Estrogen Dominance -In Regards to Bone Health - Tim O'Shea

[Guest guest]

Estrogen Dominance -Impact on Bones and Teeth - Tim O'Shea

JoAnn Guest

Aug 03, 2006 09:44 PDT

 

---

- Tim O'Shea

www.thedoctorwithin.com

 

In this chapter:

 

Female Hormones

Natural Estrogen - Phytoestrogens

What is Menopause?

Fake Estrogens

Adult Life in a Sea of Estrogen

Progesterone

Aging and Youth

American Females Don't Ovulate

The Premarin Scam

The Real Dangers of The Pill

Cancer and Estrogen

Osteoporosis and Estrogen

Heart Disease and Estrogen

The Calcium Hoax

Coffee and Death

Chronic Fatigue and Estrogen

Natural Solutions

The Thyroid Hoax

 

 

I think I'm picking up a pattern here. In the chapters on ADD,

cancer, and antibiotics we found billion dollar drug industries

coupled with growing millions of sick people, and little or no

health upside. So, before researching the topic of estrogen, I admit

my initial preconceptions about hormone replacement therapy for

menopause were less than brightness and trust. The usual pattern

seems to be:

 

- research studies funded by the same companies who propose to sell

the drugs

 

- no conclusive positive results from controlled, randomized

clinical trials

 

- A Drug In Search of a Market

 

- major side effects from the new drug therapy that are chalked up

to the " disease " itself

 

Guess I'm jaded. So sue me.

 

Trying to prove my preconceptions wrong, the research failed me.

Anyone can see how the whole thing was set up. Now this chapter is

not light reading, even though I tried. But if you are a woman, you

need to read the whole thing. After that, you're on your own.

 

Drug hoax phenomena are not new. The same thing happened in the Boer

War (Hadwen), in the Philippines in 1905 (Hume, p 200), and in

Desert Storm. Mass administration of drugs that killed many more

people than they saved. The difference here is that today the

control of information has become much more sophisticated, the focus

being trust your doctor, trust your doctor - you really don't have

to understand the details. The target is the 30 million menopausal

American women, and the game is the $1 billion HRT industry, a

vertically integrated boom market.

 

Here's the basic story. Since the 1930s, American women have been

trained and bullied into thinking that a natural normal event in

their life - menopause - is a disease condition requiring treatment.

Let's stop with that for a minute. If it's a disease, how did all

the millions of women throughout history up to the present time

muddle through it? How do Third World women or non-HMO lifestyles

survive the ordeal? Keep those two questions in mind when you read

anything mainstream, either advertising or articles.

 

The " new " " medical condition " requires drug therapy, which

coincidentally has just recently been " discovered " : synthetic

estrogen - hormone replacement therapy. Does it work? Are women

better off now? Does it really prevent osteoporosis? Read on!

 

WHAT IS MENOPAUSE?

 

Menopause is a period of years in a normal woman's life in which

gradual hormonal changes bring about a shift away from the physical

powers of childbearing, in favor of a more mature condition of

mental development. The unpleasant symptoms we have come to

associate with menopause are common only in a small group of women

in history: American and Northern European women in the past 75

years. Outside that group, menopause is not so problematic and is

taken more in stride as a natural phase in a woman's life, with

little fanfare. It seems that the more simple the lifestyle, and the

more simple the diet - the more effortless the transition.

 

Throughout history, simple diet has been a function of low income.

The most nutritious foods are the least expensive: whole fruits and

vegetables, unprocessed dairy, whole grains. As lifestyle became

more complex, and incomes grew, expensive, empty, processed,

nutrient-deficient foods were popularized by marketing and

advertising - the foods of commerce. (Royal Lee) Less need to

exercise, more focus on money, greater stress - the basic formula

for the rise of the most resistant group of diseases in history :

the degenerative diseases. Heart disease, cancer, arthritis,

diabetes, osteoporosis - are epidemic in our society, the richest

nation in history. Even 100 years ago such diseases were rare.

 

(See ENZYMES )

By now most of us have heard of a Shangri-La place in the Himalayas

called Hunza Land, famous for longevity to 120 years old. Two

Americans, Dr. Allen Banik and Renee Taylor, visited this isolated

mountain civilization, one in 1958 and one in 1962. Both wrote books

describing their incredible experiences. Both detail the simple diet

as well as the lack of degenerative and infectious diseases.

Physically cut off from the world by treacherous mountain passes,

the Hunzas developed their own agriculture system of stone terraces,

fed by the mineral rich waters of the glaciers. Hunza health is

probably unequalled anywhere in the world, or in history. Symptoms

of menopause were unheard of in Hunza Land.

 

In Japan as well as in many other cultures with basic, unrefined

diets, there is no word for " hot flashes. " As we shall see, the

unpleasant symptoms of menopause are directly related to the amount

of estrogen a woman has maintained during her adult life, prior to

menopause.

 

Natural phytoestrogens (plant-estrogens) are found in plants like

licorice, soybeans, alfalfa, and many others, in very small amounts.

Phytoestrogens are weak estrogens and block the stronger forms. A

diet abundant in phytoestrogens before menopause will do much to

moderate the day-to-day estrogen level so that when menopause

arrives, there will not be such big drop.

 

THE CREATION OF A MARKET: HOW'D THE WHOLE HRT THING GET STARTED IN

THE FIRST PLACE?

 

The story really begins in 1938 with the discovery of

diethylstilbestrol (DES) by Charles Dobbs. DES was supposed to be

the first " synthetic estrogen " - an oxymoron, as we shall see. Dobbs

first thought DES would solve the problems of menopause, but the AMA

immediately began to make extravagant predictions for " preventing

miscarriages " and solving all problems of pregnancy as well.

(Robbins, p138)

 

After many years, DES was being prescribed for a " safe pregnancy "

and to " prevent miscarriages. " By 1960 it was found that between 60

and 90% of DES daughters had abnormal sex organs, leading to high

rates of infertility, miscarriages, and cervical cancer. (Sellman

p28). DES sons commonly had testicular dysfunctional and were often

sterile. As for the mothers who had taken DES, their risk of breast

cancer had been increased by 40%. (Meyers p 143) DES was the first

drug ever invented that could cause cancer in the offspring when

taken by the mother. (Reusch, p 22) But still the drug wasn't taken

off the market until 1971! ( Kamen, p99). By that time the industry

didn't need DES any more for its bottom line, because ERT was off

and running.

 

NEXT CONTESTANT

 

Public attention was then diverted away from the disasters of DES by

a 1966 best seller called Feminine Forever, by Robert Wilson, a New

York gynecologist. Wilson's thesis was that menopause is an estrogen-

deficiency disease. All the unpleasant symptoms which accompany

menopause were the simple result of too little estrogen.

Insufficient estrogen supposedly caused a woman to lose her youth,

beauty, cheerful attitude, and bone density all at once, with the

onset of menopause.

