BIO-IDENTICAL HORMONE REPLACEMENT THERAPY

         More and more physicians agree that synthetic hormone replacement therapy is fraught with problems.  A growing number of holistic doctors, however, offer the less toxic bio-identical hormone replacement therapy.

In our experience, bio-identical hormone replacement is little better than other hormone therapies, although it will produce dramatic symptomatic results, impressing the patient and the doctor in too many cases.

The problems with it are more long-term and also have to do with its effect of stopping mental and spiritual development, which depend heavily upon the body’s own hormones circulating in just the right amounts at all times  This is impossible to achieve with any hormone replacement therapy.  For these reasons and the others discussed below,  Dr. Paul Eck and I only recommend natural hormone therapy for short-term use, and only rarely if the organ or gland has been completely destroyed or removed.

Here are some concerns with hormone therapy that one should consider:

BIO-IDENTICAL HORMONE THERAPY PROBLEMS

1. Hormone therapy can cause cancer.  I mention this as a warning, even about natural products such as glandular extracts used by nutritionists and holistic doctors.  They should be avoided at all cost if one has a diagnosed cancer and even in some instances if one strongly suspects a full-blown cancer, even if it has not been diagnosed.

Cancer is probably the biggest danger of many types of artificial and even natural hormone therapies is that it can increase the risk of cancer.  This applies specifically for hormone-related cancers such as breast and prostate cancer.

The reason prostate and breast cancer are so prevalent, in part, is that we are exposed to hormone “replacement” products all day.  These include plastics, or so-called xenoestrogens.  These function like estrogens in our bodies.  Also, dairy products and meat naturally contain hormones, which is why they are avoided often in early treatment for cancer.  Avoiding them altogether for long periods of time, however, is usually not as helpful.

Other sources are hormones injected into livestock, poultry and other animals that we either eat outright or use products made from these animal bodies.  Many processed and prepared foods contain flavorings and other animal-based products that vegetarians are even unaware of.  The only way to avoid them is to eat at home all the time of fresh, organic foods.

Other natural sources of hormones are found in certain plant-based foods such as most soy products unless they are fermented.  Other sources include wild yam, sea vegetables (but not kelp and certain others), cactus-derived products and, in fact, many other foods in smaller amounts.  Most do not pose a problem.  However, for the cancer patient they certainly can pose an added risk.

This is one reason I recommend stricter diets for people, and why we use near infrared sauna therapy to help remove thousands of toxic plastics and other chemicals from the body quickly and efficiently with few side effects.  This efficiency is only possible when the sauna is used enough, and in the correct way.  For much more information about saunas, see our articles or preferably our book, Sauna Therapy.

2. Hormone replacement upsets the delicate hormone feedback systems in the body.  This is especially true of the steroid hormones (DHEA, pregnenolone, estrogen, progesterone, cortisone, androsterone and testosterone). 

         Hormone replacement may do much more harm than good by upsetting the delicate feedback mechanisms.  Giving a hormone affects others and may affect many areas of physical functioning.  The feedback systems are exceedingly complex.  It is difficult to monitor and figure out exactly how to regulate hormones, especially adrenal hormones.

3. Hormone therapy is often not needed if chemistry is balanced.  If one corrects the diet, toxic metals, the oxidation rate and other imbalances through nutritional balancing science, many hormonal problems go away without the need for any hormone replacement.

4. Hormone therapy rarely addresses the cause of health problems.  Instead, it mainly treats symptoms.  Causes of hormone imbalances are nutrient deficiencies, toxic metal excesses, toxic chemicals and the effects of radiation, emotional imbalances and stress from other causes.  The only time hormone replacement addresses the cause is when the organ that produces the hormone is irreparably damaged so that it cannot function. 

         For example, at menopause or after a hysterectomy with oophorectomy (ovary removal), the adrenal glands should produce enough estrogen and progesterone to prevent hot flashes and other symptoms.  Millions of women do just fine without hormone replacement if their adrenal glands are functioning normally.  Improving the adrenals and thyroid activity and balancing body chemistry often suffices to prevent and correct hot flashes and other symptoms associated with menopause.  In some cases, however, supplementary progesterone, in particular, may be helpful.  

         For diabetics, Type 1 diabetes may require insulin.  However, many Type 2 diabetics can lower their blood sugar with dietary and lifestyle changes.

5. Hormone replacement therapy masks underlying problems.  One may receive relief from hot flashes, exhaustion or other annoying symptoms with natural hormone therapy.  However, underlying problems such as heavy metal toxicity, nutrient deficiencies or chemical toxicity continue unrecognized and unaddressed.  This can and does lead to more serious problems in the future.

