The Good News About Estrogen

The latest information about estrogen, the body's enlivening powerhouse hormone. Why is estrogen crucial—and so misunderstood? How do I know if my estrogen level is “normal”? What is the best treatment for a hormonal imbalance? How does estrogen impact my reproductive cycle? Is hormone replacement therapy right for me? Is it only useful at menopause? How can I be my best, healthiest self now and in the future? Understanding estrogen—its function and interplay with all your other hormones and body systems—is key to a healthy, vibrant life. But far too many women remain unaware of the benefits of estrogen, and how it can be supplemented in natural, bioidentical form. This book, written by an expert in the field of OB-GYN and integrative medicine, offers an authoritative yet accessible approach to hormonal health. In The Good News About Estrogen, Dr. Uzzi Reiss draws upon the most up-to-date scientific research, as well as women’s stories from his decades of practice, to explain: - How hormones—and your levels of estrogen—change over time, and what you can do to achieve balance naturally or with hormone replacement therapy (HRT). - The good news about estrogen—how it can enhance energy, sexuality, and memory; alleviate premenstrual syndrome (PMS) or the side effects of menopause; help fight weight gain, anxiety, depression, and more. - Bioidentical hormones—why they are safe and crucial to your well-being at any age or stage, and how to choose which treatment plan is right for you. - How your everyday habits—what you eat, drink, wear, and breathe—can affect hormonal health, and which small lifestyle changes can make a big difference. - Nutrition and exercise—learn how each works hand-in-hand with hormones and can help you to achieve maximum physical and emotional fitness, promote bone health, prevent cardiovascular disease, and boost brain power.

A pioneer in women's medical care, Penny Budoff has become increasingly convinced that women need medical care and health information that is right for them, not watered down versions of what is right for men -- and with over thirty years of experience, she's ready to provide it. Today we see daily headlines trumpeting the results of the efforts begun by her and the other physicians concerned specifically about women: headlines about heart disease in women, breast cancer, Alzheimer's, hormone replacement therapy, osteoporosis, sexuality -- and, yes, menopause, the once unspoken word. These are the issues of her newest book, incorporating Dr. Budoff's own vast experience and the expertise of additional physicians specializing in each area of womens health. In this one volume, the reader can learn the most up-to-date knowledge about what to expect in one's middle years: why hormone replacement therapy can solve the side effects of menopause and givea woman freedom from osteoporosis, heart disease and even Alzheimer's disease; why natural estrogens and vitamins are essential; why the brain is our most important organ -- and can be kept healthy for decades; why cervical cancer is a sexually transmitted disease. All this information is accessible in this one valuable book.

With groundbreaking research and an exciting new theory that will change the way women look at hormone replacement therapy for years of substantially improved health, happiness, and quality of life, The Estrogen Fix is a must-have book for every woman over 40. Dr. Mache Seibel, one of the leading doctors in women's health and menopause, proves that every woman has an ideal time to more safely begin estrogen replacement. When administered at this time, referred to as "the estrogen window," estrogen can lower your risk for breast cancer, heart disease, Alzheimer’s, diabetes, osteoporosis, and more while minimizing your symptoms. Offering hope, expertise, and concrete solutions to a rectifiable problem, The Estrogen Fix is the definitive book on hormonal health for women. If estrogen has you confused or worried, if you are toughing it out because it seems too complicated to figure it out, if your doctors are reluctant to treat you and your symptoms are making your life a challenge, this book is for you.

Breast cancer answers practical tips, and personal advice from a survivor.

Millions of women experience "female" problems such as irregular menstrual cycles, hot flashes, oily skin, heavy monthly bleeding, and the grow of facial hair or loss of scalp hair. Most go through life suffering in silence unable to find satisfying explanations about what is wrong. But these common and potentially serious problems have a hormonal cause and can be successfully treated. This breakthrough guide by Dr. Geoffrey Redmond, a leading specialist in female hormonal disorders, brings women important, up-to-date information about their bodies - some of it available to the public for the first time. Using the latest research and the real-life experiences of women treated at his clinic, Dr. Redmond explains in plain English what you need to know about: New tests that take the guesswork out of diagnosing your hormonal imbalance; a crucial link between hormone disorders and obesity - and which diet really works; safe hormone replacement therapies without upsetting side effects; hormonal treatments that can decrease excessive facial hair or correct thinning scalp hair; and ways to counteract the metabolic changes that make heart disease the #1 killer of women.