 

Not missing a beat, the drug industry immediately donated $1.3

million to set up the Wilson Foundation for the sole purpose of

developing and promoting estrogen drugs. The usual story: limited

studies with inconclusive results, skewing results to please the

company that was paying for the trials, discontinuing studies that

weren't turning out " right " The primary study that was the basis for

vaulting synthetic estrogen into the limelight, originally as a

contraceptive, was a small, flawed trial done in Puerto Rico, in

which 20% of the 132 women suffered serious side effects. Five of

them died. Negatives were swept under the carpet as irrelevant - the

main thing was that the new wonder drug supposedly cancelled

the " horrible " symptoms of menopause - hot flashes, vaginal dryness,

migraines, etc. FDA approval for synthetic estrogen was given based

on this one study! (Marshall) Throughout 1964 and 1965, fueled by

the advertising power of the biggest clients, articles appeared in

major women's magazines, like Vogue, Cosmopolitan, and Good

Housekeeping proclaiming a breakthrough that would finally set women

free from the ravages of the dread menopause. (Lee p24) Within a few

years, with no real proof that Wilson was right, with superficial

clinical trials, synthetic estrogen was being popularly prescribed,

and a new industry was off and running. They called it Estrogen

Replacement Therapy. Better living through chemistry.

 

A little snag came up in 1975. The New England Journal of Medicine

(Dec 1975 p.1199) published its findings after studying the causes

of endometrial cancer. They showed that women who took the new

estrogen drugs had just increased their risk of endometrial cancer

by a factor of five times. Unless they had been using the drugs

longer than seven years. Then it was 14 times the normal incidence.

 

Sales slowed.

 

Yankee ingenuity to the rescue: it was found, though not

conclusively, that rates of endometrial cancer could be reduced if

synthetic progesterone were added to the synthetic estrogen.

Synthetic progesterones are called progestins. So they changed the

name from Estrogen Replacement Therapy to Hormone Replacement

Therapy, and the show went on. Sales climbed back up, and then

continued to grow. And grow.

 

With similar results to the 1975 study, 20 years later the American

Cancer Society conducted a huge 13-year study of some 240,000

postmenopausal women to find the relation between HRT and cancer.

Their findings: 40% higher incidence of ovarian cancer. After 11

years of HRT, the figure went to 70%! (Rodriguez)

 

HOW COULD THIS BE?

 

As the HRT industry gained strength, the manufacturers began to make

additional claims about the benefits of HRT, claims that were again

unsupported by solid research:

 

- HRT could prevent osteoporosis

- HRT could prevent heart disease

The underlying, and unproven, assumption of this new " therapy " -

HRT - was that women's lives were being improved now that they were

spared the horrors of aging, menopause, osteoporosis, and the loss

of femininity. Unfortunately, these promises are rarely kept, and

almost never because of a program of synthetic hormones. Worse, the

side effects of HRT have proven to be a bigger problem than what

they were supposed to cure. It's sort of like the promise of Heaven

that missionaries usually gave the natives down through the ages -

unreal reward in exchange for real suffering.

 

To begin to untangle this giant web of doubletalk and wrong

information, we have to look at some basic endocrinology: Can't tell

the hormones without a program. If this gets too complicated for the

attention-challenged, just skip to the next section, but at least

give it a try.

 

HORMONES

 

are chemical compounds that are players in the most sophisticated

and exquisitely balanced internet in the entire body: the endocrine

system. This group of glands, including the adrenals, the pituitary,

the ovaries, the testes, the thyroid, and the hypothalamus are

interrelated in impossibly complex ways, about which we're just

beginning to get glimpses of understanding. It's a swirling universe

of chemical elegance and precision, involving millions of refined

little molecular firings which wink in and out of existence every

second. " Touch one strand and the whole web trembles, " is the way

endocrinologist Deepak Chopra puts it. The endocrine system controls

all other systems of the body by means of chemical messengers, who

wait for an answer.

 

WHAT IS ESTROGEN?

 

Estrogen is a hormone, one of the moving parts of that endocrine

system. It is a steroid (made from cholesterol) hormone, occurring

in both men and women.

 

Estrogen's functions are primarily the growth and development of sex

organs and other tissues related to reproduction (Guyton p1023)

 

For a basic overview of one little part of the endocrine system,

John Lee has a very clear summary, like a recipe, for one group of

hormones, those made from cholesterol, the steroid hormones:

 

 

 

[see chart]

 

- Lee, p14

Don't worry, there's no quiz. Dr. Lee just wanted to show a little

corner of the complex give-and-take between hormones, how a change

in any one hormone in this chart can affect many others. Lee and

Chopra both speak of the dance of the hormones, the delicately

interwoven choreography, about which we have only the most

rudimentary knowledge.

 

We've begun fooling around with this highly tuned endocrine system

because we've discovered a few coarse, synthetic, sledgehammer

substances that resemble real estrogen, or real thyroid hormone, or

real progesterone. But we really have only the vaguest notion what

we're doing, because of all the overlapping interrelationships. Our

ignorance has given rise to a brand new disease: endometrial cancer.

(Lee) Plus other big problems.

 

Back to estrogen. Estrogen is really a general term for three

separate hormones:

 

estriol

estradiol

estrone

From here on out in this chapter, " estrogen " as is produced by the

body refers to all three of the above hormones.

 

Estrogen is produced in three main places in a woman's body:

 

the ovaries

the adrenal glands

the fat cells

The main purpose of estrogen is to make the uterine lining, the

endometrium, ready to implant a fertilized egg in the event

fertilization occurs. To aid in this function, estrogen will promote

 

- water retention

- fat storage

- maturation of the female adolescent

All the above is OK if pregnancy is likely. But excess estrogen

throws off the timing. Excess estrogen causes the body to prepare

for embryo implantation all the time. This state of over-preparation

is the cause of

 

- sluggish blood circulation

- migraines

- increased clotting

- high stroke risk

- disrupted copper/zinc ratios in brain cells/ mood swings

- fibroids

- endometriosis

Every system in the body has a feedback loop to keep balance.

Estrogen has a sister hormone called progesterone, whose functions

are equally important.

 

WHAT IS PROGESTERONE, ANYWAY?

 

Progesterone is the other primary female hormone. It is produced in

the ovaries. It is the precursor for both estrogen and testosterone,

as well as all other natural steroid hormones (see chart above).

 

Progesterone's functions are

 

- maintains the endometrium in pregnancy

- new bone formation

- regulates blood pressure

- fat conversion

- sugar metabolism

- maintaining myelin (nerve insulation)

- regulates estrogen production

You'll remember that an egg is presented once a month from the

ovaries, wrapped in an envelope called a follicle. After the

follicle lets go of the egg, the egg journeys down the Fallopian

tubes on its way to the uterus, where it awaits possible

fertilization. The burst follicle still has an important job to do:

it begins to produce progesterone, for the next two weeks.

Progesterone's job is to maintain the uterine lining until one of

two things happens:

 

- pregnancy

- no pregnancy.

If pregnancy occurs, progesterone production is taken over by the

developing lining itself - the placenta. The burst follicle simply

can't make enough progesterone for the demand, since the uterus will

expand from the size of a lemon to the size of a basketball during

the next nine months.

 

If no pregnancy occurs, the follicle stops producing progesterone,

which triggers the collapse of the blood-rich lining, which is then

expelled as the woman's monthly flow.

 

So the interplay between these two hormones estrogen and

progesterone controls the entire infrastructure of reproduction, on

a daily basis, after the onset of menarche (first flow) in

adolescence. Estrogen creates the lining each month; progesterone

maintains it.

