As most of my patients know, I spent a tremendous amount of my time reading, studying and going to advanced hormone courses so that I can be on the cutting edge of hormone therapy in today’s world. While there remains a significant amount of push-back by traditional medicine, the evidence is solid that hormone therapy in both men and women reduces the risk of disease and improves well being and longevity. Unfortunately, there have been several research studies that have run counter to the notion that hormone therapy is healthy and beneficial. Unfortunately, most of the studies that challenge hormone safety and efficacy were poorly run and reported. For example, the Women’s Health Initiative published in the prestigious Journal of The American Medical Association in 2002 was initially met with spectacular fanfare and the negative results published in that study largely became dictum in the hormone therapy sphere. However, over the intervening years, most of the conclusions stated in that study have either been soften or in fact reversed. That study now is regarded as highly flawed and quite misleading.
It is clear, hormone therapy, properly administered by a specialist, appropriately trained is a safe and effective way of reducing disease and improving health and longevity. I recently came across a video that takes on many of the myths about the harm from Hormone Therapy. It is an outstanding 30-minute discussion of the benefits of hormone therapy in terms of the reductions in heart disease, osteoporosis, and dementia. And astoundingly, it rightly challenges the notion that hormones cause breast cancer. In fact, more evidence is being developed every day that suggest that hormones do not need to be withheld from women who have had breast cancer and there is some interesting work currently being done that seems to suggest that a properly balanced hormonal physiology in women post breast cancer may in fact lead to longer disease free intervals and long term cures.
Take a listen to an audio conversation with Dr. Avrun Blumming, the author of “Estrogen Matters…Why taking hormones in Menopause can improve women’s wellbeing and lengthen their lives – without raising the risk of breast cancer.” Read more here: https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/estrogen-matters/. The audio is fascinating, and this renowned New York Oncologist discusses Estrogen, the facts and the myths and how estrogen is essential to women’s health as they age. And in particular, listen to how they feel that the misinterpretation of the Women’s Health Initiative has done incalculable harm to millions of women since that study was published in 2002.
