VLIETS PRESS RELEASE on the WHI STUDY & HORMONES.

[Guest guest]

This press release is from 2002, but it contains some good and valid info on the media hype regarding estrogen and breast cancer. Just passing it along in case someone might be interested! ~ChelleOriginally sent in by Dee, group owner! ;-)

HI Chelle,

Hon I'm so glad you mentioned Vliet and this worry many have about hormones. For those interested... here's what she said (and this is just a little bit of what I have overall) about that study where the Prem-pro was withdrawn that so frightened women.

Honestly I have literally thousands of pieces or articles (let alone what I read and didn't keep). In fact I was even interviewed during that fiasco by a big newspaper that called me (From out west and I'm from Ohio (how they knew of me? who knows.*smile*)

I just wish poor women weren't so afraid of the natural bio-identicals, let alone the tremendous benefits if it's needed) and kept in mind it's the darn synthetics that all of those studies were done with and most of all, the worst of it, was the progestin "Provera' and never was the estrogen. If I sent 1/1000 th of what I've read (and have here) it would overwhelm believe me. *grin*. I just know what I know and the rest can believe what they want to. *smile* it's hard to change a bias and what we might grow up even with the facts.

Anyway here's what 'Vliet' said about it.

Hugs

Hon

====================================

Leading hormone expert Lee Vliet, MD, urges women not to panic over halted study

DALLAS (July 16, 2002) – Judging by the news accounts about the latest study on hormone replacement therapy, it might seem foolish for a woman to continue taking her hormone supplements.

The reports on TV, radio and newspapers say the findings are “definitive,” that the matter has been decided “once and for all,” and that scientists are “absolutely convinced” that the more than 6 million women taking hormones must stop. The data showing the risks of hormone therapy are described as so compelling, so conclusive, that the National Institutes for Health halted what was supposed to be an eight-year study three years ahead of schedule.

To which Lee Vliet, MD, says, “Not so fast. These reports are very misleading and do not present the whole truth or the limitations of this recent study.”

Dr.Vliet, the author of two highly regarded books on women’s hormones and the founder and medical director of HER Place: Health Enhancement and Renewal for Women, Inc., says it’s important to note that the Women’s Health Initiative study in the July 17 Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) showed adverse outcomes with only one type of hormone product – Prempro, a combination of mixed horse-derived estrogens and a potent, synthetic progestin called medroxyprogesterone acetate.

These hormones are not natural to the human female body,Vliet says, and have very different effects from the hormones 17-beta estradiol and progesterone produced by the human ovary. The natural human form of 17-beta estradiol was not tested in the WHI study even though some, such as Estrace, have been approved by the U.S. Food & Drug Administration since 1976.

Whether in oral form or in transdermal patches, this estradiol is identical to that produced by the human body,Vliet said. “All of these estradiol products have been FDA-approved and used safely and effectively worldwide for many years. They should not be tarred with the same brush as Prempro and Premarin.”

When the common antihistamines Seldane and Hismanal were taken off the market because of adverse effects, she said,“the FDA did not recall all antihistamines, nor did the media claim risky effects from every other antihistamine.”

Hormone therapy has been prescribed to treat hot flashes, osteoporosis, vaginal atrophy and quality-of-life problems such as memory loss, insomnia, depression, muscle and joint aches or loss of sex drive, as well as a variety of other symptoms affecting women around menopause.

The WHI study did not consider many of these issues in determining overall risk-to-benefit assessment. As the JAMA article pointed out, Premarin – a mix of estrogens derived from the urine of pregnant mares – is the second most frequently prescribed medication in the U.S., with a total of 46 million prescriptions in 2000. Prempro, which is Premarin combined with a synthetic form of the hormone progesterone, was prescribed 22.3 million times in 2000.

Together, Premarin and Prempro account for more than $2 billion in sales for their manufacturer,Wyeth, and approximately 80 percent of the market for women’s hormone prescriptions.

Premarin and Prempro do contain very small amounts of 17-beta estradiol, the primary premenopausal human form of estrogen, but they also contain far greater amounts of horse (equine) estrogens foreign to the human body.

Because of the horse estrogen components, Premarin and Prempro deliver a higher total estrogen load to the human body than do native human hormones. The horse estrogens also attach more strongly to estrogen receptors than women’s own ovarian hormones. The horse-derived estrogens are also harder to metabolize, therefore staying in the body longer.

