To the surprise and disappointment of researchers and women all over the world, new data show that the commonly prescribed combination drug containing estrogen and progestin may cause more harm than good.
Researchers were stunned to find the therapy did not decrease the risk of coronary heart disease, as was anticipated. In fact, women in the treatment group saw their risk of heart attack increased by 29 percent. Hormone replacement therapy also increased a woman's risk of invasive breast cancer by 26 percent; strokes by 41 percent; and blood clots by 100 percent.
The results of the trial (the Women's Health Initiative - WHI) were published in the July 17 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association. Lead investigators recommended that, "... clinicians stop prescribing this combination for long-term use."
"How did it come to be that one of the most commonly prescribed drugs in the country was used for decades in so many millions of women before its long-term effects were ever studied systematically?" questioned Dr. Jerry Avorn, associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and chief of pharmaco-epidemiology at Brigham & Women's Hospital in Boston.
"This is an example of a big gap in U.S. health care and science policy regarding prescription drugs. If you are a company and can demonstrate that your drug works well for some short-term outcome - in this case, it was the hot flashes of the menopause - that drug can then come to be used ... for indications that really have nothing to do with the basis on which it was originally approved," Dr. Avorn told ABC News.
"There seems to be ample marketing dollars to encourage use of such drugs, but it took years to raise the research dollars needed to find out if they actually work and are safe," Dr. Avorn averred.
The meticulous short-term studies required by FDA are good, but they offer little knowledge in relation to the long-term effects of the best test of all: time. Although expensive and more difficult to perform, the WHI results show how necessary these trials are.
The Homeopathic Solution
In over 200 years of clinical use, no homeopathic product has ever been pulled off the market for any harmful side effects, negative drug interactions or addictions. Homeopathy offers us double-blind studies, clinical conformations; and most importantly - the test of time.
Best of all, homeopathy works to activate the inner innate healing abilities resident within all of us. Understanding we are designed to be healthy, we no longer need to force biochemical changes with drugs in a shallow effort to suppress certain symptoms. Why suppress symptoms when you can effectively express our innate healing abilities?
There are many homeopathic formulas to safely and effectively correct dysfunctions within a woman's hormone system. Consider the following formulas for the associated conditions: I have used generalized descriptive names, which can be cross-referenced to the product lines of most homeopathic companies. I focus on homeopathic formulas because they are the easiest, fastest way to apply the many benefits of homeopathy in the high-volume chiropractic office.
Formulas:
- Menopause is for hot flashes; sweats; chills; clammy shin; heat in the head; headaches; hot feet; mood swings; anxiety; sensitivity; and the sudden "need to be alone" women may experience at this stage.
- Female libido enhancer helps enhance female sexual desire and vitality, relief for the dry, tender, sore or burning vagina; and abhorrence, pain or frigidity related to sexual intercourse, intercourse.
- Fertility helps restore female fertility and relieve vaginal dryness or discharge, sensitive or itchy genitalia, irregular cycling and discomforts during intercourse.
- Menstrual cramps and irregularities balances menstrual flow: too heavy, too light or irregular.
- Osteoporosis helps to mineralize and strengthen bones, heal bone fractures, relieve bone pain and fortify weak spines.
- Anxiety and nervousness is used when symptoms are associated with menopause.
- Good mood enhancement is, as its name implies, used to enhance moods.
- Mood changes is used for more extreme mood shifts.
- Cardiovascular is for symptoms involving the heart and blood vessels.
- Fatigue reliever is used for symptoms associated with menopause.
- Female PID discomforts is applicable to pelvic inflammatory diseases.
- PMS is used when symptoms are associated with menopause.
- Breast is for related symptoms in the breast.
- Apoplexy can help in the recovery and prevention of strokes
- Constitutional enhancer is for general overall health enhancement.
- Detox activates the drainage mechanisms to function properly.
The best way to use formulas is to match the indications for use that best fit the patient's symptomatic expressions. Homeopathy is based on the "law of similars," and you simply match the product to the patient.
This procedure may at first appear as if you are just treating symptoms, but quite the opposite is true. Symptoms are the body's way of communicating to us.
Homeopathic combination formulas can help you get a higher percentage of results and cure, and faster results than those obtained from the classical single remedy. Combination formulas offer you the ability to apply minor remedies in homeopathy. We have found many of the minor remedies to be major contributors to common health problems. The classical single-remedy approaches have not been able to use the minor remedies effectively because there has never been a large enough symptomatic picture established from the provings to know when to apply the remedy. Utilizing multiple potencies in combinations allows us to safely, quickly and effectively pursue an actual cure. Giving the body a choice of potencies allows it to pick the potencies that best fit the need. When given more choices, the body will most efficiently and effectively apply the best remedies and their potencies to more gently heal without crisis.
Reference- Rossouw JE, Anderson GL, Prentice RL, et al. (Writing Group for the Women's Health Initiative Investigators:) Risks and benefits of estrogen plus progestin in healthy postmenopausal women. JAMA, July 17, 2002;288(3):321-333.
Frank King,DC,ND
Asheville, North Carolina
www.kingbio.com
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