Most prescription drugs work by poisoning enzymes and/or blocking receptors in the human body. That might be all right for a short time, but it’s not wise to poison enzymes or block receptors for a long term.

For example, let’s look at hormone replacement therapy (HRT), which is used to treat a variety of menopause symptoms, including hot flashes, moodiness, depression, anxiety, and brain fog. There are two types of HRT available: synthetic hormones and natural bioidentical hormones.

A synthetic hormone is an unnatural version of our own hormones. In effect, Big Pharma takes a natural hormone and alters it so that it is different from an original state.

Once a hormone is either produced in the body or taken exogenously, it moves through the bloodstream to the tissues where it is needed. The hormone progesterone binds to receptors throughout the body. For instance, there are progesterone receptors in the bones, and when the hormone binds there it helps strengthen the bones.

Why would doctors prescribe a synthetic form of progesterone (Provera) instead of natural bioidentical progesterone? The short answer is that most doctors don’t understand the difference between a synthetic drug and a natural bioidentical hormone. That’s because they have never been educated about the difference.

As a result, Provera is the number one prescribed form of progesterone in the United States.

Unfortunately, because the chemical structure of Provera is slightly different from natural progesterone, it fails to fit into the hormone receptor perfectly. This poor fit causes problems in the body.

The reason it causes problems is simple: Our progesterone receptors were designed to bind progesterone, not Provera. In fact, these receptors regard Provera as a foreign substance.

Because the binding is not perfect, it’s easy to predict that Provera will lead to adverse effects. And there are a whole host of serious side effects from taking Provera, including increased risk for:

• Blood clots

• Breast cancer

• Depression

• Heart attacks

• Irreversible osteoporosis

• Pulmonary edema

This drug should never be used — in fact, it should be pulled from the market — because we have a perfectly good natural bioidentical version of the same hormone available.