Feeling Great Is The Goal!
Sunday, April 26th, 2009
I was having breakfast with a friend who proudly confided that she had successfully weaned herself off of all hormone support, less than one year after her total hysterectomy. “Why?” I asked, horrified. “I thought that was the goal,” she replied. “That’s what my doctor said and even you said so in your book.”
She was woefully misinformed. Hormones are not an evil to be avoided and weaned from. Let me clarify: stopping hormone support is not the goal. Feeling great is the goal. Staying healthy as we age is the goal. Having strong bones to dance at your 100th birthday is the goal. Enjoying sex, feeling joy at the sight of your great grandchildren, remembering phone numbers and how to drive your car in your nineties. These are the goals. Using natural hormones, safely, for the rest of your life will make this possible.
Why do we need hormones? Because our bodies are designed to last roughly seventy years, eighty max. If you win the gene lottery you may make it into your nineties- but it won’t be pretty. Tour a nursing home. Ask the ages. See for yourself what lies ahead. Ask how many women there had total hysterectomies without hormone support (they are the ones using walkers).
Studies have shown that women who use estrogen in the first 10 years of menopause have less calcifications (hardening of the arteries) around their heart. Studies have also shown that using hormones reduces memory loss, bone loss, depression, weight gain, and wrinkles. Hormones prevent sexual dysfunction, urinary tract infections, and vaginitis. The references are in my book.
Ask your doctor for estradiol (patch or cream), natural progestereone (pill or cream). Measure your DHEA-S, maintain your DHEA in the midrange- it will support your testosterone and it has been shown to improve sex drive. Keep your eye on the prize. The world needs more healthy women.
0 Comments | Permalink | Posted in Menopause, Progesterone, Natural Hormones, Osteoporosis, Estrogen, Heart Disease, Cardiovascular, Hormones, Uncategorized
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Hazards of Bone Loss Drugs—In the News
Monday, May 12th, 2008
Watch me on WBZ Channel 4 news this week, Wednesday, May 14 at 11 pm. It is an investigative report on the hazards of commonly used bone loss drugs which grew from my blogs.
0 Comments | Permalink | Posted in Bone Health, Natural Hormones, Bone Loss, Menopause, Osteopenia, Osteoporosis
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Bone Density Drugs Can Kill Your Bones—Canadian Study Confirms
Wednesday, March 12th, 2008
Women have been telling me that when they discuss their concerns about the dangers of bone death (my last blog) from using bone loss drugs (Bisphosphonate), they were told, “Oh that’s just in patients with cancer” or “That’s just in women using high doses of medications intravenously.”
This is not so, and maybe you need to educate your doctor if you are taking a bone loss drug such as Fosamax, Actonel, or Boniva. These drugs do make your bones denser (by preventing bone breakdown) but they DON’T MAKE BONES STRONGER. In fact, it appears that bones may become more brittle and prone to collapse or fracture. How is this possible you may ask? Bone breakdown is a normal part of bone health. Without bone breakdown, new bone is not formed, and only new bone is strong and resilient. Sure your test looks better but your bones are no stronger.
Show your doctor the article published in the January 15, 2008 issue of the Journal of Rheumatology1 (View PDF). This study was done in Canada at the University of British Columbia and Vancouver Coastal Health Research Institute. They looked at NORMAL men and women, who had used ORAL medications for an average of only 2 years. There was a 300% increased risk of bone death in the group who took these medications compared with the group who didn’t use these drugs.
Bone death leads to permanent bone collapse. Normally this condition is rare, but because these drugs are so commonly prescribed, (there were over 55 million prescriptions for these medications in the U.S. in 2004), these findings are very significant. Don’t be cajoled by your well-meaning doctor.
Many of you are taking these drugs, which have barely been tested in the human race (they have only been around since 1995). These medications will stay in your system for decades. There have been reports of bone death of the jaw for many years, now it showing up in hips, and feet. My mother has a friend who lost the use of her hip from “being on Fosamax too long”.
Let’s not be victims of our own laziness. Stop looking for the “one pill solution” to complex problems. Remember, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Remember DES? It was the one pill solution to miscarriage. It was shown to be carcinogenic 25 years before it was removed from the market, and now the children of women who used it are paying the price.
Provera was part of the one pill solution to menopause. It is still causing an increase in breast cancer years after women have stopped using it (and it continues to tarnish the reputation of natural progesterone, which has NEVER been linked to breast cancer).
So, now we have Fosamax and its relatives, destroying the very bones you are trying to protect. Start thinking about why your bones are thinning and how to grow new bones naturally. Stop looking and trusting in a pharmaceutical, potentially dangerous, cure.
Check out my topic on bone health. I write more extensively about bones and hormones in my book, The Natural Hormone Makeover.
1Etminan, M, et al., “Use Of Oral Bisphosphonates and The Risk Of Aseptic Necrosis: A Nested Case-Control Study”, The Journal of Rheumatology 35 (2008): 1-5. View PDF
6 Comments | Permalink | Posted in Bone Health, Bone Density, Bone Loss, Menopause, Osteoporosis, Osteopenia, Hormones
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