Debunking the BS - Lavender Oil/TeaTree Oil and Estrogenic Potential

todras

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So some of you may have read recently that there has been some 'research' in relation to the estrogenic potential of Lavander Oil and Tea Tree Oil. You may come across it on FB or in one of the News Ltd tabloids or what have you. Put simply, some compounds are known to be implicated in mimicking the hormone Estrogen or at least creating a potential for it's up-regulation. The source of this nonsense is a regurgitation of a piece from 2007.

The gist of it is that this increase of Estrogen in men can lead to Gynecomastia (Man boobs, Man Cans, Moobs, etc) I won't explore this too much further as it wades into qualified medical practitioner territory fairly easily but prior to this nonsense spreading any further I thought I would mention the work of Robert Tisserand and his published work on Essential Oil Safety.

I don't buy into aromatherapy or other 'woo woo' for even a second, but I do buy into empirical critiques of research that are founded on hard science referencing reputable journals.

Robert has previously addressed many of the underlying assumptions and research relied on in 2007 study and you can read his referenced blog post here and another post he made here. You are bound to find other independent published works with a little pub-med searching or similar.

By way of reference, the research behind the recent 'scare' article is

Henley D, Lipson N, Korach K, Bloch C. Prepubertal Gynecomastia Linked to Lavender and Tea Tree Oils. New England Journal of Medicine, Feb. 1, 2007.

I will do some further searching and reading of the published literature in relation to Tea Tree Oil and post further information when I locate something that specifically addresses the Tea Tree component of the claims made.
 
Potential new demographic to market APR to?
 
I’m a big fan of Woo Woo
 
Big bowls, big bowls, watch gonna do ...
[Poor @todras - I think he posted Debunking the BS - Lavender Oil/TeaTree Oil and Estrogenic Potential as serious information to be helpful!]

Well firstly, you started it. :ROFLMAO: So I'll apologize first for the both of us.

Thank you @todras for putting in the hard work to demythify the misinformation that is out there. Though people who only read once only know that one thing. :facepalm:

Oh and if you have big bowls, @Mark1966 is gonna watch them. o_O
 
I mainly associate Estrogenic Potential with soy products but remember going to a course at Newcastle Uni some twenty years ago and I think one of the first places that the problem of man boobs was picked up was in London. With water being recycled in and out of the Thames via water treatment plants and sewage treatment plants several times, female hormone levels increased downstream with each progressive cycle (river-water treatment plant - human consumption/excretion - wastewater plant - river) due to the use of the contraceptive pill. With water recycling these days they use membrane technology for treatment so it's not the same issue as I understand it.
I had never heard of essential oils being associated with Estrogenic potential before.
 
Debunking Soy consumption / phytoestrogen myths:
https://nutritionfacts.org/video/who-shouldnt-eat-soy/

And for prostate cancer...
https://nutritionfacts.org/video/the-role-of-soy-foods-in-prostate-cancer-prevention-and-treatment/

There are no known deleterious effects from consuming the phytoestrogens in soy in any reasonable amount. Unfortunately it's only the phytoestrogens in hops that appear to be harmful...

https://nutritionfacts.org/video/what-are-the-effects-of-the-hops-phytoestrogen-in-beer/
 
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