Question: I am so confused about hormone replacement therapy. I hear it is good for us, then I hear it is bad for us. What should I do?

Dr. Brownstein’s Answer:

For more than 25 years, conventional medicine told women that hormone replacement therapy was good for them. They claimed every woman should take the commonly prescribed drugs to prevent osteoporosis and heart disease as well as to stave off the effects of the aging process.

Problem is, they were recommending the wrong hormones. At the time, the only doctors yelling from the sidelines to stop were the holistic doctors. Conventional medicine recommended the wrong hormones for more than 25 years.

The most commonly prescribed hormones were Premarin and Provera. These are both synthetic versions of estrogen and progesterone. Premarin is pregnant mare’s hormone. Yep, that’s right — the most commonly prescribed estrogen in the United States is from a pregnant horse!

Provera is a synthetic version of the hormone progesterone. Provera has been shown to cause increased rates of breast cancer (by a shocking 800 percent), blood clots, irreversible weakening of the bones (osteoporosis), swelling of the lungs that can lead to respiratory failure (pulmonary edema), and many other adverse effects.

It is hard to believe that these drugs are still prescribed, but they are. I believe that when there are natural, bioidentical versions of our own hormones available, synthetic versions should never be prescribed and they should be pulled from the market.

Unfortunately, that won’t happen anytime soon. You see, Big Pharma wants to use only patentable substances because they hold the rights to these products and make a lot of money from them.

So, what can you do? If you need a hormone for any condition, use a natural, bioidentical version. Even though the Food and Drug Administration does not want you to know about these substances, they are available.