Great Foods For Fighting Fibroids

Certain foods are excellent choices for helping us to boost our immune system, burn fat and generally help our bodies operate at peak fitness.

However certain foods when combined together increase or multiply benefits many times over and help maximise our health.

Great foods to combine for better health are:

Vitamin C and Iron

Some women with fibroids who experience unusually heavy bleeding during their periods may become anemic.

Combining iron-rich foods (leafy greens, artichokes and legumes) with those packed with vitamin C (tomatoes, peppers, citrus and leafy greens) helps your body absorb iron more efficiently.

Green Tea with Lemon

Adding lemon juice to green tea increases the benefit of the powerful catechins green tea contains – making the tea five times stronger!

Further more I find green tea an ‘acquired taste’ so by adding lemon, it makes this wonderful healing tea much more palatable.

Purdue University discovered that adding lemon to green tea also slowed the breakdown of *anti-oxidants in your digestive system so your body achieved more complete absorption.

People who drink green tea daily tend to lose ten pounds more per year than those who don’t.

A study conducted at the University of Geneva found that eating a salad with a cup of green tea as your last meal stops your body from storing excess fat and boosts your metabolism by 4% while you sleep.

According to a study published in 2010 in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology a substance in green tea appears to significantly shrink the size of uterine fibroids.

Salads and Fats

Salads that contain leafy greens (such as baby leaf spinach) and tomatoes are rich in carotenoid anti-oxidants. Your body will absorb these *anti-oxidants better if you add olive oil or avocado - healthy fats that are not only heart-healthy but delicious.

Avocados and Tomatoes

Researchers at Ohio State University discovered that the mono-unsaturated fat found in avocados boosts the cancer-fighting properties of lycopene found in tomatoes – making it four times more effective.

Beta-carotene is proven to boost overall immunity and is three times more effective when combined with fresh avocado.  Add avocado to a salad or make salsa and guacamole for a powerful anti-oxidant snack.

Dark Chocolate and Apples

Apples are rich in quercetin (it is also found in green tea!) – an anti-inflammatory - excellent for fighting fibroids.

Dark chocolate (try to eat 85% or higher cocoa content and preferably organic) contains powerful *anti-oxidants called flavonoids. Eaten in moderation, this pairing of foods forms a tasty snack that fights blood clots, improves circulation and reduces your chances of heart disease.

Vegetables and Water

Vegetables are naturally high in vitamins and nutrients, low in calories and provide *anti-oxidants that boost the immune system, increase energy and improve your metabolism.

Adding healthy non starchy vegetables to your diet will increase your fiber intake and improve your gut bacteria.  Making sure you’re properly hydrated will positively impact on every cell in your body and keep you out of the 75% of Americans who are chronically dehydrated!

By choosing healthy nutrient rich foods you will reduce inflammation (inflammation causes fibroids), slow aging, improve heart and brain health, control your weight and help prevent and fight disease.

*Anti-oxidants:  are substances that may protect your cells against the effects of free radicals. Free radicals are molecules produced when your body breaks down food, or by environmental exposures like tobacco smoke and radiation. Free radicals can damage cells, and may play a role in heart disease, cancer and other diseases.

Antioxidant substances include

Beta-carotene

Lutein

Lycopene

Selenium

Vitamin A

Vitamin C

Vitamin E

Antioxidants are found in many foods. These include fruits and vegetables, nuts, grains, and some meats, poultry and fish.

Green Tea, Fibroids And Nausea!

Many fibroid sufferers sing the praises of Green Tea, myself included, but it does make me feel very nauseous especially when I drink it on an empty stomach.

You see I like to take my green tea as my first drink of the day and as I often intermittently fast there is no food to 'soften' the blow!

However I have found that a couple of gratings of fresh ginger root into my green tea (or rather tea pot) does stop that awful sick feeling and I can now happily consume a couple of cups of green tea on an empty stomach.

If you suffer from the same problem try it!  I've always got fresh ginger root in the fridge as I love it grated fresh and raw on salads and quite frankly I can't cook a curry without it!

If you simply don't like ginger you could alternatively try a couple of drops of peppermint oil as this will also help to calm your stomach.

If you haven't already read my article on Green Tea please click on the link below, and don't forget to add a lemon to your green tea too!

Green Tea with Lemon

Adding lemon juice to green tea increases the benefit of the powerful catechins green tea contains – making the tea five times stronger!

Further more I find green tea an ‘acquired taste’ so by adding lemon, it makes this wonderful healing tea much more palatable.

People who drink green tea daily tend to lose ten pounds more per year than those who don’t!

A study conducted at the University of Geneva found that eating a salad with a cup of green tea as your last meal stops your body from storing excess fat and boosts your metabolism by 4% while you sleep.

Can Green Tea Help Shrink Fibroids?

What causes fibroids to develop and grow?

Trawl the internet, flip through self help books and chances are you wont find a definitive answer.

Whilst many scientists and doctors now believe fibroid growth is fueled by excess estrogen and probably progesterone (or the lack of it) no one really knows what kick starts the disease process in the first place.

I’m firmly of the belief that we reap what we sow! and I can certainly hold my hand up to the fact that in my late 20’s early 30’s I lead a less than healthy lifestyle.

I smoked, I drank alcohol, I worked hard and I played hard and stress through work was off the richter scale.  My diet was chronic and exercise simply didn’t register on my radar.  Frankly I was lucky that I only developed fibroids!

Fibroids, endometriosis, PMS, ovarian cysts, fibrocystic breast disease are all symptoms of inflammation and today I can look back over the years and see how and why I developed fibroids.  Quite simply I had set the stage for chronic inflammation.