6. One cannot provide the correct dosage of replacement hormones.  Not only does natural hormone secretion vary every minute of the day and night in everyone.  Hormone secretion also depends greatly on each person’s specific lifestyle and activity schedule.  

Replacement therapy substitutes a rigid routine for the delicate balancing act the body performs all day and all night long.  This can have severe adverse consequences on body systems.

         A very important determinant in natural hormone secretion is one's lifestyle.  Exercise, rest, mental versus physical activity, emotional ups and downs, eating patterns, illnesses and other biochemical factors all affect natural hormone secretion on a moment-to-moment basis.

7. A hormone's metabolic effect is what is most important, not its serum, urine or saliva level.  However, serum, urine or saliva are how hormone levels are usually measured.   This is particularly a problem with thyroid and adrenal hormone monitoring. 

Their metabolic effect depends less on the level of circulating hormone and more on how much enters the cells and is metabolized properly within the cells.   For this reason, cellular tests such as hair mineral testing often reveal a very different picture than blood, urine and saliva tests that measure circulating hormone levels.

8. Even bio-identical hormones are toxic.  This is most evident with insulin.  Every physician is familiar with the care that must be used in administering insulin, technically a bio-identical hormone, to avoid often-fatal insulin shock.

Even using extreme care and sophisticated delivery systems, insulin still always causes side effects and cannot prevent the adverse effects of many diabetic complications.

         Estrogen, even natural estrogen, is also extremely toxic.  Many believe it is the primary carcinogen.  Studies of menopausal women on estrogen replacement would tend to support this.

Some toxicity of DHEA, pregnenelone, testosterone, growth hormone and others is also well-known.  Yet often these are prescribed casually with little consideration of possible toxic effects.

Less important, but nevertheless true, is that a product from outside the body, even bio-identical estrogen, progesterone or others is not always identical to the internal substance.   For example, manufactured products are usually not perfectly fresh or pure as those within the body.

See number 10 below on the differences between hormones and vitamins from outside the body, for example.  Vitamins and minerals in our food are often cooked, salted, preserved and more and are still very good for the body. 

This is not true of hormones, however, which must be absolutely fresh to be really bio-identical.  In practice, this is very difficult to achieve, so there is always some toxicity for this reason as well as others listed above.

9. Hormone replacement therapy is costly.  The cost includes not only the substance itself, but costly repeated testing required to prescribe them in a responsible fashion. 

Yet another cost is the need for long-term therapy.  Since they do not address causes, one is usually forced to remain on the replacement hormones for life. 

In addition to the financial burden, one becomes dependent on tests and doctors that in itself extracts a human cost.  While this is better than dying of diabetes or Addison's disease, there are often better ways to handle these conditions discussed below.

         10. Hormone therapy is not in the same class of therapies as vitamin and mineral supplements at all.  The latter are found in foods, whereas hormones are produced inside the body for the most part.

Hormones are among thousands of internal chemicals that must react and balance each other on a moment-to-moment basis.  Food components like vitamins are designed to be ingested safely in average or rough amounts at irregular times during the day, as occurs daily during mealtime.

This is an extremely important difference between supplements of vitamins and mineral therapy versus hormone therapy.  Yet most holistic and naturopathic doctors think that natural hormones are just like natural minerals and vitamins.  They could not be more wrong!

It is true we ingest a tiny amount of hormones from food products, but most of this is extremely harmful.  For example, dairy animals today are quite high in some estrogens due to cattle breeding and drugs given to the cattle to produce more milk or fatten them.  These hormone residues find their way into our food today, making it far less healthful.  

Soy and a few other foods contain genistin and other compounds that bind to estrogen binding sites in the body.  Once again, many scientists believe this is not a good thing, except perhaps for menopausal women,  a rather small subgroup of the population.

Another source is tap water that is contaminated with synthetic hormones fed to animals or humans.  These do not break down in time and circulate in the water supplies.  America and Western European nations, in particular, are experiencing this problem with their tap waters. 

Finally, some pesticides and plastic materials contain hormone-like toxic chemicals that can mimic estrogens.  These are very common today, unfortunately, and also quite harmful.

So most of our food-based hormone sources are decidedly negative for health.  This is totally unlike vitamins and minerals, in which the general principle is that more is better in the food supply.

11. Hormones are always secreted in constantly-changing combinations.  They are never secreted in an isolated way, which is how most hormone supplements are prescribed.

Even if the doctor prescribes a combination of replacement hormones, it is always arbitrary.  In fact, the combination is always changing from moment to moment. 

In reality,  hormone replacement involves taking an average amount that is not in the correct moment-to-moment dosage or combination for the body’s needs.

In contrast, our bodies are designed to take in a lot of calcium at one meal, a lot of potassium at the next meal and so forth.  In other words, the body has complex buffering systems to prevent an overload of any nutrient at a meal and to make up for missing nutrients in a particular meal or day.  This is not the case with hormones.

