Ageless: The Naked Truth About Bioidentical Hormones by Suzanne Somers Read Free Book Online

using synthetic hormones outweighed the benefits. Breast cancer was just one of the increased risks discovered. Additionally, the study concluded that synthetic hormone replacement therapy protects neither your bones nor your heart. Ironically, bone and heart protection were two of the primary benefits once used by doctors as selling points to get women to fill their prescriptions for these drugs.
    The Women’s Health Initiative study hoped to show decreases in
     
breast cancer
stroke
pulmonary embolism
colorectal cancer
endometrial cancer
hip fracture
death due to any cause
    The actual outcome results were shocking:
     
29 percent increase in coronary heart disease
41 percent increase in strokes
22 percent increase in cardiovascular disease
2,100 percent (yes, this is correct) increase in pulmonary embolism (lung blood clots)
26 percent increase in breast cancer
    So much for synthetic hormones! These statistics alone should convince you right away of the negative effects of synthetic hormones.
    Those of us who were on the original birth control pills for anylength of time were actually on synthetic hormones—strong synthetic hormones. Any wonder why women of our generation are under siege from an epidemic of breast and ovarian cancers? There is a link, and you’ll learn more about it in this book.
    See if you relate to my scenario. For twenty-two years, I was on synthetic birth control pills, the original ones that were very strong. I even manipulated my periods with them, if I didn’t want to have a period on a particular weekend. Because of this I hold no one to blame—we just didn’t know. I also didn’t realize what was in those birth control pills, nor did I understand the dangers of messing with nature.
    I did not realize that having only a two-day bleed meant that I was not ovulating fully. At the time, I thought it was great to have such a light period. I did not realize that the importance of ovulation in the human female body is to let the brain know I was well, healthy, and reproductive. As far as my brain was concerned, I was not reproductive because I was not fully ovulating, which is a dangerous assumption for the brain to make. If the brain perceives us as unable to reproduce, its job, biologically speaking, is to try to eliminate us to make room for the reproductive ones. This is the nature in us. This is the template that was programmed in us from ancient times. This hormonal imbalance I unknowingly put myself in was creating a backdrop for cancer. We all have cancer in us; if we become hormonally imbalanced , this signals to the brain that the reproductive system is no longer in working order, and it is in this scenario that the cancer has a chance to come into being.
    This is why I believe that Western medicine’s standard of care, well-meaning as it is, is treating us incorrectly. It needs updating. Western medicine is looking at everything except the obvious. Western medicine is trying to poison the cancer out of us, further wreaking havoc with our hormonal systems.
    Then, to prevent recurrence, we are given hormone targeting drugs such as tamoxifen or Femara, which interfere with the body’s ability to read the hormones in some parts of the body. Plus, for many women these drugs cause horrible side effects. To me, it doesn’t make sense to take any drug that prevents new hormones from being made in ourbodies or to kill off any of the little bit of hormones we might have left. Why has Western medicine been trying to outthink nature? We are given fake hormones that don’t replicate exactly what our bodies make naturally, and doctors are expecting them to work in the same way or better. It hasn’t worked. Look around. Are the women you know doing well from midlife on? Most everyone has complaints, from mild to severe. No wonder women are in such bad shape.
    Once you understand the importance of your brain perceiving the body as reproductive, it will be easier for you to make decisions for