Can We
Circumvent Osteoporosis?
by
Raquel Martin
with Judi Gerstung, D.C.
There is one thing stronger than all
the armies in the world,
and that is an idea whose time has come.
-- Victor Hugo1
 It
was an unsettling revelation to me that osteoporosis can
begin as early as fifteen years prior to the first signs
of menopause -- often around the middle to late
thirties.2
By the time most women reach their postmenopausal years,
the majority will suffer from this disease -- a fact
that has made it the most common metabolic bone disease
in this country.
The
gradual loss of bone, perhaps 1 percent each year at
first, accelerates to a rate of 3 to 5 percent per year
during menopause and then reverts to about 1 to 1.5
percent a year thereafter.3
This association of accelerated bone loss with
menopause, first recognized over fifty years ago, led
medical doctors to prescribe estrogen supplements during
menopause to reduce these chances. Unfortunately,
however, there are some problems with this approach. Of
great importance are the significant side effects that
start appearing in a woman's body when supplemental
estrogen, unopposed by natural progesterone, is
introduced. They constitute a long list, ranging from
increased blood clotting and water retention to liver
dysfunction and greater risk of endometrial and breast
cancer.
As if
that weren't bad enough, it also turns out that this
estrogen therapy doesn't really do very much good.
Nevertheless, the standard medical wisdom continues to
support this approach and to assume that it is the most
effective treatment. There is ample evidence in the
medical literature that the therapy is of some limited
value, at best, during the menopausal years. However,
according to Sandra Cabot, M.D., "when estrogen is
discontinued, calcium loss resumes."4
So we need to look much more closely at the conventional
method of treatment.
Dr. John
Lee suggests instead that this escalating bone loss is
due to decreasing levels of progesterone, caused by
failure to ovulate during some menstrual cycles -- for
progesterone is mainly produced in the process of
ovulation. In nonpregnant ovulating women, the ovaries
normally produce 20 to 40 mg of progesterone daily
during the second half of the menstrual cycle.5
During pregnancy the placenta becomes the main producer
of progesterone, making ever-increasing amounts, so that
by the last three months of pregnancy, it is making 300
to 400 mg a day. Failure to produce these levels of
progesterone naturally can lead to trouble. Even though
estrogen aids in slowing down bone loss, progesterone
could be called proactive, since its stimulatory effect
on the osteoblastic cells actually encourages bone
growth.'6
The
Importance of Ovulation
The
onset of irregular periods is an indicator that
progesterone levels are becoming depleted with respect
to estrogen. When menopause is upon us (that is, when we
have stopped ovulating), our blood progesterone will
decline to almost zero.7
A reasonable question would be, "Why do some women
experience this sooner than others?" Researchers
tell us that stress, injury, poor diet, lack of
exercise, and trauma, all may play a role in the degree
to which ovulation becomes sporadic and then tapers off
at menopause.8
To these
Dr. John Lee would add the damage done to the ovaries by
any of the many human-made estrogenic chemicals in the
environment. Such exposure to the female fetus or very
early in life may damage the ovarian follicles to the
extent that in adulthood they can no longer make
progesterone as they should. Follicle dysfunction
induced by these so-called xenoestrogens may well be the
primary cause of the progesterone deficiency that often
occurs fifteen years or more before actual menopause.
In
addition, as is widely reported in the press these days,
the way you treat your body in general can contribute to
premature bone loss. Smoking and excessive consumption
of alcohol, caffeine, soft drinks, and meat protein, as
well as the use of certain anti-inflammatory or
antiseizure medications or thyroid hormone replacements,
may all place you at higher risk. And some factors can't
be avoided: thin, small-boned women and those of
Caucasian descent have a higher risk of osteoporosis.9
In the
United States, approximately 24 million people are
affected by osteoporosis, at a medical cost of over $10
billion and as many as 1.5 million fractures10
leading to disability, deterioration, and, for too many,
death. Today, the annual number of fractures
attributable to osteoporosis continues to escalate as
our exposure to estrogen from various sources has
drastically increased.11
But, as Dr. Robert Lindsay has said, "The problem
is, nobody feels the bone they're losing until it's too
late.... Osteoporosis is without symptoms until it
becomes disease."12
According to Dr. Patricia Allen, when the
"acceleration of bone loss begins, risks for
coronary artery disease start to increase [and] atrophy
of breast and genital tissue starts. And so most doctors
now believe that a woman who is bothered by menopausal
symptoms should be treated before the cessation of her
periods."13
Progesterone
For Healthy Bones
Jerilynn
C. Prior, M.D., and her associates, found evidence of
progesterone's possible role in countering osteoporosis
in a study of sixty-six premenopausal women between
twenty-one and forty-one years of age. All these women
were long-distance marathon runners. It was observed
after twelve months that
the
average spinal bone density decreased by about 2% . .
