Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Marcus Laux, N.D, lectures throughout the United States and internationally to professionals and the public on natural medicine. He is a visiting professor and staff physician at the National College of Naturopathic Medicine in Portland, Oregon.

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Natural Woman, Natural Menopause

HarperCollins Publishers

Chapter One

Another Way

If you're an American woman over forty you'd have to be on Mars not to have heard at least something about 'The Great Hormone Debate." To take or not to take hormone replacement therapy --this is the dilemma now faced by millions of women at menopause. Hormone replacement therapy (HRT) is the name given to a variety of estrogenic and synthetic progesterogenic products that are prescribed for menopausal symptoms, such as hot flashes and night sweats, and the prevention of osteoporosis and heart disease.

In the last five years the subject of menopause has been in the news more and more, as scores of magazine articles, books, and TV stories reel out scary scenarios that only contribute to a woman's confusion. On the one hand, there is the increasingly loud chorus of M.D.'s across the country extolling HRT's virtues and prescribing it for lifetime use.' On the other hand, many studies have pointed out the serious potential of uterine and breast cancer with long-term HRT use, not to mention the difficult and numerous side effects experienced by a sizable number of women who take these drugs.

A good part of what is driving the increasing attention to the subject of menopause is that contemporary women who have demanding lives and careers now see the years after forty as the full bloom of their productivity, and want to take control of the hormones in their bodies without feeling that there is something to be ashamed of.

If you're a woman who has begun to have hot flashes and experience the other bodily changes that signal the onset of menopause, you are thinking, Oh, God, it's happening to me, what do I do now? Do I just suffer through it? ... The night sweats, the mood swings, the hot flashes, the dry and thinning skin ... How long are these symptoms going to go on? Am I going to turn old overnight? Or do I take a chance with these drugs and live with the constant fear of getting cancer?

Maybe you've heard from one of your friends that she feels so much better taking her Premarin and Provera. Her mood has brightened, her skin looks better, and she has more energy. But then another friend told you she hated the stuff because the side effects were terrible and she gained twenty-five pounds! And you've heard of a woman taking Premarin for years who recently developed breast cancer.

It is definitely a head-splitting decision, which only compounds the fact that you have to deal with your roller-coaster emotions and, perhaps, the nagging nightly dream that you are turning into your mother.

But you can bypass all this agony-bypass playing Russian roulette with your health. There exists a genuinely safe, sensible, and effective way to balance and replenish your hormones. You can eliminate symptoms and protect your body while getting all of the cosmetic benefits but none of the side effects and long-term risks of HRT.

It's all true. "The Great Hormone Debate" is a fallacy. There is another way that is better, safer, and more effective. Approximately two million U.S. women are presently using with great success the products we will be recommending, and the number is expanding every day. These women are part of a grassroots movement that is changing the "hormone" landscape for women in this country as one woman tells another, who then tells another. It is these pioneers who are demanding -- and getting -- better and safer treatment.

A Better Way

In this book, we will present you with a plan based on the following elements:

Replenishing of hormones using bio-identical plant-derived hormone products, which are plant extractions that exactly replicate your own hormones. These plant-derived hormones are almost entirely without the side effects of the synthetic or semisynthetic HRT drugs commonly prescribed. They can be prepared in an oral (pill), sublingual (under the tongue), cream, or gel form, and can be tailored to a woman's individual hormonal requirements.

These plant-derived hormones are now being prescribed by the full spectrum of health practitioners, including M.D.s, N.D.s, D.O.s (osteopaths), N.P.s (nurse practitioners), and other medical practitioners across the United States. Comparable products have been used effectively in Europe for over forty years.

They are available in FDA-regulated licensed pharmacies across the country. There is now a spreading network of compounding pharmacies that work with doctors to custom-design natural hormones for a woman's particular needs.

A specially designed eating plan for hormone balancing and replenishment. The foundations of this diet are scientifically, clinically, and epidemiologically supported, and based in part on the latest research and the findings of the exemplary Oxford-Cornell China diet study. It is foods from traditional diets that have now been shown to have beneficial effects throughout a woman's life in balancing hormonal levels.

An exercise plan based on the latest scientific research, which will keep you strong, fit, and toned, and can even help reverse any preexisting bone loss.

Supplementation with additional herbal products and nutrients to fortify you against the assaults on your system coming from pesticides, so-called xenoestrogens, and the stress of modern life, all of which can seriously unbalance your hormones without your being aware of it. (Xenoestrogens, also known as xenobiotics, are chemical substances in our environment that mimic human hormones and interfere with their functions. A further discussion of xenoestrogens will appear in subsequent chapters.)

Together, these elements of the Natural Woman plan, when adopted, can provide all the hormonal support a woman needs for the whole of her life.

But, you think, come on, what's the catch? Can I really get rid of my symptoms, have smoother skin, a glowing complexion, and a new, sexy attitude without taking my life in my hands, so to speak? Is there really an approach to menopause that is at once beneficial to my health, beautifying and medically safe, and even cancer-protective?

Excerpted from Natural Woman, Natural Menopauseby Marcus Laux Copyright © 1997 by Marcus Laux. Excerpted by permission.
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