 

Then what's the problem?

 

ESTROGEN DOMINANCE

 

If estrogen levels get too high, progesterone can no longer keep the

dynamic balance. This is exactly what happens in American women. who

live their whole adult lives with pathologically high levels of

estrogen. Three main reasons for the high levels:

 

- overrefined diet

- no exercise

- external toxic sources of estrogen : xenoestrogens

Refined carbohydrates, hard fats, empty foods and too much of it all

serve to raise estrogen to abnormal levels, as much as twice the

normal, which are maintained for the better part of the adult lives

of most American women. (See Enzymes chapter)

 

Second, lack of exercise. Dr. Ellison of Harvard University found

that estrogen levels are much lower in women who eat little and

perform strenuous physical work, as in locales with non-

industrialized lifestyle. The opposite is true for the American

woman who eats too much and gets little exercise: abnormally high

estrogen levels are the direct result. Dr. Lee points out the

obvious corollary: menopause is a much bigger deal in our

industrialized countries, because the estrogen decline is so

radical - the difference between pre and post estrogen levels is

significant. This hormonal rollercoaster dip is very stressful, and

is the real cause of the discomforts of menopause.

 

Third, xenoestrogens. Huh? Xeno- means foreign. So the word

xenoestrogen just means estrogens from outside the body. Many

external toxins have been found to have estrogenlike effects in the

body. Most are petroleum derivatives. Xenoestrogens are found in

plastics, computer chips, PVC, pesticides, soap, clothes, DDT and

other modern manufactured goods.

 

There has been extensive zoological research in the area of

xenoestrogen effects on animals and the resulting birth defects. In

studies of panthers, alligators, birds, turtles, seals, fish, and

many other species from diverse parts of the globe, scientists are

finding a common theme: feminization of males, decreased sperm

counts, low male testosterone, and extremely high levels of estrogen

in females, with plummeting numbers of offspring. Though some

scientists had known about the problem for several years, public

attention was drawn by a series of articles that appeared in three

consecutive issues of the LA Times in Oct 1994.

 

Alligator offspring studied at University of Florida had very high

estrogen and low testosterone as a consequence of a large pesticide

spill in Lake Apopka near Gainesville. Again, gonad shrinkage was

observed in males, leading to a drop in alligator reproduction in

the lake estimated at 90% since the spill occurred.

 

Wild panthers in the Florida Everglades have had their sperm counts

reduced by 90%, due to high estrogen levels from years of state

dumping of DDT and other toxic pesticides into the swamp waters.

 

Between 1950 and 1970, some four million pounds of the pesticide

DDT, illegal today, was dumped into the ocean in Los Angeles.

Examples of eggshell thinning, gonad shrinkage and feminization in

males, overdeveloped ovaries in females, and failure to thrive are

some of the defects found in seagull studies at UC Davis by Michael

Fry. In 1981, Fry published his research in the journal Science.

Shrugged off for years by the scientific community, Fry's work is

now being corroborated all over the world in dozens of other

species.

 

Males are also affected. Think of the surfing implications for the

L.A. spill --- " two girls for every boy " ??? Not any more. Declining

sperm counts in American males in the past 30 years is well

documented. An article in Lancet, May 1993 estimates a drop in sperm

count of 50% in the past 30-50 years, and links the decline to

environmental estrogen mimickers

 

..

Xenoestrogens, as well as a modern high-fat diet, are lowering the

onset of menarche for young girls. In 1900, American girls matured

at 14. Today the average age is 12, and for some groups is as early

as 8 years old! (Beaton)

 

The effects of DDT and PCBs are often hidden, and often don't occur

until many years later in the offspring of these exposed animals.

Birds are born with twisted bills or deformed reproductive organs.

Other animals have physical characteristics of both male and female,

but can't function normally as either one. The reason DDT and PCBs

were outlawed was that they don't break down; they persist unchanged

in the environment for years and years, still capable of the same

trauma to living cells. These chemical simply don't degrade.

 

The effect of hormone-mimicking pollutants, the xenoestrogens, is

being kept under wraps, because of its obvious implications for

liability by the chemical manufacturers. Chemical contamination is

not limited to a few isolated areas. It is a global problem, beyond

the scope of this chapter. The reader is directed to Theo Colburn's

startling book Our Stolen Future for a better look.

 

The point is, we are in the same ecosystem, the same food chain, the

same biosphere as these animals. Human DNA is 98% identical to that

of an ape. Our cells and tissues are susceptible to these same

distortions. It is no coincidence that the women of the

industrialized nations of northern Europe and the United States have

two things in common:

 

- the highest rates in history of breast cancer, endometrial cancer,

and HRT consumption

- high exposure to plastics, chemicals, computer chips, pesticides

and other xenoestrogens

John Lee talks about the " sea of estrogen " in which we exist as the

result of many factors:

 

-fat soluble hormones in meat

-PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls)

-DDT

-foaming agents in soap and detergents

-cosmetics

-condom spermicides

-tons of pesticides, herbicides

-plastic cookware

-birth control pills

-HRT

 

The pathway of causation is clear: xenoestrogens maintain estrogen

levels at double the normal values for the entire adult life of the

human female. As the complementary hormone that's supposed to

balance the delicate system of sex hormones, progesterone is simply

overwhelmed by the dominant estrogens. Natural hormones are subtle

and fragile and transient. Xenoestrogens by contrast are harsh and

strong and long-lasting. Progesterone just doesn't stand a chance.

HRT is just another xenoestrogen, making things worse.

 

Let's take a look at some of the

 

CONSEQUENCES OF ESTROGEN DOMINANCE

 

As estrogen levels build up to twice the normal level, many systems

of the body are adversely affected. Body fat stores increase. Fluids

are retained, causing bloating and edema. There are defects in both

fat and sugar metabolism, often severe enough to cause diabetes.

Risks of endometrial cancer are increased to 5-14 times, as cited in

the 1975 NEJM articles above. Promotion of osteoporosis. Slow onset

of blood poisoning (toxemia) due to inability of chemical

xenoestrogens to be broken down. This in turn obviously contributes

to autoimmune disorders like lupus, chronic fatigue, and arthritis,

in which the body begins to attack its own cells as they become so

toxic that they are unrecognizable as " self. " Alteration of zinc and

copper uptake in brain cells causes mood swings, a nice euphemism.

Incidence of stroke increases 50% with estrogen, according to an

extensive project, known as the Boston Nurses Questionnaire Study,

of 121,000 nurses. (Stampfer)

 

Normal estrogen stimulates breast and endometrial tissue. Excess

estrogen causes excess stimulation of breast and endometrial

collagen, resulting in fibroids in both locations. (McDougall, p 87)

 

Another health detriment of estrogen is its destruction of B

vitamins. Nutritionist Jean Sumption documents the opposition of

estrogen with Vitamins B1, B2, B3, B5, B6 and other B-complex

vitamins: Biotin, Choline, Folic Acid, PABA, and Inositol. Most

functions of cell metabolism depend on B vitamins. Symptoms of

depletion include fatigue, sluggish memory, hair loss, and aging.

