TV Appearance

Suzanne Somers will be on The 700 Club (I think it's the CBN network) on Wednesday, March 11. As they say, check your local listings for time and channel, and I believe if you are an online member of the CBN network website, you can access the video via the website.

Big News!!!!! We have a place to have a "discussion"!

Women's Health America has just unveiled a new area where we can discuss topics relating to bioidentical hormone replacement therapy!!! This is the only site on the web (that I've found, anyway) that offers such a service, I hope everyone will drop by, read up and leave comments. I just left a post on my personal experiences with BHRT. Here' s the link, now hurry up, get on over there!

What's the best diet?

According to Time Magazine, eating less food! Check out this article to read all about it! Now I'm off to have my protein shake (about 280 calories).

Pharmacy Compounding Accreditation Board

Here's a link to a great resource to finding a compounding pharmacy in your area, either to get your bioidentical hormone prescriptions refilled, or call them to see if there are physicians/healthcare providers in your area who incorporate bioidentical hormones into their practices.

For those of you in the Piedmont of NC area.....

The Compounding Pharmacy in Hickory, NC will be presenting a lecture on bioidentical hormone replacement therapy on Tuesday, March 31 at 630 pm at their facility. YOU MUST CALL to register, the number is 828-910-9365. I'm attending, and looking forward to meeting others!

Name that substance!

No, it's not the Game Show's new program! Here's the link to an article in Time Magazine about how the name of a drug, substance, or additive can affect its popularity with the public. Xylitol, by the way, the name of a sweetener substitute, you see it used a lot in sugarless gum.

Hormones and Friendship

I met up with a woman here in Charlotte who contacted me via the Oprah.com message boards. Today we had lunch together, and I had an absolutely delightful time! Friendships and connecting with others is as important as balanced hormones, and today proved that. I was so excited to share with this lady how much bioidentical hormone replacement therapy has helped me and improved the quality of my life. I know my new friend is eagerly awaiting her appointment with a local doctor who has specialized training in bioidentical hormones. My next step is to get a Meetup.com group organized in the Charlotte area for women who would like to learn more about BHRT, to share resources and stories to encourage others. Today was a terrific day!

Moving nation from sick care towards wellness care

Associated Press article talks about how we do not have health care in America, we have disease care and it's going to further deteriorate our health care system if we don't shift toward preventive care.

I don't need your germs, thanks, I'm trying to cut down---

I really admire people who are regular visitors to their local gym or health club. I have been going to our local YMCA at least 5 days a week for over two years now, and it's one of the best thngs I have ever done for myself. However, on the rare occasions when I am sick, I do myself and everyone else a the Y a favour and I STAY HOME! I just got back from my Quick Fit class, which involves circuit training---one minute aerobics, one minute weight machine. One participant in the class was obviously not feeling well, and the exertion of the workout made her cough worse, and honestly, I hated touching the machines after she was on them. I just think it's more considerate to not spread an upper respiratory infection around unnecessarily. Thanks for listening.

Great letter!

Dr. Wulf H. Utian (do you not love that first name?) is/was the Editor in Chief of Menopause Managment (a journal for doctors). I ran across this article from the N/D 2007 issue, Time for Another Letter. It's as relevant now as then. Great reading.

Doctors take decider role---

Article in Today's USA Today about how medical decisions are made. Check it out by clicking this link.

Important Legislation Proposed by California Congresswoman!

I just posted the following entry on the Oprah.com website. The link to the full text of the legislation can by found by clicking here!



