Cassidy A, Milligan S
Centre for Nutrition and Food Safety, School of Biological Sciences, University of Surrey, London, UK.
Climacteric. 1998 Sep;1(3):229-42. doi: 10.3109/13697139809085545.
Women are exposed to xenobiotic estrogens at least to the same extent as men. These estrogenic chemicals are either from plant material in the diet (phytoestrogens) or from industrial sources. Mainly industrially derived environmental estrogens may accumulate within the food chain and persist in human adipose tissue. In contrast, phytoestrogens do not bioaccumulate and are rapidly excreted in urine. The phytoestrogens probably represent the source of most extensive exposure for humans. Epidemiological evidence suggests that diets rich in phytoestrogens are associated with reduced incidences of cardiovascular disease, breast cancer, prostate cancer and osteoporosis. The numerous bioactivities (other than just estrogenicity) of phytoestrogens and related dietary compounds make it difficult to single out the mechanisms mediating such protective effects. The possibility that the newly discovered estrogen receptor beta may be an important modulator of phytoestrogen action is opening up new lines of research. While the evidence suggests that phytoestrogens may be of positive relevance to postmenopausal women, indications that exposure of women to industrially derived xenobiotic estrogens provides risks to health remain unproven. Further work is necessary to clarify the relative importance of 'xenobiotic' estrogens to human health, but it must be emphasized that the estrogenic potency of all the xenobiotic estrogens is very low compared with that of endogenous estrogens.
女性接触外源性雌激素的程度至少与男性相同。这些雌激素类化学物质要么来自饮食中的植物性物质（植物雌激素），要么来自工业来源。主要是工业来源的环境雌激素可能会在食物链中积累，并在人体脂肪组织中持续存在。相比之下，植物雌激素不会生物累积，会迅速通过尿液排出。植物雌激素可能是人类接触最为广泛的来源。流行病学证据表明，富含植物雌激素的饮食与心血管疾病、乳腺癌、前列腺癌和骨质疏松症的发病率降低有关。植物雌激素和相关膳食化合物具有众多生物活性（不仅仅是雌激素活性），这使得很难确定介导此类保护作用的机制。新发现的雌激素受体β可能是植物雌激素作用的重要调节因子，这一可能性正在开辟新的研究方向。虽然有证据表明植物雌激素可能对绝经后女性具有积极意义，但女性接触工业来源的外源性雌激素会对健康构成风险这一说法仍未得到证实。有必要进一步开展工作，以阐明“外源性”雌激素对人类健康的相对重要性，但必须强调的是，与内源性雌激素相比，所有外源性雌激素的雌激素活性都非常低。
