Hello beautiful Osa community,

I hope you enjoy this round-up of a couple of things I’m reading and thinking about this week.

1. Phytoestrogen spotlight on Genistein

Phytoestrogens are a HUGE topic and something I’d like to come back to again. For today, I’m shining a spotlight on genistein, one of the most heavily studied phytoestrogens found in soy. Phytoestrogen is an umbrella term used to describe plant polyphenols which have estrogen-like chemical structures but which differ from the estrogen hormones our bodies produce in that our bodies respond to and process them differently. (If you are a woman, seeing the word “estrogen” is likely triggering for you in some way, given that we have been pummeled with loads of muddled messages about this hormone over the past 2+ decades, but bear with me). Genistein is one of the phytoestrogens found in soy, and it has been found to have numerous beneficial effects in various cell, animal, and human studies.

This week I learned of a body of research in which genistein has been found to make tumor suppressor genes more active. We want our tumor suppressor genes to be active! I’m going to discuss one particular study which was done using mice, which means its applicability in humans is yet to be proven but that there is positive evidence. In this study, published in the journal Nutrients in 2019, genistein infused into the diets of adult female mice decreased the methylation (read: silencing) of the BRCA1 gene. DNA methylation is a process by which a methyl group (one carbon atom bonded to three hydrogen atoms) is attached to DNA–this is a crucial process that regulates gene expression and has implications for cancer development. If a certain gene has a potentially negative effect on our health, we want it to be methylated so that it cannot be expressed. On the other hand, if a gene has a positive role to play in disease prevention (as is the case with the BRCA1 gene), we want it to be available for expression, and so we do not want those methyl groups to be silencing it. Exposure to certain environmental toxins can cause excessive methylation of genes. As this and other studies show, dietary compounds such as genistein may help in demethylation of certain cancer-protective genes.

Pre-clinical data like this are corroborated by epidemiological data showing higher consumption of soy isoflavones and lower incidence of breast cancer in Asian populations; however this trend may not hold true for Western populations, whose level of consumption typically is much lower and possibly below the threshold for protective effect, and there may be other factors involved as well. This is undoubtedly an important and growing area of research as we are witnessing an upward trend in breast cancer in younger women.

​2. Ten Percent Happier

While listening to a brief talk on joy by mindfulness educator Dawn Mauricio on the Ten Percent Happier app, she said something that reminded me of the journey we embark on when we choose to reclaim agency with our health using lifestyle medicine, and that is this:

The world is a hard place. Being able to tune into joy actually increases our capacity to be with what is hard.

Like many things I have heard from mindfulness teachers, this statement is at once simple and expansive. Of course we know the world is a hard place. Normal reactions we can have to this difficult reality are to harden ourselves, to numb our suffering, or to distract ourselves from it in any number of ways. I think that we can tend to have a similar reaction to our own bodies and our health: we are very hard on ourselves (“no pain, no gain”), we ignore the signals our bodies send and instead distract or numb with various substances or foods, or we outsource our problems to the healthcare system.

Please note that I’m not saying that you should stop seeing your healthcare providers! This is very important.

And, what is also important is having agency with your body, and part of this is being able to be with the reality of what is, in this moment. As it goes with mindfulness, this is apparently straightforward yet not so easy. Just being is something that takes practice for a number of reasons, not least of which is what Dawn pointed out: the world is often a hard place to be in. So it takes some courage to slow down enough to ask ourselves: What is happening right now?

Simply being with what is can itself be a healing process. This is really crucial to take to heart when you are on a healing journey. (And I do believe that we are all on healing journeys). With the quote I shared, Dawn adds a second layer: Is there something in this moment that brings you joy? This is an interesting question because it nudges us beyond our natural, self-protective tendency to notice the negative. With practice, we can notice the comforts and joys that are also still present.

If you can allow yourself just to sit quietly for a moment, notice how your breath goes in and out as your belly rises and falls. Notice how your heart pumps just behind your sternum. Notice how these life-sustaining things happen without you thinking at all. Give yourself a moment. We can feel gratitude for these amazing automatic functions of our bodies, and we can also make space for the discomfort or pain we may be feeling in that same moment. Notice how our awareness is malleable. What possibilities might this open to you?​

Thank you for reading, and as always, please reply if there is a topic you would like to hear more about.

Wishing you a healthful, joyful week,