Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
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 To me the analogy of hormone replacement therapy -- when your body is symptomatic through normal hormonal transitions -- it's telling you something. For me it would be like you being really irritated because this building was on fire. And it wasn't the heat, it was just the fire alarm going off. hormone replacement therapy, to me, is like going over and clipping that wire to the fire alarm. It's like, "Oh, I am so relieved." The problem is you have a mechanism going on. You have an estrogen-dominant -- most likely -- situation going on, and that's harmful. Why? Because -- what's on the rise? |
| First of all, all of these women were being treated with one form or another of hormone replacement therapy, whether it be just standard HRT moving into menopause -- the number one treatment option -- or the birth control pill if they had an increase in PMS symptoms or ovarian cysts. And they weren't getting any better, and we were starting to understand the literature that not only said the risk factors were increasing, but these medications were doing more harm than good.
So, number one: We live in an incredibly toxic environment and an increasingly toxic environment. |
| I've got to play devil's advocate for a second because conventional medicine says all you need is hormone replacement therapy. It's the fountain of youth, and you'll be forever young. You won't have any hormone problems.
Lucille: Right.
Mike: But now we know that's hogwash, right?
Lucille: Well, first of all, here's my question, I guess, back to conventional medicine -- which I adore and love, and there's a lot of reasons why I want conventional medicine to continue to evolve and get better and better at what they do -- but from this perspective: What are we replacing? |
| And it wasn't the heat, it was just the fire alarm going off. hormone replacement therapy, to me, is like going over and clipping that wire to the fire alarm. It's like, "Oh, I am so relieved." The problem is you have a mechanism going on. You have an estrogen-dominant -- most likely -- situation going on, and that's harmful. Why? Because -- what's on the rise? Breast cancer's on the rise. Breast cancer continues to be on the rise, not only for women, but for men. Prostate cancer -- estrogen-sensitive tissue.
Mike: Sure.
Lucille: So we need to step back and identify and treat the cause. |
Mark Sircus
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 Breast cancer and hormone replacement therapy. Lancet 1997;350:1047-59.
5 Garg PP, Kerlikowske K, Subak L, Grady D. hormone replacement therapy and the risk of epithelial ovarian carcinoma: a meta-analysis. Obstet Gynecol 1998;92:472-9.
6 See: www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/druginfo/medmaster/a682922.html
7 Hill DA, Weiss NS, LaCroix AZ. Adherence to postmenopausal hormone therapy during the year after the initial prescription. |
| Like animals lured into a snare by a trail of crumbs, women have been cajoled with scientific studies, media advertising, patient hand books and drug samples to accept hormone replacement therapy as a magic potion.
Sherill Sellman
Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT) does not do justice to the finely tuned hormone system2 that operates throughout a woman's life. In reality, hormone levels may begin to change in the 30s, as a woman enters a period called perimenopause. |
Jonny Bowden, Ph.D., C.N.S.
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 The Risk of Hormone Replacement Therapy
Traditionally, moderate to severe menopausal complaints have been managed with hormone replacement therapy (HRT) using synthetic hormones. This is absolutely not the place to get into the enormous controversy generated by preliminary findings from the Women's Health Initiative that reported a slightly increased risk of heart attacks and breast cancer for women on HRT. |
David Brownstein M.D.
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 Women were flocking to their doctors asking them what to do with their hormone replacement therapy. The headlines in the newspapers across the country suggested that important, new information had come to light on the use of conventional hormones.
Since the WHI made such an impact nationwide, the question to ask is: What were the new findings in the WHI that made so many women and their physicians question the benefits of taking conventional hormone replacement therapy?
The answer to the above question can be summed up in one word: nothing. |
Gerald E. Markle and Frances B. McCrea
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 Risks from this so-called hormone replacement therapy (HRT) were denied or minimized. A survey conducted in 1995 showed that about 38% of women aged 50 to 75 were using HRT. At the turn of millennium, some 55 million postmenopausal women were on HRT.30
Yet there were problems. Several studies done in the late 1990s found that many of the expected benefits never materialized; even worse,
HRT raised the risk of the very diseases—breast cancer and heart disease—that it was purported to prevent. |
Marshall Editions
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 HOMEOPATHY
752
As concerns about using hormone replacement therapy over an extended period of time become more prevalent, many women are considering m ^^Vl using complementary therapies such as homeopathy to manage \^^# menopause symptoms. Homeopathic remedies can be effective in reducing the frequency, severity, and duration of hot flashes, which is one of the most troublesome and common problems associated with menopause. Remedies can be used on their own, or as complementary treatments to conventional support. |
Bottom Line Health
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| Common causes of these low levels include diminished ovarian function, estrogen supplementation (either by birth control pills or by hormone replacement therapy) and impaired adrenal function.
