By Shane “The People’s Chemist” Ellison

I wish medicine wasn’t so damn complicated.  If it weren’t, people would see how Big Pharma cleverly plays prescription cupid to hook the masses into an antidepressant romance.  Fueled by dreamy ads, sexy actors, and medical experts who get paid to give pharmaceutical fellatio, the romance has grown into a full-fledged orgy. 

Antidepressants are among the best selling drugs, yet not one single diagnostic test supports their effectiveness.  Romance makes for great business.  But, are patients getting the love they deserve or are they facing another life threatening disaster akin to the Vioxx fiasco (killing an estimated 30,000 people who could have just used aspirin)?  Perhaps the chemical facts behind antidepressants will give way to reality and help Americans sever ties to the deadly affair.

Life can be a bitch at times.  Everyone knows it and Big Pharma profits from it.  To answer our cries for happiness, they sell us a slew of molecules ripe with supposed happy atoms purported to elicit wanton pleasure.  It’s a pipe dream.  Like a parent who doesn’t like their daughter dating drug reps or psychiatrists, the FDA started using Black Box Warnings to inform us that, “Antidepressants, compared to placebo, increase the risk of suicidal thinking and behavior in children in short term studies.”  Psychiatrists quickly refuted this.

Massaging our fears, Dr. McAllister-Williams of the Institute of Neuroscience at Newcastle University publicly insisted that “I believe they work and have an acceptable risk: benefit ratio for many patients.”  Taking his cue, psychiatrists from around the world did what they do best:  Ignore scientific ethics and get on their knees for Big Pharma. 

In a vulgar display of medical ineptitude, prescribing habits surged.  From 1996 to 2006, use of antidepressants increased 50% among children, 73% among adults and a ghastly 100% among the elderly - so much for Black Box Warnings.  Why not rename them Profit Warnings?

As prescribing habits have surged, so has antidepressant reality. 

The so called disease of a “serotonin” chemical imbalance among depressed patients has never been proven.  The Journal of Psychiatry and Neuroscience recently reminded doctors that, “Brain serotonin cannot be directly measured” and that even in the deceased, “Serotonin levels are unstable, within 24 hours of death.”  Therefore, “direct evidence that serotonin is low in depressed persons is unavailable.”

Panicked, psychiatry hypothesized yet another cause of a chemical imbalance:  Bad genes.  Apparently, select people (basically anyone with a heartbeat) have a defective gene that makes them susceptible to depression – and drugs, drugs and more drugs can save them from the scourge of sadness.  Bio-babble like “alleles” and “transporter genes” were thrown around like condoms at a high school pep rally.  The jargon confused everyone.  And in their dizzy stupor, most were convinced that it must mean one thing: antidepressants are the Holy Grail to attaining happiness.  Psychiatry was once again renewed with the stench of pharmaceutical pheromones.  But it didn’t last. 

Thanks to scientific methodology, the industry was slapped with the facts.  The New York Times delivered the blow and wrote, “One of the most celebrated findings in modern psychiatry — that a single gene helps determine one’s risk of depression in response to a divorce, a lost job or another serious reversal — has not held up to scientific scrutiny.” 

You don’t need science to disprove the antiquated, reductionist propaganda surrounding the chemical imbalance theory.  You only need the common sense of a child. 

The human brain floats in thousands, billions or maybe even trillions of brain chemicals – all working in orchestra like unison to confer proper brain function.  Even serotonin exists not as a single molecule, but instead as an ever changing chemical cascade of 5-htp, niacin, L-tryptophan, quinolinate, kynurenine and more.  You’d have to be Paris Hilton or a psychiatrist to miss this logic and adhere to the simplistic serotonin imbalance theory. 

With no such thing as a chemical imbalance or “depression inducing genes,” psychiatry did what any organization would do in the face of impending demise:  Get the U.S Government to do their dirty work. 

Today, an insidious collusion between Big Pharma and Big Government is doling out drugs paid for by our tax dollars to foster children, to our U.S. Troops, and to the elderly at breakneck speeds.   With so many being drugged, a harsh reality is emerging: Antidepressant romance fuels “premedicated murder.”

While researching my new book, Over-The-Counter Natural Cures, I uncovered stories of horrific suicide and rage that occurred after being medicated with antidepressants.  But none more disturbing than the Chris Wood story.  Doped up on his prescribed cocktail of antidepressants – all three of them – he shot his 33 year old wife Francie and their three children – Chandler, 5, Gavin, 4, and Fiona, 2. Shockingly, in his drug damaged mind, they weren’t “dead enough” and gruesome decapitation followed.  Afterwards, he picked up a shotgun and killed himself.  This isn’t an isolated incident.

Among our US troop, suicide and rage is at an all time high – in direct correlation to mass prescribing.  The same trend exists among teens as seen by the ever growing act of spraying classmates with bullets.  Psychiatrists don’t seem to be alarmed with these trends, or at all interested in seeing the obvious correlations. In an attempt to “leave no American un-medicated,” they encourage subjective mental screening tests for the rest of us as a means of converting healthy people into psychiatric patients.

