Osteoporosis And HRT

Is osteoporosis an estrogen deficiency disease? Can it be cured with estrogen replacement therapy? The following results of a very large study has shown otherwise.

The study published in the New England Journal of Medicine in 1995 analyzed the risk fractures in white women. It followed over 9,500 women for eight years. Findings showed no benefit in estrogen supplementation in women over the age of sixty-five.

Dr. John Lee, author of “What Your Doctor May Not Tell You About Menopause,” pointed out that the most important factor in osteoporosis is the lack of progesterone hormone, which drops much more at menopause than estrogen does. Dr. Lee who has an extensive clinical experience , says that with diet and lifestyle and the use of a natural progesterone cream, it will actively increase bone mass density and can reverse osteoporosis. After treating hundreds of patients with osteoporosis over a period of fifteen years, Dr. Lee found that those women with the lowest bone densities experienced the greatest relative improvement, and those who had good bone density to begin with , maintained their strong bones.

Genes And Breast Cancer Risk

Is there evidence for cancer proneness? It has been known for many years that a maternal history of breast cancer is a major breast cancer risk factor. This suggests that although many factors interact to increase or decrease breast cancer risk, genes and the family history are important in determining breast cancer proneness.

One study followed 20,341 women for six years, to determine whether they showed any evidence of unusual proneness to breast cancer. Results showed that women were about twice as likely to develop breast cancer if their mothers had the disease (Cancer, v.64 ; 1989 ; 582-590). If two or more close relatives were afflicted with breast cancer, a woman is four to six times more likely to develop the disease. Cancer risk is heightened if several close relatives developed breast cancer at an early age, or if the cancer affected both breasts. Based on the findings of the study, the hereditary component of risk is likely to induce breast cancer at a relatively young age. Excess risk declines with increasing age of the relative at diagnosis.

Thus, for the most common case of a woman whose mother had unilateral breast cancer diagnosed after the age of 60, the risk of breast cancer is only about 40% higher than that for the rest of the population.

Lipo Or Dieting ?

A study published in the New England Journal of Medicine (June 17,2004) found that liposuction, although it removes excess fat under the skin,  doesn’t provide all the added benefits of weight loss through dietary changes.

Researchers study 15 obese women with excess abdominal fat, measured risk factors such as insulin sensitivity, heart disease, including blood pressure and cholesterol levels before the study starts. These tests were repeated ten to twelve weeks after liposuction.

Findings of the study showed that lipo removes fat cells under the skin but doesn’t reduce the fat that accumulates in other tissues, such as the liver, muscles, and around the heart. Researchers said that this may be the reason why lipo doesn’t share the same benefit as diet-induced weight loss.

Asbestos Exposure And Mesothelioma

Asbestos has been recognized as a public health hazard. Thanks to the efforts of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to regulate public exposure to asbestos, the incidence of asbestosis, a lung scarring disease, has been declining in the United States for nearly 40 years.

The relationship between asbestos and lung cancer is well known, what is not widely reported is the link between asbestos and a rare form of cancer called mesothelioma. A study published in the British Journal Industrial Med. (1988:v.45:182-187) has shown that mesotheliomas occur in men exposed to asbestos in the workplace, or occasionally in family members who either live near asbestos mines or are exposed to asbestos fibers brought home on clothing.

The study involved a group of 17,800 male asbestos insulation workers in the United States and Canada, was followed from 1967 until 1986. During this period, 356 of the men died of malignant mesothelioma. Mesothelioma affects the membranes, or pleura, lining the cavities of the thorax and abdomen. In this study, the average period between first exposure to asbestos and a diagnosis of mesothelioma is 35 to 40 years, with most deaths occurring in patients well over 60 years of age.

Ways To Reduce Heartburn

As you probably know heartburn’s real medical name is gastroesophageal  reflux disease, or GERD. Symptoms include a burning, acidic feeling in your belly, caustic burps, and the occasional hiccups. Sometimes, you’ll hear it called indigestion or acid indigestion.

There are a few things that you can do to lessen the symptoms of heartburn, says Robert Jay Rowen, M.D., a  holistic  physician at the Complementary Medicine Center in Anchorage, Alaska, and a pioneer in the effort to have alternative medicine recognized in Alaska.

Number one, slow down at mealtime. Eating too much food too quickly doesn’t give your digestive system time to get in gear. Chew your food about 40 times before swallowing, says Dr. Rowen. The second thing you can do is back off the coffee and spicy food for a while. If you need a caffeine, get it from tea, which is less caustic to your innards. You can also make a tea from ginger. Ginger is a powerful stomach soother. Finely chop or grate 1 teaspoon of fresh ginger, put it in a mug, and fill the mug with boiling water. Cover the mug with a saucer and steep for 10 minutes. Let it cool slightly, then sip it slowly.

Being overweight or pregnant can be a factor, too, as the extra pound below pushes on your stomach, forcing acid up into the esophagus. That said, if your heartburn persist on a daily basis, make an appointment to see your doctor to rule out anything serious, such as an ulcer or esophageal cancer. Increased pain often signifies that something else is wrong, advised Dr. Rowen. (The Doctors Book of Herbal Remedies, p.265).

What Causes Ashma?

“Ashma” means panting, a lung condition that owes it’s name to it’s  predominant clinical symptoms, shortness of breath. Because of oxygen deficiency, the asthmatic is compelled to force air into his lungs.

Exactly what causes ashma is not yet fully understood. For many years doctors were certain that in all cases ashma was an illness of allergic nature. Some substance – pollen, dust, even tiny particles of one’s own skin – were thought to play the role of touching off excessive secretion of histamine. This histamine, although a perfectly natural substance created the insupportable ill feelings ashmatics suffer from.

But a study carried out in a Californian clinic would seem to indicate that ashma is not always caused by an allergy. American specialists have noted that the attacks of ashma are provoked by factors which have nothing to do with any allergy. They can be caused by physical exercise, hearty laughter, particularly strong emotions, a passing irritation of the air tubes, a change in the temperature of the air breathed in, particularly if the change is towards colder.

According to the American researchers, it would seem that these various phenomena which touch off ashma attacks cause a constriction of the bronchial tubes. The walls of those tubes retract and their muscular movement, once it has begun, continues to amplify. This is what causes the growing ill feeling of the asthmatic.