The 20-year HRT drug hype was nothing more than a pharmaceutical industry health scam that suckered most doctors into prescribing useless drugs

Friday, April 23, 2004 by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger Editor of NaturalNews.com (See all articles...) Tags: bad medicine, hormone replacement therapy, HRT

Estrogen was one the number one prescribed pill in the United States. Tens of millions of women were put on Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT) programs, generating literally billions of dollars in revenues for drug companies. There's only one problem: the drugs have turned out to be useless. That's right: all the hype, the promises, and the marketing push about HRT drugs was nothing but profit-minded propaganda. Chalk it up to just one more bad medicine sham pulled off by pharmaceutical companies to convince tens of millions of consumers to part with their dollars in exchange for dangerous drugs. What's so dangerous about HRT drugs? They increase the risk of stroke. And, worse yet, they do nothing to prevent osteoporosis. These conclusions are based on a study of 11,000 participants, and they've been widely covered in recent press.

There are two very large questions that come to mind when reading about something like this. First, how did all the doctors in the country get duped by the drug companies into prescribing a useless drug to tens of millions of patients? That's a really important question to consider. The answer is disturbing, but not at all surprising to those who regularly read this site: the initial studies were distorted, the drug companies hyped the benefits completely out of proportion to the scientific evidence, the medical journals hyped up the drug to appease their advertisers (the drug companies), and doctors were so frequently told the drug was a miracle cure that they believed it.

What's hilarious about all this is that most doctors mistakenly think they are rational, scientific minded individuals who would never fall for unproven hype. They frequently attack nutritional supplements, medicinal herbs and other "alternative" therapies on that very basis: "it's unproven!" they scream. Yet, in reality, the vast majority of Western medicine is not only unproven, but fraudulently hyped. There really was no good scientific evidence backing HRT drugs, but that didn't stop a few hundred thousand doctors from lining up to prescribe it. Worse yet, the vast majority of surgical procedures have never been proven effective at their intended outcome either. (Surgical procedures do not have to be "proven" to be routinely performed.) So much for the "rational scientist," huh?

Truth be told, most M.D.s ultimately play the role of drug pushers for pharmaceutical companies. They dole out whatever drug is popular, regardless of its scientific merit. It's not that they intend to harm patients or help out the drug companies, it's that pro-drug information is the only information they're exposed to. They never see the other side of the story. Medical schools are largely prescription drug reeducation camps where would-be physicians are indoctrinated into a pro-drug belief system.

The second big question that comes to mind on all this is: how can women prevent osteoporosis without dangerous (or useless) prescription drugs? And the answer to that is actually quite simple: nutrition and physical exercise.

In the nutrition camp, preventing osteoporosis is easy. One of the first things you need to do is get plenty of sunshine. That's "light nutrition" for you noobs out there. Yes, you need to soak up some sunlight to have strong bones. It's all about the role of Vitamin D and bone calcification. Women also need to stop drinking acidic drinks that deplete bone mass: drinks like coffee and soft drinks. Every time you drink a soft drink, you end up peeing away some bone mass due to the high acidity of the beverage (your body buffers the acid with calcium from your own bones). Further, women need to start eating natural plant sources of calcium, magnesium, zinc and other macrominerals. The best sources are superfoods like chlorella, or fresh organic fruits and vegetables. A glass of broccoli juice has more calcium than a glass of cow's milk, by the way.

Perhaps the best benefits for preventing and even reversing osteoporosis come from physical exercise. Here's why: the body will only build bone density when bones are subjected to stress. In other words, if you put a person in a weightless environment where their bones don't experience the forces of gravity, their bones will start to turn to mush. You see this with astronauts who hang out in orbit too long: they come back to planet Earth and can hardly walk. Back on Earth, however, their bones quickly regain lost bone mass through walking and regular exercise. And that's all it takes.

Older women are notorious for avoiding exercise. They largely refuse to engage in much-needed strength training, for one thing, which is actually the very best exercise for increasing bone mass. They don't want to walk, jog, or swim. They just sit on their duffs and complain about prescription drug costs. If they'd get off their cranky old asses and actually start moving, they wouldn't need those prescription drugs in the first place!

Truly, physical exercise prevents osteoporosis better than any prescription drug. If there's a "miracle" in the anti-osteoporosis world, it's something called lifting weights. Grab a couple of dumbells (that's all you really need) and start pumping away. Your bones will automatically increase their density without you having to do anything else. It's a biological law. Too bad doctors won't prescribe exercise programs for their patients. Well, a few do. The good doctors do. But most don't bother. And, of course, drug companies have absolutely no interest in people getting physically fit. In fact, that would cause them to lose paying customers!

The real lesson about HRT drugs, though, is that the HRT sham was just one example of a system gone awry. There are many more sham drugs on the market right now, sold to unsuspecting customers, prescribed by unwitting doctors, and hyped by an organized medical system of pro-drug propaganda that thrives on public consumption of these chemicals, regardless of their scientific merit. In fact, I believe the vast majority of prescription drugs on the market are not only useless, but extremely harmful. The HRT sham was only a small taste of revelations yet to come for Western medicine.