Truth’s Out on Natural HRT http://healthfully.org/lgev/id21.html, http://healthfully.org/fhr/id28.html 6/30/15  

My mother suffered from vertebral compression fractures, with its constant pain and stooped posture by the age of 70.  When 72 she fell, broke her forearm and was diagnosed with osteoporosis, which was treated with  bisphosphonates.  She took them for 9 years--quit because it caused upset stomach, weakness, and general malaise.  At age 80 her leg broke, and at 91 her hip.  She was bedridden in an assisted living facility, which she hated, for the last 2 years of her life.   She died in 2003.

I started researching osteoporosis in 2007, and found “Bone loss increases after menopause due to lower levels of estrogen… Osteoporosis may also occur due to a number of diseases or treatments including alcoholism,  hyperthyroidism, surgical removal of the ovaries [no estrogen], and kidney disease. Certain medications increase the rate of bone loss including some anti-seizure medications, chemotherapy, proton pump inhibitors, selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors and steroids [that lower estrogen]. Not enough exercise and smoking are also risk factors.^{[1]…. Osteoporosis becomes more common with age.[1] About 15% ofWhite people in their 50s and 70% of those over 80 are affected.[8]} ... The most important risk factors for osteoporosis are advanced age (in both men and women) and female sex; estrogen deficiency following menopause or oophorectomy is correlated with a rapid reduction in bone mineral density, while in men, a decrease in testosterone levels has a comparable (but less pronounced) effect.^[21][22] ”. (Wiki).  By the age of 80, 40% will have vertebral compression fractures (at)—my mother lost 3 inches.  Its standard treatment is bisphosphonates which is taken by 10s of millions of women.  Bisphosphonates don’t contain calcium.  The conservative Worst Pill warns:  “long-term use of bisphosphonates can actually make bones brittle and more likely to fracture.”  They are a scam:  they go to the bones and remain there.  Thus they improve bone density,[1] but don’t make the bones stronger or prevent long-term fractures.  Worst Pill state that the risk for hip, leg, jaw, and arm fractures increase.   Bisphosphonates being on the market since the 1980s was just one reason for pharma to do tobacco science to diminish the use of estrogens. 

In 2006 researching hormones, I found that estrogen regulates bone remodeling, and as those hormone levels decline with menopause this process becomes negative (loss of calcium in the bone, see graph below).  The standard treatment & prevention until 2002 was HRT, which is inexpensive; now it is bisphosphonates.   At the age of 70, a man has higher bioactive sex hormones than a woman, and this is why osteoporosis and arthritis are far more common in men.  My mother and 10s of millions of women would avoid bone fractures if they were given the inexpensive, once standard, HRT.  The much publicized problems with HRT come from the inferior synthetic formulations—thank you pharma.

That year I looked into the older journal articles and found out why every post menopause woman should be on HRT other than Prempro.  Benefits include:  major reductions in risk for heart attack, stroke, arthritis, colon cancer, osteoporosis, Alzheimer’s disease, macular degeneration, etc.  I wrote down these findings with links.  It is divided into 5 sections:  on estrogens, junk science by pharma & the NIH (National Institute of Health) with critics responses; HRT benefits, recommended type and dose of natural HRT (NHRT); and last is a non-technical 1-page healthful summation. 

My studies of HRT uncovered critics who explained that the NIH used knowingly the worst formulation of HRT, Prempro (more on it below), thus the results from their major WHI clinical trial cannot be generalized--though pharma and NIH did.  Moreover, I found also that other HRTs lowers breast cancer risk and increases survival.  Laboratory work shows that NHRT promotes the death of cancerous cells via the body's necrosis factor.  The American Heart Association, and in 1995 held that “Estrogen replacement therapy markedly attenuates the development of dietary atherosclerosis… up to 50% fewer adverse coronary events.” My research uncovered that pharma funds medical science; but it is really marketing-tobacco science.  The HRT story is just one example of how pharma through control of information controls the practice of medicine.  I call it tobacco ethics.  In time I came to understand why doctors prescribe bad drugs.   If skeptical watch the quality documentaries which expose the greatest scam in history, at Video Library.

When shopping on Amazon for books on HRT, I found two insightful reviews by women:   “Like many women, I thought the only way to deal with perimenopause and menopause was with Premarin [made with pregnant horse estrogen, Yuck] and other [synthetic] hormones pushed by large pharmaceutical companies. This book was a real eye opener for me. It explains how the estrogens naturally found in a woman's body can't be patented, because they are just natural bodily hormones. Therefore, the drug giants who court all the doctors have no financial incentive to tout naturally occurring hormones. Instead, they push the horse estrogens, and other unnatural products, which cause side effects [and an ineffective low dose HRT--jk].  This book explains how a woman with a good doctor can get a pharmacy to mix a custom-blended natural hormone replacement with few, if any, side effects, because it's what's in your body already.  I took this book [Natural Hormone Replacement for Women Over 45, by Morgentaler[2] & Wright, 1997] to my doctor who said of course he'd be happy to prescribe natural hormones as suggested in the book.[3]  Had I not brought it up, I, too would have been prescribed that horrible Premarin or Prempro, made from the urine of pregnant (and abused) mares.  I've spoken with other women over 45-50 who take the horse estrogen, Premarin (the name comes from PREgnant MARe's urine), and they were shocked that there was an alternative their doctors had never bothered mentioning.   Anyone interested in natural health should buy this must-read, and then discuss with your doctor.”