Pyschiatry wants to position antidepressants as the cure for the premedicated violence.  So to counter the growing evidence that their drugs are the cause, they insist that, “The only evidence that would be acceptable is the demonstration in a double blind trial that a difference in suicide rates was consistently seen. There is no evidence at all for a differential suicide attempt rate with antidepressants. Suicidal thoughts are an integral part of depression.”  Here comes the backhand. 

Writing for the Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons, Dr. Joel Kauffman elucidates that combined clinical trials on antidepressants show five times the risk of suicide among the treated compared to placebo.

The suicide/aggression trend is not inexplicable from a chemistry viewpoint.  Using the latest cloning techniques and laboratory methods, it’s been shown that antidepressants elicit “neurotransmitter hijacking.”  This may be partially responsible for the mental state that causes a person to gruesomely murder their loved ones, then put a shotgun to their chin and pull the trigger.

Once swallowed, antidepressants sail past the blood brain barrier and congregate on top of “neurotransmitter recyclers.”  This can prevent the cellular “recycling factories” from activating previously used neurotransmitters like serotonin or any of its chemical cousins.  With nowhere to go, the inactive brain compounds get “hijacked” by recycling facilities found in other regions of the brain.  This would be similar to a square peg being shoved into a round hole.  As shown by Baylor College of Medicine, the recycling facilities of key neurotransmitters, like dopamine (round), begin to retrieve serotonin (square) into dopamine vesicles.  A dastardly consequence ensues.

Commenting on the hijacking, CNN publicized that, “Antidepressant drugs actually create a perilous brain imbalance.”  And Psychiatric Times hypothesized that blocking transporters on cell bodies could drop neurotransmitter levels in the synapse.  Is it true? 

To measure if neurotransmitter hijacking leads to an empty synapse, you can simply look for clinical manifestations of poor neurotransmitter function (like Parkinson’s disease, which is due to poor output of dopamine) among antidepressant users.  As far back as 1995, the American Journal of Medicine showed that 37% of all prescriptions for the treatment of Parkinson’s disease are due to Psychiatric drug use.  Case closed.  These antidepressant actions are the exact opposite of the claimed “neurotransmitter boosting” actions purported by most doctors!  

Once neurotransmitter hijacking takes place, pharmacopossession (due to poor neurotransmitter function) may also set in.  As patients come fully under the spell of antidepressants, the brain can become so scrambled that all normal reality and reason are overwritten by a new confusing and violent agenda.  A new personality arises – one with homicidal and suicidal tendencies.  And for an ever increasing number of antidepressant users, these tendencies are manifesting as premedicated murder – the deliberate killing as a result of being medicated in advance. 

Unbalanced by drugs, the brain of an antidepressant user faces a slew of mind altering outcomes.  What kind?  What was Chris Wood thinking and feeling prior to committing premedicated murder of his family while pharmacopossessed?  To answer these questions just go back to the beginning of this article and read the “profit warning” that comes with every Prozac prescription. It’s all there in black and white.

Even though the FDA “compels” drug companies to warn the public about antidepressant risks, their “death grip” on the medical industry has kept doctors and patients from knowing the real extent of the danger.  Dr. Catherine DeAngelis, editor of the Journal of the American Medical Association said that “Pharma’s influence on medicine is so blatant now you’d have to be deaf, blind and dumb not to see it.”  I guess psychiatrists are all three since they continue to ignore science and romance the masses with promises of happiness courtesy of antidepressants.

Before your doctor gives you an antidepressant, ask him to read you the Black Box Warning that comes with your prescription.  This will ensure that the potential romance quickly gives way to reality and that you don’t succumb to premedicated murder.  

About the Author
Ellison’s entire career has been dedicated to the study of molecules; how they give life and how they take from it. He was a two-time recipient of the prestigious Howard Hughes Medical Institute Research Grant for his research in biochemistry and physiology. He is a bestselling author of Over-The-Counter Natural Cures, which helps you live healthier and pay less with $10 lifesaving supplements for under $10!  Get a free chapter now – cancer truths that will save your life – at http://www.otcnaturalcures.com.

I have a healthy skepticism of lab tests, based on my own clinical experience with these tests. The same blood samples from several of my patients have been sent to different labs for measurement of their thyroid hormone levels, and the results have varied by as much as 50 percent. The most that can be said about a lab test is that it is a snapshot of what is going on in the blood at one moment in time. However, thyroid hormone blood levels vary throughout the day and their actions are affected by disease processes, prescription drugs, other hormones that the body produces, and even environmental chemicals.

Also, the “normal laboratory range” of thyroid hormones is an arbitrary value, defined statistically as plus or minus two standard deviations from the mean. This so-called normal range is as wide as the Grand Canyon. In practice, it means that approximately 90–95 percent of the population will always fall within the normal range. However, I assure you that 90–95 percent of the population does not feel healthy, well, and full of energy.

Not only that, but the arbitrarily defined “normal” value has actually changed over time. Between 1991 and 2002, the normal laboratory range for the free thyroxine (free T4) blood test was lowered by 15 percent, from 0.90–2.00 ng/dl to 0.76–1.70 ng/dl.

