Detox aid

Calcium D-Glucarate assists the detoxification pathway of glucuronidation, part of the Liver's Phase II system. Many substances that would normally be detoxified through other pathways first, will nevertheless eventually be cleared by glucuronidation, although it's slower than they are when they're working right.

Removing excess estrogen

This supplement specifically helps the body excrete estrogens — a vital need in our environment which is so full of xenoestrogens, chemicals that act as estrogens in the body. (For example, phthalates: the chemicals used to keep plastic flexible. Does the smell of vinyl bother you?)

• Sherry Rogers, MD on Cal D-G:
  • "Calcium-D-Glucarate: The Newest Breast Cancer Prevention" from Let's Live magazine, August 1998
  • Stop Breast Cancer in its Tracks, an editorial at The Townsend Letter for Doctors and Patients.
• Rogers focuses on this supplement as a means of fighting breast cancer. But there's a lot more damage being caused by xenoestrogens besides breast cancer.
  • For me, the problem seems to be exactly the same as from exercise, or food I can't handle: my liver can't handle the load it's being asked to break down & excrete. (See The Liver's Role)
  • This problem became much worse for me after menopause.
  • In addition, deformed genitalia in animals exposed to pesticides are pretty much agreed to be from xenoestrogens; and many researchers also feel the dropping sperm counts in men and the decreasing age of puberty in girls are due to estrogen-mimic chemicals. For more information, see Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals.

My experience

When my Liver Detox Profile showed deficient glucuronidation, I started taking much more Cal D-G. My tolerance for just about every chemical exposure improved.

More info

• Calcium D
• Calcium D-Glucarate, a monograph from Thorne's publication Alternative Medicine Review
• Glucoronidation

The difference between Cal-D-G and IC3/DIM

• Indole-3-carbinol (I3C) shifts the balance in the body of estrogen metabolites (breakdown products) from 16 alpha-Hydroxyestrone to 2-Hydroxyestrone. One of IC3's breakdown products, Diindolylmethane (DIM), is also marketed for this purpose (eg, Indolplex by Tyler). See my page Estrogens.
• IC3 or DIM helps your body change the balance of estrogen metabolites, but there is little evidence it gets rid of the xenoestrogen overload, as Calcium D-Glucarate does.

Please note

I am not advising anyone to do what I'm doing. Your body may react entirely differently from mine. I am not a doctor, and do not know enough about these supplements to recommend them.