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

yourself. We assume that the professionals who are taking care of us know what they are doing. But they can’t know what they haven’t been taught, and unless you find yourself a doctor such as the ones I have found for you in this book, you could very well be brought down a path of no return. Remember, your doctor is doing his or her best. This is what they know at the moment, so you can’t hold it against them. However, no one is ever going to care about you as much as you care about yourself—so it is up to you to do the research. I will tell you this again and again in this book: You are on your own. When it comes to breast cancer, I believe the answer has been in front of our noses all along. Just replicate nature!
    That’s what bioidentical hormone replacement does. If technology hadn’t figured out how to keep us alive longer than human beings have ever lived in the history of mankind, this would not be an issue. But we will live long, long lives. Without hormone replacement, we will end up mere shells of our former selves. There is no quality of life without hormones for men, women, or children.
    Thinking back, I realize the birth control pill brought us freedoms and put off childbirth and breast-feeding but harmed us in the process. We did not even realize the importance of breast-feeding. We did not know that lactation builds not only our immune systems, but also that of our babies, and that the more children we have, the longer we breast-feed, the stronger our immune system will be. In most cases, this natural part of giving birth and raising children sets us up for life to protect us against disease. But the acts of delaying childbirth and breast-feeding or, worse, negating breast-feeding chemically with the dry-up shot, coupled with the harmful effects of taking the pill, helpset us up for disease, infertility, and probably loss of organs and early aging.
    Incidentally, there is a new birth control pill that gives women only four periods a year . And another form of birth control that involves getting shots that stop periods for years . In my estimation, any woman who goes this route is going to wind up very unhealthy. When are we going to stop trying to outthink nature? Four periods a year! Stopping periods! Crazy! I heard young women on a television program waxing poetic about this wonderful new convenience. Imagine what chaos this is going to create in the template for ovulation.
    As I said, through my research I now believe that the effect of those pills on me and women of my generation was to put us into false menopause, which created severe hormonal imbalance in our young bodies. By the way, those original birth control pills we took are the same synthetic hormones that the Women’s Health Initiative 2002 warned us to stop taking.
    Not only didn’t I realize the harmful effects of taking birth control pills, but I also didn’t realize the severe consequences of taking other prescription drugs unless absolutely necessary. I remember being given thyroid pills in my twenties. I never asked why. I figured my doctor knew what he was doing. Turns out it wasn’t a thyroid problem but a consequence of being hormonally imbalanced. Thank God I couldn’t afford to continue taking them at the time. The thyroid is not to be played around with. Every drug has a consequence. I just never took those proposed side effects and consequences seriously. I was young and invincible, or at least I thought so, until I was diagnosed with cancer five years ago.
    Since that diagnosis I have taken better care of myself than ever before. Suddenly realizing you are not invincible and can no longer fool around with your health is one of the many blessings of this dreadful disease.
    Today breast cancer is not the death sentence it once was. Through early detection, we are finding tumors that are very small and are thus increasing survival rates. Nonetheless, cancer in my breast was the first alarm bell in my life. It rang loudly