What this means is that an individual in 1991 who had a free T4 value of 0.80 ng/dl would have been classified by a conventional doctor as hypothyroid, but an individual with an identical T4 value in 2002 would be told that her thyroid function was in the normal range and would be denied treatment. Yet these two patients, separated in time by eleven years, likely would have had numerous symptoms in common—symptoms that are highly responsive to thyroid hormone replacement therapy.

Declining Hormones = Declining Health

Leaving aside the problems of conflicting lab test results and variable definitions of what is “normal,” there is another reason why lab tests should not be the sole factor in determining whether an individual has hypothyroidism: thyroid hormone levels decline with age, with predictable effects on energy and well-being. It is the relative decline in your thyroid hormone level that matters, not your level compared to some arbitrarily defined standard.

Let’s say that as a healthy twenty-five-year-old, your free T4 level was 1.60 ng/dl—the high end of the “normal” range. By the age of fifty, your free T4 level might be as low as 0.80 ng/dl—the low end of the “normal” range. This represents a 50 percent decline in the thyroid hormone that is available for use by your cells. Since thyroid hormones enable your cells to generate energy, is it any wonder that as your thyroid hormone level declines, your energy level also decreases?

If a doctor relied solely on a lab test to evaluate your thyroid function, he would tell you that your condition is “normal”—but you wouldn’t feel normal with 50 percent less thyroid hormone. To ensure that you have plenty of energy and feel healthy, your doctor should strive to maintain your thyroid hormone level in the range that is optimal for you.

This is the approach I take with my patients. Yes, I do perform blood tests, primarily to measure free thyroxine (free T4) and to determine whether thyroid antibodies are present. I also look at the total cholesterol and LDL (“bad” cholesterol) levels because these are often elevated in patients with hypothyroidism. However, my primary criterion for diagnosis—and for evaluating the effects of treatment—is how the patient feels.

If you came to my office with symptoms indicative of hypothyroidism, even though your thyroid hormone levels might be in the so-called “normal” range, I would likely offer you a therapeutic trial of thyroid hormone replacement. I would start you on a very low dose and then slowly increase this until your symptoms diminish.

An individual with hypothyroidism must be treated gently, like a car on a cold winter’s day. When you get into a cold car and start the engine, it often knocks. Cold air comes out of the heat vents. If you gun the accelerator, you might throw a rod in the engine. Instead, you let the engine warm up slowly and then take the car on the road. Likewise, in the use of thyroid supplementation, small doses are prescribed initially and increased gradually until the symptoms are relieved. The final dose varies from patient to patient.

The National Cancer Institute estimates that 38% of women will be diagnosed with cancer in the U.S. during their lifetime and other scientists predict a much higher percentage. Today, about 600,000 US women are diagnosed with cancer each year.  Breast cancer is the leading cause.

Women continue to promote “pink” associated with runs, walks, fund raisers and fashion shows that raise millions of dollars for the “cure”, yet the incidence of breast cancer have been increasing the past 40 years. 

On the brighter side, evidence shows that the number of women diagnosed with breast cancer abruptly began falling after the Women’s Health Initiative study in 2002 reported the direct link of the use of synthetic hormone replacement therapy (HRT) to an increased risk of heart disease, breast cancer, dementia, stroke and Alzheimer’s disease.

Donald Berry at the University of Texas who led the analysis published in The New England Journal of Medicine can hardly believe it and states, “But it really looks like it’s a story that holds together.”

Choosing NOT to use HRT is in every woman’s best interest. 

Cancer institutions across the country tout new technology for treatments and detection devices while assuring women they are in good hands.  Tamoxifen, a very popular drug prescribed to prevent the recurrence of breast cancer promotes uterine cancer, strokes, blood clots and eye disorders.  Women are told not to worry because a hysterectomy is a viable solution.  Interestingly, Tamoxifen is on the US Government’s list of known human carcinogens. 

Chemotherapy, the drug of choice to treat breast cancer as well as others, is thrust upon women and men as the gold standard. Heaven forbid if one refuses.

Recently, sixteen year old Abraham Cherrix, who has been battling Hodgkin’s Disease refused a second round of chemotherapy after he became debilitated by three months of the regime. After thoroughly researching their options, he and his parents decided upon an herbal treatment called the Hoxsey method to treat the disease. This enraged the medical establishment. His doctor reported him and his family to the authorities. He was taken from his parents by social workers and the legal system, accusing them of child abuse and neglect because they refused to comply with doctors orders.
Finally after a battle, Abraham and his parents won the right to make a personal choice of treatment. However, the family must report into the courts with updates every three months on his progress. This emotional turmoil is more than any family should endure during this time.

How have we arrived at this point in America where it is illegal to choose our own medical care? Who can fault this family for choosing an alternative option when the outcomes of chemotherapy are dismal at best?

How interesting that a confidential survey taken at Canada’s McGill Center, one of the most prestigious mainstream cancer treatment centers in the world reported that 58 out of 64 oncologists claimed that they would NOT undergo chemotherapy themselves if suddenly faced with a cancer diagnosis of their own. In addition, they would not allow any of their family members to undergo this treatment either.

