[Comment: When will the pharmaceutical industry and their feminist sales force – left-wing women’s groups – stop messing with women’s bodies by pushing sales of steroidal hormones (used in menopausal therapy and oral contraceptives)?
Drug companies are apparently searching for a way that women can continue using hormone replacement therapy, but there are health risks associated with the use of these drugs.
Unpatentable products, on the other hand, do not have the same money-making potential as do patented products.
Some natural products are alternatives to hormone replacement therapy.
These non-estrogen products relieve menopausal symptoms and, unlike hormone replacement therapy, they aren’t associated with the risks of heart disease, stroke and breast and uterine cancers. Karen Malec, Coalition on Abortion/Breast Cancer]
ABORTION-BREAST CANCER NEWS HEADLINES
“‘Safe Window’ Allegedly Found for Hormone Replacement Therapy”
Four years ago, the Women’s Health Initiative (WHI), a government-funded study, ended prematurely when researchers said they found that use of combined hormone replacement therapy (HRT) – synthetic estrogens and progestin – raises risk of heart attacks, strokes and breast cancers.
The WHI’s 2002 findings were widely publicized and women rushed to their doctors to find some alternative to HRT for the relief of menopausal symptoms.
Different cancer risks are associated with the use of combined HRT and oral contraceptives (OCs) versus estrogen-only HRT and OCs.
Doctors generally prescribe estrogen-only HRT to women with hysterectomies, but not to women who still have their wombs. Researchers learned in the 1970s that estrogen-only OCs increase the risk of uterine cancer.
Progestins (progesterone-like hormones) were added to estrogen-only HRT and OCs because they did not increase uterine cancer risk.
Progesterone is a differentiator of the uterus. In other words, it matures uterine tissue from immature, cancer-susceptible cells into mature, cancer-resistant cells. Its effect on the breast, on the other hand, is quite different.
When women use combined HRT or combined OCs, they get more breast cancers because progestin in the presence of estrogen makes breast cells proliferate.
In short, estrogen-only HRT and OCs increase the risk of uterine cancer. Combined HRT and combined OCs do not increase uterine cancer risk, but raise breast cancer risk.
New findings reported by WHI researchers in the journal Archives of Internal Medicine suggests there is a brief window of time around menopause during which women can use estrogen-only HRT to benefit their cardiovascular health and relieve unpleasant menopausal symptoms, such as hot flashes.
Researchers found that women who took the drug after age 60 did not benefit, perhaps because they already had the beginnings of cardiovascular disease.
WHI researchers reported risk reductions for heart attack, angioplasty, bypass surgery, and death from heart disease among users of estrogen-only HRT.
Women are probably quite confused by now about whether or not to use HRT.
However, according to experts at the Breast Cancer Prevention Institute, women can use non-estrogen treatments for menopausal symptoms and avoid increased risk of cardiovascular disease and cancers of the uterus and breast simply by using a natural product.
Women can use DHEA (dehydroepiandrosterone).
They can also increase their consumption of soy protein and phytoestrogen.
Drug companies are apparently searching for a way that women can continue using HRT.
Unpatentable products, on the other hand, do not have the same money-making potential as do patented products. DHEA, as a natural product with many years of published use, is not patentable. It does not require a doctor’s prescription. It is widely available as a nutritional supplement.
DHEA is a natural substance produced by the adrenal gland. It is associated with reduced breast cancer risk and no heart disease.
In the Breast Cancer Prevention Institute’s booklet, “Breast Cancer Risks and Prevention” (available online at http://www.bcpinstitute.org), DHEA is described in this way:
“While not itself an active hormone, DHEA can be converted to active hormones by certain tissues. For example, it can be converted to estrogen by bone and vaginal lining, but not uterine lining. Thus it does not increase the risk of uterine cancer, but it can prevent or reverse bone loss and other menopausal symptoms. (DHEA cannot be converted to testosterone by muscle tissue or cause an increase in muscle mass.)”
DHEA secretion peaks in a person’s 20s and then decreases progressively throughout the rest of a person’s life. As DHEA declines, women start to get dry facial skin.
Professor Joel Brind, president of the Breast Cancer Prevention Institute, was previously known as an expert on DHEA before he became involved in the link between abortion and increased breast cancer risk.
In 1984, he wrote the paper on the subject which is most often cited as the standard reference for normal blood levels of DHEA in men and women.
DHEA is widely available in 25 mg. tablets. One half tablet (12.5 mg) taken daily, is usually adequate to alleviate postmenopausal symptoms.
Possible side effects include oily skin and acne, in which case a smaller dose should be taken.
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The Coalition on Abortion/Breast Cancer is an international women’s organization founded to protect the health and save the lives of women by educating and providing information on abortion as a risk factor for breast cancer.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION:
Coalition on Abortion/Breast Cancer
http://www.AbortionBreastCancer.com
Breast Cancer Prevention Institute
http://www.BCPInstitute.org
Polycarp Research Institute
http://www.polycarp.org
[ http://www.abortionbreastcancer.com/news/060309/index.htm ]