The Fact and Fancy of Fenugreek: Part One

"In announcing a new wonder herb for increasing size bust," I must admit, when I saw this ad, I was very intrigued (not for myself, mind you, but for the sake of science). I was wondering, how can one make this herb and women can actually see results? My search for answers led me to studying Fenugreek, a not-exactly-new herbs used by the ancient Greeks, Hindus and Chinese for thousands of years to treat a variety of ailments. In Western cultures, has revived itself as a breast-enhancer, which is taken internally or applied as a poultice for the breasts. Its defenders assert that can improve the appearance of their breasts sagging promoting the growth of breast cells.

Not one to take such statements at face value, dug deeper into the literature in an attempt to follow the logic of such claims. Soon, I found myself bogged down on familiar territory: if the herbs that contain estrogen-like compounds and how they really work.

The parties are using Fenugreek seeds and sprouts that are mashed into a poultice or boiled in water to make tea. The active components of Fenugreek are diosgenin (a precursor chemical for estrogen and progesterone) and phytoestrogens (plant chemicals that mimic human estrogen). My last two articles discussed these chemicals in detail and so we just summarize its actions here as they relate to breast tissue.

Diosgenin is a known precursor to estrogen and progesterone. A chemical is capable of transforming diosgenin in its active form in a laboratory. Our bodies can not do on our own. Proponents of Fenugreek state in increasing the size of the breast because it contains diosgenin which has estrogenic properties. No, at least not until a chemical is kept with it. In its natural form, diosgenin has not been shown to provide some estrogenic activity of breast tissue. So how is supposed to work?

Fenugreek also contains phytoestrogens which mimic human estrogen in the body. The research in this area is even Messier. Nobody can seem to agree on how to actually work phytoestrogens in a cellular level. For the sake of this article, let's pretend that phytoestrogens actually act on breast tissue as estrogen and stimulate growth of breast tissue when we use it. Is not that dangerous? When I was in medical school, we were taught that anything that stimulates the growth of breast tissue also increases the risk of breast cancer. I'm not sure I want to take that risk only for greater cup size.

Perhaps the phytoestrogens not actually promote the growth of breast tissue at all but instead increase the size of cells in the breast (such as raisins soaked in water). Now that's not a bad thing but when this happens to women during their normal menstrual period, usually complain of pain in the breasts and did not seem to care that her breast size is bigger. In any case, I have not found any research to support any of the allegations about this herb and how it works to improve breast-so that what I am saying is partly speculative.

My advice? Try it if you want and if it works, great. Do not take a loan, however, for any expensive product to make "remarkable". You can make the product with the seeds of the store or shoots that grow yourself. The tea is made by soaking 1 ½ teaspoons Fenugreek seeds in cold water for about three hours and then strain the liquid. Three cups a day is recommended. The poultice is made by soaking seeds or seedlings, and mixed with oil or cream to make it easier to implement. The results can be immediate or may take several weeks (or nothing?).