Lions and Tigers and Bears, Oh My!

It seems that everywhere we look we see danger. In the newspapers we hardly finish with the death and destruction that West Nile virus will bring and we are confronted with flu epidemics (and a lack of vaccine) which will leave thousands dead in the streets! On television and radio we are bombarded with countless stories of mayhem and violence both at home and abroad. Our friends continuously warn us of the dangers of the food we eat, the medications and supplements we use, and the various medical conditions and treatments we have. Is there any good news?

Let’s look at hormone replacement therapy. Nothing has be more discussed, argued, and studied in the history of mankind.

Lucky for us, the major pharmaceutical companies (which, by the way produce and profit from synthetic hormones) did their own studies and reassured all of us that their products were “just fine”. More and more women came to depend on their hormones and everyone was happy. Not too many women had blood clots and we got very good at early detection and treatment of breast cancer so these issues were overlooked.

Then the pharmaceutical companies got greedy. They wanted to add another indication to HRT. They wanted to be able to declare that their hormones (Premarin and Provera) decreased the incidence of heart disease and stroke. They commissioned the “Women’s Health Initiative” (WHI) study to, once and for all, prove that their hormones were safe and healthy.

We all know how that turned out. After three years the study was stopped because of a perceived increase in the incidence of heart attack and stroke. Suddenly all of the newspapers were declaring that “all hormones” were dangerous and should not be taken, as they would, most certainly, lead to death. One could hear the sound of millions of toilets flushing across the country as women threw their hormones away.

This lasted for a few months until the short term and medium term side effects of hormone deficiency took over. Women (and their husbands) realized the importance of a well estrogenated (lubricated) vagina. They did not like putting up with the mood changes and hot flushes, and quickly turned to their health care providers for help.

Because of the need for postmenopausal care, a closer look was taken at the data emerging from the WHI, and it was noted that the main problem was the synthetic nature of the hormone studied. Ongoing studies in Europe and Australia (mostly socialized medicine countries taking the profit out of drug manufacturing) are showing that natural, bioidentical, hormones actually do decrease the incidence of stroke, heart attack, and probably breast cancer! Since these hormones are naturally occurring, they cannot be patented and therefore are not very profitable to produce. As one can imagine, there is not a lot of interest in producing them on the part of the major pharmaceutical companies.

Enter the compounding pharmacies. These small, usually locally owned and operated, pharmacies are able to produce bio-identical compounded hormones in the exact proportions that are deemed appropriate for each individual. This is accomplished at a fraction of the cost that the pharmaceutical companies are able to charge for their patented drugs and usually less expensive than the insurance co-pays most of us pay for our prescriptions.

In summary, things are seldom as bad, or as good as they may seem. Most physicians do not get their medical information from the newspaper and patients should take heed of that. If there are things that seem alarming on the news regarding medical issues we recommend that you check with your personal physician prior to making any life altering changes. This will, in all likelihood, tame those lions, tigers and bears.