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Bioidentical Hormones Versus Standard of Care Synthetics

By Kristin Gabriel

Republish: EasyPublish™ Published: 01May2009 Word count: 754 Viewed: 72 time(s) Get Free Content For Your Site

There are more than six thousand women who go into menopause every day. Most of them are looking for ways to relieve the symptoms including hot flashes, sleeplessness, low libido (sex drive), hair loss, moodiness, and more.

Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT) can be very confusing. The goal is to restore the hormones that your body no longer makes. But, what many people don't understand is that in order for hormones to be truely replaced, you must replace BOTH estrogen and progesterone. But one more important aspect includes the fact that true hormone replacement therapy must be biomimetic. More on that later...

But first, let's take a look at The Women's Health Initiative (WHI), which proved that dosing synthetic HRT in a static, low-dose regimen was harmful to woman over 65, particularly in regard to stroke and cardiac events.

Standard of Care (SOC) hormones is a term used to describe the traditional HRT approach. The SOC is made up of look-alike hormone molecules that are chemically derived and synthesized in a laboratory. These may also be called bio-identical, however they are synthetic chemical compounds that are meant to mimic the activity of hormones produced in the body. They may be called natural, but they differ in structure from naturally occurring hormones in the body.

The FDA has approved several substances chemically derived and synthesized in a laboratory -- they are types of Estradiol and progesterone molecules known as the SOC and are used by many doctors. Brand names include Premarin, Provera, Prempro, Premphase, Prempac, and Premelle.

The problem is that these hormones can also be foreign to the human body. For example, Premarin is made out of a "natural" mixture of estrogens made by a pregnant mare. But it contains types of estrogen that are not found naturally in the human body. These estrogen types are more potent than human 17-beta estradiol and have been found to have some undesirable effects on women.

These SOC drugs are, in reality, just patented molecules from drug companies. These synthetic molecules of SOC must be architected to be unique in the world in order to be patented. Which means that legally, it is impossible to patent a natural substance for which a molecular construct already exists in nature - like water, and human hormones,

So, the term "bio-identical" has become a catch all phrase for anything that is not a synthetic hormone. It is commonly applied to look-alike molecules derived from "natural" plants that are substituted for our own endogenously-produced hormone molecules.

Bio-identical hormones are made in a laboratory by converting natural plant compounds from wild yams and soybeans into chemical molecules identical to those made in the human body for 17-beta estradiol, progesterone, or testosterone. These plant hormones mimic the chemical structure of hormones produced by the human body, and the thought is that the body can't distinguish created bio-identical hormones from the ones the female ovaries produce.

"Bio-identical" hormones can only be truly accurately bio-identical if the hormones for replacement mimic, not only those found in the body, but mimic the natural biological process as well. In other words, natural plant derived hormones can accurately be termed bio-identical only when they are dosed in a biomimetic fashion - which must include the natural rhythm.

Biomimetic hormones are derived from plant sources and mimic the natural undulating or wavelike rhythms of the hormone blood levels in a normal menstrual cycle of a healthy young woman. It is this natural rhythm that is missing from all other bio-identical and synthetic hormone replacement therapies. It is the absence of this natural rhythm, according to T.S. Wiley, which is responsible for the vast side-effects in both camps.

Our bodies have a rhythm and so do our menstrual cycles regulated by biological cycles. These cycles have a rhythm and are commonly called circadian rhythms or the circadian clock in our cells measures the rhythm of a 24 hour spin of the planet. For 28 days the moon tracks the repeat of that cycle - and so does the body. Ergo the female cycle.

Multi-phasic rhythmic dosing means that the topical bio-identical hormone creams and their amounts vary throughout the 28 day cycle to restore the hormone levels of a woman in her prime.

So the bottom line is that women need to educate themselves and learn more. Check out bioidentical hormones that use this natural rhythm (biomimetic) to establish the proper doses of estradiol and natural progesterone, and that mimic the natural hormones produced by your body. See if this is right for you.

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