Inflammation is normal and beneficial to our health and we need a certain amount of it to stay healthy.   It is only when inflammation gets out of control is it detrimental to our health.

But controlling inflammation is also incredibly important to our health as excess inflammation in our body can fester silently for years until a disease or symptom develops such as fibroids.

Some scientists believe that low grade or chronic inflammation is associated with everything from heart disease, diabetes to alzheimer’s and arthritus!

Both excess insulin and excess estrogen in our bodies are highly inflammatory molecules and are strongly implicated in the growth of fibroids.  The good news is that both insulin and estrogen can be successfully controlled through exercise and diet.

The following conditions can increase your risk of chronic inflammation

• Being overweight
• Eating a poor diet
• Being insulin resistant
• Leading a sedentary lifestyle
• Smoking
• Poor immune system
• Stress

Lifestyle changes that can help reduce chronic inflammation in your body

• Avoid pro-inflammatory foods such as trans-fats, all processed foods, fast foods, fried foods, foods high in sugar and fructose
• Eat a moderate amount of fish. The omega-3 fats in fish can help reduce inflammation. 
• Learn to optimise your insulin levels - have your GP or doctor test your fasting blood glucose levels
• Exercise - regular exercise will get excess glucose and insulin out of your system faster - doing less damage to your body
• Improve your immune system - one method is to improve your gut flora, consider taking probiotics
• Take steps to reduce your levels of stress, stress causes the release of your ‘stress hormone’ cortisol.  Your body makes cortisol from progesterone the most fundamental hormone needed to help balance estrogen within your body.  Prolonged bouts of stress will deplete your body’s reserves of progesterone.

One such herb which helps reduce inflammation in our bodies is ginger.  Fresh ginger from the root, widely available in most supermarkets, is wonderful grated over a salad or grated and steeped in boiling water as in a cup of green tea.

Turmeric, used in curries, is a potent natural anti-inflammatory that works as well as many anti-inflammatory drugs but without the side effects!  Aside from its uses as a culinary herb it is also available as a health supplement. 

Interestingly turmeric is a member of the ginger family!

Can green tea help shrink fibroids?

According to a study published in 2010 in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology a substance in green tea appears to significantly shrink the size of uterine fibroids.

Green tea extract can kill human leiomyoma (fibroid) cells in tissue cultures and can eradicate fibroid lesions in lab animals, according to Dr. Ayman Al-Hendy, director of clinical research at Meharry Medical College in Nashville, Tenn and colleagues - as published January 14th 2010 in the American Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology.

Green tea comes from the same plant as black tea however green tea is made from the unfermented leaves and black tea from the fermented leaves.  After harvest green tea does not go through any processes of fermentation and therefore contains or rather retains relatively high amounts of a substance called polyphenols which have anti-oxidant properties helping to combat cell damaging molecules called free radicals.  

The most biologically active polyphenol in green tea is called epigallocatechin gallate or EGCG.

In the 2010 study published by the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology varying  doses of green tea derived EGCG were introduced into test tubes that contained cells of uterine fibroid tumours.  They also gave mice oral doses of EGCG.  Within as little as 24 hours the EGCG was shown to slow tumour growth and when fibroid tumours were measured at 4 - 8 week intervals they showed a medically significant decrease in both their weight and overall volume. 

The study concluded that EGCG can effectively halt fibroid growth and trigger the death of fibroid cells in a test tube and in live animals.

Although these exciting study results came from tests on animals, clinical studies will soon be underway in human trials.

Liver toxicity

Concerns have been raised as to green tea’s toxic effect on the liver.  A study published in The Journal of Nutrition in January 2009 found that consumption of high levels of green tea extracts did not affect markers of liver function in healthy men. 

However the National Centre for Complementary and Alternative Medicine states that green tea extracts that contain EGCG or other active substances can potentially increase your risks for liver problems.

The green tea extract consumed in the 2010 study was approximately equivalent to consuming between 6 and 8 cups of green tea per day. Although a few previous studies using mice and isolated case studies suggested that green tea might increase the risk for liver problems.  The study authors noted that it is likely these adverse liver reactions were at least partly due to other, unrelated factors, such as genetics or other health problems, and not simply green tea consumption.

Other studies suggest that green tea may even help to prevent liver damage.  However, these benefits may only apply to the brewed drink form of green tea. Some evidence points to green tea extract supplements having a negative effect on the liver. 

A 2006 review published in Liver Transplantation noted that commercially available green tea supplements may trigger acute liver toxicity. However, the report doesn't list doses or supplement concentrations.

So my advice would be to stick to drinking cups of brewed green tea and avoid the supplements as brewed green tea does appear to offer health benefits to the liver and potentially fibroids.  

It is also important to note that tea (as well as coffee!) are heavily sprayed crops so try and buy organic green tea as this will help reduce your exposure to endocrine disrupting herbicides and pesticides.

Green tea also contains caffeine just like its black tea counterpart so consumption should be restricted to no more than 5 cups per day.

Preliminary research shows green tea may also lower your risk for certain types of cancer, lower your cholesterol and reduce your risk for Parkinson's disease, according to MedlinePlus.

Other potential benefits include reducing inflammation in inflammatory bowel disease, lowering your risk for diabetes and helping with weight loss, notes the University of Maryland Medical Center.

If you are pregnant or suffer from anemia, heart conditions, bleeding disorders, anxiety, osteoporosis, glaucoma or diarrhea, you should limit your consumption of green tea even further, since caffeine can worsen these conditions. Green tea may also interfere with certain medications, so you should speak to your doctor before taking green tea extract or drinking large amounts of green tea.