Susan Lark, M.D. - Click here
Susan Lark, M.D. on toxins - Click here
Dr. Lee information - Click here
One woman's story - Click here
More information - Click here
Resolve by Syringa - Click here

  For those trying to conceive.
 

This is one of the best overviews of women's hormones on the web.  She 
recommends using wild yam and not progesterone the drug.  She is from AU and 
it is illegal there.  Find the web site and get the rest of this part and the 
second part as well.  Lots of education there. 

Estrogen's Deadly Truth, 
Extracted from Nexus Magazine, Volume 3, #4 (June - July 1996) 
Women are misinformed about their hormones, to the detriment of their health, while drug company's reap huge profits at their expense. For over 300 years, beginning in the 13th century and continuing well into the 16th century, the Inquisition was a reign of terror for the vast majority of people living throughout Europe and Scandinavia. The political, economic and religious forces of that time joined together to consolidate their power by eliminating those whom they perceived as impeding their ultimate objectives. The unfortunate target of their efforts were the keepers of the healing arts and the ancient spiritual and cultural wisdom's. Historians debate the exact toll of such a hellish time - whether it was several hundreds of thousands or as many as nine million people.  What is undebatable is that the vast majority of the victims were women. In fact, the 
Inquisition is now regarded as a period of genocide against women, which successfully divested women of their power, self-respect, wealth, healing arts, and prominence and influence in their communities. The Inquisition guaranteed that the Church fathers were the indisputable spiritual authorities. It was also successful in enshrining medical knowledge securely in the realm of men, since the Inquisition decreed that only trained medical doctors could now practice the healing arts and, needless to say, medical schools were barred to women (for that matter, so was any form of education). What a relief that such a violent and misogynous era ended long ago. Or did it? Unfortunately, it appears that some traditions linger on. Women of today are still prey to vast political and economic interests, with dire consequences to their health, financial independence and personal power. Perhaps the Inquisition didn't end it all but just took on a more subtle and 
devious form. Women are certainly big business to the medical and pharmaceutical interests. 
     According to John Archer, author of "Bad Medicine", about 600,000 hysterectomies are performed every year in the USA, and about 45,000 in Australia. (1) In 1994, it was estimated that 45,000 Australian women were taking hormone replacement therapy (HRT). (2) Many  women are presently encouraged to remain on HRT for the rest of their post-menopausal lives. 
According to Dr. Stanley West, noted infertility specialist, chief of reproductive endocrinology at St. Vincent's Hospital, New York, and author of The Hysterectomy Hoax, about 90 per cent of all hysterectomies are unnecessary. Gynecological consultants to Ralph Nader's Public Health 
Research Group reached a similar conclusion in 1991 in their book, "Women's Health Alert". According to Dr. West, the only 100 percent appropriate reason for performing a hysterectomy is for treating cancer of the reproductive organs. 
     However, hysterectomies are all too frequently offered as treatment for a variety of conditions including endometriosis, fibroids, ovarian cysts, pelvic inflammatory disease and uterine prolapse. It is no accident that gynecologists happen to be the highest earners of all specialists. Throughout their lives, women are encouraged to be subjected continuously to various medical treatments and procedures. Natural female functions, from menstruation through childbirth and into menopause, are taken over by medical and pharmaceutical interventions. Barraged by misinformation, myths, propaganda and, in some cases, downright lies, it's no wonder that so 
many women are thoroughly confused about matters relating to their own bodies and their health. 

The History of Hormone Replacement Therapy 

Perhaps there's no topic of greater confusion to women than the highly publicized introduction of HRT for the menopausal woman. It is touted as the best thing for liberating women since the discovery of oral contraceptives - even though the statistics now show that the wide use of the Pill has given rise to health hazards such as breast cancer, high blood pressure and cardiovascular disease on a scale previously unknown in medicine. (4) Investigation into the theory of hormone replacement goes all the way back to the 1930s with the research of Dr. Serge Voronoff. His research involved implanting fresh monkey's testicles into men's scrotums, with limited effectiveness. Offshoots of his research led to the grafting of monkey ovaries in women, with rather dire consequences. After several fatalities (to both monkeys and women), the search was redirected to the use of synthetic estrogen. With the advent of World War II, research was put on hold. 
     Menopause didn't really come into vogue as a topic of concern for the medical profession until the 1960s. In 1966 a New York gynecologist, Dr. Robert Wilson, wrote a best seller called "Feminine Forever", extolling the virtues of estrogen replacement to save women from the "tragedy of menopause which often destroys her character as well as her health." His book sold over 100,000 copies in the first year. Wilson energetically promoted menopause as a condition of "living decay." According to him, estrogen replacement was a kind of long sought after youth pill that would save poor, fading women from the horrors of age. He popularized the erroneous belief that menopause is a deficiency disease. 
     Women's magazines eagerly seized upon his ideas and extensively promoted his concepts. This pleased Wilson no end, since he had earlier set up The Wilson Foundation for the sole purpose of promoting the use of estrogen drugs. The pharmaceutical industry generously contributed over $1.3 million to his Foundation. Each year he received funds from such companies as Searle, Wyeth-Ayerst Laboratories and Upjohn which made hormone products that Wilson claimed were effective in treating and preventing menopause. Pharmaceutical 
companies jumped on the bandwagon with aggressive promotions and advertising campaigns. His message hit a receptive chord: mid-life women need hormone drugs to be rescued from the inevitable horrors and decrepitude of this terrible deficiency disease called menopause. 
     Wilson pioneered the use of unopposed estrogen. However, there had been no formal assessment of the safety of estrogen therapy or its long-term effects. Unopposed estrogen went out of vogue when it became obviously apparent that it shortened the lifetime of its users. In 1975, The New England Journal of Medicine examined the rates of endometrial cancer for estrogen consumers, concluding that the risk was seven and a half times greater for estrogen 
users. Women who had used estrogen for seven years or longer were 14 times more likely to develop cancer. (5) As the popularity of unopposed estrogen therapy waned, new approaches were sought. The focus was also directed away from the false claims of preserving feminine 
beauty and youthfulness and towards more urgent health matters. The pharmaceutical industry resurrected estrogen replacement therapy with the new 'safe' hormone replacement therapy - a combination of synthetic progesterone and estrogen which would supposedly protect menopausal women not only from cardiovascular disease but also from the ravages of osteoporosis. While the so-called 'experts' on women's health are reassuring women that there are no, or at least only very minor, unpleasant side effects, Dr. Lynette J. Dumble, Senior Research Fellow at the University of Melbourne's Department of Surgery at the Royal Melbourne Hospital, believes that "the sole basis of HRT is to create a commercial market that is highly profitable for the pharmaceutical companies and doctors. The supposed benefits of HRT are totally unproven." She believes that HRT not only exacerbates the presenting health problems but also contributes to the acceleration of the aging process of women. It either hastens the onset of other medical conditions or worsens the existing ones. This perspective seems to be validated by the recent findings from a landmark study, published in The New England Journal of Medicine in 1995, involving 121,700 women, which revealed startling effects from HRT. It warned that 
women who used HRT to offset the symptoms of menopause also increased their chance of developing breast cancer by 30 to 40 per cent by taking the hormone for more than five years. In women aged between 60 and 64, the risk of breast cancer rose to 70 per cent after five years of HRT. Finally, the study concluded that women using HRT were 45 per cent more likely to die from breast cancer than those who chose not to use HRT or used it for less than five years. (6) 
     According to Leslie Kenton, author of Passage to Power, "everybody who is anybody will tell you that menopause is an estrogen-deficiency disease and that you will need to take more estrogen as you approach mid-life. What may surprise you is this: not only is most of such commonly given advice on menopause wrong, a great deal of it can be positively dangerous." 
Fortunately there is another side to the hormone story - a perspective that not only can assist women of all ages to attain greater health but also to reclaim a greater sense of power, responsibility and dignity in their lives. 