 

This is only a partial list. It should be obvious that effects like

these are systemic (everywhere the blood goes) and as such can

affect practically any weakened tissue in the body. To say that

drugs and chemicals cause a downward spiral of health is not just a

metaphor. A growing number of medical researchers (see References)

who do not represent the interests of the drug cartels are stepping

forward to show that the symptoms of menopause are not caused by too

little estrogen, but by too much. To turn popular opinion around

180° from nature and trick American women into thinking that at

menopause symptoms and postmenopausal dangers are caused by

insufficient estrogen - once again, we are looking at mastery in the

control of information. The motivation is simple: $1 billion per

year.

 

Synthetic hormones are not harmless. The side effects of HRT are

often the same or worse than the original menopause symptoms they

set out to cure.

 

<

SIDE EFFECTS OF HRT

 

-increased risk of breast cancer

-increased risk of endometrial cancer

-osteoporosis

-blood clots

-high blood pressure

-vastly increased rate of heart attack

-skin reactions

-hair loss or gain

-fluid retention, bloating

-vaginal bleeding

-rash, acne

-breast tenderness

-hair loss

-weight gain

OTHER SIDE EFFECTS OF HRT

 

Depression (Obstet and Gyn, 1992 80:30)

Breast cancer (NEJM 19 Jun 97; 336:1821)

Stroke ( NEJM 1991 vol 325p756)

Lupus (Lee p258)

But wait a minute! I thought everything was supposed to be fine once

they added synthetic progesterone to the synthetic estrogen. That's

what everybody was supposed to think. But the real stats don't show

it.

 

 

 

 

John Lee, MD, a California endocrine researcher, explains why.

Simple: HRT's synthetic progesterone is completely altered after

going through the digestive system, when it gets to the liver. The

liver changes it into three other metabolites. Any benefits are thus

cancelled. So the big change in the 70s from ERT to HRT was largely

a change in public perception, due to drug advertising, and its

second cousin, peer-reviewed medical journal articles.

 

Dr. Lee's view, and that of other proponents of natural progesterone

products is that the problems at menopause are not caused by lack of

estrogen, but by lack of progesterone. Remember that estrogen

production drops 40% at menopause. Well, progesterone drops to 0%.

And look at all the things it's responsible for. The synthetic

progesterone in HRT isn't doing any good, since it's being changed

into something else in the liver. It's not real progesterone.

Therefore the estrogen is still unopposed.

 

THE ANOVULATORY CYCLE

 

Many American women in their 20s and 30s have monthly cycles in

which they don't ovulate. That is, an egg is not released from the

ovary. Such a widespread phenomenon is a new twist in human

evolution. There are obvious reasons, as well as serious effects

which accompany this unnatural process - the inability to reproduce -

now taking place in so many adult females.

 

The reasons for anovulation are simple: severe biochemical imbalance

and stress. The xenoestrogens.

 

We are in the same biosphere, the same food chain as all the animals

mentioned above who have experienced reproductive chaos from

chemical pollutants. Why should our species be exempt? It isn't. We

drink the water of the same planet, eat fish and plants and meat

laced with the same immortal PCBs and DDTs - it's a closed system.

 

Stress obviously promotes biochemical imbalance by overtaxing the

adrenals, which then steal progesterone to make more adrenal

hormones, which further promotes estrogen dominance. Coffee is a big

culprit, as well as soft drinks. A Johns Hopkins study found that

 

women who take in more than 300 mg of caffeine per day (three cups

of coffee, or eight sodas) reduce their chance of conception by 26%.

(Hernandez-Avila)

 

Effects of a female going through adulthood without being physically

able to reproduce? Look around you. See any sexual ambivalence in

any areas? I'll spare you my theories on contemporary social

phenomena. But the physical effects of anovulation are a very clear

result of the disruption of the fragile endocrine balance that has

taken aeons to evolve. One obvious ill effect of menstruating

without ovulating as well as too much estrogen is the

overstimulation of the endometrial lining. After a time, the

excessive monthly lining promotes irregular lumps of connective

tissue known as fibroids to form.

 

Too easily and too readily, the buzzword " pre-cancerous " comes up,

with the snap prescription for a completely unnecessary

hysterectomy. Between 600 thousand and one million hysterectomies

are performed on American women each year, 90% of them unnecessary,

according to Stanley West, MD. That story is beyond the scope of

this chapter except to raise the red flag that estrogen dominance

sets the stage for most of the " irregularities " which end up with a

prescription for hysterectomy. The reader is referred to Dr. West's

book The Hysterectomy Hoax for a dark journey. Also the first half

of John Robbins' Reclaiming Our Health.

 

WHAT'S WRONG WITH WHAT MOST WOMEN ARE TOLD ABOUT MENOPAUSE?

 

The standard line is that menopausal women need estrogen therapy to

prevent osteoporosis and other menopause symptoms because the body

has stopped making its own estrogen. HRT (synthetic estrogen +

synthetic progesterone) will take up the slack. HRT is routinely

recommended in practically any situation, physical or mental that

can be even remotely tied to menopause.

 

What the drug industry has conveniently ignored is that at

menopause, estrogen output drops only about 40%. (Sellman, p16)

Ovary production of estrogen drops way down below the level

necessary for reproductive function. But adrenal and fat cell

outputs of estrogen keep on going in order to maintain the other

important endocrine functions of estrogen, which are not directly

related to reproduction:

 

-bone building

-electrolyte balance

-insulin balance

-fat and protein metabolism

-cholesterol synthesis

-Guyton, p1024

That 40% figure is only for American and Northern European women,

who have the highest estrogen levels in the world. In

nonindustrialized countries, the drop is much less, primarily

because their normal level of estrogen is so much lower. What is

commonly ignored is that progesterone levels drop to 0% at

menopause, and progesterone is necessary to keep a balance with

estrogen.

 

So do the math: if an American woman has had estrogen levels that

are double the normal for most of her adult life, and at menopause,

estrogen only drops 40%, that means she is still operating at 120%

of " normal, " compared with an agrarian-type, nonindustrialized

woman. But with this estimated 120% of normal estrogen, after

menopause, there is NO progesterone to offset it. Estrogen dominance

is a new phenomenon in nature, created by modern society, and modern

medical politics.

 

WHY IS THE SOLUTION NOT FAKE ESTROGEN?

 

Synthetic estrogen dosage is way too much, and too weird, for the

body to deal with. Synthetic hormones have molecular forms that do

not occur in nature. They are manmade. The dancing of the hormones

in the above chart is seriously disrupted by adding hormone-like

chemicals than can mimic some of the functions of real hormones, but

cannot maintain their role in the ever changing back and forth

swirling biochemical dance that is taking place at every second in

the normal body. These fake hormones are insensitive to the body's

requirements for instantaneous alteration into another member of the

hormone chart.

 

Aspirin is made from the bark of the white willow. People have been

using white willow bark for centuries as a mild pain reliever. But

white willow bark cannot destroy the stomach lining on contact the

way aspirin does. In the same way that aspirin is not white willow

bark, synthetic estrogen is not estrogen. And synthetic progesterone

is not progesterone.

 

The main problem with synthetic hormones is that they last too long.

All the natural hormonal feedback loops, which we do not even

completely understand, are disrupted because the synthetics can't

act as precursors to the changing hormonal forms in the same way

that the natural hormones know. The hormone system becomes

fragmented with millions of one-way orders that are supposed to have

return messages. As long as synthetics keep coming in, there's no

way to de-frag the system. The result is loss of proper interplay

between the reproductive, adrenal, and thyroid systems. They all

suffer.

