Are Bioidentical Hormones Natural? Thoughts from the Other Side of the Issue from Joette

Hello friends, today my favorite homeopath, Joette Calabrese, is sharing her view on the hot-button question:  Are Bioidentical Hormones Natural and safe?  Remember where we left off last time?  Is Bioidentical Hormone Replacement Therapy Safe? Plus My Menopause Update and Breast Cancer Rants — in that post Elizabeth makes a case for the necessity of bioidentical hormones.  And here is my original post on the topic where I share what was going on with my crazy hormones:  Are Extreme Menopause Symptoms Normal? Should We Embrace Our Muffin Top?  Also I posted some info for men:  Testosterone Replacement Therapy for Andropause — Should Men Have Their Testosterone Levels Checked?  

I'll share a quick update on my own menopausal journey…  It's been WEIRD how all over the place it has been, but I guess that's how it is for most women?  Not in a terrible way, it hasn't really been that big a deal, but more in an unpredictable way.  I went to a natural doc to just see where my hormone levels were at, and by the time I got in to see her, my hormones and cycles had normalized again (so I never went on anything), and they stayed fairly normal for almost a year.  Right now I'm in the middle of another long cycle, but NO menopausal symptoms this time, I feel great!  I continue to consume saturated fats liberally, as I have for years now, so maybe that helps, as Joette says below.  

Anyway, since I feel strongly about sharing BOTH sides of important issues with all of you, so you can do your own research, here's Joette with her views on bioidentical hormones…

In our pursuit of health and hormonal balance, are we better served by the slow, steady approach of gentle, natural methods, or the mad dash approach of heavy-handed hormone supplements?

At this point, most of us are very familiar with the problems caused by synthetic hormone replacement therapy (HRT).  We’ve read the articles, witnessed our loved ones’ problems, or even suffered the side-effects and complications ourselves.

News reports state that conventional HRT can double the risk of cancer (not to mention other serious problems!) even many years after hormone treatments have stopped.  As a result of these news stories, scientific studies and personal anecdotal evidence, fewer and fewer women are using conventional synthetic HRT.

However, women who oppose the use of synthetic hormones often fall prey to the lure of “bio-identical” hormones.  After all, if they are identical to the hormones our body produces, what could be wrong with them?

On the surface, bio-identical hormones sound much safer but consider this:

• First, “bio-identical” hormones are not really natural, in the sense of being formed by nature.  Unlike the hormones produced by human tissue in response to our body’s needs, bio-identical hormones are derived from plants, and they undergo a synthetic processing procedure to make them “bio-identical.”  Wild yam bio-identical progesterone is progesterone which has been derived from a compound found in wild yams called diosgenin, which is then synthesized into progesterone in a lab.  The end product should not be confused with whole wild yam.  Yes, they have the molecular structure of human hormones, as far as we can tell by current technological means, but as we have seen with synthetic vitamins, just because it looks the same to us, that doesn’t mean the body recognizes it and is able to utilize it in the same way it does with molecules formed the natural way.

• Second, hormone replacement therapy, whether using synthesized hormones or bio-identical hormones, can cause cancer or worsen some types of hormone-dependent cancers.  Even our body’s own estrogen in the wrong balance can be carcinogenic.

• Third, and most important of all, our body’s hormonal system is a delicate arrangement dependent on a complex feedback system involving the pituitary gland, hypothalamus, thyroid, adrenal glands and other organs; a virtual symphony of intelligence.  The introduction of hormones that the body has not produced can seriously upset this delicate balancing system, producing further problems.  It’s like turning on Walmart Muzak during a Mendelssohn concert.

“Giving one hormone always affects others, and may affect many areas of physical functioning,” Lawrence Wilson, MD says.

“The feedback system is quite complex and not well understood.  It is difficult, if not impossible, to adequately monitor the system to know how much one needs on a daily or hourly basis.”

According to Lawrence Wilson, MD, in his article MINERAL AVAILABILITY AND UNAVAILABILITY , “The bioavailability of a mineral or other chemical element often depends upon such things as the valence, spin, mass, atomic number, isotopes, and other physical and chemical properties of the mineral.” This is above and beyond the mere matter of molecular structure.  The direction, velocity and characteristics of spin of an atom or molecule affect its biological properties, and how the body reacts to it.  Wilson writes “Chemicals made by our bodies always have a D or an L spin.  All man made products have a combination of D and L forms that is difficult to impossible to separate out. This may sound a little esoteric, but this difference in spin causes many differences in the biological activity of the substance.”

So essentially, what he is saying is that even though a substance made in a lab may look identical to us on the molecular level, there are various other ways in which it still may be vastly different from substances as they are found in nature, or as made by our own bodies.  This is why, Wilson writes, “natural food, for example, cannot be easily duplicated in a chemical laboratory.”