A Brief Gynecological Tour of a Woman's Body 

In order to understand the HRT debate, it is important, first, to have a rudimentary knowledge of a woman's cyclic nature. Until recently, doctors thought that menopause began when all the eggs in the ovaries had been used up. However, recent work has shown that menopause is probably not triggered by the ovaries but by the brain. It seems that both puberty and menopause are 
brain-driven events. Menstruation depends on a complex network of hormonal communications between the ovary, the hypothalamus and the pituitary gland in the brain. The hypothalamus 
secretes gonadotropic releasing hormone (GnRH) which triggers the production of follicle stimulating hormone (FSH) by the pituitary gland. The FSH then stimulates the growth of the egg follicles (a small excretory sac or gland) in the ovaries to trigger ovulation. As the egg follicles grow, estrogen is manufactured and released into the blood. This chain reaction is not just one 
way. Estradiol, one of the ovarian estrogens in the bloodstream, also acts on the hypothalamus, causing a change in GnRH. Next, this altered hormone stimulates the pituitary to produce luteinising hormone (LH) which causes the egg follicles to burst and the ovum to be released. After the egg is expelled, progesterone is also manufactured by the collapsed egg follicle 
which develops into the corpus luteum. All the hormones released during the menstrual cycle are secreted not in a constant, steady way but at dramatically different rates during different parts of the 28 day cycle. For the first eight to 11 days of the menstrual cycle, a woman's ovaries make lots of estrogen. Estrogen prepares the follicles for the release of one of the eggs. It is estrogen which proliferates the changes that take place at puberty: the growth of breasts, the development of the reproductive system and the shape of a woman's body. The rate of estrogen secretion begins to fall off on about day 13, one day before ovulation occurs. As estrogen falls, progesterone begins to rise, timulating very rapid growth of the follicle. Beginning with this secretion of progesterone, ovulation occurs too. After the egg has been released from the follicle (known as the luteal stage of a woman's cycle), the follicle begins to change, enlarging and becoming a unique organ known as the corpus luteum. Progesterone is secreted from the corpus luteum, this tiny organ with a huge capacity for hormone production. The surge of progesterone at the time of ovulation is the source of libido - not estrogen, as is commonly believed. 
     After 10 or 12 days, if fertilization does not occur, ovarian production of progesterone falls dramatically. It is this sudden decline in progesterone levels that triggers the shedding of the secretory endometrium (the menses), leading to a renewal of the entire menstrual cycle. 
Ovarian estrogen and progesterone stimulate the growth of the endometrium, or lining of the uterus, in preparation for fertilization. Estrogen proliferates the growth of endometrial tissue, and progesterone facilitates the secretory lining of the uterus so the fertilized egg can implant successfully. Adequate progesterone, therefore, is the hormone most essential to the survival of the fertilized egg and the fetus. 
     At around 40 years of age, the interaction between hormones alters, eventually leading to menopause. It is still not clear how. Menopause may start with changes in the hypothalamus and the pituitary gland rather than in the ovaries. Scientists have conducted experiments where young mice have had their ovaries replaced with those from aged animals no longer capable of 
reproducing. The young mice can mate and give birth. This shows that old ovaries placed in a young environment are capable of responding. On the other hand, when young ovaries are put into old mice, these mice cannot reproduce. 
      Whatever the mechanism triggering menopause, as fewer egg follicles are stimulated, the amount of estrogen and progesterone being produced by the ovaries declines although other hormones continue to be produced. By no means do the ovaries shrivel up and cease functioning, as is popularly believed. 
     With the reduction of these hormones, menstruation becomes scantier and erratic and eventually ceases. However, other body sites such as the adrenal glands, skin, muscle, brain, pineal gland, hair follicles and body fat are capable of making these same hormones, enabling the female body to make healthy adjustments in hormonal balance after menopause - provided a woman has taken good care of herself during the pre-menopausal years with proper lifestyle, diet and attention to mental and emotional health. Menopausal women have the opportunity to enter this phase of life empowered in their wisdom and creativity as never before. They have access to profound inner knowing. The renowned sociologist Margaret Mead said, "There is nothing 
more powerful than a menopausal woman with zest!" In many cultures around the world, menopause is a transition and an initiation into the fulfillment of a woman's power, totally symptom-free. She is held in the highest regard in her community as a wise, respected elder. 
 

This is a handout Syringa provides about their product Resolve.  Some of you already have it available, others may be receiving it for the first time.  I find it nice to have in my email so that I can forward it on to women who are interested in their hormonal balance.  Hope you find it helpful. 
Lynne 

RESOLVE: BETTER BY DESIGN! 

· Resolve may effectively treat PMS, endometriosis and fibrocystic breasts. 
· May prevent or reverse osteoporosis. 
· Resolve has a proven track record, having changed the lives of thousands of women. 
· Resolve is the leading natural wild yam cream sold in the United States! 
· Resolve is your natural choice - the key to hormonal balance. A quality cream base is vital for effective absorption. 'USP' or 'Natural' progesterone is a drug synthesized from diosgenin. 
· Wild yam provides the hormonal chemistry your body needs. 
· Resolve is carefully made from only the highest quality ingredients. 

"Before Resolve I was bedridden, now I am full of life! Thank you Syringa!" 

Dioscorea (wild yam) has become widely used as a natural hormonal supplement. Its value lies in the close resemblance of the phyto- hormones to those in human physiology, and with the ability of the human body to synthesize its essential hormonal chemistry from the building blocks provided by Dioscorea supplements. In order to be maximally effective there are a number of factors to consider. These are: 1) The extraction process of the dioscorea and components from its plant source; 2) processing of the plant extract; 3) the effectiveness of the transport method into the cells. 

Wild yam is a most common source for diosgenin and its related plant saponins. In order to make a product based on diosgenin, the phyto-hormonal chemistry must be extracted from the plant source. This process is crucial. There are several common processes used to produce the plant extract, most of which use too much heat or involve chemicals which reduce the active 
components of the plant sterols. The most common extraction processes are cold press, hot press, steam distillation, glycerin, and ethanol. Most of  these are very rapid processes and the quality of the extract is often questionable. Because Diosgenin extract is not a pharmaceutical product, there are no guidelines nor standards upon which to base an objective analysis. A particular product may claim to have a 12% Diosgenin content, but in fact be totally devoid of the useful chemistry it is meant to provide. 

