|
by Lorna Vanderhaeghe
Alert: HRT Risks Just Too Dangerous
Prescription estrogen or unopposed estrogen,
the “miracle” hormone, hit the marketplace in
the 1960s without adequate safety testing.
Soon it became one of the top 10 drugs in
North America for the treatment of
menopause symptoms in women.
In 1968, with financial backing from Ayerst
Laboratories, Dr. Robert A. Wilson wrote
Feminine Forever. The basic attitude underpinning
the promotion of estrogen is summed up
in the following words from Feminine Forever,
“The unpalatable truth must be faced that all
postmenopausal women are castrates . . . .
From a point of view, a man remains a man
until the very end.” This was the premise for
which estrogen was developed. Wilson’s book
and its effect on Premarin sales were the beginning
of a multi-billion dollar love affair
between estrogen and menopause.
 By the 1970s women taking estrogen on its own were found to have a fourteen-fold increase in endometrial cancer (cancer in the endometrial lining of the uterus) and a 30 percent increase in breast cancer among users. With this news estrogen lost its appeal for a short time and then drug companies purported to have
“solved” the cancer problems by introducing synthetic progestin. Now women who still had their uterus would be “safe” from endometrial cancer and women who had their uterus removed during hysterectomy could keep taking unopposed estrogen—but no one discussed the breast cancer risk in those women taking estrogen
alone and it is still hotly debated today.
Women were told they could safely take
estrogen with synthetic progestin because
progestin stopped the overstimulation of the
uterine lining that is caused by estrogen on its
own. Despite the use of synthetic progestin,
the looming risk of cancer continued to haunt
HRT. In 1995, a study reported in the New
England Journal of Medicine showed that combined
estrogen and progestin put women at
even higher risk for breast cancer than estrogen
alone. This study’s results came in the wake of
an alarming report in May 1995 suggesting
that the long-term use of estrogen alone
heightens the risk of fatal ovarian cancer.
Decades of studies have confused
women—for each study that showed estrogen
and/or progestins were not safe and increased a
woman’s chance of breast cancer, ovarian or
endometrial cancer and cardiovascular disease,
there was another study showing the benefits.
HRT the Panacea Drug
HRT is about to hit its demographic sweet spot.
With the largest number of baby boomers just
turning 43 this year, expected sales will be in
the multi-billions when this group hits
menopause. HRT was originally developed to
halt the symptoms of menopause supposedly
for estrogen deficiency but then doctors
started prescribing HRT to prevent cardiovascular
disease and bone loss; halt teenage girls
from growing too tall; relieve depression;
reduce urinary incontinence; stop colon
cancer and Alzheimer’s and to keep us young
forever.
HRT became the panacea drug for all sorts
of women’s conditions and touted as the
“fountain of youth” even though its safety was
still being heavily debated and no randomized,
controlled clinical trials were ever conducted
to suggest HRT should be used for all these conditions.
Its safety in healthy women has never
been proven.
That is until now. In July 2002 the
Women’s Health Initiative study, a clinical trial
designed to determine if HRT was beneficial to
healthy women, was halted five years and two
months into the study due to serious safety
concerns. This study, which was supposed to
last eight years, involved 16,608 healthy, postmenopausal
women (meaning they had
stopped their periods for 12 months), who
were at low risk for heart disease. The women
received 0.625mg of equine (horse) estrogen
(Premarin) along with 2.5 mg of synthetic
progestins for 5.2 years. Premarin (made by
Wyeth-Ayerst) contains estradiol plus at least
two or more horse estrogens, such as equilin
and equilenin.
The study concluded that the combination
of estrogen and progestins posed a significant
health risk to women and that any benefits
from HRT were not worth the side effects. The
study found a 41 percent increase in the risk of
stroke, a 29 percent increase in the risk of heart
attack, a doubled risk of blood cots, a 22 percent
increase in cardiovascular disease and a 26
percent increase in the risk of invasive breast
cancer. Just say neigh to Premarin!
Rationalizing Results
I have heard gynecologists during media interviews
tell listeners not to panic, that we are
“only” talking about an additional eight
women in 10,000 developing invasive breast
cancer, that “only” 18 more women will have
blood clots and “only” eight more women will
have strokes and “only” seven more women
will have heart attacks out of 10,000 women.
But when we realize that millions of prescriptions
are written for HRT in the U.S. in 2001, we
are talking about tens of thousands of women
developing these side effects that otherwise
would not. Furthermore, let’s take this personally.
