Anti-Aging Tip: You Don’t Need Big Pharma to Reduce the Effects of Menopause

By Al Sears, MD

A jury recently [Monday, January 29, 2007] awarded a Philadelphia woman $1.5 million for breast cancer caused by a popular "hormone replacement therapy" (HRT) drug. The drug maker at the center of the lawsuit - Wyeth - is in the firing line for their estrogen drug Prempro.

Here’s the real problem with HRT: Products like Premarin, Provera, and Prempro aren’t actually hormones at all. They’re drugs. And if you take them, you’re not "replacing" anything.

It’s not surprising these drugs lead to cancer. They’re not natural substances and they’ve never been in your body. The safe answer for menopausal symptoms is bio-identical hormone replacement. These hormones are the real thing - not drugs trying to mimic what your body produces.

Real hormones can be powerful anti-aging tools. But real hormones cannot be patented and therefore have no profit potential for the big drug makers. So companies like Wyeth make synthetic estrogen look-alikes - often with disastrous results.

In my own practice, I use bio-identical hormone replacement therapy in both men and women with great success. I’ve had menopausal women tell me they feel better than they have in years. Some even tell me they’re feeling like they’re in their 30s again.

You should get your total estrogens, progesterone, testosterone, and DHEA-S tested before considering any hormone therapy. So ask your doctor for a blood test to look at your "hormone panel." Once you begin real bio-identical hormone therapy, you should get a hormone panel every three months until your levels are in balance. __________________________________________________  

It’s Good to Know: About Urban Legends and Hoaxes

Did you know that if you forward this ETR e-mail to 10 people, Bill Gates will send you $100?

And that if you pour Coca Cola on a piece of raw pork, dozens of worms will come crawling out?

Would you believe that if your cellphone battery is running low, just press *3370# and a small amount of secret reserved power will be released?

Well, actually, not a single one of these stories is true! And yet, every day, millions of people forward stories just like these around the Internet.

So the next time you receive a forwarded e-mail with a truly unbelievable story, plea for help, or commercial pitch, check Snopes.com before you do anything else. This website, the premier hoax-and-scam-exposing, urban-legend-busting watchdog on the Net, has been around since 1995.
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Word to the Wise: Mendacious

Someone who’s "mendacious" (men-DAY-shus) - from the Latin for "lying" - is habitually dishonest.

Example (as used by Robert Shogan in The Double-Edged Sword): "Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon, two very different men, each from a different party, were seen as mendacious and deceitful, driven to self-destructive actions by forces they could not control."
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This article appears courtesy of Early to Rise [Issue #2001, 03-28-07], the Internet's most popular health, wealth, and success e-zine. For a complimentary subscription, visit http://www.earlytorise.com/.