients who took aroma seeds experienced a significantly stronger improvement in symptoms compared to patients treated with tamoxifen. There was also a trend towards an increase in estradiol levels by honey in patients who received aromata seeds.
practice implications
Patients with menopausal symptoms as a result of an adjuvant treatment of breast cancer that they take a clinical experiment once a day or something for a week or something for a week or something sounds almost too easy, but it is certainly worth a try.
It is clinically important to find ways to relieve the symptoms of menopause, since many breast cancer patients cancel treatment instead of experiencing the symptoms of hot flashes. The Arimidex, Tamoxifen, Alone OR in Combination (ATAC) study reported on demolition rates of 14.3 % for Tamoxifen and 11.1 % for Anastrozol. 1 The provision of relief can increase the compliance with these therapies.
In the past, we have campaigned for a number of alternative nutritional supplements to relieve menopause complaints, including vitamins, soy, grape silver candle, flax and red clover. There were questions about the security of those who use phytoestrogens and whether they can stimulate the growth of breast cancer. The meta -analysis by Chi et al. From 2013 to soy and breast cancer indicates that at least in the case of soy the phytoestrogens have a protective effect.
Several newspapers have reported that pollen extracts in the treatment of hot flashes were useful, but this could be the first to indicate that even easier honey was useful. In this case, honey was used as a placebo with which the active mixture of pollen and honey was compared.
While a certain placebo effect was possible, the researchers suggest that the observed improvements are far exceeded by the 25%response rate, which would have been predicted due to the placebo effect.
Tuelang honey, a rare form of wild honey, which is produced by Asian honeybees from jungle flower races, can have an estrogen. Mellifera ). Tualang honey is produced by apis dorssata bees that nest in Tualang trees. This tuelang honey was actually proposed as a means of preventing osteoporosis. 7 Although the Tuelang honey can somehow stimulate estrogen production for unknown reasons, there is no reason to assume that ordinary shell honey does the same. It is regrettable that Tuelang honey is not yet available to our patients. It has been reported that Tuelang honey increases the effect of tamoxifen against breast cancer cells 8 and could therefore be helpful if it is consumed.
Note that there was a trend towards increased estrogen levels in the honey group, but this connection did not achieve any significance. If this association is true, this will undoubtedly trigger a debate about whether breast cancer patients should consume or do without honey.
While a reason for an impact mechanism has to be found for the reported benefit of honey, there is little reason to justify not to try to use it clinically. In this report, honey looked better in women who took aromata seeds, and it only took 3-4 days with regular honey consumption until an improvement could be felt. The disadvantages of the honey supplement are negligible, so there is no reason not to try this in practice.
- Howell A, Cuzick J, Baum M, et al. ATAC study group: Results of the ATAC study (Arimidex, Tamoxifen, alone or in combination) after completing a 5-year adjuvant treatment of breast cancer. lanzette . 2005; 365: 60-62.
- chi f, wu r, zeng yc, Xing r, liu y, xu zg. Soy food intake and survival in breast cancer after the diagnosis: a meta-analysis of cohort studies. Asia-Pacific-J Cancer before. 2013; 14: 2407-2412.
- Hellström AC, Muntzing J. The pollen extract femal - a non -drug alternative to hormone therapy in women with menopause. menopause . 2012; 19 (7): 825-829.
- Winther K, Rein E, Hedman C. Femal, a vegetable remedy from pollen extracts, reduces hot flashes and improves the quality of life in women in menopause: a randomized, placebo -controlled parallel study. Classical . 2005; 8 (2): 162-170.
- Sloan JA, Loprinzi Cl, Novotny PJ, Barton DL, Lavasseur BI, Windschitl H. Methodological teaching from heat flank studies. j clin oncol . 2001; 19: 4280-4290.
- Zaid SS, Sulaiman SA, Sirajudeen KN, Othman NH. The effects of Tuelang honey on the female reproductive organs, the shin bones and the hormone profile for ovariectomized rats-animal model for menopause. bmc complement aging med . 2010; 10: 82.
- Mohd Effendy N., Mohamed N., Muhammad N., Mohamad in, Shuid. The effects of Tuelang honey on the bone metabolism of postmenopausal women. evidence -based complement alternate. Med . 2012; 2012: 938574.
- yaacob NS, Nengsih A, Norazmi Mn. Tualang honey promotes the apoptotic cell death induced by tamoxifen in breast cancer cell lines. evidence -based complement alternate. Med . 2013; 2013: 989841.