I recently attended The Scripps Conference on Natural Supplements in beautiful La Jolla, CA where I listened to a presentation on bio-identical hormone therapy in menopause by Dr. Steven Brody, a gynecologist and assistant clinical professor at UC San Diego School of Medicine.
Dr. Brody’s time slot coincided with another, equally compelling presentation on “Chocolate and Tea: A Scientific Overview and Tasting Demonstration.” It was a tough call, I admit, yet he drew a full house of mostly female physicians and nurses. And when the hour was up, no one would let him go. His discussion continued outside the presentation room, as a sea of women, notebooks in hand, peppered him with more questions. He was still holding court at lunch the next day as more conference attendees (perhaps the ones who chose chocolate over his presentation) pulled up their chairs to join him at his table. Despite all the research, articles, FDA actions, dueling press releases and Oprah shows, there is still a lot of confusion about bio-identical hormones, and an urgent need for unbiased information.
In Dr. Brody’s opinion, conjugated hormones – namely Premarin, which consists of about six different conjugated estrogens derived from the urine of pregnant mares, is “one of the worst offenders for woman’s health in the last 50-100 years. It’s natural for horses, not for women,” he said. … [Read more]