Doctors in the UK have been told by the Government’s medicines watchdog, (the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency) that HRT should no longer be used as the first choice of treatment for osteoporosis.
In icon we have frequently mentioned the links between increased risks of cancers such as breast and ovarian and HRT.
Osteoporosis treatment is also often misinformed. Regularly, patients are told to ’get more calcium by consuming more dairy’. In fact dairy consumption suppresses magnesium levels. Magnesium is essential to help turn blood calcium into bone calcium. A better solution is to consume far less dairy, consume more green vegetables and take an organic calcium/magnesium supplement like Coral Calcium (ring 01280 815166 for supplies).
A recent survey showed that 40 per cent of Americans were magnesium deficient. Magnesium also drives a pump on cellular membranes; this pump reduces sodium levels in cells and helps prevent toxicity in mitochondria, linked to lower oxygen and energy levels in cells. (See The Tree of Life for more information on sodium, potassium, magnesium and their involvement in the cancer process).
Meanwhile a study in the Journal of Molecular Psychiatry suggests HRT may make you perform poorly under pressure, after research at the Yale School of Medicine.
Three other reports on HRT are worth noting.
- A 2003 study showed that oestrogen/progesterone HRT increased the risk of Alzheimer’s and the FDA has now insisted on a warning about this on labels.
- A study in February for Brigham and Women’s Hospital USA showing that both oestrogen only, and oestrogen/progesterone HRT are linked to higher rates of asthma.
- A study from University of Rochester showed that women on HRT had a higher risk of impaired hearing.