It is important that diosgenin alone is not the only component extracted from the plant source. The purpose of Dioscorea supplementation is to provide the body with the complex building blocks it requires to manufacture its own hormonal chemistry. One should not consider a wild yam cream as direct progesterone supplementation. While such products exist, they are much 
inferior. What the body needs is to regain and maintain its correct hormonal balance. The endocrine system is a marvelous and miraculously complex system. It involves multiple sources of stimulation and many levels of feedback. Many different organs and tissues in the body make hormonal requests, and all of these factors are integrated together as the endocrine system produces just those amounts of hormones necessary to maintain the delicate balance of good 
health, and to reserve the normal healthy cycles of the body. 

When properly functioning, the endocrine system utilizes a myriad of different protein complexes in the form of enzymes, co-factors, hormones, and hormonal building blocks. Each of these is essential in the steps producing the correct homeostatic balance. If any one factor is missing, the body may fail to incorporate a path of hormonal stimulation, feedback, and/or control. It is for these reasons that one should avoid using Dioscorea products which have been reduced to only Diosgenin. The other plant sterols, enzymes and protein factors may be just as critical, or even more so for a given individual. 

The same is true for products based on USP progesterone. USP, or 'natural', progesterone is synthesized from diosgenin. This extra step produces a product which has none of the other essential plant sterols and sapogenins. To make matters worse, natural progesterone products are actually a drug. Giving a woman progesterone will in many cases relieve symptoms associated with progesterone deficiencies, but at the same time, available progesterone in the blood stream signals the endocrine system to shut down its production of the steroid hormones. This includes the important precursor hormone pregnanolone, an essential step in the production of DHEA, cortisol, aldosterone, estrogen and progesterone. By supplementing a woman directly 
with progesterone, or any other hormone in this chain, the delicate balance of stimulation and feedback is disturbed. While the symptoms of progesterone deficiency may be alleviated, there will be side-effects resulting from the disturbance of the entire reproductive hormone system. 

The final factor relating to the effectiveness of a wild yam product is the method and implementation of the transport mechanism. In the simplest approach, one simply eats wild yam. The digestive system reduces this to basic components to be delivered through the blood stream. This is not effective unless one's entire diet is based on the wild yam. The problem with 
ingestion is that the digestive tract reduces much of the active components beyond what is usable by the body. Only a small fraction is absorbed into the blood stream and delivered to the cells in a form useful to the endocrine system. The only other common application is in the form of a skin cream. The transdermal transport mechanism is far superior because it does not chemically alter the Dioscorea components through the absorption process. Even with this, however, not all skin creams are as effective. 

An effective skin cream is first, one into which the Dioscorea can be incorporated without undue processing and reduction of the active components. Secondly, it is essential that the skin cream be readily absorbed, and that it effectively carries the phytochemistry through the dermal layers and delivers it to the blood stream for transport to the target cells. A good cream will also provide its own mechanism for transportation across cell membranes, thus helping to place all of the phytochemistry into the active regions of the body. 

With the foregoing as a basic understanding, we can now look specifically at our product, Resolve. Resolve is made from the highest quality extract available in the United States. The plant is grown in an organically certified herbal plantation. The extraction process takes 6 weeks and is done most carefully and under constant observation to insure that the integrity of the extract is preserved. For this process we pay a premium cost, but it is the only known extraction process which does not compromise to any degree the value of the wild yam extract. 

Resolve is 7% wild yam extract by weight. Our initial product offering contained 6% wild yam extract. This was based on calculations of the amount of progesterone a healthy woman needs in her body. During the course of a normal menstrual cycle a woman's progesterone production level varies from 2 mg/day to 25 mg/day. Diosgenin is known as a phyto-progesterone, and we 
intended to provide a supplement for progesterone deficiencies. While we achieved excellent success with the 6% composition, we felt that adding the extra 1% would insure that enough of the critical phytochemistry was available to help a majority of women in need of our product. Indeed, we have maintained for several years an 85% success ratio for helping women regain 
their hormonal balance. 

The skin cream base used for Resolve is marketed by Syringa as Lite Replenishing Cream. This skin cream was developed many years ago by Syringa co-founder Homer Wolfe. The late Mr. Wolfe was a pharmacist and biochemist. He developed our replenishing cream with the encouragement and help of the local dermatologists and cosmetic surgeons. They were in need of a good skin healing cream, which Homer was able to provide. This cream has been available 
commercially for 12 years, during which time it has achieved great success at reducing the healing time for skin. The cream was developed especially to promote rapid cell division. The cream is absorbed rapidly, providing cell hydration and carrying nutrients to, and transporting through, cellular membranes. This cream was a natural selection for the base of our wild yam product, and has been key to Resolve's success as the most effective wild yam cream available. At the time Resolve was initially formulated, it was one of only thre such products available in the U.S. It is in fact largely due to the succes of Resolve that the current widespread interest and awareness of thebenefits of the wild yam have sprung. Resolve remains by far the most successful product 
available, as evidenced by the extremely high success ratio of women using our product. 

In the last couple of years there has literally been an explosion of interest in the health benefits of wild yam. This has of course been accompanied by an incredible proliferation of wild yam products. It is very difficult to make meaningful comparisons between products based on lists of ingredients and percentages of active elements. The quality of the wild yam extract is not 
disclosed for specific products, nor is it clear the quality of the skin cream base. It is possible to make a clear distinction and comparison with any product labeled as 'Natural' or 'USP' progesterone. These are products based on wild yam extract where the diosgenin of the wild yam has been synthetically altered into the identical progesterone molecule. By their very 
nature such products are inferior for the reasons described at the beginning of this brochure. 

Aeron Lifecycles, an independent laboratory, has performed an assay on the progesterone content of wild yam products. The best products are not those that show the highest progesterone content. The opposite is true. The best products have little, if any, natural progesterone. Instead the best products provide all of the fundamental building blocks necessary for your own body to function naturally, producing the levels of hormonal activity you need. Why take a drug when a wholesome, natural and nutritional source is readily available and more effective? 

The only significant measure of a wild yam cream's efficacy is in how it affects the lives of the women who use it. In this respect Resolve is clearly the leader. We have the experience of many years working with Resolve. We are constantly providing lectures to women, educating them on how to properly use Resolve. We continually receive unsolicited letters from women whose entire lives have been changed by our product. We firmly believe that our product is the most carefully constructed, most efficacious and most beneficial wild yam product available. 
 
 
 

Dear Friend 
This article came in my email.  Since it is the same kind of information I try to share with every woman I visit with, I am passing it on to you. 

I am ever more convinced that we must have the balance of our female hormones. Both play such an important part in our health and well being.  I see women's lives changed for the best when they add a wild yam cream (Resolve) to the lives and get that necessary hormone balance back. For some it does take a while to reverse things, but the rewards are wonderful. There 
is more and more information in the news and literature that validates this information. 
Giving more estrogen or estrogen unapposed is certainly being questioned by many.  The results of natural progesterone tell the story. 