. . However, women who developed ovulation
disturbances during the study lost 4.2% of their bone
mass in one year. While there was no correlation
between the rate of bone losses and serum levels of
estrogen, there was a close relationship between
indicators of progesterone status and bone loss.14
Now this
is news! And then Medical Hypotheses claims that the use
of natural progesterone is not only safer but less
expensive than using its synthetic formulation, Provera
(medroxyprogesterone), and that progesterone and not
estrogen is the missing factor . . . in reversing
osteoporosis.
The
journal continues:
The
presence or absence of estrogen supplements had no
discernible effect on osteoporosis benefits ....
Progesterone deficiency rather than estrogen
deficiency is a major factor in the pathogenesis of
menopausal osteoporosis. Other factors promoting
osteoporosis are excess protein intake, lack of
exercise, cigarette smoking, and inadequate vitamins
A, D, and C.15
Dr.
Majid Ali says that the use of estrogen to prevent
osteoporosis is really quite "frivolous".16
Osteoporosis is a disease we can do much to prevent.
With the knowledge we presently have, it is imperative
that women take active steps toward a healthier
lifestyle. We must take to heart what author Gail Sheehy
says in The
Silent Passage: Menopause:
Nearly
half of all people over age seventy-five will be
affected by porous bones causing the risk of fractures
of many kinds. The National Osteoporosis Foundation in
the U.S. says that almost a third of women aged
sixty-five and over will suffer spinal fractures. And
of those who fall and fracture a hip, one in five will
not survive a year (usually because of postsurgical
complications).17
It has
been estimated that twice as many serious fractures
occur today than thirty years ago. How long will it take
us to grasp the truth of the matter, so we can help
ourselves and the aging population? "Clearly,"
says Dr. Alan Gaby, "there is something wrong with
our bone health, something that the medical profession
has not been able to do much about. There is more to
preventing bone loss than calcium supplements, estrogen
replacement therapy and exercise."18
These
reminders about the decline in bone mass as we age make
me think of my own family gatherings during the
holidays, when we are at long last in the company of
several generations of family members. Someone usually
says, "Haven't you grown!" In our family we
take it a step further: someone stands next to Mom, and
then Mom next to Grandma -- and, sure enough, there is a
definite change! But it's in the opposite direction.
Soon a grandchild will say, "Wait a minute,
Grandma, aren't you shrinking?" It seems that these
changes start earlier than we may think and are more
crippling than we realize.
Is this
a topic we can continue to take lightly? Not according
to Robert P Heaney, M.D., professor of medicine at
Creighton University School of Medicine in Nebraska. In
commenting on the medical community's having overlooked
the importance of progesterone in osteoporosis, he
expressed the hope that research will "galvanize
the field into taking the matter seriously."19
Perhaps statements such as his will begin to reeducate
the very doctors who think they know all there is to
know about this most vital subject.
It is a
mystery that so much focus has been placed on declining
estrogen levels; it seems the emphasis has been on the
wrong hormone. The October 14, 1993, issue of the New
England Journal of Medicine makes it clear that taking
estrogen for five or ten years after menopause will not
protect a woman from having a hip fracture in her later
years.20
Why should we wait ten to twenty years for the results
of the studies that are now in progress? We have already
been counseled by many medical experts. Now is the time
to make the change from an estrogen replacement program
to one based on natural progesterone therapy.
We
should ask ourselves, "Why would we use a hormone
that has not worked for generations past?" The
traditional and often one-sided references to estrogen
decline have created a body of misinformation that has
sentenced many to poor health and needless distress. It
seems irresponsible that the medical world is not doing
double-blind studies, along with baseline and follow-up
bone mineral density tests, with natural progesterone.
However,
we can be grateful to the many doctors who have searched
the archives for the truth of the matter. We now have
reliable evidence that despite declining estrogen
levels, bone loss accelerates when progesterone levels
decline, and bone minerals can be restored with natural
progesterone replacement therapy.21
Yet, the message women receive from their medical
doctors is that "estrogen is the single most potent
factor in prevention of bone loss."22
This belief has been handed down from one generation to
the next. Fortunately, recently published studies and
books are now challenging the medical theory and
bringing more light to the subject of preventing
osteoporosis.