Symptoms include: Osteoporosis, reduced-sex drive (which could be due to diminished libido or lack of interest due to pain or dryness), loss of muscle tone, low energy, lack of mental clarity and decreased enjoyment of life.
Diagnosis: To check for androgen deficiency in women, it's best to measure levels of testosterone and DHE A-sulfate (DHEA-S), another androgen. |
| For decades, women relied on hormone replacement therapy (HRT) to relieve symptoms of menopause—hot flashes, sleep disturbances, anxiety and mood swings. But several large studies have linked long-term HRT with an increased risk of breast cancer, dementia, heart attack and stroke.
Fortunately, there are safer, natural alternatives to HRT.
MORE THAN JUST ESTROGEN
People typically attribute menopausal symptoms to the declining production of the female hormones estrogen and progesterone. But poor eating and lifestyle habits also play a role by overtaxing the adrenal glands. |
| They list examples such as hormone replacement therapy (HRT), the now-banned Cox-2 inhibitors Vioxx and Bextra, as well as Iressa, a lung cancer drug that physicians turned to based on early findings, only to find out later that it might do more harm than good.
"Our message is for physicians in the community to be aware of the potential risks of adopting therapies too early, and also for physicians presenting early results at meetings to be aware of how dramatically practice can change based on their presentations," says Giordano. |
Bill Sardi
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 International J Fertility Womens Medicine 50:250-8, 2005] The only study that had to be halted because of the discovery of a risk to promote breast cancer was for hormone replacement therapy, not for any plant estrogen supplement.
Women who consume soy and flax have less dense breast tissue. [European J Medical Research 10: 389-94, 2005]
One of the puzzling problems posed by analysis of the myriad studies involving phytoestrogens like soy in relation to breast cancer is the obvious contradiction in terms. |
| Woman's Health Institute study on the effects of hormone replacement therapy. What pharmaceutical companies have pushed for decades as a 'preventive
Women have been conditioned to accept menopause as a period of life when life-long medication with hormones is a normal process. Although there have been many warnings against the use of hormone replacement, "they have either been ignored or trivialized." [Int J Health Services 31: 769-92, 2001] Not counting the cost of doctor's office visits, hormone replacement pills sales were nearly $2.7 billion in the United States annually. |
Marshall Editions
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| CO i—
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THRT: Treating hot flashes involves stabilizing hormones during the menopausal period. hormone replacement therapy (HRT), which involves increasing the levels of female hormones in the body, is the most effective way of achieving this, but it is currently a controversial form of treatment. ^ Recent trials have shown that the use of combined synthetic estrogen-progestin therapy in postmenopausal women increases the risk of cardiovascular disease, stroke, breast cancer, venous thromboembolism, and probable dementia in women aged 65 years of age or older. |
Gerald E. Markle and Frances B. McCrea
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| In premenopausal women, it also necessitates hormone replacement therapy.
One researcher has shown that a hysterectomy in an otherwise healthy forty-year-old woman increases her life expectancy by some four months, a gain is entirely explained by the 1.3% women who are destined to die of endometrial cancer. For other women, there is no gain in life expectancy; in fact, there may be a decline, given that among women with hysterectomies, there are higher rates of cardiovascular disease.
There are no universally accepted set of criteria regarding appropriate indications for a hysterectomy. |
Devra Davis
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 We notice that most people with lung cancer have been smokers, or that many women over sixty who get breast cancer have used hormone replacement therapy. We deduce that a single condition gave rise to a single outcome, even though we know that life is not so simple.
George Carlo is an epidemiologist who once directed a multimillion-dollar, multicountry study of cell phones that was overseen by the U.S. government and funded by the industry starting in 1993. He was fired or resigned, depending on whose story you credit, and has continued to work on the issue ever since. |
Gerald E. Markle and Frances B. McCrea
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| Alas, we have heard this magic pill rhetoric many times before, recently, for example, with hormone replacement therapy (see below). It was not true then. It's probably not true now.
Which is not to say that statins do no good.
Our third question is: Are statins effective in the treatment of heart disease?
Three major studies—again known by their acronyms18—have considered this question. The answer is "yes."
The 4S research began in 1989. A five-year follow-up showed that statins reduced heart strokes and heart attacks by 36% and 43%, respectively. |
Andreas Moritz
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 Consequently, they become convinced that hormone replacement therapy (HRT) can help them lead a more comfortable and carefree life during and after menopause.
Yet it turns out that HRT is everything but preventive medicine, and the risks involved are serious. Taking extra hormones can even endanger a woman's life. According to research conducted at the Boston University Medical Center, U.S.A, the risks of suffering a thrombosis increase by 3.6 times with a "normal" dose of hormones and by nearly seven times if a woman is taking as much as 1.25 mg or more a day. |
| To postpone the onset of the dreaded illness "menopause," which is often seen as a sign of rapid aging, and to reduce or eliminate the accompanying symptoms, doctors commonly prescribe a combination of hormones known as hormone replacement therapy (HRT) (Or at least they used to until the recent media scare). The drugs are also supposed to prevent major illnesses that have been linked with diminished hormone production, including osteoporosis, heart disease, stroke and senile dementia. |
Bill Sardi
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| The point here is: women are being distracted by messages that point to estrogen-like molecules in the environment as a primary risk factor for breast cancer, when in fact these molecules are weak estrogens and pale next to the effects of hormone replacement therapy.