Subj:    Progesterone and Women's Health 
Date:    03/23/2001 5:29:40 AM Mountain Standard Time 
From:    sales@nutritionworld.com 
To:    yamlady1@cs.com 
     Progesterone and Women's Health 

By Dr. Deborah Moskowitz 

Menopause is not an estrogen-deficiency disease as the media and pharmaceutical companies seem to portray it. In fact, if we were to base our understanding of hormones on the media as opposed to the physiology books, we might think the only hormone a man made was testosterone, and the only hormone a woman made was estrogen. Well, it's time see ourselves as we truly are, hormonally. 

Both men and women produce estrogen and testosterone, as well as numerous other hormones that also play important roles in who we are and how we feel. Women however, produce more estrogen, while men produce more testosterone. And then there's progesterone, until recently relatively unheard of by the lay public and wholly under-appreciated next to the media-blitzed estrogen. 

Progesterone plays an integral part in a woman's life and the life of the human species as well. When scientists first discovered progesterone at the turn of the century, it was named after its only known action of that time, "pro" meaning in support of, and "gestation" meaning pregnancy. For years to follow, the only recognized role of progesterone was to support pregnancy. 

Like all of our steroid hormones, progesterone is formed in the body from cholesterol. It is made predominantly in the ovaries, with small amounts produced by the adrenal cortex and other tissues, such as nerves. In a woman's body the majority of progesterone is secreted by the corpus luteum, which forms in the ovary following ovulation. For half of each monthly cycle, 
from ovulation until menses, progesterone is designed to be the dominant hormone. Progesterone plays a role in the orchestration of other hormones at ovulation and is linked in some literature to a rise in libido . Other reproductive roles include preparing the environment of the uterus for 
implantation of the fertilized egg, and enhancing the sperm's ability to reach the egg. 

Progesterone and Fertility 

Not all women produce sufficient progesterone during the second half of their cycle, leading to symptoms of estrogen dominance, such as bloating, breast tenderness, irritability, PMS mood swings, cravings for sweets, and more. These women may also have difficulty conceiving and maintaining a pregnancy. When a woman becomes pregnant, the placenta, or sac that forms around the fertilized egg, takes over the production of progesterone from the corpus luteum at approximately weeks 8-12, producing steadily more progesterone each month. By the time a woman reaches the third trimester, the placenta is producing upwards to 300 mg of progesterone each day. This is significantly more than the 20-30 mg produced daily by the corpus luteum from ovulation until menses. Progesterone plays a critical role in fetal development as well as in maintaining the pregnancy. Approximately 10% of cases of infertility are associated with luteal phase defect, a condition of too little progesterone during the second half of the menstrual cycle. 

PMS and Progesterone 

Dr. Katharina Dalton, a British physician, originally coined the term "premenstrual syndrome" (PMS) in 1953 and soon after established the world's first PMS clinic in London. Dalton was one of the first physicians to recognize the pattern of symptoms that occurred for some women one to two weeks before their period started. Far from being "all in her head," PMS can cause mental, emotional, and/or physical symptoms. PMS may be the result of hormonal changes, inadequate nutrition, lack of exercise, and physical and/or emotional stress. 

Twenty to ninety-five percent of women experience premenstrual syndrome, with 10-12% severely affected. Some of the more common symptoms associated with PMS include: mood swings, painful menses, food cravings (especially salt and sweets), bloating, abdominal swelling, constipation, frequent urination, breast tenderness, backache, forgetfulness, irritability, and migraines. Many symptoms related to PMS can be attributed to "estrogen dominance," a 
condition of relative excess estrogen activity in the body. This can be caused by too much estrogen, or by sub-normal levels of progesterone. 

Researchers over the last forty years have identified four major types of PMS, determined by a woman's predominant symptoms. Some women have only one group of symptoms, while others suffer with a combination of two or more symptom groups. Of the four PMS types, three may benefit from progesterone supplementation. Clinically, physicians have seen as high as an 80% response rate with the use of supplemental progesterone. 

Progesterone has many opposite, balancing activities to those of estrogen. In addition to normalizing blood sugar levels and water metabolism, progesterone also has a calming effect on the central nervous system. Supplemental progesterone during the luteal phase of the reproductive cycle (days 14-28), has been found to address many of the symptoms of PMS listed above. 

Progesterone and Menopause 

Natural menopause is defined as the cessation of menses as a result of the normal decline in ovarian function. Women may experience a wide range of symptoms in varying degrees of severity, or they may experience no symptoms at all. Some of the signs and symptoms associated with menopause include, but are not limited to: hot flashes, sweating, fatigue, nervousness, 
irritability, dizziness, numbnes, palpitations, insomnia , depression, vaginal dryness and/or pain, nausea, gas, urinary incontinence, pain with urination, constipation, diarrhea, joint pain, and muscle pain. Prior to menopause, as ovarian function wanes, cycles frequently occur where a woman does not ovulate. This period leading up to menopause is referred to as perimenopause. 

Anovulatory cycles that begin in the perimenopause can lead to hormone changes that may result in hot flashes, changes in bleeding patterns, PMS-type symptoms, as well as many other menopausal symptoms. Progesterone levels fall close to zero due to anovulatory cycles, while estrogen levels only decline to about 40-60% of pre-menopausal levels. This precipitous drop 
in progesterone can lead to an imbalance between estrogen and progesterone, causing a relative "estrogen dominance" within the body. Many women report a decrease in hot flashes and other symptoms with progesterone supplementation, which has been supported by recent research evaluating the effectiveness of topically applied progesterone cream. 

Progesterone has a number of important roles relative to menopause. Progesterone is the natural balancer to estrogen, as well as being necessary for optimum estrogen utilization. The presence of progesterone in the body sensitizes both estrogen and thyroid hormone receptor sites, enabling the body to use these hormones more efficiently. Research over the years has also elucidated other protective roles for progesterone in the heart, blood vessels, nerves, and brain. 

Progesterone Supplementation 

It is important to note that the roles of progesterone differ considerably from those of its synthetic counterparts, such as medroxyprogesterone acetate and others commonly utilized in oral contraceptives and HRT. Synthetic progestins further complicate the issue of hormonal balance as they have been shown to reduce the concentration of natural progesterone in the body. They 
also compete with natural progesterone for receptor binding, decreasing the body's utilization of progesterone. 

Originally, progesterone was only available through suppositories and injections. In 1979, it became available in a cosmetic cream, which allowed for absorption through the skin. Progesterone is well tolerated and absorbed through the skin as is seen with other hormones, such as testosterone, scopolamine, and estrogen. 

Consulting with a naturally minded physician can often facilitate managing menopause and PMS naturally. Many women have found success on their own through the use of herbs, nutrients, natural hormones, and dietary and lifestyle changes that can markedly affect well being. Use of these approaches for women with serious health conditions should be undertaken with 
the guidance of a licensed health care provider. 
 

Again I will submit that using a good wild yam cream like Resolve is the best option to support progesterone.  USP progesterone is a drug and why use a drug when natural will do? 
Virginia 

************************************************** 
WOMEN'S HEALTH UPDATE FROM SUSAN LARK, M.D. 
EMPOWERING WOMEN, RESTORING HEALTH 
March 28, 2001 
************************************************** 
 

The results of the Center for Disease Control's (CDC's) first-ever study on toxin levels in humans has just been released -- and the results are, to say the least, alarming. 