Once again this is the reason why exercising extreme caution with hormone therapy of any kind is warranted and hormone replacement is nothing at all like vitamin and mineral supplementation therapies.  Far too many of my patients have been harmed by well-meaning physicians who use bio-identical hormones without understanding this fact. 

POSSIBLE EXCEPTIONS -

INSULIN REPLACEMENT

         Insulin can save one’s life, so it is an exception to the rules above.  However, in recent experience with nutritional balancing science, diabetics can usually reduce their insulin needs rapidly, within a week or two, with a very low carbohydrate diet and the correct types of drinking water, in particular, no coffee or tea, and a few nutritional supplements that are very targeted using a properly performed and interpreted hair mineral analysis.

In fact, diabetics on insulin may still suffer many complications of diabetes including vascular disease, blindness, infections, premature aging and much more.  I consider it unfortunate to put most diabetics on insulin without first addressing nutritional and other factors possibly related to glucose intolerance.

         Many type 2 diabetics, in particular, have iron and, at times, vanadium toxicity.  Lead, cadmium, mercury and other toxic metals are also very commonly present.  They may also have chromium, zinc and manganese deficiencies.  Their cell permeability is often reduced.  Their diets are often high in carbohydrates, and many use stimulants such as coffee or colas that worsen nutritional imbalances.  They are often low in other nutrients such as selenium, iodine, vitamins and others.  For much more information about diabetes, read the article on this website entitled Diabetes.  Also, many other articles on this website discuss carbohydrates in the diet, sugars in the diet and other topics related to diabetes.

THYROID HORMONE REPLACEMENT

         Thyroid hormone replacement with natural thyroid hormone is also usually unnecessary and harmful, in our experience, though it is needed if one has no thyroid gland at all.  I find that in almost all cases, synthetic and even the natural thyroid hormone replacements slow progress on nutritional balancing programs.

It is not as bad as adrenal hormones, such as DHEA and pregnenelone, however.  Most likely, the reason is the feedback system for thyroid hormone production is simpler than the feedback system for the steroid hormones.  Only two hormones are involved, and their metabolism is relatively simple.

Thyroid hormone replacement therapy can mask deeper imbalances, and it does not address the usual causal factors such as copper, mercury or fluoride toxicity, iodine deficiency, fast or slow oxidation, and even postural tension that can affect the thyroid and pituitary glands.

         Adrenal weakness often contributes to thyroid imbalance as the thyroid gland seeks to compensate.  Exhaustion of the sympathetic or fight-or-flight nervous system also contributes to thyroid imbalance. 

Grave’s disease or hyperthyroidism. Adrenal exhaustion can contribute to hyperthyroid conditions or Grave's disease.  This is revealed on hair mineral tests that often reveal low cellular thyroid effect.  In these individuals, cell permeability is impaired and the thyroid gland compensates by secreting more hormones, causing symptoms of hyperthyroidism.

         Most people diagnosed with hyperthyroidism in my experience are also very stressed, and this must be corrected for natural healing of this condition, which is usually very easy. Copper and particularly mercury toxicity are also important factors in almost all cases.  The solution is not to destroy the thyroid gland, and definitely not to use radioactive iodine treatment that can cause cancers later.  It is to address the causes, as can be done with nutritional balancing science quite easily.   Programs may need special modifications, however, for Grave’s disease. 

         If one must replace thyroid hormones, most patients do better on natural thyroid (Naturethroid or Westhroid, for example), which contain all the hormones and nutritional factors as well.

         For more information about thyroid problems and natural approaches to solving them, see the article on this website, Thyroid Healing.

PROGESTERONE AND TESTOSTERONE

         These are among the safer replacement hormones.  However, I have never recommended them and they should be used only as a last resort if all else does not work, including of course a complete nutritional balancing program.

WHEN HORMONE REPLACEMENT IS HELPFUL

1. Natural progesterone is helpful for some PMS and other women’s issues, provided that one cannot correct the problem with nutritional balancing methods first.  These approaches are described elsewhere on this website in articles such as Premenstrual Syndrome.

2.  Insulin is helpful for some advanced cases of diabetes, until one decides that the side effects are not worth the trouble and the person is willing to undertake a nutritional balancing program.

         3. Hormone replacement is necessary if a key organ has been so damaged or destroyed by surgery, radiation or illness that it will never produce enough hormones.  This does not apply to removal of the ovaries, however, as these hormones can be made in most cases by the adrenal glands and other sites in the body.

         However, in some cases, ovary removal, which should be done only rarely in the case of overwhelming pathology, can render some women so unwell that hormones may be the only answer for a while, until they improve their overall health.   Then they should not be needed at all.

