The Natural Choice
There are other choices for women but most doctors won't
discuss them. It's horrifying that doctors are caught off guard
about all of this, but it's because they've been brainwashed by
the pharmaceutical companies. Some might question the
logic of expecting Premarin or Prempro, made with pregnant
mares' urine, to protect a woman's health.
What women want to know is, what are the alternatives?
Nobody, though, wants to step up and tell them. How can a
woman possibly know all of the choices unless her doctor is
willing to discuss the natural options, too? Many women find
that the right combination of herbs, exercise, nutritional
support and natural alternatives helps them to manage most
of their symptoms.
The natural options mean actually replacing the specific
hormone that a woman needs. When a woman is low in
progesterone, it may be better to give her human
progesterone. If she's low in her estrogens, and there are only
three in the human physiology, she needs the type of estrogen
that she's deficient in. Use of non-human drugs may soon be
non-existent.
The Alternatives
Many doctors readily admit an increasing number of patients
are beginning to experiment with both human and plantbased
estrogens, including soy beans and Mexican yams. The
products, made in specialized pharmacies, are processed into
creams, lotions, oils or applied to a patch. More research is
needed in this area. Estrogen is estrogen and it can be just as
potent in a patch as it is in a pill. And it is still metabolized
through the liver as estrogen.
Tests on some natural herbal products, however, are about to
begin at the University of California, San Diego. Dr. Jeffrey
Chang, chief of reproductive endocrinology, said he will soon
begin looking at different aspects of estrogen deprivation and
the effects of so-called natural estrogen replacement.
One grant will include studying different herbal compounds,
including soy, black cohosh (a buttercup plant), and red
clover, long used to treat menopausal symtoms.
There's no data yet on how well the herbs work, but these
tests and others around the world should provide new hope
and alternative treatments in the coming years.
Lifestyle changes
Meantime, doctors remind women how helpful good, clean
living can be. Eliminating smoking and heavy drinking and
taking your diet and workout seriously can go a long way
toward minimizing the effects of menopause.
Some women have noticed improvement in their hot flashes
and night sweats by backing off on spicy foods, caffeine and
alcohol and increasing aerobic exercise.
Preliminary studies of antidepressants such as Prozac and
Paxil suggest they may also help with hot flashes. But they
note that antidepressants may cause fatigue and sexual
dysfunction, symptoms women are trying to battle in the
first place.
Exercise, exercise, exercise
The medical establishment does know this: old-fashioned
exercise is about the best thing you can do for your body.
It helps protect against nearly all the conditions associated
with menopause - osteoporosis, heart disease and possibly
even breast cancer. For bones, walking, running and weight
lifting are especially important.
As one woman put it: "I take my calcium, work out regularly
and see my doctor when I need to," she said. "I'm trying to be
as healthy as I can because I don't want to take estrogen
again, not if I don't have to." If lifestyle changes aren't
enough, see your doctor about a host of hormone-free drugs
that can control cholesterol, reduce the risk of heart attack
and stroke and build bone density.
Keep in mind, too, that efforts are continuing to better
understand menopause. The Women's Health Initiative
continues to study postmenopausal women, with more data
due out in the coming years. Also, the Food and Drug
Administration will continue to reassess hormone products
and to address further concerns about the drugs.
Because women go into menopause naturally indicates that it
is not a disease to be cured but rather a phase of life that can
be balanced, especially through exercise. Physical activity is a
natural high, the nemesis of fatigue, and can become a good
addiction. Regular exercise helps decrease depression, mood
swings, that sluggish feeling, and ennui. It has contributed to
increased mental alertness, reaction time, and kinesthetic
awareness. It is believed there is a link between movement
and learning, suggesting that movement strengthens the
deep-seated inner part of the brain.
Studies show that through aerobic exercise, a person can
master not only new information but also improve old
information. We know the brain perks up with a heightened
blood supply through vigorous physical activity, also through
this same method it releases neurotrophins, our natural
growth factors. Neurotrophins help slow down deterioration
and the death of our brain cells as we age.
The Significance of Phytoestrogens
One of the questions that most perplexes scientists is why and
how menopause is experienced so differently around the
world. There are other cultures where women experience
minimal and often no menopausal symptoms. Also linked to
this issue is the fact that in some parts of the world, notably
the Far East, breast cancer is not the major killer that it is here
in the West. For example, the UK seems to have a breast
cancer death rate that is about six times higher than that of
women in Japan. The interesting thing is that as soon as
Japanese women move to the West their breast cancer rate is
the same.
Hot flashes are uncommon in women from countries where
the consumption of soy products is high, such as Asian
countries. In fact, there is no precise Japanese word to
describe a hot flash. In one study, Japanese women reported
much fewer night sweats and hot flashes than Canadian
women. Another study found that excretion of isoflavonoids
in Japanese women was 100 to 1000 times higher than in
American and Finnish women and that the high consumption
of soy products may partly explain why Japanese women
report having fewer hot flashes.
As a result of these studies, scientists have begun to study the
benefits of a group of plant hormones known as
phytoestrogens. These hormones naturally occur in certain
foods such as soy. Soy contains two flavonoids, genistein and
daidzein, and studies have shown that they are chemically
similar to Tamoxifen, which is the drug used to prevent a
recurrence of breast cancer.
These very weak plant estrogens latch on to the estrogen
receptors in the breast and they stop the more powerful
carcinogenic estrogens getting through. So they have a
protective effect, as well as helping to balance hormones,
which are responsible for menopausal symptoms such as hot
flashes. Phytoestrogens have also been studied extensively for
their effect on lowering cholesterol, so they can have
protective effects in terms of heart disease, which is
important around menopause.
There have been a number of studies that show soy's
significant impact on reducing hot flashes. The first, which
was done in Australia and published in 1995, consisted of 58
postmenopausal women. There was a 40% reduction in hot
flashes in the group consuming 45g of soy flour per day over a
twelve week period. A second study, done at the Royal
Hospital for Women in Australia, consisted of 9 women who
consumed 160mg of isoflavones for 12 weeks and had a
significant decrease in the number of hot flashes from 6.7 to
3.4 per day. The final study, done in the United Kingdom, fed
the soy group 80mg of isoflavones for 2 months and found a
significant decrease in the rate of hot flashes. A more recent
study conducted in Italy using 104 postmenopausal women
found a significant reduction (45% vs 30% for the placebo) in
the number of hot flashes after 12 weeks in the group
consuming 60g daily of soy protein isolate containing 76mg of
isoflavones.
How much is enough soy?
Soy isoflavones can be useful in women with mild to
moderate post-menopausal symptoms, and in preventing
bone loss, but it is too early to tell whether soy can completely
replace HRT. One to four servings of soy per day may be
effective in reducing symptoms, but more research needs to
be done in order to know how much soy to recommend.
In choosing to alter your lifestyle and make healthy decisions
regarding diet and exercise in order to combat the effects of
menopause, you can reap all the benefits from soy by treating
yourself and your family to soy products in your everyday
food preparation. Following are just a few delicious recipes
that can help you incorporate soy into your meal planning.
There are many books now available to help you in your
quest.
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