The most common health problems for women involve menstrual difficulties and later on menopausal symptoms. You’ve been lead to believe that the cause is most often a hormone imbalance. And the treatment is simply to restore the balance by taking hormones ~ artificial or bio- identical.
But ask yourself, how did this happen? Could you have done anything to avoid it? And if so, is hormone replacement the best choice when it comes to restoring that balance? Let’s take a closer look shall we?
First, I often hear, “My mom had a tough time with her menstrual cycle so that’s probably the reason for my experience.” This idea comes from the highly publicized but incorrect understanding of genetic inheritance.
The current science of epigenetics, which literally means “control above genetics”, has established that DNA blueprints passed down through genes are not set in concrete at birth. Genes are not destiny!
Environmental influences, including nutrition, stress and emotions, can modify those genes without changing their basic blueprint. And those modifications, epigeneticists have discovered, can be passed on to future generations as surely as DNA blueprints are passed on…. (Reik and Walter 2001; Surani 2001 via Biology of Belief by Bruce Lipton, Ph.D.)
Startlingly, modern studies back all this up. A landmark Duke University Study, published in the August 1, 2003 issue of Molecular and Cellular Biology and highlighted in a PBS Nova Science Now segment in July 2007, found that even mice that contained an abnormal gene, predisposing them to a yellow coat, obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease and cancer, when provided with nutritional supplementation, produced standard, lean, brown mice despite having the abnormal gene. The mice who didn’t get the supplements manifested the yellow coat, obesity and diabetes ~ a number of the disease characteristics.
So the quality of your life is not set in stone! You can take control and truly make a difference. This is especially true with respect to your health regardless, in most circumstances, of the genetic hand your parents may have endowed you with. This gives you a greater power than you might have thought to avoid menstrual and menopausal problems in the first place.
I’ve established then that environmental factors play a major role. These factors not only include the foods you eat but the chemicals to which you’re exposed ~ such as the pesticides, herbicides and fungicides in the foods as well as those found in your cosmetics, hair and skin care products, soaps and detergents.
Did you really think these chemicals were safe? Why, because the FDA says so? The same organization that allowed flour to be bleached with industrial oxidizers known to create alloxan, a chemical that destroys the insulin producing part of the pancreas resulting in diabetes. The same organization that unleashes the likes of Vioxx and Phen Fen on unsuspecting Americans that result in death and/irreversible heart damage. Yeah ~ that organization.
There is even less restriction on the cosmetic industry than the food and pharmaceutical industries. Cosmetics often contain petroleum products, soy, artificial colors and preservatives that have been shown to disrupt hormone balance. This disruption is often slow but sure. Before you know it, your physiology ~ menstrual cycle ~ is in tatters. In other words, you’re doing it to yourself ~ again, and again and again.
There are safer cosmetic products available. One such line is Alima (alimapure.com). Alima products contain natural minerals, free of disruptive ingredients that provide attractive highlights while helping to avoid the dark days of PMS.
So, I’ll ask again, “Is hormone replacement the best treatment?” It is my opinion based on my clinical success that the answer is NO ~ premature surgical removal notwithstanding (hysterectomy).
First of all, the increased risks of stroke and cancer that accompany the use of synthetic hormones are now well known. So what about bio-identical hormones?
In my view, hormone replacement in general is simply a strategy to put out the fire without addressing the cause. Suppressive strategies have been shown to set up a larger conflagration down the road. The surest way to address the cause is to discover your individualized nutritional deficiencies and barriers to healing.
Barriers to healing include food and chemical sensitivities. Discovery can be accomplished by a practitioner trained in Nutrition Response Testing. In other words, with the proper nutritional healing program you can avoid the fate you may have presumed was yours.
In the meantime, the state of your health depends on what you put in and on your body. It’s never too late to make the necessary changes. If you’re ready to say goodbye to menstrual and menopausal complications safely, naturally and effectively without the risks of hormone replacement then there is hope and we can help.
- Paul J. Rosen, J.D., L.Ac.
Clinic Director of AcuNatural Family Healthcare
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