Bio-Identical Hormone Safety Controversy Suzanne Somers Vs. The Establishment
Posted by Depressed - 19/02/12 at 09:02 amSuzanne Somers has single-handedly aroused world-wide fascination with bio-identical hormone therapy? that is good.
She’s got made women and men aware that they need to be proactive about their health? in other words, simply take responsibility? this really is good.
However, the specific recommendations that she’s championing with regard to hormone replacement isn’t just ill-advised, it could actually be dangerous. She’s a powerful advocate of the hormone estrogen? which will be fairly ironic since this is the hormone that gave her breast cancer, contributed to her life-long battle with weight (it is lipogenic, i. e. it causes fat to be deposited round the hips, thighs, buttocks, breasts, etc.), and recently caused her to undergo a gynecological process of uncontrollable bleeding.
When advising women to take high dosages of a toxic hormone it is important to provide them with the whole picture. Estrogen is known to cause six different cancers, it predisposes to strokes, heart attacks, and pulmonary emboli (it is contraindicated in coronary artery disease), it is the hormone that triggers menstrual symptoms, such as cramps, PMS, breast tenderness, and constant headaches headaches, it can cause gallbladder disease, asthma, lupus and rheumatoid arthritis symptoms, and causes nausea during pregnancy.
Nature will be a lot smarter than we are? it allows estrogen levels to decrease at a certain amount of time in a woman? s life when procreation is not necessary. I suspect nature recognizes that estrogen just isn’t a safe hormone which is another reason the levels are decreased.
Women, and their doctors, probably know that women never stop making estrogen, so often it isn’t essential to be replaced except in specific instances (i. e. vaginal dryness, low body fat (because estrogen is produced primarily in fat, etc).
From the bio-identical hormone replacement standpoint, progesterone is the only hormone that has to be replaced. Ahead of the menopause, this hormone prevents or eliminates all the downsides to estrogen. Ms. Somers was on contraceptive pills for 21 years which meant she did not ovulate for 21 years, meaning she was without progesterone for 21 years. The progestins in B. C. pills are not progesterone? they are synthetic and so are as dangerous because the estrogen in B. C. pills.
After stopping B. C. pills it is my knowing that Ms. Somers was on extremely high levels of estradiol, the strongest estrogen? no wonder she got breast cancer. I am confused why she feels it essential to surround herself only with hormone doctors that recommend estrogen.
The objective of this article is not to criticize Ms. Somers? I am extremely grateful that her activities brought BHRT out from the closet. I would simply advise that she speak to doctors that may have a different viewpoint.
In her latest book called Ageless, she’s now recommending growth hormone (HGH) therapy to her readers. She states her IGF-1 levels were low which explains why she started with this therapy. Perhaps one of her hormone specialists should have remarked that estrogen lowers IGF-1 levels. She might be thinking about the fact that IGF-1 is a hormone that speeds up aging? it’s not an anti-aging hormone. People also needs to remember that it is illegal to provide this hormone for anti-aging purposes; it is only allowable for documented growth hormones deficiencies.
Let me now address some of the critics of Suzanne Somers. They declare that bio-identical hormones are not FDA approved. Wrong. All compounded hormones released by compound pharmacies are FDA approved. Upjohn Pharmaceuticals was producing FDA approved bio-identical hormones 70 years back (and most physicians are still not aware of them).
Critics say it is better to opt for known medications such as Premarin, which are? safer?. In point of fact, all estrogens (except bio-identical estriol) are unsafe. The first 10 years Premarin was in the marketplace, they estimate approximately 200, 000 and 2, 000, 000 women got uterine cancer.
Bio-identical hormone therapy, although in existence for 70 years, is still in its infancy. Ms. Somers is in the career of receiving the kind of ridicule that Semmelweiss and Lister received a hundred years ago when they suggested that doctors should wash their hands just before surgery. I salute her for her courage. I would recommend that she educate herself about hormones. They’re extremely potent chemicals and can be used in a safe, logical manner.
Eventually, she may get to the full realization of the potential bio-identical hormones have for healing. They control every system of the body and so are major determinants of our health. An individual shouldn’t be looking forward to the menopause or andropause to get their hormones in balance.
Michael E. Platt, M. D., Board Certified Internist, may be the author of The Miracle of Bio-Identical Hormones. He is in private practice in Palm Desert, CA. His website address drplatt period com.