Why is it that 90.6% of the expert cancer specialists at a world-renowned cancer treatment center would not have anything to do with chemotherapy, even if their lives depended on it? But they have no problem prescribing it to folks like you and me.

Their reasoning is that it is ineffective and toxic, it does not work and can hasten death, yet we as consumers have accepted the insidious idea that a toxic chemical will heal us. Perhaps this analogy puts it in perspective. Using chemotherapy is like trying to kill a mouse in your garage by blowing up the garage. You may kill the mouse, but destroy everything else.

This is more of a reason why we need to learn about preventive measures regarding not only breast cancer, but all illness and disease. The informed person has a chance of winning this battle.

Another disturbing study in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute reported that adverse events related to chemotherapy and the associated costs may have been underestimated. Women experienced more hospitalizations and emergency room visits for side effects of chemotherapy. Also reported is that only one study has been done to measure the side effects of chemotherapy in the general population! Again, understand this treatment is considered the gold standard and is fully supported by our medical institutions.

Asked why this could be happening, Dr. Michael Hassett, a clinical instructor in medicine at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, in Boston said, “There are a number of possible explanations. Clinical trials may not detect all of the side effects that occur. People enrolled in clinical trials may be less likely than those treated in the general community to experience serious side effects of chemotherapy. Clinical trials may not have enough power to detect rare side effects. Or, our study could have overestimated the likelihood of experiencing serious side effects of chemotherapy, because we used hospital bills rather than medical records to identify these events.”

Did you get that? This sounds like political/cover your bases psycho babble to me. There are too many hidden agendas in drug trials today, not to mention the self interests and conflict of interests that exist between scientists, pharmaceutical companies and other big business.

He ends with, “Hopefully, women with breast cancer who hear about this study will understand that deciding whether or not to have chemotherapy must be made on an individual basis.” “Women should talk with their doctors about both the benefits and risks of chemotherapy. For women with small cancers, the benefits may not outweigh the risks.”
What can you do to make good choices about health care?  Think Prevention…it’s the best cure.  Ask questions, use your common sense, and research like your life depended on it. It does! And do not hesitate to consider other options even when others disagree with you.

References
1. realhealth@healthiernews.com August 14, 2006
2. Michael Hassett, M.D., clinical instructor, medicine, Center for Outcomes and Policy Research, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston; John Erban, M.D., director, breast cancer program, and associate professor, medicine, Tufts New England Medical Center, Boston; Aug. 18, 2006, Journal of the National Cancer Institute
Visit the links below for more information.
www.navi.net/~rsc/chemorad.htm - for information on chemotherapy and oncologists
http://www.whale.to/cancer/kelley/app3.html - for information on the war on cancer
http://www.westonaprice.org/women/mammography.html for information about mammography madness.
 

Stop Fearing Super Bugs

By Shane “The People’s Chemist” Ellison
www.thepeopleschemist.com (C) 2007

As a drug chemist, I used to fear going to work. I risked numerous health hazards – like being exposed to a cancer causing reagent and even losing my wedding ring to a chemical drain.  Cancer is bad, but having your wife feel like you are being careless about your marriage is worse. Unknown to her, I was washing off DNA twisting molecules that burned my skin and eyes while they vacuumed the air from my lungs.  My ring fell off somewhere between stripping off my clothes, pulling the lab’s evacuation button, and yanking the emergency shower cord. I naively assumed that these were necessary risks for making so-called life saving drugs. I was wrong.
 
Outside of emergency medicine, prescription drugs are just as deadly as the reagents used to make them. Antibiotics, antivirals and vaccines are a perfect example. Some would argue that this arsenal of anti-infectious agents is a cure. This is almost true. They make us feel better and can even save us from the perils of death in an emergency. But using them outside of an emergency can cause them to become a growth medium for producing stronger and deadlier infectious agents – think drug resistant Super Bugs like the flesh eating Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). Additionally, they can give rise to some nasty side effects – think depression, cancer, liver and kidney failure.  Five year old Jennifer learned this the hard way.

Ten days after taking an antibiotic for an earache, Jennifer asked, “Why are my eyes yellow Mommy?”  Cured from her earache, Jennifer lost her life to liver failure a few months later. 

This is hardly a cure.  Vaccines and antivirals are no different.  To beat infectious disease and avoid the horrors (like MRSA) that often accompany the use of Western Medicine, Mother Nature’s total immune boosting breakthroughs are a wiser option. 

As a pharmaceutical chemist, I employed Mother Nature as the guide for the design and synthesis of drugs. Logic and science – not pharmaceutical hype - dictates that we “go natural first.”

Prescription drugs only mimic a single isolate and rely on a single mechanism of action for effectiveness. Their non-toxic, plant based predecessors contain a multitude of active substances.  And instead of depending on one single method of protecting the body, they work in unison to increase the power of the whole immune system.  This is the “adaptogenic effect.” 

Whether you are fighting flu, getting over whooping cough, or warding off the next Super Bug, adaptogens are your key to beating them!  They are so potent in fact, that Big Pharma has been attempting to make counterfeits in their top secret labs for over 15 years!