 

American women arguably are among the most stressed people in

history, emotionally and nutritionally, as well as environmentally.

It is well known that stress depletes the adrenal glands. When this

happens, progesterone is converted to adrenal hormones, like

cortisol, to take up the slack and try to keep up with adrenal

demands. Remember, progesterone is their precursor, in the above

chart. The result is further depletion of progesterone, again

promoting estrogen dominance.

 

The above list of side effects of HRT is caused by one simple thing:

 

UNOPPOSED ESTROGEN

 

Too pure and too much. And no progesterone.

 

So this is why cancer risks with HRT remain much higher than without

HRT. The connection between HRT and cancer is really quite logical

when you consider the normal functions of estrogen: controlling

areas of rapidly dividing cells in preparation for reproduction.

Unopposed estrogen, as we've known since the 1970s, upsets the

normal endocrine balance. And where does the imbalance appear?

Rapidly dividing cells of the reproductive tissues: endometrium,

ovaries, breast. Perhaps nature did not intend for these tissues to

be going wild at this time of life, when the reproductive system is

supposed to be going out of business. Wouldn't a tissue defect like

cancer be a natural result of artificially jumpstarting tissues

which want to start winding down a little? Especially when the

hormones are of the imitation, manmade, designer variety?

 

Dr. Lee underscores one amazing fact: the only known cause of

endometrial cancer is unopposed estrogen!

 

Unopposed estrogen is actually heightened by giving standard HRT

because of the increased ratio of estrogen to progesterone. Research

has never proven that estrogen deficiency causes cancer, but many

studies have shown that progesterone deficiency does. A Johns

Hopkins study of 1000 women showed that progesterone deficient women

had a tenfold increased chance of dying from cancer compared with

women who have normal levels of progesterone. (Cowan)

 

Jerilynn Prior, MD a world authority in endocrinology says that

describing menopause as an " estrogen deficiency disease " is the same

as describing headache as an " aspirin deficiency disease. " She calls

this type of thinking 'backwards science.' Illnesses cannot be

categorized by which drugs they are missing. That would assume that

drugs cure illnesses, which almost never happens. Especially not in

the case of HRT. Menopause is not an illness.

 

SO WHY DON'T GYNECOLOGISTS PRESCRIBE PROGESTERONE?

 

Some do. The problem here is that natural sources of progesterone

are easy to find and inexpensive to make from many plants sources.

As such they cannot be patented. This is a central point to keep in

mind, perhaps the most important idea of this chapter. There are

inexpensive plant-based phytoestrogens and natural progesterones

which can control most estrogen imbalances, especially when

incorporated into a detoxifying low-stress diet. Synthetics (drugs)

are rarely necessary. But only drugs can be patented. There is no

way to make massive profits from a natural plant source, and you

have just heard the primary reason for the organized attack on

holistic supplements that is under way in the US today. Natural risk-

free products are a threat to the drug trade. Drug concerns develop

chemical compounds that are almost like the natural hormone. But

almost only counts in grenade-tossing. Maybe the synthetic compound

is only different by an atom or two. Perhaps it can mimic some of

the activity of the real hormone. After that, it is only necessary

to create a market by control of information, by controlling the

outcome and publishing of clinical studies, and by controlling

regulating agencies, using political and legal tactics. But that one-

atom difference in the shape of the molecule is all the difference

in the world, in terms of breakdown, toxicity, and side effects.

Understanding this paragraph will go far in explaining many of the

contradictions of HRT, the unanswered questions, the indirect

answers, the arrogance one encounters.

 

WHERE DO THESE DESIGNER HORMONE REPLACEMENT DRUGS COME FROM ANYWAY?

 

The most popular synthetic estrogen is a drug called Premarin, made

from the urine of pregnant horses! This is no joke. Manufactured by

the Philadelphia pharmaceutical giant Wyeth-Ayerth since 1942, an

estimated $940 million per year (Sellman p5) worldwide is generated

by the sale of this one drug. Most estimates are that at least 75%

of HRT drugs contain Premarin. Since 1993, Premarin has been among

the top three drugs in the U.S. in gross sales. (National Center for

Health Statistics)

 

In 1992, Wyeth-Ayerth spent $9 million just for advertising

Premarin! Their ad execs came up with the brilliant

phrase " untreated menopause. " That same year Premarin was the #1

drug prescribed in the U.S. (Robbins, p 140).

 

This is marketing mastery.

 

Before we consider the effectiveness of this drug, let's briefly

look at the circumstances involved in its preparation.

 

Some 700 " horse farms " are set up in remote areas of the United

States and Canada. Most of them have extensive security, and with

good reason. At any one time, some 80,000 or so horses suffer the

slow torture of life as a lab rat. Each mare is strapped into a tiny

stall in which there is no room to lie down or even turn around. For

seven months of the 11 month pregnancy, the horse is immobilized in

the stall, hooked up to a catheter which collects all her urine. She

is deprived of sufficient water in order to make the urine more

concentrated, thus raising its value to the drug company. Infections

frequently occur at the site of the catheter and from the

restraining apparatus. Liver and kidney disease are common.

 

The foals themselves are referred to as " by-products " by the

manufacturing company and are generally sold to the slaughterhouse.

The mare is immediately impregnated after she has given birth and

soon is imprisoned back in the tiny stall for another run. After

about 12 years of this horrible life, the mares are themselves

slaughtered and sold for dogmeat.

 

This has been going on for 56 years! Over one million horses have

been cruelly abused in this way.

 

In Canada, the foaling generally takes place on open prairie. Mother

and foal are immediately separated, and most of the foals die. The

ones that survive are extremely stressed, and with good reason: they

are sold to slaughterhouses and shipped to Europe and Japan where

certain cuts are regarded as delicacies.

 

I think you get the point. For more details follow up at

www.allrealgood.com Information like this tends to suggest that

agencies like the ASPCA are basically PR fronts focusing on self-

promotion and making sure dogs in Jack Nicholson movies get enough

overtime.

 

Even if Premarin were the true answer to all of menopause's

annoyances, reviewing the above data should be enough for any sane

person to feel some twinge of guilt about contributing to a program

of such horrendous cruelty. Menopause can't be that bad, can it? But

the reality is that Premarin and other HRT synthetics do not work,

do not do what they're supposed to do, and have major side effects.

If you have any notion whatsoever of universal harmony or

equilibrium, it seems logical that we're not gonna get away with

this. And we don't. The first payback is one of the biggies: cancer.

 

(I have this great role-reversal premise for a novel, which

describes an Afterlife in which the animals owned by humans in this

life later are reincarnated into the position of Master themselves,

with their former owners as pets. Pretty cool, huh?)

 

Henry Lemon MD of the University of Nebraska College of Medicine

feels that an unnatural imbalance is caused by putting horse

estrogens into a woman's body. The body does not allow two of the

three naturally occurring estrogens, estradiol and estrone, to hang

around very long. It converts them into the non-carcinogenic

estriol, as soon as possible. Such a helpful conversion cannot

happen with Premarin because of the amounts involved. So the

propensity for cancer is clearly seen: the carcinogenic forms are

allowed to persist.

