Empowered Pathways Newsletter

Empowered Pathways Newsletter

July 15, 2003

Gen Abrams, Publisher
Gen@empoweredpathways.com

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Welcome!
.. to your "Empowered Pathways" newsletter!

It is my hope that through this newsletter, you will receive
information that will improve the quality of your life.
Included in each issue is information about health,
nutrition, herbals and supplements, simplifying life, living
more frugally, fun, faith, and joy!

It's all about empowerment, stuff that helps you be
in control of your life, your own pathway to better living!

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Health, Nutrition and Supplements
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The Great Hormone Experiment

"The Greatest Experiment Ever Performed on Women" by author
Barbara Seaman is a new book that details how women and their
doctors were manipulated by drug companies that created the
myth of estrogen. Seaman appeared on the Today Show on July
9, one year exactly from the release of the Women's Health
Initiative study detailing the dangers and risks of hormone
replacement therapy.
An excerpt from the book, video from the show, and an audio
clip can be found at: http://www.msnbc.com/news/936059.asp

If all that you have heard so far about HRT has not horrified
and scared you, read on. Ms. Seaman's research goes back
to the very conception of synthetic sex hormones, in the
1930's in Nazi Germany. In the sixty some years since then,
countless millions of us have used synthetic hormones in some
form or another, either as a treatment, birth control, or to
replace what our bodies had naturally or unnaturally lost due
to menopause or surgery. The damage has been done, the extent
is not clear.

Premarin, the most popular variety of hormone replacement
therapy, was approved as a menopause treatment by the FDA
on May 8, 1942. From 1991 to 1999, it was the best selling
drug in the United States. It is now number three, behind
Synthroid and Lipitor.
Wyeth, the maker of Prempro also manufactures Premarin, which
shares the same estrogen component. In 1975, Premarin became
Wyeth's best selling drug. It was also the 5th best seller
in the nation. (Incidentally, the product has a clever name,
Premarin is made from PREgnant MARes urINe.)
Following the release of the Women's Health Initiative study
last year, Prempro and Premarin went from being one with
$2.1 billion in annual revenues to closer to $1.4 billion
annually. In its most recent quarterly statement, the
company's income before taxes from pharmaceutical sales had
dropped 12 percent. Sales of Prempro and another drug,
PremPhase, had dropped 34 percent. Sales of Premarin, an
estrogen-only hormone-replacement drug, dropped 44 percent.
It is interesting to note that Wyeth's patent expiration on
the drug coincides with the timing on this pretty closely...

All of the information I see about this topic sends my mind
spinning in circles. I generally am considered a fairly
sane person (I usually stay pretty close to middle ground
on the mental health continuum (-: ), but in thinking on
this topic I can't help but feel a bit more than paranoid.
The dollars involved are enormous, the fact that the roots
are in Nazism...feels like something bigger even than
institutional sexism, like an imposed glass ceiling on health.

And it keeps evolving...with the 'unfortunate' demise and
decline of the use of HRT, there seems to be a scramble to
find the next dose for women, and to continue to push down
any natural solutions that are available. Three bits of
research from the last month bring this to evidence.

1. "Phytoestrogen Supplements Not Useful for Menopause
Symptoms" rages the headline. The research involved two
popular supplements you can find in most any store that
sells such things, both containing different doses of red
clover and other ingredients, and menopausal women's reporting
on incidences of hot flashes.
There are two difficulties with this. First, hot flashes
are a symptom and not symptoms, it is only one and not
plural, contrary to the exaggerated headline. Second, the
dosage, source, and type of red clover in those supplements
are marginal, far lower than I have seen recommended for
this use. (email me and I will give you information on this!)

2. "Black Cohosh Used for Menopausal Symptoms May Promote
Metastasis". This study used rats who developed breast
cancer that metastasized into lungs and other areas. We
know that black cohosh should only be used for less than six
months, and within recommended dosages - it was unclear to
me in this study how the researchers extrapolated the data
to women. Actually, the whole thing was unclear.

3. Now, for the one that takes the cake! If you know any
woman who is being treated for menopause, please tell
them to be cautious with this!

"Controlled-release (CR) paroxetine is useful for the treatment
of menopausal hot flashes, according to the results of a
randomized controlled trial published in the June 4 issue
of The Journal of the American Medical Association."

Paroxetine CR is otherwise known as Paxil. Paxil is a
psychotropic medication used as an antidepressant and to
treat panic disorder. This is a serious medication that
effects a person's mental status, can cause seizures and a
host of other difficulties. The dosage they are talking about
to treat hot flashes (!) is the same as is used to treat these
two serious mental illnesses!