Ray Peat, PhD, an expert in hormones, states that proponents of bioidentical estrogen hormone treatment push the “idea that these are safer than synthetics. They are sometimes contrasted to the ‘horse estrogen’ in Premarin, as if they are better because they are like the estrogens that people produce. But it was exactly the normal human estrogens, produced by the ovaries, that led to the basic discoveries about the toxicity of estrogen, its ability to produce cancer in any organ, to cause seizures, blood clots, birth defects, accelerated aging, etc.”  Peat, and the doctors and scientists who agree with him, say that it is very rare for any woman to be deficient in estrogen, and that even when blood or saliva tests show low levels of estrogen it is still likely that there will be high levels of estrogen bound in the tissues.  According to Cancer Research UK, “High levels of our own natural hormones can increase our risk of cancer.”  If our tissue bound estrogen levels are already high, and we add even more bioidentical estrogen, this poses a serious cancer risk.

This is where you might wonder why so many women have thyroid problems after tinkering with synthetic hormones over the years.

Hormones are supposed to be produced inside the body, in complex combinations, and in quantities that vary every minute of the day and night.  No artificial replacement can successfully match our body’s natural abilities.  Doesn’t it make much more sense to help our bodies heal themselves?

So, what’s a woman to do if she suspects her problems are hormonally based?

The first thing to do is to stop overwhelming your body with artificial hormones. That includes hormonal birth control, HRT, and bioidenticals.  Try to live as drug-free as possible. Eat a natural diet (to avoid the toxins and hormones in the food supply — whole, organic foods are best) with plenty of saturated fats!  Cholesterol is the natural precursor for most hormones.

Below are some skeletal homeopathic and nutritional solutions to some menopausal problems.  I say skeletal, because although these Banerji Protocols are wonderfully efficacious, they may also need to be fleshed out with other homeopathic remedies.

That’s why I’m delighted to share that my staff and I have concluded a long stretch of collating and organizing the most powerful homeopathic protocols I know for female conditions. (More below on the course details.)  Many of them are Banerji Protocols, others are mine that I have gleaned throughout years of practice and have personally used myself.

By the way, the Banerji Protocols are a new system of medicine, in which specific Homeopathic Medicines are prescribed for specific diagnosis of disease.  I call it “Practical Homeopathy” because it  allows anyone the ability to utilize Homeopathy and cure themselves and family.  Universally, it offers  an unprecedented safe, effective, reproducible, medicine where it belongs, in the hands of families. Watch out allopathy!

Should a course not be of interest to you at this time, at least consider the following:

1. Ammonium carbonicum 200C, taken every other day is a method I learned from Dr. Pratip Banerji in Calcutta and have seen remarkable, but more importantly, reproducible results for overall ailments resulting from menopause.
2. Sulphur 30, twice daily if hot flashes plague.
3. Then there’s coconut oil, pastured butter, lard and tallow.  If 1-3 Tablespoons of any of these fats are added to the daily routine, many women find that their hormonal problems melt away. (This is the way I treated my symptoms years ago and it worked like a charm.)

There are other remedies that can be more specific, depending on how symptoms present, but the above have become a small handful of my go-to’s for basic menopausal issues.

So here’s the upshot.

While hormone replacement “therapy” can relieve certain symptoms, it is far from natural.  It is a drug therapy that is an allopathic, symptomatic approach with a good marketing strategy. It is based on manipulating and covering up symptoms, only to cause deeper, more sobering problems later.

Haven’t we all had enough by now?

Do it the right way and stop messing with more pharmaceutical synthetics.  If your symptoms indicate an imbalance in your hormones, homeopathy can show your body the way back to health.  The process may be slow, but like the tortoise racing the hare, slow and steady really does win the race.

There is a solution is at hand. In fact, it's right in your capable hands.

For deeper discussion of hormonal problems and many other issues that plague women, consider my new course – Feminopathy: How You Can Correct Female Ailments Using Safe, Inexpensive and Effective Homeopathy.

Mood swings, PMS, urinary tract infections, hot flashes, varicose veins, menopause, osteoporosis, breast cancer, uterine fibroids, morning sickness, cramps, cold feet…  It's fun being a woman, right?  🙂

CLICK HERE to watch a short video that will inspire you to learn how to successfully treat yourself and the beloved females in your life.

More you might like:

• Check out my FAVORITE gadget to help my HOT FLASHES:  a wireless remote control that I use for flipping on my fan at night so I don't have to get up when I'm having another flash!
  
• I've heard that many women get relief from hot flashes by drinking 2 Tablespoons of ACV in 6-8 ounces of water am & pm–let me know if it works for you!
• Complete index of natural remedies — look to see if there's help for whatever YOU are struggling with.
• Complete index of posts on hormones and feminine issues.

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