As I experiment with BAT (to the horror of some), one of my doctors has strongly told me to limit Anastrozole to 0.5 mg once every two months or, at most, 0.5 mg at the time of injection and 0.5 mg one week later, saying
“anastrozole only stops the conversion to estradiol. 2-OHE1 and 16a-OHE1 are more deleterious than estradiol.”
1. Anyone have any guidelines for an appropriate dosage of anastrozole? I have started searching the BAT clinical trials, but it is a tedious process and I have not come up with any specifics yet. Of course one can measure estradiol for guidance. I think there has been general agreement that we want estradiol to be about 20 pg/mL, less than 30 and certainly more that 12. My most recent measurements, away from BAT, were 20, 13, and 15. During BAT, however, estradiol levels after injection, despite taking anastrozole, have been 58 and 108. Not sure if these temporary surges are significant or not.
2. As for 2-OHE1 and 16a-OHE1, Patrick has covered this well, including
“DIM: There was an "increase of 47% in the 2-OHE1/16alpha-OHE1 ratio from 1.46 to 2.14 ..."
“Results of experiments in multiple laboratories over the last 20 years have shown that a large part of the cancer-inducing effect of estrogen involves the formation of agonistic metabolites of estrogen, especially 16-alpha-hydroxyestrone. Other metabolites, such as 2-hydroxyestrone and 2-hydroxyestradiol, offer protection against the estrogen-agonist effects of 16-alpha-hydroxyestrone."
“There are two major hydroxylation metabolic pathways for its elimination: the "2" path (2-Hydroxylation) & the "16alpha" path (16a-Hydroxylation). The latter produces metabolites that are thought to be carcinogenic. The "2" path produces benign, & perhaps even protective, metabolites.”
So I guess the problem is that by using anastrozole to limit estradiol there is greater usage of the 16alpha-OHE1 hydroxylation pathway.
Any thoughts are appreciated.
