women's health

Our food choices may play a significant role in health issues affecting women, including menstruation and menopause, pregnancy and breastfeeding, and risk for certain types of cancer.

Besides skin cancer, breast cancer is the most common cancer among American women. To demonstrate how dramatically lifestyle choices may impact breast cancer risk, researchers followed about 30,000 postmenopausal women with no history of breast cancer for about seven years. Limiting alcohol, eating mostly plant foods, and maintaining a normal body weight was associated with a 62 percent lower risk of breast cancer.

Remarkably, eating a plant-based diet along with walking every day may improve our cancer defenses within just two weeks. Researchers attributed this effect to a decrease in levels of a cancer-promoting growth hormone called IGF-1, likely due to the reduced intake of animal (meat, egg white, and dairy) protein.

What about carcinogens in cooked meat? Women who eat more grilled, barbecued, or smoked meats over their lifetimes may have as much as 47 percent higher odds of breast cancer.

Consumption of animal-based products have also been implicated in earlier onset of puberty for girls, which had begun when girls were on average 16 or 17 until the 20^th century, but now we see significant numbers of girls starting to grow breasts before they’re 8 years old, and increased risk of infertility.

Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), potentially the most common hormonal abnormality among young women in the United States and a common cause of infertility, menstrual dysfunction, and excess facial and body hair—may also be affected by diet. Advanced glycation end products (AGEs) may contribute to the cause of PCOS and infertility. So, in addition to not smoking, we should decrease consumption of foods high in protein and fat, and rich in AGEs, such as meat, cheese, and egg yolks, and increase intake of foods high in antioxidants, such as berries, herbs, and spices.

Plant-based diets appear to offer relief from a variety of menstrual symptoms, including bloating and breast pain (cyclical mastalgia), and women suffering with dysmenorrhea—painful, crampy periods—who switch to a plant-based diet experience significant relief in menstrual pain intensity and duration.

For substantiation of any statements of fact from the peer-reviewed medical literature, please see the associated videos below.

380 videos

All Videos for Women's Health

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Is FDA-Approved Bioidentical Hormone Replacement Therapy Safe?

As of 2019, there are urine-free FDA-approved bioidentical hormones that skirt the standardization concerns of compounded preparations. Are they any safer?

Side Effects of Resveratrol Supplements

Resveratrol supplements may blunt some of the positive effects of exercise training.

Resveratrol Tested for Alzheimer’s, Arthritis, and Osteoporosis

Resveratrol appears to triple the rate of age-related brain shrinkage.

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How to Boost Collagen Synthesis with Diet

Which foods can increase collagen deposition and prevent wrinkles?

Side Effects of Osteoporosis Medications Like Fosamax, Boniva, and Reclast

How rare are the bisphosphonate class of osteoporosis drugs’ devastating side effects, which ironically include bone fractures?

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How to Delay the Age of Menopause with Diet and Lifestyle Factors

Approximately half of the variability of age of menopause among women is explained by genetics. What behaviors or circumstances can help explain the rest?

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How Well Do Medicines Like Fosamax Work to Treat Osteoporosis?

Doctors and patients alike vastly overestimate the power of bisphosphonate drugs to prevent fractures.

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The Benefits and Side Effects of Ginseng

What do more than 100 clinical trials on red ginseng, white ginseng, and American ginseng show?

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DHEA: What Is It and What Are Its Benefits?

DHEA levels naturally decline with age. Does replenishing youthful levels have restorative effects?

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Do Vitamin D Supplements Help Prevent Diabetes, Cancer Mortality, and Overall Mortality?

Randomized interventional trials are necessary to establish cause-and-effect.

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Acid Reflux Medicine May Cause Osteoporosis

Stomach acid–blocking proton pump inhibitor drugs—PPIs with brand names like Prilosec, Prevacid, Nexium, Protonix, and AcipHex—appear to significantly increase the risk of bone fractures.

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How Not To Age – Live Presentation

In this live lecture, Dr. Greger offers a sneak peek into his latest book, How Not to Age, a New York Times Best Seller.

Soy Foods for Menopause Hot Flash Symptoms

Soy can be considered a first-line treatment for menopausal hot flash and night sweat symptoms.

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Menopausal Hot Flashes Are Not Inevitable

Why do 85 percent of menopausal women suffer hot flashes in some countries but only 15 percent in others?

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Caffeine Shampoo and Rosemary Oil for Hair Growth

I cover natural topical treatments for hair growth, including pumpkin seed oil, caffeine, green tea, pyrithione zinc, ginger, Chinese knotweed, and rosemary.

Closeup soy bean in sack and white cup of soy milk with green nature background

Soy Milk for Vaginal Menopause Symptoms

Soy foods may explain why Japanese-American women not only have the lowest rates of hot flashes in the United States but also have the lowest rates of vaginal dryness.

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Hormone Treatment (Estrogen Pills and Creams) for Vaginal Menopause Symptoms

Does vaginal estrogen carry the same risk as oral estrogen?

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The Best Moisturizers and Lubricants for Vaginal Menopause Symptoms

I discuss the first-line management of genitourinary syndrome of menopause (vulvovaginal atrophy).

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The Side Effects of Yoga

What is the rate of yoga injuries compared to other activities?

Yoga Put to the Test for IBS, Inflammatory Bowel, Menopause, and Osteoporosis

A study using sham acupuncture underscores the necessity of controlling for expectancy effects.

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Yoga Put to the Test for MS, Back Pain, Neck Pain, Insomnia, and Breast Cancer

Is yoga better than other types of exercise, better than nothing but similar to other physical activity, or not beneficial even when it’s compared to doing nothing at all?