Garlic is known as “the poor persons” antibiotic.  I call it the smart person’s adaptogen. Not only will it help you live young, but it will also protect against a whole host of biological “nasties” – even tuberculosis.  This “mycobacterial infection” manifests into chest pain, coughing blood, night sweats and premature death. A new infection of tuberculosis occurs at a rate of one per second among our population! Western Medicine contributes to this unwittingly by using antibiotics that actually teach the bacteria how to work around the body’s natural defenses – resulting in drug-resistant strains. Garlic is different.  Thanks to its adoptogenic effects, the active ingredients confer super powers to the whole immune system, allowing it to eradicate “nasties” as they enter our system – and before they can replicate themselves into resistant strains.  Garlic can be synergized with the adaptogen andrographis. 

Andrographis was first used for its success in treating snakebites and overcoming malaria and dysentery.  It is considered to be especially effective in clearing heat from the body and blood and is commonly used in treating heart conditions which include infection in the lungs, urinary tract, and throat – think strep throat.  Within the halls of Big Pharma, modern research has proven andrographis to be beneficial at removing blood clots, stopping the spread of multiple types of cancer, and increasing the amount of immune enhancing white blood cells.  Its active ingredients have been identified as andrographolides.  The Journal of Ethnopharmacology recently showed andrographis to be more effective than the well known astragalus and echinichea for warding off the flu.

I no longer fear going to work.  Since tendering my resignation as a corporate drug cook, I don’t face the hazards associated with deadly reagents (and have since acquired a new wedding ring). I chose the natural route for health and if you do the same, you’ll no longer have to fear biological nasties.  Nor will you have to default to using Western Medicine’s arsenal of toxic counterfeits. 

About the Author

Ellison’s entire career has been dedicated to the study of molecules; how they give life and how they take from it. He was a two-time recipient of the prestigious Howard Hughes Medical Institute Research Grant for his research in biochemistry and physiology. He is a bestselling author, holds a master’s degree in organic chemistry and has first-hand experience in drug design.  His combined experience gave him access to unique research that has proven to be invaluable for obtaining real answers to the biggest health problems. Learn to Live Young naturally at www.thepeopleschemist.com. Don’t miss his Stinky Sulfur Awards!

References:
1. Han-Chieh Koa, Bai-Luh Weib and Wen-Fei Chiou. The effect of medicinal plants used in Chinese folk medicine on RANTES secretion by virus-infected human epithelial cells. Journal of Ethnopharmacology . Volume 107, Issue 2, 19 September 2006, Pages 205-210

Hormones and the woman’s life cycles

The conversation about hormones is raging around the country, in households and in the healthcare fields. Conventional medicine addresses hormones in the setting of synthetic hormone replacement therapies and treatments for diseases like cancer, thyroid, diabetes, prostate cancer and pituitary abnormalities. Alternative doctors see hormones as the fountain of youth.

Media trails behind unsuccessfully attempting to clarify the muddy waters of the world of hormones so few understand.

As my column develops, I will try to help shed light into the overall issue of hormones, how they affect our lives, identifying symptoms of hormonal imbalance and safe methods of treatment with an eye for balance and honest, unbiased reporting.

Understanding Hormones

Hormones are agents of change. Hormones are invisible to the naked eye, they are manufactured by specialized cells in specific organs in our bodies and they float throughout our blood stream affecting the action of every cell in our body and helping or ruining our lives depending on their balance, quantity, strength and body’s reaction.

Hormones are made in the ovaries, testes, adrenals, pituitary, pancreas, brain, thyroid, parathyroid, hypothalamus and other areas still not known to science.

By hormones I mean: estrogen, progesterone, testosterone, insulin, thyroid, cortisol, adrenalin, dopamine, serotonin and others either labeled as hormones or neurotransmitters. They are all hormones.

When our hormones are in balance we are young, healthy, radiant, fertile, wrinkle free and excited abut the possibilities life can offer.  Young people with healthy hormone balance have low incidence of heart disease, cancer, arthritis or other chronic illnesses.

Hormone levels that have declined or out of balance produce and contribute to chronically ill, dried up, sexually disinterested, overweight and fatigued people. In fact when you have no hormones, all you get is an old person.

So if, hormones are great for you in your 20s and keep you beautiful and healthy, then why would anyone debate their usefulness and desirability as we age?

Of course we would all benefit from a little hormone support as we age and in fact those of us who do, find aging a lot more fun and certainly trouble free. So, why doesn’t every doctor in the country prescribe hormones that are safe to the aging or hormonally challenged throngs?

Why Are Natural, Bioidentical Hormones a Secret or a Threat to Conventional Medicine?

Well, to answer that question we need to look at the pharmaceutical industry.

While everyone in both conventional academia and alternative circles agrees that we all need hormones and hormones are crucial to youth and health, drug companies are reluctant to improve our health with natural methods of hormonal supplementation.

Why would they be reluctant to give us a safe alternative to keeping us out of harm’s way?  Enter natural/bioidentical hormones.

Natural hormones or bioidentical hormones are molecularly identical to the chemical formula of hormones that our bodies make when we were young and healthy. Anything that occurs “naturally”, made by Mother Nature and not tweaked by human hands, cannot be patented. In business terms that translates into no dominion or ownership over the product, because everyone can use it without paying a fee to the owner.

