For years you’ve heard conflicting messages about hormone replacement therapy drugs. Confused by all the mixed messages? Who can blame you?

In November of this year, two juries awarded verdicts totaling $113 million over synthetic hormone replacement therapy (HRT) drugs, Prempro and Premarin, which are manufactured by pharmaceutical giant, Pfizer.  The verdicts ruled in favor of two women who developed breast cancer while taking the counterfeit hormones, Prempro and Premarin.  Now, Pfizer faces steep damages.  Are the damages too steep, or are they justified? You be the judge.

The juries found that Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, now owned by Pfizer, knew that Premarin and Prempro were dangerous prior to the negative findings of the 2002 Women’s Health Initiative (WHI) Study. WHI studied more than 15,000 women, between the ages of 50 and 79, and concluded that Prempro and Premarin significantly increased the risk of breast cancer, heart attack and stroke. However, Wyeth continued to push these drugs. As a result, more than 10,000 cases are awaiting trial from women who claim they developed breast cancer from taking Premarin and Prempro.

Amidst all of these trials and the controversy surrounding hormone replacement therapy drugs, mainstream media and medicine remain silent. It’s time to uncover the truth – separating the good guys from the bad.

Women are confused when it comes to hormones.  To make matters worse, so are their doctors.  You hear it all the time: hormones cause cancer.  This statement has women paralyzed despite the fact that they are suffering from menopausal symptoms such as hot flashes, night sweats, loss of libido, insomnia, depression, etc.  But think about it:  Women’s hormone levels peak in their twenties.  If hormones cause cancer, wouldn’t women in their twenties have a high incidence of disease?

Instead, what we find is that when women reach mid-life and their hormone levels begin to drop we begin to see cancer, cardiovascular disease, stroke, osteoporosis and degenerative diseases.  So there is something about the statement – hormones cause cancer – that mainstream medicine is missing.

The answer to the hormone controversy lies in the definition of a hormone.  The media and mainstream medicine make no differentiation between bioidentical hormones and counterfeit hormones such as Prempro and Premarin.  Because the term ‘bioidentical’ is often labeled a marketing term, it’s time to set the record straight.   Bioidentical hormones are molecularly identical to what our bodies make.  Because natural progesterone and the estrogens are biologically identical in structure to the hormones produced by the body, your cells respond to them in exactly the same way that they respond to the hormones produced by your own body.

Meanwhile, counterfeit hormones are the result of manipulating the original structure to make it patentable without giving any concern to what these counterfeit hormones are doing to women’s bodies.  Counterfeit hormones, by definition, are not hormones.  And your body doesn’t recognize them as such either.  It’s like putting Chevy parts in a Ford.  It just doesn’t work.

The WHI found that hormones increased the risk of cancer, but no one seemed to note that the WHI’s findings were based on counterfeit hormones, not true bioidentical hormones.  On the contrary, bioidentical progesterone has actually been shown to decrease the risk of breast cancer. Yet, no one is talking about it because there isn’t any money in something that you can’t patent.  You can’t patent what God has made.

Do not be left subject to the misinformation and bias presented to you.  Educate yourself about hormones, and if it’s not something that works naturally with your body, analyze it and you are certain to find a catch.  Let’s put an end to the confusion.  Biologically identical hormones, along with those that your body produces naturally, are the only ones that deserve to be called hormones. Now the truth has been told, I urge you to adhere to this truth and stop taking these harmful drugs.

Listen to Dr. Hotze’s “Health & Wellness Solutions” on KSEV 700 AM radio or online at www.ksevradio.com, M-F, 12-1 PM.  Purchase Dr. Hotze’s book Hormones, Health, and Happiness at local bookstores, www.amazon.com or www.hormoneshealthandhappiness.com