Support Your Receptors Part 1 - Hormone Positive Cancers

Adjuvant hormonal therapy is a godsend for breast cancer patients but it's the tip of the iceberg. There's more you can do to manage receptor signalling, and support yourself from the drugs' effects.

The ability to manipulate hormone signalling has been a game changer for breast cancer patients. While the medication is powerful, there is so much more you can do to help yourself if you have an understanding of receptor theory and drug mechanisms.

Perhaps the most famous is the opioid receptor in the brain, discovered just over 50 years ago by Dr Candace B. Pert; if you enjoyed Lessons in Chemistry you’ll enjoy her book, The Molecules of Emotion, for a real life story in the same vein. The subsequent exploitation of the opioid receptor is at the heart of the books, documentaries and box sets about the Sackler dynasty – that’s worth a look too if you want to understand how the darker side of the pharmaceutical industry works.

The basic message here is that receptors can be manipulated to our benefit if we understand them, with drugs of course, but also with food and lifestyle approaches. They can also be manipulated to our detriment, which is what addiction is all about. And cancer.

Receptors act as a ‘lock and key’ mechanism to send signals to our cells that change their behaviour. If the receptor is the lock then the key is a ligand, a matching molecule that binds to the receptor site and sets off a signal, like pieces of a jigsaw. Some receptors can bind with multiple ligands - none more so than the oestrogen receptor (ER) which I have heard described as promiscuous, readily binding with a range of hormones, plant chemicals (phytoestrogens) and man-made chemicals (xenoestrogens and endocrine-disrupting chemicals).