Time Always Tells

Just wanted to take a few minutes to highlight new data published in the journal Menopause (and highlighted in Endocrine Today magazine) for those of you out there in Blog-land who have experienced blood pressure issues since going through "The Change".  And for the rest of you who haven't journeyed there yet, educate yourself now, because this blog may be a heart saver in the years to come. 

First, I need to go back and remind you of something that happened more than a decade ago.   In ~2002 (if my memory serves me right), The Womens Health Initiative pushed out a statement proclaiming that hormone replacement therapy was harmful for women.  This caused many women to be informed that they should go off  their hot flash, irritability, and insomnia controlling hormones and basically just suffer through it.  Oh for joy right?  That was such a significant decision (probably the biggest ever in the world of women) and one that I claimed would show up later with a negative impact.  Sure enough, in 2012, that study was revisited and determined to have a lot of study flaws. So....now we are back to the concept that hormones are GOOD FOR YOU!!  Go figure right? I continued to provide customized hormone replacement therapies, despite the bad press, because I'm trained to read the study appropriately and without bias.  The published study had many question marks and problems. So the problem we have now is the loss of 10 years of "life" improving hormone therapies which are now showing up in cardiovascular disease, osteoporosis, alzheimers disease, and more.  This brings me to today's blog.  They say "time always tells", and in this situation it certainly does.  If you remained on hormone therapy during that time, you may have lowered your blood pressure risk significantly.  The data is proving in favor of the hormone therapy women.  Those that took hormone therapy did not need high blood pressure medicine when compared to those that ditched their hormones.

Here's what the evidence now shows us in quick and understandable terms.  Various physicians and researchers in womens health decided to conduct a retrospective study of those women (over 300) who were withdrawn from hormone therapy versus those who continued on the therapy.  Here's the big takeaway statement. "We found that women who stopped their hormones were almost twice as likely to be on high blood pressure medicine," "Those who stayed on hormones had a better quality of life and were more apt to be working.  This is important, as it has been thought that hormones may protect the cardiovascular system if started at the normal age of menopause."

There's a tremendous amount of  research and published data concerning the positive impact of hormone replacement therapy and the reduction of cardiovascular disease in men and women.  Interestingly, when it comes to hormone replacement therapy, the big issue for women is cancer. 

All Females, All Ages	Percent*
1) Heart disease	24.0
2) Cancer	22.2
3) Stroke	6.3
4) Chronic lower respiratory diseases	5.9
5) Alzheimer's disease	4.5
6) Unintentional injuries	3.5
7) Diabetes	2.8
8) Influenza and pneumonia	2.3
9) Kidney disease	2.0

Yes, it is important to screen patients with a strong family history of cancer and to advise them accordingly,BUT notice that cardiovascular disease actually takes more lives than cancer.  (See statistics above from the Centers for Disease Control) Screening patients for a history of family heart disease is equally or more important due to the number of lives lost to heart attacks, strokes, and high blood pressure problems.

Hormones can be evaluated simply, conveniently, and affordably. The DIY-@-Home kit and an informational packet can be shipped to your home.

To your good health,
Dr. Sonja