CDC measured blood and urine levels of 27 chemicals in 3,800 people.  Perhaps the most disconcerting finding was the unexpectedly high levels of synthetic compounds called phthalates.  These ubiquitous substances are used for everything from softening plastics to emulsifying soaps to carrying fragrances in cosmetics. 

Large doses of phthalates have been shown to disrupt normal hormone function and cause birth defects in rats.  Their effect on humans, and the concentrations at which they might be harmful, are not yet known. Of interest, the Consumer Product Safety Council has already asked toy 
manufacturers to stop using phthalates to soften toys like doll heads and teething rings. 

Another bit of distressing news was the discovery of higher levels of mercury than anticipated among women of childbearing age.  Mercury is believed to cause fetal brain damage.  Even when tissue levels aren't high enough to cause severe toxic damage, they can produce fatigue and depress brain function. 

The CDC study results have already prompted the government to conduct yearly studies of human toxin exposure and increase the number of substances examined to 100.  No doubt, the results will spur research on the levels of certain substances that can be considered "safe." 

I urge you: Don't wait for the CDC's next report to take action.  Instead, start making changes that will immediately reduce your toxic load and protect you from the toxins you can't help being exposed to. 

LIMIT YOUR INTAKE OF TOXINS 

You can't avoid toxins completely -- they're in the water, the air, your food, and just about everywhere else.  But you can greatly reduce your intake of phthalates and other toxic substances by taking just a few simple steps. For example: 

* Purchase pesticide-free produce, if possible.  If you can't, wash regular produce with a cleanser that removes pesticide residues (available at most health/natural food stores). 
* Avoid fragranced products whenever possible. Purchase unscented versions of products you use every day, like laundry detergent.  Avoid room fragrancers unless they contain only natural scent in an oil, water or alcohol base. 
* Eat minimally processed food, to lessen your intake of chemical additives and preservatives. 
* Don't microwave food in soft plastic containers. 
* Don't use synthetic weed killers, chemical fertilizers, etc. on your yard or lawn. 
* Filter your drinking water. 
* When you substitute fish for red meat, avoid swordfish, tuna, and other large fish. They carry a substantial load of heavy metals, including mercury. 

REDUCE YOUR EXISTING TOXIC LOAD AND TUNE UP YOUR DETOX SYSTEMS 

Unless you've read the January 2001 issue of The Lark Letter (my monthly newsletter), you may not know that your liver is a metabolic powerhouse.   Among other things, it has primary responsibility for the breakdown and excretion of many toxins -- including pesticides, drugs, and carcinogens. What your liver doesn't have the power to remove from your body often gets 
stored in your tissues.  These stored toxins may be released during stress, exercise or weight loss. 

So to take a load of your body -- and help keep it from accumulating a new load -- you need a "detox" program that does two things at the same time: 
* releases stored toxins, and 
* gives your liver maximum power to remove them and the new toxins that enter 
your body every day. 

You'll find a condensed version of my detox program at 
http://63.73.158.58/cgi-bin/gx.cgi/mcp?p=03GIK03GHT3oNV012000mSQdESRRj.  Here 
are two other timely tips to decrease your toxic load: 

* Eat lots of fiber-rich plant foods like fruits, vegetables, legumes, and whole grains.  The fiber binds to certain toxins, aiding their elimination from your body. 
* Try adding seaweed (a staple of Oriental cuisine) to soups and other foods.
 The alginates in seaweed aid elimination of toxic metals, like mercury and lead, by binding to them. 

For more information on how you can use diet, supplements, and cleansing methods to become a detox dynamo, check my latest book, "The Chemistry of Success," available at your local book seller. 

Please, don't wait for some Federal agency to admit that the byproducts of our "chemical culture" are harmful. Start cleansing and protecting your body with my detox tips today! 

Until next time, 
Susan M. Lark, M.D. 
To subscribe to her newsletter - http://www.drlark.com/pages/lark_letter.php
 

This is a letter  I received today from a new Resolve user.  I asked her to please write her history and send it to me while I was talking to her originally about what this product might do for her.  This was before she even tried the products.   Virginia 

I've always thought of myself as a "late bloomer". I didn't have my first period until I was 16, and then having 2 cycles 2 months in a row was unusual.  I never really worried about it much until I was 22 years old and didn't have a cycle for about 9 months.  In preparation for an LDS mission overseas, I went to the gynecologist, and she suggested that I should go on the pill.  She said that either stress or weight gain could be the reason that I hadn't had a period, but said that stress could cause frequent cycles as well as skipped ones, so it would simplify things to know that every 28 days my period was going to start.  I took her advice and started taking the pill. After being on the pill for about 3 months I started noticing massive mood swings and depression, which was not "me" at all.  I knew that the pill was responsible, so I stopped taking it.  I didn't 
menstruate for about 6 months afterwards, but my body eventually regulated itself to having a period about every other month.  That was in 1995. 

In 1999, I got married, and my husband and I decided that the pill would be the most convenient birth control method.  I expressed my concerns about the mood swings I had experienced before, but my gynecologist assured me that the hormone dose in the pill was less than it had been 4 years earlier, and that I would probably not have the same reaction this time.  When I expressed concerns about other women I knew who had had difficulty conceiving after 
being on the pill, she said that there was no meidical evidence that being on the pill affected future pregnancy. After taking the pill about 3 months, as I expected, I started having the same response as before.  My husband must have been completely bewildered by the change in me.  I almost went off the pill then, but the next time I went to the pharmacy, the pharmacist said that if I was on the pill, I should be taking a multi-vitamin.  He explained that the pill can deplete the body's B-vitamins, which affect brain chemistry and mood.  I faithfully took a multivitamin 
after that, and my symptoms were completely reversed.  I felt great for about 9 months, and thought I had found the solution to staying on the pill, but then the mood swings and depression returned.  I also noticed that my sex drive was very low; the thought of intimacy was completely unappealing, to the point that I started avoiding any interaction with my husband. Unfortunately this time, I was so depressed that it took much longer for me to realize that it wasn't me, it was the medication I was taking.  After about 3 months of deep depression and feeling that I was going crazy, I went off the pill. 

My husband told me that his friends at work often warned him, "women change after they get married, and not for the better".  Well, they were right, but only now do I realize why.  If other women go on the pill like I did around the time they get married, no wonder their personality changes!  I wonder how many marriages could be saved if young couuples didn't use hormonal birth control?

When I was introduced to Syringa about 3 weeks ago, it had been a year since I stopped using the pill, and I still hadn't had a period.  My husband and I were contemplating starting a family sometime in the near future, but I was starting to worry that it wouldn't be possible for us to have children; especially after hearing the stories of some of my cousins who had a lot of difficulty conceiving after being on the pill. When you said on the phone that God intended for our bodies to function a certain way, it really hit home with me.  I had never thought of it in that way, that I was trifling with the way my body worked by taking hormonal birth control.  After using the Syringa product only a couple days, I experienced a positive response.  The last few months, I've been experiencng fatigue and mental confusion, especially in the afternoons. About the second day of using the cream, I decided to apply Resolve in the afternoon to see if it would help, and within 10 minutes, the "cloudy" feeling was gone and I was able to get on with my day!  It was really quite remarkable. Since then, I've been using Resolve and Balance 3-5 times a day, and I am happy to report that, after a year, I have finally had a period again. 

