On Menopause and Healthy Options, Part 2

By James J. Gormley

[Note: Adapted from an article which originally appeared in Natural Products INSIDER Supplement Perspectives]

In 2006, I asked Jacob Teitelbaum, MD, whether menopause has been politicized.  “Not so much politicized as commercialized,” said Teitelbaum.

“There is big money to be made in supplying hormones to women in menopause. Unfortunately, natural hormones were not able to be patented, so the drug companies used Premarin, which is simply pregnant horse urine. The process for making this was patentable. Because of this, almost all marketing and research was done on Premarin. This was despite holistic doctors saying for over a decade that it was insane to use pregnant horse urine in human females.”

“Now that the research has shown HRT to potentially be dangerous, even though the research suggests that the bioidentical hormones are much safer and likely less noxious in terms of side effects; the drug companies are paying for a very expensive misinformation campaign to mislead the American public,” Teitelbaum added.

“Because bioidentical hormones present a major competition to them (they are cheaper, safer, and simply what your body is used to making), they are paying to make sure that people get confused so that they keep buying the expensive prescription forms of estrogen and progesterone. It reminds me of the old days when doctors were being paid to promote smoking and also to convince mothers that anyone who breast-fed was a primitive who was damaging her child.”

Fortunately, natural support abounds.

Many studies, for example, support the use of black cohosh for relieving menopausal symptoms. In fact, previous trials have shown black cohosh to be as effective as HRT for reducing hot flashes. St. John’s wort has been found to help relieve mild-to-moderate depression. In addition to black cohosh (Cimicifuga racemosa), other ingredients and products are also on the market, including: red clover; soy; chaste tree (Vitex); hops; dong quai; sage; essential fatty acids; and good, old-fashioned diet and exercise.

In line with this, on October 20th, 2012, the Natural Health Research Institute (NHRI) held its 8th Annual NHRI Scientific Symposium, entitled, “The Effectiveness of Natural Products for Women’s Health.”

The conference covered such topics as: the safety and efficacy record of black cohosh; the benefits of ginseng, kava, kudzu, maca, Pycnogenol, Sibiric rhubarb, St. John’s wort, valerian, omega-3 fats, and multi-ingredient combinations; detailed research into botanical alternatives to HRT, including promising studies on hops, red clover and (once again) black cohosh; and the importance of reducing body fat, in addition to supplementation with chromium, carb blockers, green tea extract, and conjugated linoleic acid.

So, all in all, there’s a lot of good research out there on safe options for female consumers (and those who love them) to empower themselves with safe, effective, science-backed supplements that will support, nurture, and cherish women on their health journeys.

Announcement: Cost Effectiveness and Safety of Dietary Supplements Symposium

You know that the misinformation regarding supplements in the mass media and on Capitol Hill really angers me, and as you know I have been known to take to the airwaves, videowaves and lecture halls to try to combat it.

Especially now with what has been going with the food "safety" bills in D.C. right now, there is no better time for a scientific symposium that focuses on the safety of nutritional supplements while also discussing the cost-effectiveness data, something particularly relevant in today's troubled, slowly recovering economy.

With that in mind, I wanted to remind all of you about a very exciting conference that's coming up in the second half of November, on Thursday, November 18th, entitled the:

Natural Health Research Institute (NHRI) 5th Annual Scientific Symposium, “Natural Products – Cost-Effectiveness & Safety of Dietary Supplements”
http://www.naturalhealthresearch.org/nhri/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/NHRI-Symposium-09.23.10.pdf

Session 1: Cost Effectiveness of Natural Products will be chaired by Ron Watson, PhD. Chairman of NHRI, Dr. Watson has edited 60 biomedical books, particularly in nutrition and food sciences. He has directed several NIH funded biomedical grants relating to immune function and cardiovascular effects. He is an internationally recognized CAM researcher, nutritionist and immunologist. Professor Watson is a distinguished member of several national and international nutrition, immunology, and cancer societies, having published 450 research papers and reviews.

Session 1 will also feature Dr. Paul Coates, director of the NIH Office of Dietary Supplements and Michael Morton, the cofounder of Nourish America (formerly called Vitamin Relief USA).

Session 2: Safety of Dietary Supplements will be chaired by Russell M. Jaffe, Ph.D., M.D. Dr. Jaffe is President of PERQUE LLC, a firm producing items for practitioners. Formerly he was an official at the National Institutes of Health and Clinical Center in Bethesda, the US Public Health Service, and on the editorial board of The New Physician. For the past four years he has been selected as one of America’s Top Physicians, and selected as International Scientist of the Year in 2003 at Oxford. His published research includes over 400 papers in the areas of clinical and nutritional immunology, toxic minerals, hormones, and chemical disruptors, and autoimmune disease.

Session 2 will also feature: Dr. Bruce Ames, Dr. Rick Kingston and Dr. John Hathcock.

The symposium, to be held at the Hilton at Indian Lakes Resort in Bloomingdale, Illinois will be attended by scientists, medical researchers, practitioners and other interested professionals. Additional information will be announced in the coming weeks.

As a board member of the NHRI, I am especially excited about this powerful symposium. We will be making additional information, including audio recordings, available in the near future for those reporters and industry science and safety executives who cannot physically be there.