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Sage and Tamoxifen
Sun, 15/01/2012 - 10:18
#1
Hi Ladies,
Sorry in advance if this is a duplicate subject or that it has been discussed before but can we take Sage supplements or tea to help with hot flushes whilst on tamoxifen? and got ER+ PR- HER2+ I have tried anti-depressants and they made me worse!! So not on anything for the flushes and they are so severe any advice especially of the complementary or herbal kind would be gratefully appreciated, many thanks.
Sending love and light to all
Sarahlousie xx
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You aren't supposed to take anything herbal etc whilst on tam. Have a chat with your bcn.
Hi Elttiks
Where did you get that information from? I've been to the Haven and various stuff was recommended for a whole raft of issues. Why should the herbal stuff get the push when the pharmacutical herbal stuff is allowed?
Not a challenge, just a question.
In anticipation.
Chinook
My bcn and surgeon asked before all of my ops if I was taking herbal remedies as they can interact with prescribed medications.
My gp prescribed meds for me 6 weeks ago, and they had to be changed for the same reason too.
Thanks for your replies ladies, I always check with my onc will be seeing him tomorrow and will ask about sage tea etc he told me I am probably the only patient who tells him everything and I mean everything including the hemp oil that I make and take he knows about it all and has ok'd it. Just thought I'd post a thread too see if anyone else knew about sage or had heard about it and its effect on tamoxifen and the fact I am ER+.
I would chat to my BCN but so far I have not had much success with her she's either on holiday or off for the day or just too busy to talk, when I did manage to get hold of her she told me it was my onc's job to inform me about taking any supplements or herbal remedies. So contacting her is not going to help.
So far the herbal medications my onc has told me not to take was St Johns Wort as it interferes with chemo drugs (although I'm not on chemo anymore so will ask about that one tomorrow) and Black cohosh also red clover as they either mimick estrogen or interfere with tami so they are a no go.
Anybody else got any more information on sage???
Many thanks
sarahlousie xx
i was reading NICE full guidelines last night as you do! and in the section about hormone therapy it mentions stuff that can clash with tamoxifen. there were 2 antidepressants listed and the st johns wort and black cohosh and i think there may have been another 1 or 2 herbal type ones mentioned - cant remember what though.
TTM xxx
Hi all,like Elttiks I was told by oncs and BCNs 'no herbals' at all as they can never be sure exactly what's in them.
Sage is high in phytosoetrgens (second highest after soy I think) so if that's a concern for you, best avoided. I have chosen to avoid soy and sage, "but that's just me" as the saying goes. There is some scientific research that says soy can abbrogate Tamoxifen (undoubtedly also some that says the opposite) which is why I choose to avoid it (check labels for soy lecithin if you're so-minded, it's in loads of things)
So finally got too see my onc on monday and asked him about sage and using it for hot flushes, he told me that I could use it and it was fine to use, I did say what about the estrogen he told me sage contained such a miniscule amount of estrogen it really would not make any difference, he also told me that all our water contains estrogen (no amount of filtration will remove it!) so hey ho what a nightmare, I still have not taken the sage tea but am fast coming round to the fact that no matter how hard we try we are still gonna be taking estrogen in from some source whether we want to or not, sorry its not a more conclusive response but thats what the boss has said and I trust him with my life, so I have to trust him on this as well (she says sat here sweating and boiling up to an almighty hot flush arghhhhh). He did also mention that if the sage did not work then he was willing to put me on something called clonidine here's a link about it http://www.webmd.com/menopause/clonidine-for-treating-hot-flashes failing that he said we could stop the tamoxifen and try megestrol here's a link about this http://www.macmillan.org.uk/Cancerinformation/Cancertreatment/Treatmenttypes/Hormonaltherapies/Individualhormonaltherapies/MegestrolAcetate.aspx he assures me that he's placed a lot women on this drug who are ER+ and he said they found there hot flushes evapourated instantly, so there are some alternatives if you are that way inclined. Hope this helps.
love and light to all
sarahlousie xxx