So, that's my story.  I had never heard of Wild Yam before, so I'm really grateful that my Aunt would recommend your company to me.  Besides the problems with my menstrual cycle, about half of the symptoms listed on the flyer she sent also apply: lethargy, eye irritation, weight gain, backache, facial hair hypoglycemia, mental and physical exhaustion, and insomnia, among others. 

Thanks to this fine young lady who so lovely shared her self.  It just reaffirms to me what this product does and why this information is so important to all women. It also is the second witness that what we are doing to so many of our young women is so wrong. 
Best regards 
Virginia 
 

Received this in my email.  This is what I talk about all the time.  It is coming from a MD who is really concerned about our issues. Enjoy and share with all you women friends!!!! - Virginia 
 

   Don't Let Them Get Your Ovaries! 
Date:    04/25/2001 12:28:23 PM Mountain Daylight Time 
From: drlarkbroadcast4@drlark.com (Susan Lark, M.D.) 

*****************************************************
WOMEN'S HEALTH UPDATE FROM SUSAN LARK, M.D. 
EMPOWERING WOMEN, RESTORING HEALTH 
April 25, 2001 
*****************************************************

Dear Virginia, 

The indiscriminate use of hysterectomies to correct "female problems" has long been one of our greatest national health care scandals.  It heartens me to see that more and more women are saying "no" to having their reproductive organs surgically removed and "yes" to alternative treatments that strengthen and preserve them -- and that more and more physicians are becoming sensitive to this issue. As a result, the hysterectomy rate is on its way down. 

Nevertheless, hysterectomies are still all too common: By the time an American woman reaches the age of sixty, chances are one in three that she will undergo this surgery to relieve a gynecological problem.  To make matters worse, many hysterectomies are far more extensive than they need to be. I can't tell you how many women have told me that their surgeon advised 
removing their ovaries and fallopian tubes, even if they were healthy, because "without a uterus, you don't need them."  (A variation on this misguided theme is, "As long as we're in there, we might as well remove everything.") 

YOUR OVARIES ARE MORE THAN A WAREHOUSE FOR EGGS 

I confess, it can be really hard for me to maintain my professional demeanor when a woman tells me that she has wrongly been deprived of her reproductive organs, especially if her ovaries have been unnecessarily taken from her. That's because it's simply not true that your ovaries don't do you any good when you don't have a uterus and therefore can't bear children. 

The truth is that, when left in place, your ovaries continue to produce the hormones estrogen, androgen and -- if you're pre-menopausal -- progesterone. Even if your uterus is gone, even after you go through menopause, your ovarian hormones make an important contribution to your overall health. 

If your ovaries are removed before menopause, you immediately go crashing into surgically-induced menopause.  To add insult to injury, the loss of ovary-produced hormones makes you more likely to suffer severe menopausal symptoms -- including hot flashes, vaginal dryness and loss of sex drive. 

Whenever your ovaries are removed, the resulting lower hormone levels place you at greater risk of such post-menopausal health problems as heart disease and osteoporosis. 

WHAT TO DO IF YOU REQUIRE A HYSTERECTOMY 

If hysterectomy really is an appropriate solution to your gynecological problems, fight for your ovaries!  If they're perfectly healthy, don't let them go. 

If it is medically necessary to remove your ovaries, I urge you not to give in to pressure to begin conventional hormone replacement therapy (HRT). While it prevents you from suffering the symptoms of sudden menopause, it has numerous long- and short-term side effects, ranging in severity from bloating and breast tenderness to increased risk of breast cancer. 

Instead, I encourage you to use a strong program of natural remedies -- including natural hormones -- to treat your symptoms and maintain health. Even if you don't have your ovaries, this approach has the power to prevent you from suffering all types of menopausal symptoms, without the high risk of side effects............

Susan M. Lark, M.D. 
To subscribe to her newsletter - http://www.drlark.com/pages/lark_letter.php

This is information from the Dr Lee website.  Most of what he says is 
correct.  He certainly has brought women some valuable information and 
suggests we should be responsible for our own health and that we do have 
choices.  However I personally feel that using wild yam as a source of 
progesterone is a much better option for most women.  His books describe how 
important it is that we use natural things and that we cannot metabolize and 
utilize artificial things correctly.  Then he suggests we use a 
semi-synthetic drug to help with women's issues.  Wild yam is nature's source 
of phyto progesterone or basic steroid chemistry.  Thousands of women are 
having success with a more natural way than using a semi-synthetic 
progesterone.  That is what happens when wild yam is converted to the drug 
progesterone.  Refer to the article "Wild Yam vs. Progesterone". 

http://www.johnleemd.com/
http://www.johnleemd.com/johleemdnew.html 
http://www.johnleemd.com/johleemdnew.html - new12 

Why doctors keep writing the same old prescriptions 

Want to feel better? 
First, stop the problems caused by medicine itself... 

About Osteoporosis 
Osteoporosis A crippling disease that is preventable and reversible- 

Osteoporosis Awareness 
How Aware of Osteoporosis Are You? A Gallup poll sponsored by the National 
Osteoporosis Foundation found that-Osteoporosis Guidelines 
Dietary Guidelines for Osteoporosis You May Be Surprised to Learn that this 
is Not a Calcium Deficiency Disease- Osteoporosis Prevention 
To Prevent Osteoporosis AVOID Soda Pop and a High protein Diet- 

Dear Friend, 
You may be one of the millions of American women who are suffering because of 
"ignorant medicine". 
In fact, most women who have been made miserable by hormone replacement-- 
putting up with the headaches, weight gain, irritability and the risk of 
breast cancer-- are suffering needlessly. 
Did you know that most women who are given hysterectomies and mastectomies 
don't need them? There are much better, less invasive solutions that many 
physicians are ignorant of. 
Meanwhile, the Harvard Nurses' Study just announced that if you've been 
taking Provera or any other synthetic progesterone, you have been increasing 
your risk of breast cancer by 8% per year. * 
What makes me really angry is that most physicians and health publications 
are not educating American women about these facts. Luckily, nearly a million 
women have read my book What Your Doctor May Not Tell You About Menopause. 
Those women stopped taking Provera years ago and have been using natural 
progesterone cream, which is more effective and has none of the side effects. 

* Schairer, C et al, "Menopausal Estrogen and Estrogen-Progestin Replacement 
Therapy and Breast Cancer Risk," Journal of the American Medical Association, 
January 26, 2000. 
  Let's explode some of the common myths and lies right now, and learn 
solutions that will make you feel a lot better quickly and give you peace of 
mind... 
· LIE #1: Most menopausal women can benefit from estrogen replacement. 
· LIE #2: Premarin & Provera are your best choices. 
· LIE #3: Eating eggs can cause heart disease. 
· LIE #4: The new generation of birth control pills is safe. 
· LIE #5: Estrogen can improve your memory. 
· LIE #6: All bottled water is healthy. 
· LIE #7: Soy doesn't have side effects. 