On the other hand, studies in England, Italy, Australia, Canada and other countries have shown much different outcomes when 17-beta estradiol is used, particularly in the form of a skin patch.

The estradiol is derived from plants, and the molecule identical to the primary human estrogen produced by the ovary before menopause. (It is also found in smaller quantities in men, and helps play a role in bone health for both men and women.)

“Some of these findings have been in the medical literature for more than 30 years,” Vliet said. “And yet they are being ignored by the U.S. studies and by the media. Women in the U.S. are given a one-size-fits-all, cookbook approach when individualized options using natural human hormones tailored to a woman’s needs would provide better outcomes with fewer side effects.

We don’t give diabetics insulin from pigs and cows anymore now that human insulin has been synthesized, so why do we continue giving menopausal women horse estrogens? It doesn’t make sense.”

Vliet, author of Screaming to Be Heard: Hormone Connections Women Suspect… and Doctors Still Ignore and Women,Weight and Hormones (both published by M. and Company), and the forthcoming It’s My Ovaries, Stupid! (Scribner) ....

said the debate over hormone replacement therapy is shaped by a complex array of elements that have little to do with the practice of medicine – from economics to philosophy to politics – and seem to ignore basic hormone science and pharmacology.

Economic issues include Wyeth’s long-term dominance of the hormone market, dating to the introduction of Premarin in 1942.

Plant-derived estrogens, which came along much later and are marketed under brand names such as Estrace, Climara, and Vivelle, have not had the same degree of marketing in the United States and are not as widely used.

Estradiol products are not usually used in research studies in the U.S. since much of such research is funded by the manufacturer of Premarin, and thus they have not achieved the visibility of Premarin.

To make matters worse, the media rarely specify the type of estrogen used in studies, leading to much confusion for consumers.

“The irony is that the studies and the news stories talk about ‘estrogen’ as if there were only one type – but different estrogens are as different as night and day. The 1920 Model T and the 2002 Thunderbird are both Fords, but they’re hardly the same car,”Vliet said. Then there’s the philosophical, nature-based argument.

Some people say their mothers and grandmothers got along just fine without hormone replacement therapy, so to take hormones is to interfere with the “natural order.” Vliet disagrees. “In earlier generations women didn’t live as long, and studies clearly show that women more than men are burdened by chronic illnesses such as osteoporosis and Alzheimer’s disease as they age,” she said. “Our premenopausal estradiol plays critical roles in maintaining brain and bone health.”

Taking the “natural” argument to its extreme, we wouldn’t take thyroid medication or other medicines to relieve symptoms,Vliet said, although she stressed that not all women need hormone replacement therapy as they age.

The trickiest argument against hormone therapy may be the political one.

There are some who say taking a drug for the symptoms of menopause amounts to a concession of some sort – an admission of women’s weaknesses, an admission that, somehow, the feminist movement was wrong. “In fact, just the opposite is true,”Vliet said.

“Doesn’t it make more sense to find a biological root for the physical and emotional changes women undergo in menopause than to fall back on the old stereotype of a woman as hysterical and subject to inexplicable outbursts?”

Regarding the breast cancer risk posed by hormone replacement,Vliet said,“Women’s bodies accommodate huge fluctuations in estradiol throughout our lives.

If our natural estradiol is itself such a grave health risk, why don’t we see women developing cancer in pregnancy when their estradiol levels are thousands of times higher?” Part of the breast cancer risk issue is related to the daily progestin given women in the WHI study,Vliet said.

Vliet said it was important to note that the WHI trial was 'not' stopped for women who were taking estrogen alone, because estrogen alone was 'not' found to have significant adverse effects.

“We have to pay more attention to the negative effects of progestins, and not lay all the blame on estrogen,”Vliet said.

While studies of Premarin and Prempro show “a modest increase in risk of breast cancer in some subsets of women,” studies from other countries, using estradiol preparations, have not shown this same increase in risk, so we must look more closely at the pharmacologic differences among types of estrogens and progestins,” Vliet said.

Estrogen differences aside,Vliet said, there are far more other serious health problems that kill more women than breast cancer “and cost this country billions more in health costs,” including osteoporosis, dementia and diabetes – 'all' problems that hormone therapy can help control.

Press Release New!West Public Relations