To drug companies, who are only interested in making a profit, having no patent means not making enough money. So natural, bioidentical hormones are undesirable to the drug companies. Forget about the fact that they have been around since Adam and Eve and have been safely used by millions of people.

Enter Synthetic Hormones

Synthetic hormones are hormone impostors. Odd shaped molecules, which have been tweaked to look totally different from Mother Nature made hormones, become the desirable option for drug companies because they can own a patent on them.

Billions are spent on marketing them, supporting academic research and eliminating the bioidentical hormone distinction in the physician and public consciousness. End result: a patented product with no competition, a billion dollar industry and many sick people who need more and more drugs and procedures.

Back to Natural, Bioidentical Hormones

Supplementation of natural, bioidentical hormones have been used as an effective method of treatment for more than 30 years and there have been no reports of cancer or other side-effects. The fact that our bodies recognize bioidentical hormones as their own and do not react to them negatively is significant to you and me since all we care about is to be able to stay health and well for as long as possible.

To summarize the facts;
1. Hormones in balance are good for us. They keep us healthy, young and free of disease.
2. Only bioidentical hormones can help achieve the above goal due to their similarity to our own hormone structure.
3. Synthetic hormones are created to provide financial profit for big drug companies, not to help us feel healthy and well.
4. As we age and our hormone levels decline or become imbalanced, we can help boost our hormone levels safely and naturally by supplementing with natural, bioidentical hormones. 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Breast Cancer: Counterfeit Synthetic Hormones vs. Bio-identical Hormones

The Associated Press distributed an article for publication in newspapers across the country on December 13, 2008 entitled, “New Study firmly ties hormone use to breast cancer”.   The title of this article erroneously refers to “hormone use”, when it should correctly be entitled “counterfeit hormone and synthetic drug” use.  It discusses the results of the Women’s Health Initiative (WHI), a study which was launched in 1991 and involved 161,808 postmenopausal women.  The clinical trials were designed to test the effects of postmenopausal hormone therapy, diet modification, and calcium and vitamin D supplements on heart disease, fractures, as well as breast and colorectal cancer. This initiative had two studies: the synthetic estrogen-plus-progestin study of women with a uterus and the synthetic estrogen-alone study of women without a uterus.  It did not study the effects of bio-identical human hormones.

This article correctly states that Prempro increases the risk of breast cancer in women who use it.  This is what our Center expected since Prempro is not a hormone which naturally occurs in women. It is a combination of horse estrogens extracted from pregnant mare’s urine and a counterfeit, synthesized progestin. The progestin, medroxyprogesterone, is not a naturally occurring molecule and is a drug which is foreign to the human body. Wyeth, the manufacturer of both Prempro and Premarin, admits to not knowing all the types of horse estrogen contained in Premarin. 

What is not mentioned in this article is the fact that breast cancer is commonly caused by hormonal imbalance.  While the three female estrogen hormones, estrone, estradiol and estriol are essential hormones, the risk of breast cancer is directly related to either an excess of estrogen or an imbalance between the estrogen hormones and progesterone.  A number of studies have found that a progesterone deficiency may play an important role in increasing a woman’s risk of breast cancer.

Progesterone and estrogen operate in balance and the optimal balance of these two hormones is crucial to a woman’s health and well being.  Correcting this imbalance, which is called estrogen dominance and increases as women progress through their menstrual lives, is key to decreasing the risk of breast cancer.  Bio-identical progesterone helps to reduce the risk of breast cancer by balancing the estrogen in your body. 

This was the conclusion of the Johns Hopkins University’s School of Public Health study, published in the August 1981 edition of the American Journal of Epidemiology. This study demonstrated that women who were infertile due to a progesterone deficiency had a premenopausal breast cancer risk that was 540% greater than those women whose infertility was not related to a progesterone deficiency.  This study also found that women with progesterone deficiency had a 1,000 % greater risk of death from all types of cancer.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) should prohibit counterfeit hormones, such as Premarin and Prempro from being marketed and prescribed.

Natural, bio-identical hormones provide a safe, natural alternative for women who are experiencing significant side effects from hormonal decline and imbalance.

Hotze Health & Wellness Center                      
20214 Braidwood, Houston, Texas 77450        
Today’s Date – December 16, 2008

Contact: Steven F. Hotze, M.D.
281.698.8698

“If people let the government decide what foods they eat and what medicines they take, their bodies will soon be in as sorry a state as the souls who live under tyranny.”  Benjamin Franklin

Franklin’s sage advice is more relevant now than ever.

It is difficult and frustrating to sift through conflicting and complex health information to make healthy choices.  Reports over past decades, supported by scientific evidence, have unfolded the life cycles women experience and how there appears to be an epidemic of hormonal disruptions and the drive to medicalize women’s health, governed by prescription medicine.

Women Classified as Diseased

Ponder this for a moment.  Why:

•  are more babies born with brain tumors and cancers?
•  is a girl’s age of menarche (the first menstrual period) younger today than three or four decades ago?
•  do women increasingly suffer from dysmenorrhea (painful menstruation), irregular periods and eating disorders?
•  do girls begin physical development earlier?
•  do so many women suffer from premenstrual syndrome (PMS), fibroids, endometriosis, infertility, breast and other cancers?
•  is it that twenty years ago the breast cancer rate was 1 in 20 and today it is 1 in 8?
•  does the United States have one of the highest hysterectomy and cesarean rates in the world?

