| Osteoporosis |
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Are you at risk for Osteoporosis?
Dr. John Lee found that the use of a topical progesterone cream leads to a 10% increase in bone density within 6-to-12 months, followed by an annual increase of 3% to 5% until the bone density of his post-menopausal patients stabilizes at the levels of healthy 35-year-old women! John R. Lee, M.D. "Osteoporosis Reversal: The Role of Progesterone", International Clinical Nutrition Review, 1990. See Prescription Alternatives by Earl Mindell and Virginia Hopkins *Note Virginia Hopkins is also the co-author of Dr. Lee's books It's also very important to read Dr. John Lee's books, What Your Doctor May Not Tell You About Premenopause, What Your Doctor May Not Tell You About Menopause and his most recent book What Your Doctor May Not Tell You About Breast Cancer. These three books are must-reads for any woman who refuses to pump synthetic hormones into her precious body. Vitamin E May Protect Against Bone LossJune 28, 2001 -- As if the mood swings, hot flashes, and other symptoms of menopause weren't bad enough, women going through the change of life often develop osteoporosis, a condition in which their bones lose calcium, leading to loss of height, stooped posture, and even fractures. Exciting research presented on June 22 at the Endo 2001 meeting in Denver may offer new hope to women with this condition. Vitamin E may help reverse osteoporosis related to loss of the female hormone estrogen, if this animal research turns out to have similar results in humans. "If this is the case, then vitamin E ... can be used in the future as an alternative to estrogen and hormone replacement therapy for prevention and perhaps treatment of not only [heart] disease and some cancer, but also for bone loss," lead researcher Sunil Wimalawansa, MD, PhD, tells WebMD. Because so many people take vitamin E, it is difficult to study its effect on preventing bone loss in humans. So Wimalawansa, a professor of medicine at University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, did the next best thing, testing out his theory in animals first. By surgically removing the ovaries from rats, he produced a model of human menopause, in which the ovaries stop producing estrogen. As predicted, rats whose ovaries were removed had bones that were more brittle and weighed less. Treating these rats with vitamin E at a dose comparable to 400 IU in humans was just as good as estrogen treatment in restoring bone density and weight. "These [findings] present an intriguing new potential use for vitamin E," John N. Hathcock, PhD, vice president of nutritional and regulatory science of the Council for Responsible Nutrition in Washington, D.C., tells WebMD after reviewing the study. Taking 400 IU daily of vitamin E is very safe and may also help protect humans against heart disease and certain cancers, Hathcock explains. "Since physicians have become increasingly receptive to the use of vitamin therapies, [vitamin E] could in the future become an important part of our armamentarium of tools to treat osteoporosis," Erica Frank, MD, MPH, tells WebMD when asked for independent comment. She is associate professor and director of the preventive medicine residency program at Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta. Vitamin E, 400 IU daily, costs about $4 per month, Wimalawansa explains, compared with $28-$80 per month for most drug treatments approved by the FDA for osteoporosis. Because of significant side effects, patients taking these drugs also need to have frequent blood tests, which adds to the cost of treatment. He has approached the National Institutes of Health to try to develop a study in women to see if vitamin E can prevent bone loss after menopause. |