I ran across a mention of this on a blog, and did a little checking-----Representative Barbara Lee (D-CA) has introduced legislation to Congress (HR-584) that would mandate coverage of hormone replacement therapy by Medicare, Medicaid, and other health insurance programs. This could be very, very important. Since I cannot post the link (which is driving me nuts), Google in HR-584, Barbara Lee and Hormones, and the link to the full text of the bill should come up. I will post a link to it on my blog, which you will need to private message me to get that link! I hope Oprah's web people get a link to the legislation proposal on the site, it would be beneficial to a lot of women (and men!).
A word of caution, however, this will not solve the problem of not enough physicians in many parts of the country being knowlegeable enough to attend to the hormonal balance needs of their patients. To be honest, even if this legislation passes, many doctors who are knowledgeable about BHRT and use it with their patients will still not accept Medicare reimbursements, and I'm guessing that many more will not even consider Medicaid participation. Before you start screaming that doctors are in it just for the money, I know from personal experience that the rate of reimbursement for Medicare patients is ridiculously low, and the hoops a provider needs to jump through to get a paltry sum are simply not worth it. Many Medicare providers need to employ one person full time in their offices just to deal with the insurance hassles. Medicaid is even worse, and with the rising costs of malpractice insurance, and other costs associated with a medical practice (it is, above all else, running a small business), in many cases it is simply impossible for a practitioner to spend quality time with a patient and still keep his/her head above water financially. Add to it the mess the economy as a whole is in---- I went to a new primary care physician (I live in NC, and my hormone doctor is in CA----I needed someone local to get my blood work done) last week, and she was a half hour getting to me, and then spent 10 minutes with me ---- at a first appointment!!!!! I hate it, and thank goodness I am not treated that way by my hormone physician. He takes the time to listen to my symptoms, and trusts that I know my body better than anyone else. That 's the way medicine should be practiced, but the reality is that when an insurance company is involved, the chances of really being heard and treated holistically are slim and none.
However, the passage of this legislation is a start, and as so many of us have found, access to a provider who is willing and knowlegeable about BHRT is difficult and frustrating, so any step in the right direction gives us hope and the incentive to become better educated patients. Congresswoman Lee deserves a huge thank you note, and we need to get busy letting our representatives know how important this legislation is to millions of women and men!

Worldhealth.net Broadcasts Urgent Call to Doctors for Training to Meet the Demand for Bio-Identical Hormone Replacement Therapy (BHRT).

Here's the link to the article, now we need to hope doctors read it, heed the call and take action to become knowledgable on the use of bioidenticals to treat their patients! I have heard of so many women tell me that when they bring up the subject of BHRT to their primary care physicians or gynocologists, they are either scoffed at (I think largely because the practitioner doesn't know anything about BHRT) or are told that they will not prescribe it because they don't know anything about it (at least those practitioners are being honest with their patients).

Lest we forget the men ------

and I never want to forget men, I love men! This article from the Washington Post gives us a little insight into male menopause, known as andropause. Read it with or to someone you love!

From the Washington Post---

Want to live longer, then speak up! See, it's true, women who speak up to their doctors get better health care----as chronicled in this article in the Washington Post. Check it out, then make an appointment with your doctor to discuss bioidentical hormone replacement therapy!

The Bioidentical Hormone Debate: Are Bioidentical Hormones (Estradiol, Estriol, and Progesterone) Safer or More Efficacious than Commonly Used Synthet

This is a deep, complex article, and probably very difficult for the average lay person to digest. However, this might be a good article to print and take to your health care practitioner if you are trying to get him/her to work with you on BHRT. Good luck (you may have to copy and paste the link on this one!)


http://iacprx.convio.net/site/DocServer/HoltorfStudy_Jan09_PostgraduateMedicine.pdf?docID=5841

Life's Harmony Seminar Today in Charlotte

I attended a seminar today at Presbyterian Hospital in Charlotte, the subject was dealing with menopause. Let's just say the 2 1/2 hour presentation was underwhelming. There were only three participants (including me), and the program was a canned PowerPoint and a script read by the nurse practitioner who served as the facilitator. Less than one fourth of the presentation was on hormones, and "HRT" was lumped together without regard to the differences in bioidentical hormone replacement therapy and hormone replacement therapy with synthetic hormones. The most important thing I learned was the importance of an impassioned presenter. There is much work to be done on educating women about taking the initiative to research alternative therapies and protocols to find what is best for each situation.

Caught my eye----

I ran into a convenience store today to pick up a bottle of water on my way to knitting group, and the headline on Friday's USA Today was something to the effect that the cost of private/individual health care policies is soaring. Terrific, especially with so many people out of work and trying to pay for health insurance, even under COBRA provisions. I know part of the new stimulus package is supposed to help with rising costs, but it still places a tremendous burden on the (former) worker who no longer has a steady source of income. Here's the link to the article, worth reading. We need to work hard to make the government and the insurance companies take a closer look at bioidentical hormones. As most of us who take them can attest, the amount spent on BHRT is far less than the cost of the chronic health conditions, medications, etc cost pre-balanced hormones.