In a moment I'll explain why doctors continue to prescribe Provera and other 
drugs that don't work well, and I'm sure you'll be furious. 
At the same time, almost every health publication you read pushes soy-based 
foods as if soy is a miracle nutrient. Yet for a couple of years, researchers 
have known that eating too much soy can cause zinc deficiency, which weakens 
the immune system, exposing you to a variety of illnesses, including cancer. 
Even the Japanese have always eaten only a modest amount of soy daily. 
There's more: whole soybeans and some soy proteins also contain enzyme 
inhibitors that can lead to thyroid disease and potent allergens that can 
trigger allergic reactions. Sure, soybeans contain important phytonutrients, 
but they also contain hemagglutinin that decreases the ability of red blood 
cells to absorb oxygen, reducing your cells' strength to defend themselves 
against disease. 
If you eat a lot of soy and feel worn out all the time, now you know a 
possible reason. 
So why has everyone from doctors to health magazines ignored the latest 
studies? Could it be the vast amount of money the powerful soy industry is 
spending on public relations? Millions of American women are poisoning 
themselves with a soy overdose this very minute! 

  Why doctors keep writing the same old prescriptions 

You know how physicians in the U.S. are trained: they're taught to fight 
every illness and medical condition with a prescription drug. 
What you may not realize is that most doctors get their education about new 
drugs from the drug companies. Maybe you've seen the attractive young men and 
women in expensive suits who hang out in your doctor's office. What are they 
there for? They're constantly feeding your physician company literature that 
highlights the drugs' benefits and obscures the drugs' side effects. 
The drug companies are brilliant-- they make their fact sheets a lot easier 
to read than the New England Journal of Medicine! Why should doctors bother 
reading the actual medical journals? 
Even if physicians do read the New England Journal of Medicine, they probably 
don't realize that many of the studies were paid for by the drug companies 
and the articles were written by researchers directly or indirectly being 
paid by the big pharmaceutical companies. 
And those well-dressed men and women you see in the waiting room are giving 
your physician a carton full of free drug samples, which the doctors pass on 
to us, the patients, in order to seem generous. Doctors love to receive and 
give out free samples. 
The drug companies are taking your doctor out to lunch at four-star 
restaurants and sending him or her to expensive resorts for professional 
seminars. On what subject? Their newest drugs, of course! 
It gets even uglier... 
Did you know that these days drug companies routinely give physicians big 
"commissions" for writing prescriptions for new, unproven medications? That's 
right, outright bribes for prescribing the medicines you may take for 
arthritis, osteoporosis, depression, high blood pressure, menopausal symptoms 
and many other common conditions. And it's still completely legal to bribe 
physicians, until Congress finally does something about it. 
Doctors get big commissions for prescribing new drugs because the long-term 
side effects aren't yet known. Remember the women whose hearts were 
permanently damaged because doctors were writing thousands of prescriptions 
for Fen-Phen before all the facts were in? 
Meanwhile, pharmaceutical companies are making obscene profits on drugs that 
most women don't even really need to get better. 
Women, please be cautious! 
Health lies and misinformation affect women even more than men. Women make 
the health and nutrition decisions for the family. Women spend more time with 
doctors, especially before, during and after menopause. 
That's why I wrote the book on menopause and that's why I publish my monthly 
Medical Letter-- to bring American women the truth about drugs, nutrition, 
hormones and medical procedures. And I supply much better solutions than 
you'll get from the average doctor, who is basically a product of the 
pharmaceutical industry and their medical school training facilities. 
The bottom line is you can sail through your menopause years, free of drug 
dependency, free of side effects. You don't need Premarin and Provera. You 
don't have to alter your diet radically. You can prevent osteoporosis, heart 
disease and breast cancer, and I'll fully explain your best options and cut 
through the misinformation for you. That's my mission. 

Why the John R. Lee, M.D.Medical Letter is the only health publication you'll 
ever need... 

I began my monthly newsletter because of the overwhelming positive reaction 
to my book. Shortly after publication, the letters started flowing in... 
Women who read my book were reporting an end to their menopause symptoms -- 
migraines, hot flashes, weight gain, mood swings, loss of libido. 
Hundreds of women were reporting better bone density tests, without taking 
Fosamax, drinking more milk or eating dozens of Tums for extra calcium. 
Other women who tried natural hormone replacement were reporting a reversal 
and remission of their fibroids and endometriosis. Without surgery or any 
drugs. 
None of this was a surprise to me -- I had achieved similar results with my 
own patients during a lifetime of innovative family medicine practice. 
I began my monthly newsletter to keep women up-to-date on the real truth 
behind the latest studies. I wanted to inform women about the dangers of many 
of the new drugs and what to do instead. Women need to know about the many 
benefits of http://www.johnleemd.com/johleemdnew.html - new12natural 
progesterone supplementation, including its ability to protect against heart 
disease and breast cancer...not to mention the added benefit of healthier, 
younger-looking skin. 
And women need to know about the overwhelming dangers of excessive estrogen 
replacement. Keep reading... 
Want to feel better? 
First, stop the problems caused by medicine itself... 

The most important way I can help you is to end your suffering at the hands 
of drug companies and food manufacturers, and physicians who have been 
completely manipulated by the system. The first step to better health is to 
stop the problems caused by medicine itself. 
Let's explode some of the common myths and lies right now, and learn 
solutions that will make you feel a lot better quickly and give you peace of 
mind... 
LIE #1: Most menopausal women can benefit from estrogen replacement. 
TRUTH: Menopausal symptoms such as hot flashes, unusual aches and pains, 
foggy thinking, irritability, depression, low libido, headaches, insomnia, 
sugar craving, weight gain and fatigue are NOT usually due to a lack of 
estrogen, but instead, an imbalance between estrogen and progesterone. 
In fact, you can be taking a high level of estrogen and still have many of 
the above symptoms. Most women on Premarin (synthetic estrogen) are getting 
up to 10 times more estrogen than they need. When your estrogen is too high 
in relation to your progesterone, you have "estrogen dominance," which 
creates a lot of problems, including fibrocystic breasts, uterine fibroids 
and breast cancer. 
So if you're on hormone replacement and feel lousy, there's a good reason! 
Unfortunately, most physicians prescribe the usual .625 dose of estrogen -- 
often without even testing your estrogen and progesterone levels! Sloppy 
work, if you ask me, but it's standard practice. Most women don't need that 
much estrogen, and Premarin .625 gives them more symptoms than they started 
off with. 
Why? Because the physician didn't take into account the fact that as you 
approach menopause, your ovaries produce less and less progesterone. By the 
time you've actually entered menopause, your progesterone level is almost 
zero, so there's nothing to balance the estrogen. 
So taking Premarin will usually increase your estrogen dominance and cause 
new problems. Estrogen dominance is a new concept I introduced to women's 
medicine, and it's only now becoming "common knowledge" among better-informed 
physicians. 
What you should do if you have menopausal symptoms: 
1) Ask for both your estrogen AND progesterone levels to be tested. 
2) You'll probably find you need a progesterone supplement. 
Keep reading, because I'm going to tell you about natural, non-prescription 
progesterone that doesn't have any side effects... 

