Is The Oprah Effect Good For Womens' Health?

Stars like Oprah Winfrey & Suzanne Somers say bioidentical hormones could be the saving grace for women in menopause. But could they be unknowingly setting us up for the dangerous disappointment of a lifetime? A new book by award winning medical journalist Colette Bouchez looks at another important side of the hormone treatment controversy.

Perhaps nothing has caused more of a stir in women’s health arena then all of the recent attention placed on natural and bioidentical hormones – plant based compounds that some believe can offer the menopause benefits of traditional hormone replacement therapy ( HRT) without any of the health risks – including breast, uterine and ovarian cancer.

Adding fuel to the speculative fires: Celebrities like Suzanne Somers and more recently, Oprah Winfrey, who have stepped into the spotlight to make a great case for bioidentical hormones – and in doing so encouraged a generation or more of women to give them a try.

Indeed, for these two Hollywood legends – and now many more regular gals - it’s clear the pot of gold at the end of the anti-aging rainbow is , indeed, a bucket of bioidentical hormones!

Certainly some experts - like Wulf Utian, MD, executive director of the North American Menopause Society - believe bioidentical hormones can easily be as risky as any form of HRT. "The claims for safety are entirely without merit", he says.

But others, like New York physician Erika Schwartz, MD believe the opposite. " When you give a supplement that is bioidentical to what the body produces, the body knows how to use it to the best possible advantage," she says.

So where does the truth lie?

A New Side To The Story

While both traditional and "natural" doctors alike have come down on both sides of this treatment controversy, as a journalist who has covered – and followed – this issue in women’s health for more than 20 years, there is one more side of the treatment controversy I have yet to hear addressed or discussed by anyone: Namely, whether or not pumping up your body with any kind of reproductive hormones at a time when nature decides they should decline, can ever yield a positive result - even if those hormones come from Mother Nature herself?

Certainly, if we look to what science has to say about the killer diseases linked to hormone stimulation, it seems clear problems are inherent. For example, it’s a well known fact that women who have an early start to their menstrual cycle or continue to menstruate into their 50’s are at greater risk for estrogen –sensitive cancers – ostensibly because they spend more years under the influence of their own estrogen stimulation.

The same elevated risk profile applies to women who have never had children - ostensibly because being pregnant prevents ovulation, and all the estrogen-related ovarian stimulation that goes with it.

We also know that women who are overweight are at greater risk for estrogen-sensitive cancers –and doctors speculate that one reason is because fat cells produce a form of “endogenous” estrogen. The more fat cells you have, the more estrogen stimulation you experience throughout your lifetime - thus the greater your risk of some diseases.

And so the really big question for me is, once a woman reaches a certain number of years of estrogen stimulation – even her own, natural estrogen stimulation - can using hormone replace therapy of any kind, be it bioidentical or not – increase her risks of these diseases?

Moreover, could the difference between those who take hormones and suffer the consequences and those who don't actually be the total number of years each woman was exposed to her own estrogen stimulation? And should this be a factor to consider when deciding whether or not hormone therapy of any kind is right for any one particular woman?

When you get right down to it the nitty gritty … we do not have these answers!

"We are, in many ways, in a no-data zone - bio identical hormones have not been specifically studied in a randomized trial on any wide spread level, and if you are to use that as a criteria, then it's true that we don't know if they are any better- or any worse – than synthetic hormones," says Marcie Richardson, MD, Clinical instructor, Obstetrics and Gynecology at Harvard Medical School, and the director of the Menopause Consultation Service at Harvard Vanguard Medical Associates.

Indeed, it's important to remember that no so very long ago everyone thought traditional, synthetic HRT was the answer – until the Women’s Health Intiative (WHI) study proved otherwise.

And while bioidentical hormones have, indeed, undergone some testing, the reality is that it has been nowhere near the level of the WHI trials . More importantly, until that happens, can we really feel confidant about a treatment decision - no matter who is doling out the advice?

What DOES the Future Hold?

I'm hopeful that in the next 5 or even 10 years we DO NOT read that Suzanne Somers is facing yet another breast cancer – or that Oprah Winfrey has found herself facing this same – or worse - fate. I adore both of these women – and the thought of losing either one is a loss to great to even consider.

At the same time, I can’t help but wonder how many women’s lives might be lost because they blindly took the otherwise well-meaning advice of those who, while certain they have found their own fountain of youth , could in fact be drowning in the tidal wave of enthusiasm and
high hopes ?

All I’m saying here is that if you are suffering with symptoms of menopause – be it hot flashes and night sweats, mood swings or memory loss, or any of the other 101 things that can wrong during this wacky time of life – you owe it yourself to stop, think and consider what we know and don't know and then consider all your options before making a treatment choice.

It could be the second thought that ultimately saves your life.