A quick clarification....

I am in no way associated with the book Holy Hormones by Dr. J. Ron Eaker. It's a Christian book on dealing with pms and menopause. I didn't even know it existed until today. I came up with the name HOLY HORMONES because everyone here in NC is evangelical about something, with me it's just hormones instead of religion.............but I truly admire and respect those who are faithful to their chosen faith, no matter what denomination.

BHRT Site

I ran across this site by Dr. Jeffrey Dach, click this link to check it out. He is quite pro-bioidentical hormone therapy.

Lots of useful information on this site....

I get updates from Twitter when a new person is "following" me (no, nothing like stalking!) , and when I clicked on the person's profile, this website for The Compounding Pharmacy came up. Great site, lots of neat articles and information, check it out. Enjoy!

Government Intrusion in Health Care--Bring it On!

Jane Gross of the New York Times wrote a measured, thoughtful piece on some of the implications of what is perceived by many as intrusion by the government into the health care system. Click on this link to read the article, it gives us all much to think about. Like it or not, many of us are going to have to face paying at least some out of pocket expenses for health care in the coming years, particularly if we make choices to pursue bioidentical hormones or other "alternative medicine" modalities. I know that when I moved to NC, three practices that I called trying to get into a primary care physician were fruitless because the practices did not accept Medicare, my primary form of insurance. It's very frightening, but I know how low the reimbursements are for Medicare, and although I know it isn't my fault, I feel ashamed that a physician is being paid so little to care for me under the Medicare system.

Regular exercise late in life------

(now wait a minute, what do they mean by late in life?) helps reduce breast cancer risk. Here's the link to the full article on Yahoo news

The Doctors TV Show to Feature Hormones and Aging

Full disclosure, I do not watch this show, but I heard a promo on TV just a few minutes ago that February 19 will feature menopause, hormone balance (think it's going to be BHRT?) and "reversing the aging progess". Oh, please. Anyway, here is the link to the show to find out where it's being shown in your area.

Seminar on Menopause in Charlotte, NC

If you live in or around the Charlotte, NC area, Presbyterian Healthcare/Hospital in Uptown is presenting a seminar entitled Life's Symphony, Bringing Harmony to Menopause" on Saturday, February 21 from 930-noon, in the Women's Health Education Classroom on the ground floor. The cost of the seminar is $25, and you do need to preregister - call 704-384-4949. I will be there, so be sure to look me up if you do attend!

A radio broadcast on bioidentical homone replacement therapy

I thought this might be of interest to those of you who are interested in learning more about bioidentical hormone replacement therapy. I've been corresponding with Terri Coburn, who is a new patient consultation specialist for the Hotze Health and Wellness Center in Katy, TX. She told me that the Center has a one hour radio broadcast on an am station in TX, and that it can be accessed via the Internet. The show is on 12-1 pm Central Standard Time (1-2 pm EST). I've listened to it several times over the last couple weeks, and I have truly enjoyed it. There are three doctors who do the radio broadcasts, so far I have only heard Dr. Hotze, but am looking forward to hearing the other doctors too. To access the show, click on this link that will take you to the Hotze Health and Wellness Center website, then on the right side you will see a box to click to take you to the radio station site. When you get to that site, look in the right hand column and you will see a small box that says "listen live now", click it, and your computer will do whatever it needs to do to bring the audio broadcast to you. Cool, huh? Take care, everyone, have a great day!

Do you think we will get any funding for BHRT?????

U.S. to review effectiveness of treatments
Stimulus will fund research on what works best against specific illnesses.

By ROBERT PEAR New York Times
Posted: Monday, Feb. 16, 2009

WASHINGTON The $787 billion economic stimulus bill approved by Congress will, for the first time, provide substantial amounts of money for the federal government to compare the effectiveness of different treatments for the same illness.

The legislation provides $1.1 billion for researchers to compare drugs, medical devices, surgery and other ways of treating specific conditions. It creates a council of up to 15 federal employees to coordinate the research and to advise President Obama and Congress on how to spend the money.