A Second review:  “I had a hysterectomy 5 years ago and have been very sick ever since but was diagnosed with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Depression and Panic Disorder.  It started within a week of the surgery.  Symptoms were mild at first but progressively got worse until I was bedridden. I have been declared disabled by a Social Security Disability judge.  I have tried various conventional Estrogen Replacement Therapies but without much help (pills, creams, shots, patches have caused all sorts of reactions - even borderline delirium and total incapacitation. [They took her ovaries during the hysterectomy and gave her a psychiatric drug--jk.][4]  A friend told me about this book and I immediately found an innovative GYN who worked with a compounding pharmacist who cautiously (with slow increases) prescribed this Natural Hormone Therapy for me via a cream since I don't absorb by mouth. [This has changed, progesterone now can be taken orally, and is available from a compounding pharmacy with estradiol—jk.]  Within one month, I began to notice a difference. I am now feeling wonderful for the first time in years--pre-hysterectomy normal.  I am so thrilled that I am telling my story to all that will listen.  I have friends that have seen such a dramatic change in me that they are buying the book and changing doctors to get off of the unnatural estrogen derived from horse urine they are on. This book is a must reading for all women and doctors who treat them. This information must get out--had I known, perhaps my 5 year nightmare would have been avoided.”  Note by jk:  My best-friend’s mother underwent what this woman writes of.  They took her ovaries, put her on the tranquilizer, diazepam. In 18 months she had her first nervous breakdown.  She remained on psychiatric drugs, had 3 more nervous breakdowns over the next 22 years, than died from breast cancer.    

Third Review:  As a practicing pharmacist, it upsets me that such basic knowledge of hormones was not taught in school. Doctors aren't even taught some of the basic information Dr. Wright discusses in this book. I wish all women would read this book and I wish all doctors would open their minds to the information presented in it. For all the thousands of women I know to be using natural hormone replacement therapy, I don't know a single "unhappy customer".

RECOMMENDATIONS:  These sex hormones have many additional functions including regulation of bone formation, on metabolism though insulin-leptin levels, on maintenance of blood vessels and skin, and a dozen more, see Wiki and Wiki.  Thus take natural HRT (NHRT) at dose comparable to the Danish study (Trisekvens).  NHRT is part of nature’s clock.  NHRT sets the body’s clock to premenopausal and thereby reduces the rise for age-related chronic conditions.  Their lack causes the precipitous decline after menopause.  Life extension with long-term NHRT is over 4 years.  True to profits-first corporate tobacco ethics, pharma offers 1) HRT in too low a dose; 2) synthetic estrogens, horse estrogen, and synthetic progesterone (progestins) of questionable value and safety; 3) human estrogens estrone (E1), Estriol (E3), estetrol (E4) which are less bioactive and thus block the action of estradiol, the best estrogen; 4) progestins could be like MPA and block some of the benefits of estradiol.   For hot flashes, NIH guidelines include a major tranquilizer (SSRI) or an estrogen blocker such as Tamoxifen.  I recommended 50 mg progesterone micronized in oil capsule[5] with 2 mg estradiol prepared by a compounding pharmacy.  Alternate is topical lotion of 8 mg of estradiol + 100 mg progesterone (absorption is 10%).   If concerned about muscle strength, add 10 mg of testosterone in lotion to reverse sarcopenia, androgen deficiency, & to improve libido without reduction in estradiol.  For lotion, apply as widely as possible over the torso and face; with water and rub it in.  Tell your physician you are aware of risks and are convinced of benefits of NHRT and give him a copy 2010 journal article.  Tell him you observed the benefits in a friend & a relative and want the same.   Most doctors will comply.  Beware of hormone balancing; the doctor is milking the treatment.  The evidence for sequential HRT is weak and it has a lower compliance because of vaginal bleeding—at 1997.  For more on Why Natural HRT.   Avoid “bio-identical” plant estrogens, and progesterones—they aren’t identical to human sex hormones.   These hormones occupy receptors with uncertain action and possible block benefits like MPA, and have low bio-availability.   There is a lack of quality clinical trials on them.[6]  The youthful free-serum estradiol level is > 300 pmol/L, or > 80 pg/mL.  Low estrogen entails gain in unhealthy visceral fat.  Reset you bio-clock with NHRT, fix your diet, learn about the corruption caused by pharma (on YouTube), and why doctors are their pharma’s pawns.