 

Premarin was approved by the FDA over 50 years ago, when

requirements were must less stringent. There are many unknown

ingredients in Premarin which may be normal in a horse, but not a

human. It is likely that these are instrumental in the abnormally

high rates of uterine and breast cancer following HRT, which rates

are anywhere from a 30% to a 600% increase above normal, depending

on the study. (Lee)

 

Are women informed? Hardly. Information like the above is very bad

for business.

 

Many phytoestrogens from plants are now available, as well as

generic synthetic Premarin substitutes. With clever legal

maneuvering however, Wyeth-Ayerth has successfully blocked the

generic substitutes from FDA approval by a twist worthy of Johnny

Cochran. They have claimed that the generics do not contain one of

the unknown elements that Premarin contains, which is true. However

it is more likely that the unknown element - 8,9 dehydroestrone

sulfate - is toxic, not beneficial! Even the FDA regards 8,9

dehydroestrone sulfate as an " impurity " and yet the FDA will not

approve the generics because they don't have it! As all throughout

history, today more than ever, politics controls " science. "

 

OSTEOPOROSIS

 

As if cancer risk is not bad enough, let's look at another of

women's greatest fears: osteoporosis after menopause. Here is a

simple topic about which most women have been completely duped.

Standard " common sense " inculcated by media, advertising, and their

Ob/Gyn-drug reps warns women that they must take estrogen and

calcium or else they will experience bone loss. This false notion is

one of the truly great masterpieces of modern disinformation.

 

First of all, there are no valid, randomized clinical studies which

demonstrate increased bone mineralization following HRT.

 

Bone is not what you see left on your plate after you're done with

your medium rare T-bone steak. In the body, bone is living tissue,

with rich networks of blood vessels and nerves. Bone is constantly

being torn down and replaced by specialized blood cells. Every seven

years, your entire skeleton is completely replaced.

 

Bone has a matrix, or framework, on which calcium is laid down. In

America, everyone gets enough calcium. True calcium deficiency

results in a disease called kwashiorkor, which is found only in

Third World starvation countries, not in America. Osteoporosis is

not a disease of calcium deficiency. It's a disease of matrix

deficiency: the framework got flimsier. There isn't as much matrix

to attach the calcium to. There's plenty of available calcium.

Calcium is an inert mineral contained in most foods. The body

maintains the blood levels of calcium at a certain level. Anything

extra, like in calcium supplements, is spilled out of the body by

the kidneys, because it's over the normal blood levels. If there's

only so much framework, it really doesn't matter how much calcium is

in the blood; the excess is spilled out.

 

Keep in mind that most calcium supplements don't even make it into

the bloodstream, especially if they're tablets. They never even

dissolved in the digestive tract; they pass right out of the body.

This you can prove to yourself by placing a calcium tablet in a

glass of water and leaving it there all night. Most of them don't

dissolve.

 

Even the calcium supplements that do make it into the bloodstream

are mostly spilled out, for the above reasons.

 

In short, calcium supplementation will not increase bone density in

premenopausal women, nor prevent it post-menopause. (Ettinger,

McDougall) Doesn't matter what your latest MLM rep tries to tell

you.

 

American women don't get osteoporosis because they lack calcium, or

estrogen. Anybody who does a little research knows this. The

countries with the highest rates of osteoporosis on earth are

Scandinavia, England, Australia, and the U.S. These are also the

places with the highest consumption of dairy products.(McDougall,

p176) It is pasteurized milk, cheese, and butter which leach calcium

from the body, since these enzymeless, artificial, modern foods

cannot be easily metabolized. The processes of removal from the

blood takes a lot of calcium stores from the teeth and bones.

(Recker).

 

The definition of pasteurization is removal of all enzymes via heat.

One of the enzymes in milk thus denatured is phosphatase. Its

purpose? Calcium absorption. Without phosphatase, calcium absorption

doesn't happen.

 

But wait! What about milk as a source of calcium, building strong

bones and good teeth and all that? and you never outgrow your need

for it, and all those movie stars with the moustaches? Marketing.

Advertising. Promotion. (See

 

Who do you think pays for the dietary educational tools used in

American schools since the 1950s - you know, the four food groups,

and all that? The American Dairy Council and the dairy industry. The

whole story is better told in Twogood's book No Milk, available

anywhere.

 

Processed foods are indigestible. The stomach keeps pouring out the

gastric juices, in the form of HCl (hydrochloric acid) but it's not

enough to break down these weird manmade chemically preserved foods.

The food just sits there in the stomach and rots. The abundant HCl

may get splashed backward into the esophagus, causing reflux

(heartburn). What is the medical solution? Prilosec, which does

what? Right. Inhibits production of HCl. Does this aid digestion?

No. The undigested food still sits there and rots. Worse news: guess

what is required for calcium absorption in the stomach. HCl.

Prilosec in this way directly contributes to osteoporosis.

 

Another reason Americans lose calcium from bones and teeth is acid-

forming foods: soft drinks, too much meat, white sugar. All these

tend to acidify the blood. If the blood gets too acidic, death will

result. For self-preservation, the body must neutralize all this

acid, maintain blood pH between 7.3 and 7.45. The process is called

buffering, and it requires calcium. When there isn't enough

available, the body steals calcium from the bones and teeth. This is

why Robert Heaney MD says that eating a high protein diet is like

pouring acid rain on your bones. Perhaps a bit overstated, but the

point is that a high protein diet is the primary cause of

osteoporosis. Not insufficient calcium. (McDougall, p171)

 

It's true that Americans have a high rate of osteoporosis, not just

women. But this has nothing to do with estrogen.

 

Do horses gets osteoporosis? Never. What do they eat? Grass. How

about cows? Are they taking Cal-Mag? Do they take Premarin? Calcium

is in all foods.

 

Do menopausal horses get osteoporosis? Negative. Do menopausal third

world women get osteoporosis? Negative.

 

So if HRT is not going to reverse osteoporosis, what will? Reducing

pasteurized dairy intake, and other artificial foods, like white

sugar and soft drinks.

 

Not only is there no proof to support the fantasy so many doctors

offer their patients - HRT will save you from osteoporosis - there

is abundant research that shows that synthetic hormones actually

have no effect whatsoever on preventing bone loss. One of the most

noted of these is the 14 Oct 1993 study in the NEJM, which

conclusively shows that the risk of hip fractures for women over 75

is the same whether or not the woman took synthetic estrogen. Hip

fractures are the greatest fear of aging people, as well as a prime

indicator of osteoporosis. The article goes on to note that most

women believe their physicians when they say that HRT will prevent

osteoporosis, yet here is proof that it doesn't. The authors state

that estrogen therapy is simply unable to prevent loss of bone

density.

 

Taking synthetic estrogen cannot rebuild bones. It can temporarily

slow the rate of bone loss, but when the HRT is stopped,

osteoporosis soon catches up like the woman never took HRT at all.

Is that temporary benefit worth a 9-14 times greater risk of cancer?

