Soy - Prostate Cancer and Baldness

[Guest guest]

According to this study equol prevents the hormone

dihydrotestosterone from stimulating prostate growth and causing

baldness. If this is true real men are going to start eating soy by

the scoopfuls (if they don't already). I fearlessly eat it

because it was generally recognized as safe by the Okinawins.

http://www.biolreprod.org/cgi/content/abstract/70/4/1188

Equol Is a Novel Anti-Androgen that Inhibits Prostate Growth and

Hormone Feedback1

Trent D. Lund2,3, J. Munson3, E. Haldy3, D.R.

Setchell4, Edwin D. Lephart5 and J. Handa3

Department of Biomedical Sciences,3 Colorado State University, Fort

, Colorado 80524 Clinical Mass Spectrometry,4 Children's

Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati, Ohio 45229 The Neuroscience

Center and Department of Physiology and Developmental Biology,5

Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah 84602

Equol (7-hydroxy-3[4'hydroxyphenyl]-chroman) is the major metabolite

of the phytoestrogen daidzein, one of the main isoflavones found

abundantly in soybeans and soy foods. Equol may be an important

biologically active molecule based on recent studies demonstrating

that equol can modulate reproductive function. In this study, we

examined the effects of equol on prostate growth and LH secretion

and determined some of the mechanisms by which it might act.

Administration of equol to intact male rats for 4–7 days reduced

ventral prostate and epididymal weight and increased circulating LH

levels. Using binding assays, we determined that equol specifically

binds 5 -dihydrotestosterone (DHT), but not testosterone,

dehydroepiandrosterone, or estrogen with high affinity. Equol does

not bind the prostatic androgen receptor, and has a modest affinity

for recombinant estrogen receptor (ER) ß, and no affinity for ER .

In castrated male rats treated with DHT, concomitant treatment with

equol blocked DHT's trophic effects on the ventral prostate gland

growth and inhibitory feedback effects on plasma LH levels without

changes in circulating DHT. Therefore, equol can bind circulating

DHT and sequester it from the androgen receptor, thus altering

growth and physiological hormone responses that are regulated by

androgens. These data suggest a novel model to explain equol's

biological properties. The significance of equol's ability to

specifically bind and sequester DHT from the androgen receptor have

important ramifications in health and disease and may indicate a

broad and important usage for equol in the treatment of androgen-

mediated pathologies.

1 Supported in part by NIH grants AA12693 and NS39951 (R.J.H.) and

USDA grant 2002-00798 (E.D.L.).

2 Correspondence: Trent D. Lund, Department of Biomedical Science,

Colorado State University, Anatomy W103, 1617 Campus Delivery, Ft.

, CO 80523-1670. FAX: 970 491 7907; tlund@...