The program responds to a growing concern that doctors have little or no solid evidence of the value of many treatments. Supporters of the research hope it will eventually save money by discouraging the use of costly, ineffective treatments.

Spending on health care totaled $2.2 trillion, or 16 percent of the nation's gross domestic product, in 2007, and the Congressional Budget Office estimates that, without any changes in federal law, it will rise to 25 percent of the GDP in 2025.

Dr. Elliott Fisher of Dartmouth Medical School said the new money would help researchers try to answer questions like these: Is it better to treat severe neck pain with surgery or a combination of physical therapy, exercise and medications? What is the best combination of “talk therapy” and prescription drugs to treat mild depression?

How do drugs and “watchful waiting” compare with surgery as a treatment for leg pain that results from blockage of the arteries in the lower legs? Is it better to treat chronic heart failure by medications alone or by drugs and home monitoring of a patient's blood pressure and weight?
Britain, France and other countries have bodies that assess health technologies and compare the effectiveness, and sometimes the cost, of different treatments.

Hillary Clinton, as a senator, was an early champion of “comparative effectiveness research.” As Congress translated the idea into legislation, it became a lightning rod for pharmaceutical and medical-device lobbyists, who fear the findings will be used by insurers or the government to deny coverage for more expensive treatments.

Republican lawmakers complained that the legislation would allow the federal government to intrude in a person's health care by enforcing clinical guidelines and treatment protocols.
The money will be immediately available to the Health and Human Services Department but can be spent over several years. Some will be used for systematic reviews of published scientific studies; some will be used for clinical trials making head-to-head comparisons of different treatments.
“The new research will eventually save money and lives,” said Rep. Pete Stark, D-Calif. In the absence of information on what works, he said, patients are put at risk and billions of dollars are spent on ineffective or unnecessary treatments.

Interesting Website

I ran across this Women In Balance website yesterday while doing some research. It might be worth checking out, it has a large list of medical providers, for those of you seeking a doctor to help you with bioidentical hormone replacement therapy. Let me know what you think of it!

Estrogen Tied to Restless Legs in Pregnancy

Note from Andrea: Not just pregnancy! I had Restless Leg Syndrome (drives you nuts trying to sleep) before I started taking bioidentical hormones, and within three days of starting the progesterone cream, no more RLS!

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – A study indicates that estrogen plays an important role in triggering restless legs syndrome (RLS) during pregnancy, researchers from Germany report in the journal Sleep.

"We, for the first time, have quite direct evidence that RLS in pregnancy ... is obviously directly related to hormonal changes (estrogens)," Dr. Thomas Pollmächer, principal investigator on the study, noted in an email to Reuters Health.

In the study, ten pregnant women with RLS and nine pregnant healthy "controls" provided blood samples and underwent overnight sleep-lab studies during the third trimester of pregnancy and again three months after delivery.

Eight of the ten RLS patients reported experiencing restless-legs symptoms before the present pregnancy, and all ten described worsening symptoms during pregnancy.

According to the investigators, women with RLS showed significantly higher estrogen levels during pregnancy compared to the control group. Other pregnancy-related hormone levels did not differ significantly between the two groups.

Estrogens are so-called neuroactive steroid hormones; they are important not only for conception and pregnancy but also act directly in the brain, noted Pollmächer, at the Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry in Munich.

This finding in pregnant women might help us to understand RLS in general, he said, "and ultimately lead to an additional route for the development of treatment."

SOURCE: Sleep, February 1, 2009.

Open Letter to Oprah by Virgina Hopkins Medical Watch

Lots of good points made in this letter, for the full transcript, click here!

What is bioidentical hormone therapy?

Which is it, testosterone or Harlequin?

I had to include a link to this article (since Valentine's Day is coming up), enjoy! (and for the record, I do take testosterone, I do NOT read Harlequin romance novels!)

PDF Document on Biodientical Hormone Replacement Therapy

I just found this article on BHRT on The Stanley Apothocary website (the pharmacy is located in Charlotte). It's good to read different perspectives on BHRT, I'm just putting this document out there for you to add to your research. Have a great day!

