Breast cancer risk is increased in women who take supplements containing mycoestrogen zearalenone, or ZEN, a naturally occurring toxin, British researchers say.
"No clinical trials have been published on the use of potent estrogen's like ZEN in bust-enhancing products and their use should be discouraged because of the lack of evidence of their long-term safety," UPI.com quoted Professor Ian Fentiman, a consultant breast surgeon at Guy's and St. Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust in London, as saying.
Some women take the supplement to increase their breast size, he said.
"ZEN is a toxic non-steroidal mycoestrogen produced by fungi that widely contaminates agricultural products, such as crops, eliciting estrogen responses by mimicking the female sex hormones," UPI quoted Fentiman as saying in a statement. "No clinical trials have been published on the use of potent estrogens like ZEN in bust-enhancing products and their use should be discouraged because of the lack of evidence of their long-term safety."
The use of ZEN in animal feed has been linked to a wide range of reproductive anomalies in livestock, including diminished fertility and infertility, reduced litter size and smaller offspring and negative effects on the reproductive organs, Fentiman said.
Links also exists between the consumption of ZEN-fed animals and products, and early puberty in young women, international studies suggest.
Fentiman said. "The European Union has banned using ZEN to fatten up cattle, a technique used in the United States since 1969, because of its links with precocious puberty."
The study has been published online ahead of print publication in the January issue of the International Journal of Clinical Practice.