Are these valid questions to explore?

Until the advent of modern pharmacology (the science of drugs), physicians were trained in nutritional and botanical medicine.  Doctors understood that specific nutrients were effective in treating specific disorders, particularly deficiency syndromes.  Many substances found in nature prevented disorders from occurring. 

Pregnancy and childbirth are now classified as medical conditions and treated as such, despite a several millennia history of being a normal and natural occurrence.  Between 1938 and 1971 women who suffered miscarriage were administered diethylstilbestrol (DES), a synthetic estrogen with assurances of a healthy pregnancy.  Unintended consequences, covering more than three decades, included an increase in infant deformities, cancer in offspring and the mother, and infertility problems not only in the offspring but in their offspring a generation later.

The remedy to this devastating situation was electronic fetal monitoring (EFM), adopted as the standard of care, absent valid research.  New discovery has shown this technology leads to more delivery complications and is associated with higher cesarean section rates, lower five-minute Apgar scores, and a higher rate of respiratory distress.

Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT), formerly known as Estrogen Replacement Therapy (ERT), was popularized by Robert Wilson, MD. in the 1950’s.  He coined the term “feminine forever” as he espoused a better life through chemistry.  Unwarranted enthusiasm, perhaps over profits, and skewed scientific evidence increased the use of these synthetic hormones.  Research now indicates they increase the incidence of cancer and other deadly conditions in women. 

It was not until the Women’s Health Initiative in 2002 reported an increase in heart disease, stroke, breast and uterine cancer and Alzheimer’s disease that enthusiasm floundered for the use of Premarin, the most widely used of the HRT synthetic hormones.  

Oral contraceptives are also synthetic hormones.  They have been popular since the 1960’s and supposedly liberated women from the jaws of a committed marital relationship and allowed for multiple partners without fear of pregnancy.  “The Pill” has been widely prescribed for other female maladies such as PMS, dysmenorrhea and other hormonal difficulties.  Evidence has raised fear in women who use them due to an increase in cancer, blood clots, anxiety, weight gain, osteoporosis and infertility.  It’s those unintended consequences again.

Additionally, infertility has skyrocketed over the past 15 years and continues.  Medicine’s answer to this dilemma is fertility clinics offering solutions that range from in vitro fertilization to procedures that require injecting a woman with high doses of synthetic hormones in hopes of stimulating an egg and sperm connection.  Reproductive specialists control pregnancy through invasive procedures that do not come without risks.

Keep this in mind.  Biogenesis is the natural law that states “life can only be passed on by living things”.  Just like only living food can sustain a living organism.  All life contains a vitalistic component that promotes and sustains the chain and cycle of life.  Remove the vitalistic component or replace it with synthetic substitutes and the cycle of life begins to deteriorate.

Women are being diagnosed with depression and mood swings at an alarming rate which is perceived as being “normal” due to PMS and other hormonal irregularities.  A class of anti depressant drugs known as serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRI’s), have been accepted as the “gold standard treatment”, however, little inquiry focuses on the serious side effects of these drugs.

Might these conditions, symptoms, breakdowns or maladies be the result of pharmaceutical therapies?  Is the body drug deficient?  Does it make sense to prescribe a drug or modality to treat a symptom or condition knowing that the side effects may cause other glaring problems that not only increase risk to other diseases and death, but also foster the need for the use of more drugs?  Aaaah!  Maybe, that is the purpose.
Restoring Women’s Health …a cultural movement

A fresher approach is needed to help women avoid the cycle of synthetic substitutes and restore their health and obtain balance.  Rather than treating or suppressing a symptom, the body’s attempt to heal, a better approach is looking for the cause and treating it while avoiding, or at least, diminishing risky lifestyle choices.

The science of nutrition can be traced back to 400 BC when Hippocrates stated “Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food.”  A perfect example of this is demonstrated in the use of folic acid. 

For about 15 years the March of Dimes has been teaching mothers about the need for folic acid (vitamin B9) prior to and during pregnancy to reduce the risk of neural tube birth defects and spina bifida by as much as eighty percent.  One study reported that multivitamins fortified with folic acid could lower the chances of contracting brain tumors by twenty-seven percent, leukemia by thirty-nine percent and neuroblastoma by forty-nine percent.  There is healing power in real food.
Women’s hormones are influenced by diet and lifestyle choices in many ways through:

•  fats
•  fiber
•  gastrointestinal flora
•  amino acids
•  dairy products
•  processed foods
•  xenobiotics (artificial hormones not known to man)
•  hormones and antibiotics in feed lot animals (factory farming)
•  trans fats
•  sugars and carbohydrates
•  artificial sweeteners
•  alcohol
•  environmental toxins (pesticides, herbicides
•  cosmetics
•  drugs
•  hormones