How serious are these two disorders? Here are the definitions:
A major depressive episode (DSM-IV) implies a prominent and
relatively persistent (nearly every day for at least 2 weeks)
depressed mood or loss of interest or pleasure in nearly all
activities, representing a change from previous functioning,
and includes the presence of at least five of the following
nine symptoms during the same two week period: depressed mood,
markedly diminished interest or pleasure in usual activities,
significant change in weight and/or appetite, insomnia or
hypersomnia, psychomotor agitation or retardation, increased
fatigue, feelings of guilt or worthlessness, slowed thinking
or impaired concentration, a suicide attempt or suicidal
ideation.
Panic disorder (DSM-IV) is characterized by recurrent unexpected
panic attacks, i.e., a discrete period of intense fear or
discomfort in which four (or more) of the following symptoms
develop abruptly and reach a peak within 10 minutes: (1)
palpitations, pounding heart, or accelerated heart rate;
(2) sweating; (3) trembling or shaking; (4) sensations of
shortness of breath or smothering; (5) feeling of choking;
(6) chest pain or discomfort; (7) nausea or abdominal distress;
(8) feeling dizzy, unsteady, lightheaded, or faint; (9)
derealization (feelings of unreality) or depersonalization
(being detached from oneself); (10) fear of losing control;
(11) fear of dying; (12) paresthesias (numbness or tingling
sensations); (13) chills or hot flushes.

Let me repeat, they want to treat menopausal hot flashes,
and are experimenting on women, at the same dosage as
these two mental illnesses.
This is insane.

Maybe this quote from the article can explain a bit more:
"For many years, hormone replacement therapy (HRT) with
combined estrogen/progestin has been the standard therapy
for women experiencing menopausal symptoms," write Vered
Stearns, MD, from the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer
Center at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in Baltimore,
Maryland, and colleagues. "However, increased risks of
long-term adverse clinical outcomes in a recent prospective
study conducted by the Women's Health Initiative (WHI) on
long-term HRT use are likely to change clinical practice
significantly."

GlaxoSmithKline manufactures Paxil.
GlaxoSmithKline supported this study and employs three of
its four authors, who have stock options in this company.
Dr. Stearns has served as a consultant to GlaxoSmithKline.
JAMA. 2003;289:2827-2834

With permission, I would like to close and summarize this
week's tirade with a brief article from Shane Ellison.
(You may remember I have highlighted some of Shane's work in
the past.) It follows.

If your brain cells are still intact and not completely dead
from taking FDA approved drugs then you were probably as
shocked as I was when you read the recent headline "Hormone
Therapy Benefits Many". Seems drug propaganda from corporate
drug dealers never stops!

A quick look at some of the side effects of Hormone Replacement
Therapy (HRT) reveals a number of very disturbing trends.
In 2003, the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA),
supposedly the most prestigious medical journal in the world,
showed that users of the HRT drug Prempro (combination of
estrogen and progestin) develop Alzheimers at twice the rate
of those taking a placebo.
Last year, JAMA reported that our data add to the growing
body of evidence that recent long-term use of HRT is associ-
ated with an increased risk of breast cancer and that such
use may be related particularly to lobular tumors.
The British Medical Journal recently confirmed the above
findings in their most recent issue by stating long term use
of combined HRT doubles cancer risk.

The fact that estrogen and its derivatives increase the
incidence of cancer is no surprise. As early as the 1970s,
scientists such as Dr. Otto Sartorius, Director of the Cancer
Control Clinic, have emphatically made public statements
stating that "estrogen [and its derivatives] is the fodder on
which cancer grows."

The bottom line, HRT is a gamble and users are betting their
lives. Just say no to FDA approved drugs and DARE to fire
the doctor who prescribes HRT medication. Seek out natural
medicine or face the consequences of becoming a life-time
asset of the pharmaceutical industry.

Shane holds a Masters degree in organic chemistry and has
first-hand industry experience with drug research, design and
synthesis. He knows that Americans want and deserve education,
not prescriptions!
http://www.health-fx.net

1. Estrogen Plus Progestin and the Incidence of Dementia and
Mild Cognitive Impairment in Postmenopausal Women.
JAMA. 2003;289:2651-2662.

2. Chen CL, Weiss NS, Newcomb P, Barlow W, White E.
Hormone replacement therapy in relation to breast cancer.
JAMA. 2002 Feb 13;287(6):734-41.

3. Spurgeon, D. Long Term use of HRT Doubles Cancer Risk.
BMJ. 2003 Jul 5;327(7405):9

4. Griffin, Edward, G. World Without Cancer.
ISBN. 0-912986-19-0. American Media

*These statements has not been approved by the Food and Drug Administration.
This product is not intended to diagnose, treat or cure or prevent any disease.
This notice is required by the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act.

If you need further information, or want information about
my research, sources, or products I use, you can email me at:
Gen@empoweredpathways.com

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Tips for Frugal Living
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      Trust in the LORD with all thine heart;
      and lean not unto thine own understanding.
      In all thy ways acknowledge him,
      and he shall direct thy paths.
      Be not wise in thine own eyes:
      fear the LORD, and depart from evil.

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Remarkable Quote
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Accept your genius and say what you think.

-Ralph Waldo Emerson

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Disclaimers:
*These statements have not been approved by the Food and
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