If the “only” eight more women with invasive
breast cancer were your mother, your
sister, your daughter, your aunt, your best
friend, your coworker, your grandmother,
your niece and these eight women may have
avoided breast cancer if they did not take the
drug, doesn’t it make you angry? In 1960 one
in 20 women developed breast cancer. Today
the number is one in eight women and of
those who develop breast cancer one in four
will die. I think even one woman developing
breast cancer as a result of a prescribed drug is
shameful, especially when we have safer, better
means of treating osteoporosis, heart disease
and menopausal symptoms.
Medicalization of Menopause
How could this hormone craze go on for so
long? The simple answer—we have medicalized
menopause. Physicians have been trained to treat menopause as a disease of the
endocrine system that requires drugs to return
a woman’s hormone levels to “normal” and
that all women need estrogen for optimal
health during the menopause years.
Menopause is not a disease but a normal
process in a woman’s life—it is not an estrogen
deficiency disease. Some women sail through
the perimenopause (the decade before
menopause) or menopause with no symptoms
whatsoever, others are debilitated by hot
flashes, night sweats, memory problems,
mood swings, insomnia, weight gain and
more. When our ovaries take a rest our adrenal
glands should kick in and produce some
estrogen. If we have not taken care of ourselves
in the decades before menopause, our adrenal
glands may become exhausted and not be able
to help support estrogen production. We may
also have a clogged up liver from years of
exposure to environmental estrogens, known
as xenoestrogens. These estrogen mimickers
are found in pesticide-laden foods, plastics,
nail polish, cosmetics, bleached feminine
hygiene products and much more. When we
slather our body in creams, lotions, hair dyes
and make up, our liver has to eliminate all
these toxins and it can become overburdened.
Our liver is essential to the processing and
packaging of our hormones, so if it is clogged,
it can’t help during menopause either. Let’s
treat the cause of nasty menopause symptoms
by returning our liver and adrenals to a
healthy state with foods and nutrients. The
following six steps can help balance your hormones
and ease menopause symptoms.
Step One: Eat a diet rich in cruciferous
vegetables: broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cauli-
flower, cabbage and kale. You should have at
least two half cup servings per day. Cut back
on dairy products as they are a source of
dioxins which clog up the liver and inhibit
proper hormone function. Cruciferous vegetables
contain indole-3-carbinol and
sulforaphane, important nutrients for detoxifying
environmental estrogens and maintaining
balanced hormones in the liver while
reducing the risk of breast cancer. Add
flaxseed, fennel, chickpeas, lentils and soy to
your diet for their hormone balancing
action.
Step Two: Walk briskly and swing your
arms. Walking briskly every day for 30 minutes
cuts hot flashes by 50 percent while
improving your heart and bone health at the
same time. If you are having trouble sleeping,
take 100mg of 5HTP three times a day (breakfast,
dinner and before bed) to improve your
mood and aid restful sleep.
Step Three: Take black cohosh, Dong
Quai, vitex, gamma oryzanol and hesperidin
to reduce night sweats, hot flashes, vaginal
dryness, heavy erratic periods, mood swings,
weight gain and sleep disturbances. My
favorite is black cohosh which has been
studied extensively in Germany and found to
be safe for women with estrogen dominant
cancers. Your health food store carries a
variety of menopause formulas containing
different combinations of these herbs. Take a
multivitamin with minerals every day along
with essential fatty acids and bone-building
nutrients to ensure your heart and bones are
protected.
Step Four: Eat breakfast daily. Over 40
percent of women do not eat breakfast.
Research has shown that women who skip
breakfast are at higher risk of heart disease
than those who eat bacon and eggs for breakfast
often. Eating a protein-rich breakfast
ensures that you have adequate amino acids to
make the mood enhancing and sleep
inducing serotonin. Also, eating a proteinrich
breakfast has the added benefit of
increasing your fat burning ability by 25
percent and it lasts all day.
Step Five: If you can’t get your hot flashes
and night sweats under control using nutrition,
exercise, stress reduction and herbs, then
you may need hormone therapy. Less than 10
percent of women generally fall into this category
but if you need hormones choose natural
hormones like Tri-Est (containing all three of
our estrogens estriol, estradiol and estrone)
and natural USP progesterone cream.
Step Six: Reduce the stress in your life. Have
a massage at least once a month. Start looking
after yourself. Do one thing you love to do at
least once a day. Tell your loved ones you need
extra love, attention and help. It is okay to ask.
If you are a young woman reading this
article, start taking care of yourself today so
that your body is ready for the change. If you
are in menopause and suffering, adopt all five
steps to regain healthy hormones, vitality and
optimal health. If you are taking HRT, start
weaning off of the drug while adopting the
recommendations above. Do not fall into the
trap that menopause is a disease that has to be
treated with harmful prescription drugs. Let’s
embrace menopause—no more periods,
freedom from pregnancy—this is the time to
focus on you.
|