Dr. Lee thinks not. (Lee, p152)

 

In addition, many common drugs cause osteoporosis. Millions have

been duped into the thyroid scam - told they were overweight because

they were 'hypothyroid.' Synthroid to the rescue. What the doctor

never tells you is that Synthroid stimulates osteoclasts to resorb

bone. (Physicians Desk Reference) Remember how bone is built by

living tissue? Well, that happens with the simultaneous action of

two complementary types of blood cells: osteoclasts for tearing down

old bone, and osteoblasts for building new bone. Obviously an

imbalance in either one of these will cause a problem.

 

TURNING BONE TO MARBLE

 

Other non-estrogen drugs which are prescribed to supposedly reduce

the chance of osteoporosis, have serious side effects. In his video,

Dr. James Lee outlines the dangers of a very popular drug named

Fosamax. It's actually quite simple. Again, living healthy bone must

go through a constant process of old cells being replaced by new

cells, so that every few years we have an entire new skeleton.

Osteoclasts are cells that tear down bone; osteoblasts build new

cells in those spaces. Got that? OK. The intellects behind Fosamax

have decided that if they can stop the osteoclasts from doing their

normal job of tearing down bone, this will prevent osteoporosis.

How? By the buildup of Fosamax crystals in the bone, which just stay

there long after a normal lifespan, which artificially stops the

removal system - the osteoclasts. Now there are no spaces in which

new bone cells can form. The Fosamax crystals cannot be broken down

by the body, and remain in the bone for 15 or 20 years, taking up

space, and offering an artificial, plastic-like composition in what

should be normal healthy bone. Dr. Lee tells us that modern Fosamax

is 1000 times more potent than the original drug.

 

Even the manufacturers caution against indiscriminate long term use

of this drug: on p 1657-8 of the 1998 Physicians Desk Reference we

find that:

 

" bone formation is ultimately reduced Fosamax decreases the rate of

bone resorption [tearing down] directly, which leads to an indirect

decrease in bone formation. "

Decreased bone formation? Does that sound like something that's

going to maintain normal bone and prevent osteoporosis in your

golden years? Dr. Lee and many others don't think so.

 

The PDR also tells us that they have no idea what effects Fosamax

may have after four years! (p1661)

 

Here we have a prime example of the philosophical difference between

allopathic and holistic medicine: they forgot that Mother Nature

Always Bats Last. You can't arbitrarily interfere with one half of a

complete life process like bone synthesis and expect no adverse

consequences. With Fosamax, we have arrogantly overpowered the

body's normal system of bone building which has developed and

maintained the skeleton just fine for the person's whole life, by

pretending that one phase of that system exists in isolation from

the whole rest of the endocrine Internet, and can be omitted with no

consequences.

 

Doctors trick women by telling them that Fosamax will increase " bone

mineral density " but what they don't tell them is that the new

mineral is not calcium and is no longer part of the living dynamic

process which has maintained their bones their entire lives.

 

This is not yet even mentioning the side effects of Fosamax:

 

- kidney disease

- ulcers

- heartburn

- joint pain

- headache

- rash

 

Fosamax is a risky, artificial approach to osteoporosis which

pretends like the problem can be divided up into separate, distinct

unrelated phases, like with a car. Same old idea, over and over:

another drug in search of a market.

 

Same old story. Osteoporosis is big business. Big business to keep

it happening, and big business to treat it. The dairy industry, the

meat industry, the soft drink industry all keep it happening. The

HRT industry, the nursing home industry, and the hospitals gain from

the treatment of osteoporosis. John McDougall explains:

 

" The diagnosis and treatment of osteoporosis is so profitable

because millions of people unwittingly weaken their bones, making

them dependent for the rest of their life on diagnostic tests and

drug therapy that slows the disorder but never cures it. "

- The McDougall Plan - p172

Another area of major disinformation with respect to HRT is

 

HEART DISEASE

 

Unsupported claims are made actually claiming that HRT will help

prevent heart disease. There seems to be no limit to what they'll

say. It's pretty hard to reconcile such a recommendation with the

fact that cardiovascular disease is stated as a clear

contraindication for most estrogen drugs. Contraindication means a

situation where the drug can't be prescribed. (Br J of Obs and Gyn

Feb 1997;104:163 also, PDR. 1998)

 

We all know that one in two deaths in the US is from heart disease.

What is less commonly known is that heart attack in the

premenopausal woman is virtually unheard of. Yet 10 years after

menopause, and especially if the woman is on HRT, the rates soon

come up equal to men's rates. Just a little research uncovers the

likely reasons behind such a phenomenon. In his videotape What Your

Doctor May Not Tell You About Menopause, John Lee MD notes that HRT

is the number one cause of increased rates of heart attacks in

postmenopausal women. Why? In a word, vasospasm. The word means

tightening of a blood vessel.

 

The coronary arteries are the ones that supply the heart with blood.

They are also the ones that get blocked in heart attacks, and

therefore they are the site of bypass operations. They are what is

bypassed. The most popular site is the Anterior Descending Coronary

Artery.

 

In males who are screened for bypass, the Anterior Descending may be

80 to 95% blocked, and surgery will be recommended. If death comes

first, on autopsy these high rates of blockage are observed.

 

In postmenopausal women, however, autopsies frequently showed only a

30-50% blockage of the artery, yet death was due to heart attack.

Researchers couldn't understand what was happening for the longest

time. So they began to do angiogram studies with Rhesus monkeys -

animal abuse in the classic Pasteurian tradition. Angiogram, you

remember, is where they X-ray the arteries after injecting dye into

them. Now monkeys don't go through menopause, so they had to create

it for the study. The way they did it was to first remove the

ovaries. To induce heart attack they injected Provera, which is a

synthetic hormone used for human birth control. The results

were " unrelenting " vasospasm of the coronary artery which means that

the artery which had as little as a 30% blockage constricted down to

complete closure and would not open up again no matter what they

tried. Obviously this killed Ms. Monkey in the ensuing heart attack.

So the researchers realized that HRT was the missing factor that was

responsible for heart attacks in postmenopausal women whose coronary

arteries were less than 50% blocked. Did you read that study

anywhere in Newsweek or in the Chronicle?. Information like this

that challenges a billion dollar HRT industry is systematically

buried.

 

If natural progesterone is added to the Provera, the artery does not

go into spasm. This data was according to a study done in England at

the London Institute of Heart and Lung Research by Peter Collins MD.

Again the point here is that natural progesterone is unpatentable.

It is not a drug. They can't make a ton of money from it, so it's

not promoted. Natural progesterone is not routinely recommended, and

most ob/gyn's don't even bother to learn about it because they can't

make money from it.

 

SAFE ESTROGENS - NO THANKS

 

It's the same with estrogen. There are safe, natural sources of

estrogen which could be recommended in place of drugs. Many plants

have safe, mild estrogen substances called phytoestrogens which are

available to the body in minute, physiologic doses, and which can be

used to safely supplement a declining estrogen output. Hormones are

only needed and used by the body in tiny, very transient amounts.

Transient means they only have to be around for a second or two. A

physiologic dose would mean a natural hormone like a phytoestrogen

or a wild yam-derived progesterone in the same amount as what might

be produced by the body for its own needs. Natural hormones can be

swiftly broken down after they have performed their function. They

don't just continue hour after hour like the synthetics or the

xenoestrogens, which are given in sledgehammer amounts called

pharmacologic doses. Big difference.