The truth is, few people know the first thing about clinical research. The public reads about a medical research project that announces unbelievable results for a miraculous drug. Some years later, another investigation completely wipes out those initial favorable findings. Hormones Cut Women’s Risk of Heart Disease (San Francisco Chronicle, 1994) Hormones Don’t Protect Women from Heart Disease, Study Says (Washington Post, 2001) The people are confused because we do not understand the process behind these conflicting results. Our health, and in fact, our very lives are dependent on clinical trials, but we know little about them. This book explains the issues the public needs to be aware of when it comes to clinical research. It uncovers the problems in medical investigations that can not be overcome no matter how much care and diligence medical researchers bring to a research project. The basic premise that drives the writing is that it is impossible for medical researchers to guarantee that they can get all the right answers from a single study. No matter how good the investigators are, no matter how well a study is planned, no matter how carefully the plans are executed and no matter how conscientiously the results are analyzed and interpreted – the answer may still be wrong. The deck is stacked against medical researchers and the public – you – should be skeptical of the results no matter how impressive they seem on the surface.

In the first complete history of hormone replacement therapy (HRT), Elizabeth Siegel Watkins illuminates the complex and changing relationship between the medical treatment of menopause and cultural conceptions of aging. Describing the development, spread, and shifting role of HRT in America from the early twentieth century to the present, Watkins explores how the interplay between science and society shaped the dissemination and reception of HRT and how the medicalization—and subsequent efforts toward the demedicalization—of menopause and aging affected the role of estrogen as a medical therapy. Telling the story from multiple perspectives—physicians, pharmaceutical manufacturers, government regulators, feminist health activists, and the media, as well as women as patients and consumers—she reveals the striking parallels between estrogen’s history as a medical therapy and broad shifts in the role of medicine in an aging society. Today, information about HRT is almost always accompanied by a laundry list of health risks. While physicians and pharmaceutical companies have striven to develop the safest possible treatment for the symptoms of menopause and aging, many specialists question whether HRT should be prescribed at all. Drawing from a wide range of scholarly research, archival records, and interviews, The Estrogen Elixir provides valuable historical context for one of the most pressing debates in contemporary medicine.

Experimenting With The Consumer exposes the hazards of the mass-market experimentation in which every American consumer and worker is unwittingly tapped for product risk data by manufacturers, scientists, and regulators. Vioxx, Heparin, Avandia, Paxil, fen-phen, estrogens, silicone implants, pacemakers, formaldehyde in FEMA trailers, 60 buckyballs in coatings ... the headlines are increasingly filled with hidden risks coming to light in popular products years after federal agencies approve them for the American public. Shapo shows readers how to get past unreasonable trust or fear and make the best risk-management choices for themselves and their families. He walks them through what questions to ask before consenting to be in a clinical trial; how to evaluate the implied bold-print claims against the small-print disclosures in advertisements for medical products; how to uncover product and environmental risks in their homes, workplaces, supermarkets, and neighborhoods; how to assess and control product risk while maximizing consumer choice and benefit; how to pressure government to tighten consumer protection; and how to seek legal redress. Through a diverse selection of dramatic case studies, Shapo lays bare the incentives of companies and entrepreneurial scientists to fake or obscure experimental data before and after government approval; the fights between interested and disinterested scientists over data; the fights between scientists and doctors over patient rights; the campaigns of activists against government agencies to release experimental drugs; the impact of the journalistic and promotional media on public knowledge and perception of product risk; and the marketing tricks that manufacturers use to harness sexual desire to product launches and to shape the prescription choices of physicians.