New Analysis: Menopausal Women + Hormones = Lower Risks

Good news for some menopausal women: Recent analysis reverses previous findings about hormones and heart risk.

According to an April 4th Wall Street Journal article by Tara Parker-Pope, researchers have done an about face on the subject after fuller analysis of the 15-yearlong Women’s Health Initiative (WHI), generated five years ago.

The researchers now say “timing” is the issue. Using hormones in the first years after menopause begins does not increase heart risk. The best candidate for hormonal use, according to the new analysis, is “a recently menopausal women, in her mid-40s or early 50s, who seeks relief from hot flashes and other symptoms.”

Per the article, “The data also showed hormone users aged 50 to 59 had a 30% lower risk of dying of any cause during the five-to-seven-year WHI study than those given a placebo.”

Ping-Pong Findings. The 1989 Nurse’s Health Study II proved to be among the largest prospective investigations into the risk factors for major chronic diseases in women. This significant study included a team of clinicians, epidemiologists and statisticians and demonstrated that “women who used menopause hormones had as much as 50% fewer heart attacks than nonusers of hormones.” As a result, women over 50 started to use hormones to “protect their hearts.”

Then 2002 rolled around with scores of menopausal women stopping hormonal use after the federal WHI study said they were “at risk.”

Now doctors and their female patients will be taking a well-deserved second look at using hormones for relief of menopausal symptoms.

Interestingly, the article mentions “the Journal of the American Medical Association and the WHI investigators played down the finding.”

And that begs the question: Why did a lay publication—the Wall Street Journal—and not the annals of internal medicine make this front-page news? People need to know and, thankfully, the WSJ got the information out.

Our View. For over a decade, we have taken the position in favor of hormone optimization as proven via solid medical literature. Unfailingly, it has been shown that a balanced endocrine system—with physiological levels maintained at upper end of normal levels, adjusted for age—is essential for good health.

That includes menopausal women, who have dwindling hormone levels and should be on hormonal therapy throughout their lives. In fact, hormones begin to drop for all of us, from age 30 onward at 2% -3% per year. For that reason, we should have comprehensive evaluations done to determine and address diminished levels, which can negatively impact health and quality of life.

Cenegenics® Medical Institute

Medically speaking, it seems odd that we don’t debate kidney function, heart function or bone density . . . but we continually put the endocrine system in a position to fail by not giving it due attention.

So it’s not surprising that deeper analysis flipped the previous findings of the long-term WHI project. The WHI study may have been marketed as “most definitive, far reaching programs of research on women's health ever undertaken in the U.S.”—but it is one of the most poorly designed studies. Here’s why . . .

                        The WHI study looked at women who were already off of hormones for 10-15 years, which automatically put them in the high-risk zone for cancer and heart disease. If the endocrine system is diminished, the body becomes at-risk for disease—and these women are proof.

                        The WHI was really a study about Premarin—an artificial hormone made from horse urine. They looked at women who were only on that form of estrogen, not any other forms or any other types of delivery systems.

 

At one time, Premarin was the largest-selling drug in the world—holding 90% of the global market share—which equated to billions of dollars for the pharmaceutical companies, who are awarded patents only on artificial products. That’s where compounding pharmacies prove their value, blending fairly natural substances (bioidentical hormones) for patients. Rather than using nonhuman hormones, women need bioidentical hormones, which mirror the molecular and chemical structure of the body’s naturally occurring hormones. Women using bioidentical hormones don’t experience the troublesome side effects, proven to exist with their artificial counterparts. We’re not saying all pharmaceutical companies are bad. In fact, FDA-approved pharmacies make human growth hormone, for example, using recombinant DNA (artificially created DNA) techniques with advanced technologies and producing exactly what the body needs. But when you take a foreign substance from a horse and try to create a human product, you’re going to run into problems. Humans are not horses; we have different immune systems. Plus, we’ve known for over ten years that oral estrogen causes inflammatory reactions, raising C-reactive protein (CRP)—and it’s this increased inflammation that puts people at risk for heart disease and cancer.

Time will prove us correct: More refuting is on the way since similar studies have been ill designed and poorly conceived, delivering spurious results. The WHI is a prime example.

Become better informed. Learn more about promoting good health and youthful aging by balancing your endocrine system for a more vigorous life. The science behind age management medicine helps identify and meet criteria, which places you in the lowest possible risk category for disease—particularly heart disease, cancer, stroke, diabetes, metabolic syndrome and Alzheimer’s disease—and thereby extending your health span.