A not too flattering protrayal of Oprah and Suzanne Somers

This article was forwarded to me this afternoon, and it really slams Oprah Winfrey's show and how it treated the subject of bioidentical hormone replacement therapy. I really am more into listening to what doctors who understand and practice BHRT have to say.

New Study Reveals Bioidentical Hormone Replacement Therapy Reduces Breast Cancer Risk Compared to Standard HRT

Source: PR Newswire

Torrance, CA (PRWEB) February 9, 2009 -- Bioidentical hormone replacement therapy is both more effective and has greater health benefits for women suffering with symptoms of menopause than hormone replacement therapy with synthetic hormones. Synthetic forms of hormone replacement therapy prescribe substances such as Premarin, Provera and Prempro and present real health risks with increased risks of breast cancer, stroke and heart attack. The most comprehensive analysis to date, published in the Postgraduate Medical Journal, a leading peer-reviewed publication for practicing clinicians, showed that bioidentical hormones are associated with reduced health risks and are more efficacious than their synthetic counterparts. Conducted by a leading expert in hormone replacement, Kent Holtorf, M.D., medical director of the Holtorf Medical Group Center for Hormone Imbalance, Hypothyroidism and Fatigue, in Torrance, California (http://www.holtorfmed.com/), the paper reviewed and evaluated results from more than 200 physiological and clinical studies.
“A thorough review of the medical literature clearly supports the claim that bioidentical hormones have some distinctly different, often opposite, physiological effects to those of their synthetic hormones,” said Dr. Holtorf, whose practice treats more than 7,000 patients each year. “The medical literature demonstrates that bioidentical hormone replacement therapy is highly effective and carries a reduced, rather than an increased, risk of breast cancer and cardiovascular disease.”
The review also showed that patients undergoing bioidentical HRT were less likely to experience sleep problems, anxiety, depression and cognitive effects – common side effects of synthetic hormones and are associated with a reduced risk for breast cancer and superior cardiovascular protection.
“While larger, randomized clinical studies are needed, the review of current medical literature demonstrates that bioidentical hormones are a safer, highly effective option for women, and any physician that is practicing evidence-based medicine should be using bioidentical hormone replacement for their patients,” said Dr. Holtorf.
Synthetic HRT preparations, which are the most commonly prescribed method of HRT in the United States, are comprised of pregnant horse hormones that are not found in the human body or synthetic hormones that have physiologic effects that mimic or mirror the natural estrogen or progesterone effects in the body. In contrast, bioidentical hormone replacement contains molecules that are exact replicas of the endogenous estrogens and progesterone found in the body and, as such, have distinctly different physiological effects than their synthetic counterparts.
Bioidentical hormone replacement typically includes the two estrogens naturally found in a woman’s body, estriol and estradiol, along with natural progesterone while the most common synthetic HRT includes Premarin (conjugated equine estrogen, or CEE) and Provera (medroxyprogesterone, or MPA), among others. Awareness of the benefits of bioidentical hormone replacement has been increased with Oprah’s series on bioidentical hormones, including a segment with guest Suzanne Somers. For more information or for a copy of the study go to http://www.holtorfmed.com/.

Hormones, Health and Happiness

I've been corresponding over the weekend with Terri Coburn, who works at the Hotze Wellness Center in TX. She posted this "book report", and it was so well done, I asked her permission to share it with you....enjoy!

Where I work we continually read medical books. Each month each staff member must read the book that has been selected for the month and write a book report on it. Therefore, I have copied my book report on Hormones, Health, and Happiness below.

Hormones, Health, and Happiness - The Whole Story, By Terri A. Coburn

Hormones Health & Happiness by Steven F. Hotze, M.D. is a book that provides what can turn out to be life-changing information for individuals who are "sick and tired of being sick and tired." Hormones, Health, and Happiness is a must read for those individuals who have been experiencing symptoms such as fatigue, memory problems, depression, headaches, weight gain, joint and muscle pain, insomnia and menstrual problems for which they have been unable to receive appropriate diagnosis and treatment.

In Hormones, Health, and Happiness Dr. Hotze methodically puts the pieces together for those who have been puzzled (sometimes for years or decades) over what is causing their health to decline and the quality of their life to disintegrate. Using the information provided by Dr. Hotze individuals can come to an understanding of the science behind their health problems and for the first time seek appropriate treatment to regain their health and to enable them to enjoy a better quality of life.

