October is breast cancer awareness month and I post this article in honor of the women who have had this disease.

For years now my patients with breast cancer or who have risk for breast cancer have repeatedly asked me if it is safe to take soy products. Oncologists have repeatedly told them that soy products have “hormones” and that these could contribute to breast cancer, and therefore women should AVOID soy products at all times.

I extensively researched this soy issue, and talked with many colleagues in integrative medicine all over the world and found that this explanation from their oncologists was not correct.

I explained to my patients, that the “hormones” in soy were not real hormones but that they were Phyto-hormones, and that these hormones actually help protect the estrogen receptors from the woman’s own estrogen. Therefore there would be no increased risk whatsoever for getting breast cancer when eating soy products.

However the oncologists have persistently told my patients the opposite and I understand that my patients would be confused and might err on the side of “safety” and NOT eat soy products.

Now we have three solid studies showing the exact opposite of what my patients have been told by other doctors. Specifically that soy consumption improves the prognosis of women who had breast cancer, and actually women eating soy with a history of breast cancer had a REDUCED incidence of death. In one study, women on Tamoxifin, who consumed the most soy, had a 60% reduction in breast cancer recurrence compared to women who did not eat soy.

Below you will find a video from my colleague Michael Gregor, M.D. explaining all this from the medical journal articles. He has given me permission to use his videos which also appear on YouTube on my website, whenever I would like.

  You may ask “Well how much soy is safe then?” The answer as Dr. Gregor explains in this video is 3 -5 servings a day is safe. So that would mean you could safely have soy with every meal and be safe, even with a history of breast cancer.

Dr. Gregor has a wonderful website which is NUTRITION FACTS and a daily newsletter with the latest updates in subjects directly related to integrative medicine as appearing in the traditional medical literature. His bias, like mine, is to encourage patients to eat a Whole Food Plant Based diet.  I highly recommend you subscribe to his daily newsletter. It is amazing that he can read every medical journal article that is published and sift out the essence and present it to us in a two-minute video on a daily basis.

Dr. Gregor has also written an article on Soy and Breast cancer which you can find HERE.

I look forward to hearing your comments about this new information. Are you a breast cancer survivor? What do you think of this information? Will it change your dietary habits? Put a note in the comments below please.