* Cummings SR, et al, "Endogenous hormones and the risk of hip and vertebral 
fractures among older women," New England Journal of Medicine, Septemer 10, 
1998. 

LIE #2: Premarin & Provera are your best choices. 
TRUTH: Your intuition is correct about adding synthetic hormones to your 
body...it's dangerous. If you're on Premarin, Provera or any other synthetic 
hormone, you may be experiencing symptoms such as anxiety, depression, weight 
gain and migraine headaches. You're not crazy. Your body doesn't feel right 
for a reason. You don't need to add Prozac or an anti-anxiety drug to your 
list of medications. What most women on HRT need is a lower dose of estrogen 
and a real (not synthetic) progesterone replacement. 
I've had wonderful success with natural progesterone cream. This 
over-the-counter supplement (there are many good brands) contains real 
progesterone -- identical to the progesterone found in your body. That's why 
there are no side effects. Synthetic progestins such as Provera DO NOT have 
the same molecular structure as your body's hormones, and that's why your 
body complains when you introduce these foreign substances.* 
I've seen fibrocystic breasts heal rapidly when natural progesterone is used. 
You can also expect a reduction of anxiety, better sleep and a decrease or 
disappearance of your symptoms of menopause, including weight gain. And 
scientific evidence supports my experience that natural progesterone can 
decrease your risk of breast cancer. 
For complete instructions on using natural hormone cream and a list of many 
good brands (I don't endorse specific brands).  (Insert:  wild yam--Resolve 
is certainly the most natural option for balancing hormones.) 
Also, this month I am giving new subscribers a special two tape set: "Dr. 
Lee's Complete Hormone Balance Seminar" (usual price $19.95). Free with your 
subscription, these tapes explain everything you need to know so you can end 
the symptoms of PMS and menopause once and for all. Please see the enclosed 
brochure for a detailed description of this free gift. 

LIE #3: Eating eggs can cause heart disease. 
TRUTH: The statement "eggs are bad for you, the cholesterol causes heart 
disease," is an unfortunate myth. The famous Harvard Nurses' Study followed 
127,000 people over 14 years and compared their cardiovascular health with 
their egg consumption. Those who ate an egg a day did not have a higher risk 
of any kind of cardiovascular disease. 

* Physician's Desk Reference, 2000 under "medroxyprogesterone acetate." 

Sure, eggs have some fat and cholesterol, but your body NEEDS a certain 
amount of fat and cholesterol-- as well as protein and carbohydrates to 
survive. In fact, eggs are nearly a perfect "energy food," since they have a 
good balance of protein and fat. 
So where did the egg myth come from? Mostly from articles and propaganda 
sponsored by the cereal and "breakfast foods" industry for years. Maybe 
you've seen all those milk advertisements? Industries like that spend 
millions of dollars on advertising campaigns to "re-educate" America about 
its products. Actually, no one except children and young animals should drink 
milk -- that's what it's designed for. Cow's milk contains a high level of 
growth factors that may contribute to cancer in adults. The milk industry 
won't tell you that -- they want you to drink more milk, and they're 
succeeding.

I blast through the media and drug company hype about drugs such as Fosamax, 
Tamoxifen and anti-depressants. The truth will startle you. 
Here's an example... 

LIE #4: The new generation of birth control pills is safe. 
TRUTH: You'd think that medicine is getting better and safer all the time. 
Unfortunately, that's not always the case and it's very important to have a 
professional "reality-check" on new medications prescribed for you. Every 
month in my Medical Letter, I include a special "Health Watch" column that 
reveals the truth about new medications and procedures. I tell you which 
options are best and worst. 
My advice: Don't use the new birth control pills. Drug companies claim that 
the "third generation" of birth control pills are safer because they contain 
a lower dose of estrogen and progestins (synthetic progesterone). However, a 
Danish study just revealed that many of these medications sharply increase 
your risk of thromboembolism. 

*JAMA 1999;281:1387-1394 

Thromboembolism is a blood clot that starts in your legs, which can be 
extremely painful. If a piece of the clot breaks off and travels to your 
lungs it can be fatal. 

LIE #5: Estrogen can improve your memory. 
TRUTH: This is yet another case of the drug industry purposefully 
misinterpreting a medical study for its own profit. 
The study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, 
clearly stated that "Estrogen did NOT affect actual performance of the memory 
tasks." 
Some of the media-- especially news shows that get their video clips directly 
from the pharmaceutical companies -exaggerated one of the study's findings, 
the fact that estrogen increases brain nerve cell excitability. 
"Excitability" has nothing to do with memory...so why did the media twist the 
results, misinforming millions of American women? 
In fact, many women can improve their memory and sharpen their mental 
function by taking LESS estrogen. I explain other, natural means of improving 
your thinking power in my report Surprising Truths That Can Improve Any 
Woman's Life, which you'll also receive free of charge if you subscribe to my 
Medical Letter. 

LIE #6: All bottled water is healthy. 
TRUTH: You know the tall plastic bottles of water you buy in the supermarket" 
They're a health hazard! Why? Because the plastic leaks toxic chemicals such 
as acetaldehyde, dimethyl terephthalate and xenohormones into the water. 
These chemicals can harm your digestive system, worsen the symptoms of 
menopause and have even been linked to cancer.* 

*Physician's Desk Reference, 2000, under "estrogen" 
*Shaywitz SE, et al, "Effect of estrogen on brain activation patterns in 
postmenopausal women during working memory tasks," Journal of the American 
Medical Association 1999; 281:1197-1202. 

My advice: Drink 6-8 glasses of water through the day, but DON'T make a habit 
of buying water stored in plastic. Use glass-bottled water or a water filter. 
You can safely transfer the water into a plastic container for the day, since 
it takes much longer than that for the dangerous chemicals to accumulate. 
For more eye-opening advice about food and nutrition, see your free copy of 
Surprising Truths That Can Improve Any Woman's Life. 

LIE #7: Soy doesn't have side effects. 
TRUTH: Soy has been the darling of the natural health media for years now, 
but the notion that "the more soy you eat the better" is very dangerous. As I 
began to explain on page 3 of this letter, more and more studies are showing 
that eating lots of soy can have harmful side effects, such as a compromised 
immune system, blocked absorption of minerals and thyroid disease. When this 
new information becomes mainstream, the soy craze will be over. 
Women are particularly affected, since soy can inhibit the absorption of 
zinc. A deficiency of zinc can cause terrible mood swings and irritability in 
menopausal women and women with PMS. 
My advice: I want you to benefit from soy's antioxidant properties without 
any of the risk. Make sure you choose the right kind of soy-- fermented 
products such as miso, tempeh and tofu. Avoid eating whole soy beans, soy 
milk or soy protein powders on a regular basis, since they include toxins 
that can contribute to disease. By the way, the Japanese have traditionally 
eaten only fermented soy. 
Unfermented soy is only one of many "false friends" from your local health 
food store. Each month in my Medical Letter, I show you exactly the best ways 
to improve your health with natural products and I expose the common natural 
products that can harm you.