Genes and breast cancer
There is the hope that genetic tests will identify those women at highest risk for breast cancer. A woman with a strong family history of breast or ovarian cancer and who carries a mutation of the BRCA1 gene faces roughly an 85% lifetime risk for breast cancer and a 60% risk for ovarian cancer. |
Marshall Editions
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| SYMPTOMS
• Sudden changes in body temperature
• Redness and blushing in the face, neck, and chest
• Increased sweating, particularly at night in bed
TREATMENT GOAL
To relieve the distress and discomfort of hot flashes, and develop techniques for coping with episodes. hormone replacement therapy (HRT) is effective at relieving hot flashes following menopause; however, HRT is not recommended for use for longer than five years. Discuss this treatment option with your doctor.
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THRT: Treating hot flashes involves stabilizing hormones during the menopausal period. |
Mehmet C. Oz., M.D. and Michael F. Roizen, M.D.
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 For the first five years of menopause (if you're not taking hormone replacement therapy), women's bone loss increases to 2 percent to 4 percent of trabecular bone (the spongy part of bone on the inside) and 1 percent to 2 percent of cortical bone (the hard surface area of bone) per year. After that (or for men of all ages), the decline levels out to a half percent a year again. Still bad, but not so severe, and you can prevent it.
Osteoporosis is caused by a reduction in bone mass or bone density. |
| Ask your doc to modify this if you are taking an estrogen for hormone replacement therapy.) The cream is applied around the vagina, on the skin, or as drops under the tongue because that's how the large molecules are best absorbed. (If taken orally, the enzymes in the stomach might
When it comes to waist gain, progesterone deficiency may be to blame. Progesterone increases basal body temperature, which burns calories. No ovulation, no progesterone, no increased temperature, fewer calories burned. Those calories can add up to several pounds a year. |
Andreas Moritz
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| The Folly of hormone replacement therapy (HRT)
One of the most commonly treated "diseases" among women today is the appearance of menopausal symptoms—indications that a woman's body may be going through major changes in her life. Doctors believe that these changes (and the symptoms) are caused by a decrease in the production of the female hormones, estrogens and progestogens, which the body uses to conduct the monthly cycles, pregnancy, and birth, among other rhythms. |
Devra Davis
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| Recent drops in deaths from breast cancer have been chalked up to the decline in the use of hormone replacement therapy as well as the increased accuracy of breast screening programs. No mention has been made of the possible role of the hundred-fold lower levels of cancerous pesticides and some key air and water pollutants found in the breast milk of women that has also occurred at this same time. Nor can we know whether this decline in breast cancer deaths has anything to do with a reported decline in the proportion of women undergoing mammograms in the past seven years. |
Jonny Bowden, Ph.D., C.N.S.
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 In fact, in one study, flaxseed was as effective as hormone replacement therapy in reducing mild menopausal symptoms in menopausal women.
WORTH NOTING
Some high-quality flaxseed oils have been specially designed to have a high lignan content. Look for those. And remember, never cook with the oil, just keep it in the fridge and either take it as a supplement or use it on salads or already-cooked vegetables. Cooking damages the delicate omega-3 fats, which don't stand up to heat at all. |
Hyla Cass, M.D.
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 For menopausal symptoms, I'm a strong proponent of bio-identical hormone replacement therapy over conventional, synthetic versions. Bio-identical hormones exactly match what is made by your ovaries, and have the same benefits with fewer risks. You can read more about the advantages of bio-identical estrogen and progesterone (and, for some women, testosterone) in the book I wrote with Kathleen Barnes, 8 Weeks to Vibrant Health (McGraw-Hill, 2005). They don't deplete nutrients, either.
Unfortunately, there's still no bio-identical oral contraceptive available. |
Thomson Healthcare, Inc.
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 Arjmandi BH, Khalil DA, Smith BJ, et al: Soy protein has a greater effect on bone in postmenopausal women not on hormone replacement therapy, as evidenced by reducing bone resorption and urinary calcium excretion. J Clin Endocrinol Metab 88(3): 1048-1054. 2003.
Baird DD, Umbach DM, Lansdell L, et al: Dietary intervention study to assess estrogenicity of dietary Soy amoung postmenopausal women. J Clin Endocrinol Metab 80(5): 1685-1690. 1995.
Bakhit R, Potter SM. In vitro inhibition of LDL oxidation by means of SOY isoflavones genistein and genistin. FASEB J 11:A271.1997. |
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