In his book Hormones, Health, and Happiness Steven Hotze tells "the whole story." He explains how hormones decline over time, how this decline negatively affects an individual's health and in turn their happiness. Dr. Hotze provides us with extraordinarily valuable insight about misunderstood symptoms commonly experienced by many women and men primarily in midlife.

Discontent to provide his readers with medical information only, Dr. Hotze goes the extra mile to engage his readers with his personal experiences and in turn provides us with the whole story of hormones, health and happiness.

What's Included in the Whole Story of Hormones, Health, and Happiness?

Personal Information

In Hormones, Health, and Happiness Steven Hotze takes the reader back in time and allows him/her to accompany Dr. Hotze on his path from "mainstream physician to wellness practitioner". In telling his story, Dr. Hotze's transparency creates in the reader a feeling of genuineness about the author and in turn helps to extend his credibility. As the reader reads about Dr. Hotze's experiences, he/she feels like cheering him on and is proud of his discoveries and successes. The author is genuine, therefore the information rings true.

An Excellent Presentation

Dr. Hotze uses a narrative writing approach coupled with medical explanations to educate the reader while keeping him/her engaged with personal stories. The personal aspect of the author's writing style functions to endear him to the reader and therefore serves as an aspect that holds the reader's attention. Furthermore, Dr. Hotze's personal approach to revealing medical evidence lends credibility to his findings and explanations.

Dr. Hotze helps the reader to understand what could be complicated medical information by using individual stories to relate medical symptoms and the resolution of these symptoms through natural means. Individual's stories (such as Maggie's story, Richard's story and Kathryn's story) provide effective illustrations of common medical problems experienced by women and men in midlife.

Hormones, Health, and Happiness uses charts appropriately to highlight important information such as the effects of estrogen and the effects of progesterone. Diagrams are also used in the book to illustrate medical concepts and provide greater understanding about how the body functions in relation to these concepts.

Each chapter effectively organizes the book's contents, identifies information and advances the story. Subtitles or headings are used to divide each chapter into distinguishable parts. Additionally, Hormones, Health, and Happiness is organized in such a fashion that it is not only informational, but entertaining as well.

2. What Your Doctor May Not Tell You About Breast Cancer by John Lee, M.D. Dr. Lee is considered a pioneer in the bioidentical hormone field. His book examines problems associated with conventional approaches to breast cancer and offers natural solutions.

3. The Hormone Solution by Thierry Hertoghe, M.D. Dr. Hertoghe explains that there are actually over 100 hormones in our body! His book lists specific symptoms that indicate specific hormonal deficiencies. It is well written and easy to read. He also discusses the use of growth hormone. You should see how great he looks for his age or any age for that matter! Another "the proof is in the pudding" example.

I feel I would be remiss if I did not also provide my top picks for medical books (not specifically about hormones) since many factors affect our health.

1. The Hidden Truth About Cholesterol Lowering Drugs by Shane Ellison, M.Sc. No one should EVER take cholesterol lowering/statin drugs. This book will explain why.

2. Statin Drugs, Side Effects by Duane Graveline, M.D. Another great book on the dangers of cholesterol lowering drugs.

3. Detoxify or Die by Sherry Rogers, M.D. Dr. Rogers explains why our bodies can be full of toxins and how to get rid of them. Her prime recommendation is the use of a FAR infrared sauna. My husband and I are purchasing one at the end of this month. We realize that by taking bioidentical hormones we are replacing what is missing, but we also want to take out what is toxic. (If a person sweats a lot through exercise this would not be needed; however, if you are hypothyroid you may not sweat as easily as others.)

4. Health Myths Exposed by Shane Ellison, M.Sc. The title says it all. Mr. Ellison's book teaches us that conventional medicine is fraught with dangerous misinformation.

Wyeth Wealth or Patient Health?

That's the question raised by Dr. Ali in this article ------ very interesting reading!

Here is a link to a site that might be worth looking into---

This site is involved with debunking some of the myths relating to compounding pharmacies (which is where most of us get out BHRT). Check it out~

I sort of thought this would be obvious---

but apparently not. Click here to read an article on how low sex drive affects the quality of a woman's life.