         4. Cortisol or cortisone replacement therapy might  be needed in true cases of Addison’s disease.  However, I have never encountered such a case in which natural methods without cortisone therapy would not help.  To read much more about this topic, click on Adrenal Burnout Syndrome. The side effects of even low-dose cortisone therapy are so devastating that its use should be only if all else fails.

5. Topical hormone therapy, for example, for dermatitis and other skin problems, is far less toxic than ingesting corticosteroids.  However, it will eventually thin the skin if used repeatedly.  Therefore, it should be used only occasionally, if at all.

         6. Hormones for aging, such as DHEA, pregnenelone, HGH (human growth hormone) and others are fraught with problems.  However, if a person will not or cannot do a nutritional balancing program, these may offer symptomatic relief for a while.  Unfortunately, they also often guarantee worse health later.

         7. Melatonin.  This is a hormone secreted by the pineal gland.  It is helpful for many people to promote restful sleep.  It can be used short-term.  I prefer not to use it because, like all hormones, it is somewhat toxic and has other problems as well.  However, it appears to be safe for occasional use to help one sleep.  Especially if one has traveled on an airplane across time zones and feels disoriented, melatonin before bed for several days may be helpful.

CONFUSING HORMONE-RELATED SITUATIONS ON HAIR MINERAL ANALYSES

A hair analysis indicates low adrenal and thyroid effect or response (slow oxidation), but adrenal and thyroid hormone levels are normal.  This occurs often.  It means that hormone secretion is okay, but the body is not able to respond to the hormones.  Reasons for this include:

·      The hormones the body is secreting may not be of good enough quality to act properly.

·      A deficiency of a co-factor or releasing factor is making the body’s hormones less effective.

·      Reduced cell permeability is reducing the hormone’s ability to enter the cells.

·      Once in the cells, the body is not able to utilize the hormones properly.

A person is on “adequate” hormone replacement according to serum or saliva hormone tests, but a hair analysis and the person’s symptoms indicate low hormone effect.  This is extremely common.  It means the replacement hormones are not balancing the body enough, and could be making things worse by upsetting the body’s natural hormone feedback systems.

The reason for this is the problem is not a lack of hormones, but usually such causes as toxic metals, nutrient deficiencies and other biochemical imbalances.  A nutritional balancing program will slowly enable the person to get off the replacement hormones after a time.  In some cases, staying on the replacement product slows or can even stop progress.  However, I do not take people off prescription drugs, as that is a more personal decision that is often made best with the approval of the prescribing doctor.

Serum or saliva hormone levels are low, but a hair analysis reveals fast oxidation or an excessive hormone effect.  This is also very common.  Possibly, excessive cell permeability (if fast oxidation is present) is allowing hormones to enter the cells faster than is ideal.  It is an adaptive mechanism and part of the alarm reaction.  In this case, taking supplemental hormones can be very dangerous and can even lead to death.  However, convincing a client of this fact can be difficult, especially if the person feels better on the hormones.

Other causes for low thyroid and adrenal hormones in a fast oxidizer, for example, include a temporary stress reaction, or that the hormone test was done at a time when hormones were low, while a hair mineral test represents an average reading over a three month time period.  Other complicating factors are also possible, such as a falsely elevated sodium or potassium reading due to using a water softener, swimming in pools often, or for some other reason that should be checked carefully.  Finally, the hair test reflects the stress response, and not hormone levels.  This must be recalled and one needs to understand both types of tests to evaluate the differences properly.  However, in most cases, giving thyroid or adrenal hormones to fast oxidizers is not helpful and can be dangerous!

A hair analysis shows a complex metabolic pattern such as four lows, four highs or another, but hormone levels appear within normal limits.  The same principles apply.  The nutritional balancing program will slowly undo the complex patterns on the hair analysis.  Stopping supplementary hormones is often helpful if the client desires it, and is best done with the blessing of the prescribing doctor for legal reasons.

The client has Grave’s disease or hyperthyroidism, but a hair analysis indicates sluggish thyroid activity and slow oxidation. This is the rule, not the exception.  See the article on Thyroid Disease for a deeper understanding of why this occurs in most every case.

Source

 According to Shé D'Montford, Shambhallah, from Australia ‘The human body "WILL HEAL"... If we get out of our own way and allow it, it heals itself. It is our basic nature. Anybody who tells you other than that is trying to sell you something. No matter what you have been told. Don't give up on yourself and don't buy into the lines like ... ‘oh well you've had a good life'... 'at your age'... and the worst of all ...'there's nothing further I can do, I suggest you finalize your affairs'... How dare anyone tell you to give up! So much in society combines to convince us of the propaganda that some things never get better. It's up to you ... do you want to get better? Make things better? It is human nature to make things better, evolve and grow.”

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