(This blog was condensed from the new women’s health book “The Hot Flash Solution “ by Colette Bouchez )

To read more about bioidentical hormones, and other natural treatment options for menopause symptoms visit wwwRedDressDiary.com - the Source for fabulous women over 40!

You might also enjoy reading:
Acupuncture & Hot Flashes: Can It Help You?
The Foods That Make Hot Flashes Worse: What To Avoid

Copyright by Colette Bouchez 2009 - All Rights Reserved.
In addition to US Copyright, the text of this RedDressDiary article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 License. All formatting and style elements of this page are not available under this license, and Colette Bouchez retains all rights in those elements.

New Smart Foods Promise Reduced Blood Pressure, Better Heart Health

A new crop of “smart foods” promise to replace bad eating habits with heart healthy ones- and we might not even notice! Here’s the skinny on Smart Foods – the "next big thing" in healthy eating! By Colette Bouchez

Hate to diet? Me too. Hate to eat the so-called “good foods”. Yeah, me too. Well you and I, we might have a better chance at satisfying our taste buds without sacrificing our mid-life heart health, thanks to a new crop of “Smart Foods “ – the latest innovation in healthy eating.

Among the newest is baked goods that replace wheat flour with lupin flour , a grain made from a legume grown primarily in Australia. What makes lupin so smart ?

According to a new study just published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, like soy it’s high in a healthy form of plant protein. But it has more. Lupin also contains non-starch polysaccharides - which means that once ingested, lupin offers the benefits of two types of fiber – both soluble (think oats) and insoluble ( think wheat bran).

Together with the high protein content, the new study showed it can offer diners a one-two punch that satisfies the appetite while working to control blood pressure, cholesterol and maybe weight – and in the process reduce our risk of heart disease. And best of all – it tastes like good old fashioned white bread!

“This approach may be a relatively simple and acceptable dietary measure for helping to reduce cardiovascular risk in overweight and obese persons.” wrote the researchers, which included lead study author Jonathan Hodgson from the University of Western Australia in Perth.

If that were not enough, Lupin flour also contains yet one more nutritional factor that might be making the biggest health difference of all. It’s called arginine, a compound which the body uses in the production of nitric oxide – one of the most potent of all natural vascular relaxing agents . When blood vessels are relaxed, blood pressure remains low. And, in fact, it is arginine that the researchers say may actually be what helped decrease blood pressure in the study participants - over and above what a high fiber food can offer.

“The decrease in blood pressure could result from an improvement in vascular tone mediated by nitric oxide, a potent endothelium-derived relaxing factor,” wrote the authors.

As to controlling your appetite – well previous studies also reported in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition have shown that when compared to eating white bread, eating breads or rolls made from lupin flour keep study participants feeling fuller longer – and decreased their desire for between meal snacks! Now that is smart!

Smarter Salt – More Taste !

As anyone who’s ever tasted a low-sodium food is likely to tell you , "bon appetit" are not exactly the words that come to mind. It’s not so much the removal of the salt that seems to make it taste so yucky, as is the addition of whatever else they add in it’s place.

Now a new “smart food” technology promises to lower sodium content in foods like snacks, canned soup and frozen entrees and still keep the flavor . Sound impossible?

It’s possible, say experts, and the key lies in replacing common salt ( sodium chloride) with a specially processed compound of potassium chloride - and the “ specially processed “ part is key. Why?

Food manufacturers have long known that potassium chloride naturally offers the true salty taste of sodium while reducing negative health benefits. Unfortunately, it did so at the expense of taste. More specifically, products made with potassium chloride took on a bitter, metallic “after taste” that once you’ve sampled it, makes you never want to take another bite.

But now three ingredient manufacturers have found three novel ways of masking that bitter taste while still allowing the stimulating salty taste we love to shine through!

The end result: You get the salty taste you crave and still dramatically reduce the health problems associated with high-sodium foods, which according to the American Heart Association include an increased risk of high blood pressure and stroke.

Currently, three of these new potassium chloride salt replacers are available: Reduxso, SaltTrim and sub4salt. While you can’t buy them to shake on your fries just yet, all three should be showing up regularly in a variety of low sodium snack , frozen and processed foods in the coming months.

More good food news: Colette Bouchez’s new book "The Hot Flash Solution: A Breakthrough Program for Beating Hot Flashes and Night Sweats in 7 Days" which features a hot flash diet that doctors say "really works" ! Visit RedDressDiary.com to read more about the plan!

You might also be interested in reading:

Food Fight: Don’t Rely On Will Power To Lose Weight -

New Study: Weight Gain Shocker

Copyright by Colette Bouchez 2009 - All Rights Reserved.
In addition to US Copyright, the text of this RedDressDiary article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 License. All formatting and style elements of this page are not available under this license, and Colette Bouchez retains all rights in those elements.