Do you like beer? You will become an effeminate impotent!
Beer can hit not only in the head, but also below the belt
Maria Katina, "News of Science"
Two spectacular anti-drinking videos appeared on TV screens. In one, a sculptural David drinking beer acquires female forms, in the other, reverse transformations occur with beer–loving girlfriends. Is this possible?
The composition of beer made using hops contains 8-prenylnaringenin (8-PN) – one of the most active phytoestrogens. This is the name of substances similar in structure and action to the female sex hormone estrogen. It is found in alfalfa, red clover, and other plants. By the way, while in Australia sheep were grazed in the fields of red clover, there was a serious problem – the sheep turned out to be sterile, there were few lambs.
In a woman's body, 0.3 to 0.7 mg of estrogen is produced daily – about a poppy seed. One liter of beer can contain up to 0.15 mg of phytoestrogen 8-MON. That is, in a two–liter bottle - a female "dose". With regular consumption of beer, the balance of hormones is disrupted. In men, fat is deposited according to the female type – on the abdomen, thighs, in the mammary glands, the number of spermatozoa decreases, the "male instinct" decreases – they become sedentary, passive.
In women, phytoestrogens gradually reduce the production of their own "native" estrogens, but do not completely replace their functions. Therefore, women who drink a lot of beer outweigh male hormones – the voice becomes rougher, excess hair appears on the face and body, behavior changes to more aggressive. Although, of course, it would be ridiculous to blame only beer for this, social processes, smoking, and changing gender stereotypes play a role. But beer too!
It is difficult to predict how effective social advertising will be. There is a story on the Internet that a whole brigade of American truckers sued the manufacturer of canned beer. Like, cool guys began to gradually turn... in women. And allegedly the hard workers were able to sue millions of compensation in court. But official confirmation of this information could not be found. But another curious claim is reliable, which in 1991 a certain Richard Overton from the USA sued a large brewing company, demanding $ 10 thousand. He said that no matter how much beer he drank, young girls in bikini swimsuits, who were "promised" in advertising, never appeared. Overton accused the company of "false advertising" and got his money.
A Healthy Skeptic's Comment,an old longtime member of the Beer Lovers Party:
I wonder who paid for the anti–drinking advertising described at the beginning of the note - the Secret Sanhedrin of strong Drink dealers or the Underground Mafia of winemakers?
Such horror stories should be accompanied by links to the results of scientific research published in reputable journals. Without this, the article about the terrible harm of beer remains a personal, unsupported opinion of the author. It seems that such links do not exist in nature: phytoestrogens have not been able to break into the official pharmacopoeia for many years, and in dietary supplements for the treatment of menopausal disorders they are used in doses 100 (!) times greater than in two liters of beer (for example, here, and this is a study of the effectiveness of another biologically active supplement with evidence–based criteria medicine does not correspond at all). Therefore, I attach to this article another opinion, the exact opposite, although also not confirmed by a reference to a source of information about "recently conducted double-blind randomized trials." And an article was published on a resource no less dubious than Izvestia Nauki – on the site, sorry, transsexuals.ru (the MtF abbreviation found in the text is "Male to Female" :).
Phytoestrogens: Myths and reality
Authorship © ® Roman Becker
For quite a long time in the West, various unscrupulous firms engaged in network marketing have been actively advertising a variety of miraculous dietary supplements (dietary supplements), allegedly able to significantly (and quickly) increase the size of the mammary glands, treat menopause in women, premenstrual syndrome, various dishormonal gynecological diseases, etc. At the same time, it is claimed that these supplements "contain 100% natural, natural, natural" phytoestrogens extracted from various herbs (soy, oregano, black cohosh, etc.). And that they are supposedly harmless, unlike terrible, harmful and dangerous hormones that can cause cancer, thrombosis and other terrible dangers. Moreover, some MTFs, naive and gullible like many girls in general, are also pecking at the advertising of dietary supplements with phytoestrogens, besides being intimidated by doctors' stories about the dangers of hormone therapy. Recently, this wave of advertising dietary supplements, including dietary supplements containing phytoestrogens, has reached the expanses of the CIS.
The reality is this: firstly, the plant origin itself is not at all a guarantee of the safety and harmlessness of a particular drug. Let me remind you that heroin, cocaine, and a number of very poisonous drugs are also of plant origin.
