Suzanne Somers book, Ageless, is under attack. Why? We had thought there was actually a cultural and medical Spring in the air. Possibly not. What qualifies the writers to comment on such a vital and topical subject? Who were their sources? What is the point of this article? To enlighten -- or further cloud the real issues? Conventional wisdoms in medicine are being questioned, as they rightly should be. American Medicine is in crisis.
Bioidentical hormones is not a marketing tool. It truly represents a notion that there are less adjustment reactions and side effects from hormones that are not foreign to the internal chemistry.
It must be stated emphatically that the Women’s Health Initiative, the WHI, was a Premarin/Provera study -- not an Estrogen/Progesterone study. And the reader is encouraged to understand the vital difference between absolute and relative statistics. Relative statistical analysis inflates numbers to the advantage of a mission not for sound scientific conclusions. Read Calculated Risks by Gerd Giggerenzer.
The erroneous conclusions and inferences of the Women’s Health Initiative has lead to unhappy and needless suffering in 10’s of millions of women around the world. That is why the results are now being re-assessed.
In the news we constantly hear the refrain that the true studies on natural and bioidentical hormones has not been done. Your gentle readers are encouraged to ask, now why would this be? Who pays for these studies? In reality, we seem to have forgotten or misplaced the highly regarded PEPI study which did indeed study the effect of true natural progesterone and found that leg of the study to be the best tolerated and most effective.
If you will only do the necessary background research. And how do we know? Because of a drug called Prometrium, which is simply natural progesterone, which was formulated as a response to the PEPI study. Look it up.
This is a market and consumer driven phenomenon that will not stop at the negatively spinned articles now appearing. Suzanne Somers has a tidal wave following because she speaks to an audience that is being ignored. That is why the book has been the #1 best seller in the nation. You accept either the notion that we are a nation of fools, or one searching for better and more responsive answers.
Our practice has never been as busy with a torrent of demand for rational, individualized and expert medical care. In practice for 35 years, 10 years of AntiAging medicine, a degree in biochemistry from UC Berkeley, you judge the credentials. Ask the right questions. The writers did not.
Philip Lee Miller, MD
Founder, Los Gatos Longevity Institute
Los Gatos, CA