The inextricable link between nutrition and health is well documented.  Unfortunately, there is a major disconnect the way we look at chronic disease and conditions.  What is worse is the mindset that convenience, not only in foods, but everything we do supersedes common sense and personal responsibility.
Creating Balance

Hormone balance can be achieved through diet and lifestyle changes with the help of supplements.  Hormones can be stabilized and balanced through diet that in turn will decrease symptoms that plague women including:

•  hot flashes
•  mood swings
•  loss of libido
•  joint pain
•  bloating or weight gain
•  headaches
•  tender enlarged breasts
•  depression
•  uterine fibroids
•  cystic breasts
•  irregular menstrual cycles
•  heavy bleeding
•  infertility

Learning to make healthy, rational choices daily as a part of a new way of life is very different than popping pills to suppress symptoms, eating at fast food restaurants, and living as a couch potato.  The benefits are noteworthy in that you reduce risk of disease and enjoy a better quality of life.
Nutrition and Lifestyle… a safer and long term solution
Avoid drug therapies and consider the following if you experience painful breasts, cervical dysplasia, premenstrual syndrome (PMS) endometriosis, uterine fibroid tumors, vaginal dryness, mood swings, depression, weight fluctuations and lupus:
• Avoid organochlorine chemicals such as vinyl chlorides, dioxins, and PCB’s that are endocrine disrupters.  They are found in household products, cleaners, wall coverings, furniture and other artificial substances.
• Avoid chemicals such as phthalates found in nail polish products and other plastics.
• Avoid medications such as hormone replacement, oral contraceptives, tamoxifen and cimetidine.
• Avoid feed lot animals that are injected with agricultural hormones that fatten them up quicker for market.
• Consume foods close to nature such as fruits and vegetables including beans, peas, clover, alfalfa, lignans, flaxseed, wheat and cruciferous vegetables such as broccoli, Brussels sprouts and cabbage.
• Exercise.  Managing weight is very helpful to facilitate estrogen metabolism and excretion which has a profound effect on many illnesses and diseases.
• Drink pure water preferably from a home water system.
• Consume fiber daily to improve digestion and to assist in reducing levels of free estradiol, one of the most potent estrogens our bodies produce.
• Increase intake of omega-3 fatty acids in the form of cold water fish like wild salmon (not farmed), sardines, and herring.
• Avoid simple carbohydrates and artificial sweeteners.  They have detrimental effects on blood glucose levels and stimulate the production of insulin resulting in hormonal imbalances.
• Consume Isoflavones in moderation.  Soy isoflavones such as genistein and daidzein, consumed in traditional Japanese diets are associated with low rates of hormone-dependent cancer.  American culture consumes genetically modified soy products such as soy nuts, beans, crackers, cookies and tofu that have been highly processed.  These are not the fermented forms like miso, tempeh and soy sauce consumed by the Japanese.
• Indole-3-Carbinol (I3C) is a naturally occurring compound derived from cruciferous vegetables such as broccoli, Brussels sprouts and cabbage that actively promotes the breakdown of estrogen.  Because our modern diets are deficient in these rich compounds, it is beneficial to consume concentrated I3C in supplemental form for those with health issues related to estrogen dominance.
• Consume supplements that include a multi vitamin, probiotics, and DHA/EPA fatty acids.  The multivitamin should contain minerals like calcium, magnesium, and vitamin D, all B vitamins like folate and B6, which plays a role in the development of brain neurotransmitters, helps prevent heart disease, and can relieve symptoms of morning sickness and carpal tunnel syndrome and  antioxidants such as selenium and vitamin E.  Augment these with Evening Primose oil and or GLA.
• Magnesium promotes estrogen detoxification and is necessary for calcium to enter the bones.  Take a good combination mineral supplement.
• Good hormone modulating herbs include black cohosh, chasteberry, ginseng (Panax ginseng), dong quai and licorice.  These herbs, valued by women for centuries, promote healthy estrogen balance.
• Use natural progesterone crème.  To learn more about the benefits of this miraculous cream, purchase a copy of Do You Know What You Don’t Know…About Women’s Health Issues at www.preservion.com
and visit JohnLeeMD.com
The evidence is clear.  Women’s bodies are breaking down and they are NOT drug deficient.  Drugs beget drugs and are not necessary for women to be healthy.  The rules of Nature provide a comprehensive approach for women who wish to thrive and remain healthy.  A more natural approach will ensure a safe and smooth transition during all phases of a women’s life.
References

1.  Veurink M. Koster M. Bert LT. The history of DES, lessons to be learned.  Pharm World Sci. 2005;27(3):139-143.  Review.
2.  McCusker, D R Harris, and D W Hosmer, Jr, Association of electronic fetal monitoring during labor with cesarean section rate and with neonatal morbidity and mortality. Am J Public Health. 1988 September; 78(9): 1170–1174
3.  Prenatal Multivitamin Supplementation and Rates of Pediatric Cancers: A Meta-Analysis, Journal Clinical Pharmacology & Therapeutics, February 2007
4.  Townsend Letter for Doctors and Patients-February/March 2004 Pgs. 106-107
5.  Hyman M A, MD, The Life Cycles of Women:  Restoring Balance, Alternative Therapies, May/June 2007, Vol. 13. No. 3