 

When the reality of this situation begins to sink in, it may sound a

little harsh at first. Can it really be that if it comes to a choice

between money and their patients' well-being, doctors will choose

money most of the time? We can't be too hard on them - they've

incurred a lot of debt in medical school. John Lee and Lorraine Day,

both medical doctors, well-respected in their fields, excuse their

colleagues' ignorance and indifference about the value of natural

progesterone by saying that the doctors are too busy with paperwork,

hospital duties, and their own lives to have the time to read

anything outside the medical library.

 

Mendelsohn is a little less forgiving.

 

Since the medical journals in the medical library are very tightly

controlled by the pharmaceutical companies, no natural non-drug

therapies are allowed to appear, especially one like progesterone

which actually does what synthetic estrogen is supposed to do ,

except with no side effects. So they tell us not to be too hard on

doctors, because the doctors just don't know. So we shouldn't we be

forewarned that doctors are primarily reps for the drug companies,

because that's all they have managed to learn?

 

It's frightening that to make an informed decision about embarking

on any course of patentable drug therapy, these are the

considerations that must be undertaken. The more you learn about it,

the more naïve you realize you have been to have thought that things

have ever been any other way.

 

CANCER

 

Since the beginning of estrogen drugs in the 1960s, the spectre of

cancer has always been there, lurking about in the shadows. That's

why progestins (synthetic progesterone) were added in the mid 1970s,

changing ERT to HRT. Original studies were shaky, and the majority

of modern studies show conclusively that HRT significantly increases

the risk of both endometrial and breast cancer. Dr. Lee states

flatly that HRT is the only known cause of endometrial cancer! (Lee,

p220)

 

Abstracting ourselves for a moment away from citing 10 medical

studies which prove this point, just use your common sense. Let's go

back to the beginning of the chapter. What does natural estrogen do?

Prepares for reproduction. What tissues does it affect? Those

tissues that what? Right. Are rapidly dividing: endometrium, cervix,

breast, ovaries. Now, what is cancer? Very simply, cancer begins

when a cell has lost its ability to specialize, but not its ability

to multiply, or proliferate. Or divide rapidly. A tumor is a group

of cells multiplying rapidly out of control, but unable to perform

any life function. So therefore, which tissues do you think have the

greatest tendency to become cancerous? Right - those which normally

will tend to divide rapidly, like endometrial and breast tissue. So

estrogen and cancer have a lot in common from the get-go. Is it

really that much of a surprise that dozens of controlled medical

studies and research reviews have proven practically beyond dissent

that HRT, which is estrogen gone wild, can cause cancer? So would it

be too impertinent of me to pose the obvious: why is HRT still out

there? Let's see, it doesn't do what it's supposed to do - control

menopause symptoms, it has no effect on osteoporosis and it's been

proven beyond a shadow of a doubt to be a frequent spark for cancer.

 

The above-cited Boston Nurses Questionnaire Study involving over

121,000 participants found that taking estrogen therapy alone for at

least ten years raised breast cancer risk by 40%. If they took

progestins as well (synthetic progesterone) that figure went to

100%! (Australian Doctor, 29 Aug 97, p3)

 

A meta-analysis is when researchers compare several studies and come

up with a conclusion. In 1991 a meta-analysis of 16 separate studies

was written up in Journal of the American Medical Association..

Their findings:

 

" After 15 years of estrogen use, we found a 30% increase in the risk

of breast cancer.. "

- Steinberg p1985 JAMA 1991

Different studies, different numbers. How about this one, in Sweden,

from the New England Journal of Medicine, with over 23,000 women in

the sample group:

" Overall we noted a 10% increase in the relative risk of breast

cancer for 23,334 women for whom estrogens were prescribed for

menopause. this risk to increase with increased duration of

treatment to an excess risk of 70% in women with more than nine

years of use. "

- Bergkvist, p293 NEJM 3 Aug 89

Fairly credible sample size.

 

There are many other studies, but you can see where this is going.

These are the top medical journals in the U.S. Doctors know that HRT

causes breast cancer. Why is this happening? Just keep thinking

about that $1 billion per year, and things will eventually come into

focus. That's a thousand million per year.

 

NATURAL NON-TOXIC SOLUTIONS

 

Here are three holistic methods for reducing the incidence of

menopause annoyances:

 

- clean diet

- plant-sourced estrogens - Phytoestrogens

- natural progesterone cream

 

1. Diet

Eat non-acidifying foods: raw fruits and vegetables, whole grains,

good stuff. Acidfying foods, fast foods, processed foods, white

sugar, hard fats - the usual culprits in most other disease

patterns - once again make their appearance. As explained above,

estrogen dominance is promoted by a lifetime diet of these common

foods. Stress and nutritional deficiency deplete the adrenals, which

deplete progesterone, which promotes estrogen imbalance, which

causes symptoms of menopause.

 

Normally estrogen should just cycle through the body once and then

be broken down in the liver. High fat content in the diet prevents

such breakdown and allows estrogen to go around a second time,

promoting all the above-mentioned imbalances. (McDougall, p87)

 

2. Phytoestrogens

 

Raw whole foods, fruits, vegetables contain mild amounts of natural

estrogens which circumvent the rollercoaster imbalance most women

experience. If phytoestrogens are part of the lifestyle prior to

menopause, there will not be such a radical drop when the body

begins to downshift away from the demands of always preparing for

reproduction. In a study done in Paris in the early 1990s, a

physiologist significantly lowered estrogen levels in the sample

group simply by changing from a high fat, high sugar diet to a more

natural diet of fruits and vegetables. (Vines)

 

Phytoestrogens also appear in a variety of herbs, including black

cohosh, alfalfa, pomegranate, and licorice.

 

3. Natural Progesterone

 

By now you should know that progesterone drops to zero at menopause.

If estrogen levels have been high all along, problems begin to arise

when the sister hormone progesterone is no longer around to keep

things in balance.

 

In the past few years, several doctors have found that natural

progesterone cream can take up the slack both before menopause, in

the case of the stress-challenged woman, and after menopause, in the

case of the less stressed woman who has incorporated natural

phytoestrogen foods into her lifestyle. Both can benefit from the

regulating influence of natural estrogen in small food-bound doses.

Physiologic doses.

 

Dr. Lee has organized most of the pertinent information about the

clinical effects of natural progesterone cream. Osteoporosis, heart

disease, breast cancer, endometrial cancer, hot flashes, dryness,

skin shrivelling are routinely avoided completely by the daily use

of this simple natural lotion. On p 271 of his book, Dr. Lee has a

list of products which contain natural progesterone in a usable

form. The reader is directed to What You Doctor May Not Tell You

About Menopause for the complete story on progesterone. I don't

think it's an exaggeration to say that if you are a woman you can't

afford to skip his book.

 

I realize the information in this chapter may be a bit overwhelming,

especially if you are hearing it for the first time. This is not

light reading. But it's worth the effort if you are considering a

major step like beginning hormone therapy, or birth control pills,

to inform yourself. This chapter hopes to point you in the direction

of further investigation. The attached references would be your next

step in verifying what I have suggested in these few short pages. If

you only choose one, I would recommend John Lee's book, as it is the

most comprehensive review.

 

JoAnn Guest

mrsjo-

www.geocities.com/mrsjoguest/Diets