Secondly, phytoestrogens are very weak analogues of estrogens, having negligible, non–practical estrogen-like activity, and implemented mainly in the structures of the central nervous system ("neuroestrogenic activity"), and not in peripheral tissues – mammary gland, bones, etc.
This weak neuroestrogenic activity of "herbs" can theoretically be enough to relieve unpleasant neurological and psychovegetative symptoms of menopause (hot flashes, mood swings, etc.) in an elderly woman with a very high sensitivity to estrogens (due to a very low level of endogenous estrogens). Or to relieve a mild form of premenstrual syndrome in a girl with a small estrogen deficiency. But phytoestrogens are fundamentally unable to "grow breasts" in any significant way, or at least prevent the development of osteoporosis, vaginal dryness or atrophic vaginitis – their estrogen-like activity is too weak for this and is also limited by preferential binding to estrogen receptors of the central nervous system.
And for MtF hormone therapy, where significantly higher doses of estrogens are required than in the treatment of hormonal disorders in genetic women, phytoestrogens are even more unsuitable.
According to the standards of modern evidence-based medicine, the effectiveness of any drug must be proven by double-blind (double-blind) randomized (randomized) placebo-controlled (placebo-controlled) clinical trials. This is a test procedure in which the test drug is compared with a placebo (dummy) and with an existing drug – a standard of activity, but neither the patient himself nor the doctor assessing his condition do not know who is receiving the test drug, who is the reference comparison drug, and who is a placebo (dummy).
So, thirdly, recently conducted double-blind randomized trials did not confirm the effectiveness of phytoestrogens even for the treatment of menopause and premenstrual syndrome: none of the phytoestrogens proved to be more effective than placebo (dummy pills), even in the treatment of the mildest forms. That is, the effect of phytoestrogens, sometimes observed during menopause and PMS, is entirely due to the placebo effect, autosuggestion of the patient. The same applies to the effect on "breast growth" – when she really wants to, the patient can believe for a while that the breast is really growing, although it does not grow in reality. But then comes the disappointment.
Fourth, the myth of the harmlessness of phytoestrogens has dissipated: so, black cohosh in those doses in which it is forcibly used to achieve at least some effect, irreversibly spoils the thyroid gland, causing a decrease in its function and the formation of nodes in it. In the West, there were cases when MtF, trying to achieve the effect of dietary supplements containing black cohosh extract, were subsequently forced to remove the thyroid gland entirely – due to the massive formation of nodes in the entire gland. Phytoestrogen extracted from soy inhibits pancreatic function and can cause type II diabetes. Another American plant used in dietary supplements containing phytoestrogen causes severe hyperprolactinemia – more pronounced than even ethinyl estradiol. It is good that none of the dealers of dietary supplements with phytoestrogens has yet occurred to use the estrogen–like activity of digitalis preparations – the strongest cardiac glycoside, an overdose of which only 2 times makes it a deadly cardiac poison, and an overdose of 1.5 times causes severe arrhythmias.
Fifthly, it turned out that phytoestrogens, being very weak estrogens themselves, are able to work as antiestrogens, occupying estrogen receptors for a long time and competing for receptors with much more active natural estrogens of the body – estrone and estradiol, and with drugs prescribed for estrogen hormone therapy, including MtF hormone therapy. That is, the total effect of combining real estrogen with phytoestrogen is not more, but less than the effect of estrogen alone.
Sixth, the statement about the greater naturalness and greater physiology of phytoestrogens in comparison with hormones does not stand up to verification by simple common sense and logic: any phytohormone is physiological for the plant synthesizing it, but not for a person.
Due to all of the above, I do not recommend the use – both in MtF hormone therapy and in the treatment of dishormonal disorders in genetic girls – of various dietary supplements and herbs containing phytoestrogens. The benefits of them are very doubtful and have not been proven by modern RCTs (in the sense of any advantages over placebo, pacifier), and there is undoubtedly harm. In addition, all these dietary supplements with phytoestrogens, as well as all products distributed through network marketing, are extremely and unreasonably (out of proportion to their actual effectiveness) expensive – more expensive than even the most expensive of estrogenic drugs.
Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru21.07.2009