A case
in point is the book Preventing
and Reversing Osteoporosis, written by medical
doctor Alan Gaby. I became so absorbed in it that I
could not put it down -- nor will you, when you find
that, yes, osteoporosis can be reversed. Much of what
Dr. Gaby says would be beneficial to many and should be
shared. He cautions that despite the preventive measures
of calcium supplementation and exercise, and despite
medical intervention with estrogen therapy, osteoporosis
is getting worse: "At least 1.2 million women
suffer fractures each year as a direct result of
osteoporosis.... Fractures seem to be increasing.... and
this difference cannot be explained by the aging of the
population."23
Let us
hope that more medical doctors are getting away from the
mainstream of drug therapy and are discovering natural
remedies that seem to work more efficiently for such
problems in the long run. Dr. Gaby, for instance, with
twenty years of medical research and thirteen years of
clinical practice, writes that many of the most
significant advances and effective treatments have been
those discovered or administered outside the auspices of
the traditional medical community.
Dr. John
Lee comments that modern medicine "strangely
persists in the single-minded belief that estrogen is
the mainstay of osteoporosis treatment for women."
Strange, indeed, that doctors should think like this,
when even medical textbooks such as Harrison's
Principles of Internal Medicine (12th edition, 1991)
and Cecil
Textbook of Medicine (18th edition, 1988) don't back
up this theory.24
Along the same lines, Dr. Lee also quotes the 1991
Scientific American Medicine:
"Estrogens
decrease bone resorption" but "associated
with the decrease in bone resorption is a decrease in
bone formation. Therefore, estrogens should not be
expected to increase bone mass." The authors also
discuss estrogen side effects including the risk of
endometrial cancer which "is increased six-fold
in women who receive estrogen therapy for up to five
years; the risk is increased 15-fold in long-term
users."25
Progesterone
Cream for Osteoporosis
Although
there are many forms and ways to take natural
progesterone, Dr. Lee acquaints us with the transdermal
method. By carefully observing his patients over the
course of fifteen years, he proved the effectiveness of
transdermal progesterone cream. His work confirmed its
safety and its remarkable benefits to his osteoporotic
patients who had a history of cancer of the uterus or
breast and to those who had diabetes, vascular
disorders, and other conditions.
Dr. Lee
had hoped that the progesterone would strengthen his
patients' bones. To his surprise, it did; their bone
mineral density tests showed progressive improvement and
the number of his patients suffering osteoporotic
fracture dropped nearly to zero.26
Dr. Lee
is perplexed at "the reluctance of contemporary
medicine to adopt the use of natural progesterone."
It's his impression, however, that "the news is
spreading and change is on the way". In the
publication Natural Solutions, Dr. Lee voices true
dismay with his orthopedic colleagues who chose not to
use the progesterone cream in their patients' care
"but did put their own wives on the cream."27
Dr. Lee
points out that the "conventional treatment of
osteoporosis with estrogen, with or without supplemental
calcium and vitamin D, tends to delay bone mass loss,
but not reverse it."28
His investigation into using transdermal progesterone
cream instead of a synthetic estrogen replacement
treatment demonstrates that "osteoporosis subsided,
musculoskeletal strength and mobility increased, and
monthly vaginal bleeding did not occur."29
Most striking were the results of the dual-photon
densitometry test, which measured a 10 to 15 percent
increase in bone mineral density, even in women who had
experienced menopause twenty-five years earlier.30
After
years of researching transdermal progesterone
supplementation, Dr. Lee observed in his patients
"a progressive increase in bone mineral density and
definite clinical improvement including fracture
prevention..." He concluded that "osteoporosis
reversal is a clinical reality using a natural form of
progesterone derived from yams that is safe,
uncomplicated, and inexpensive."31
Unfortunately, by the time many of us are ready to deal
with the impact of osteoporosis it has already done
considerable damage, as it is symptomless until the
fractures begin. If you think that you can deal with
brittle bones after you get through the inconvenience of
hot flashes and night sweats, you need to think again.
It is an
enigma to me that our nation's supposedly up-to-date
medical researchers continue to be oblivious to the
evidence that progesterone stimulates new bone formation
by the osteoblasts, the bone-building cells.32
Think of the many aging women who could benefit from
this information and be freed from unnecessary pain and
spared their disability. As Gail Sheehy observes,
osteoporosis "often leaves older women frail,
susceptible to falls and broken bones .... [It] makes it
painful merely to sit." Many elderly osteoporotic
women die of secondary infections following hip surgery.33
These infections are what makes osteoporosis victims
subject to death, not the osteoporosis itself.
Reading
about this reminded me again of my mother's fragile
condition as her hip bones grew so weak she could hardly
get out of a chair. The longer she sat in one place, the
more pain she felt. Before long she had to depend on a
wheelchair to get around, and in an even shorter time
she yielded to a hospital bed in our home. We felt
blessed that she at least did not have to enter a
nursing home, as so many do.
 This
article was excerpted from the book: The
Estrogen Alternative by Raquel Martin with Judi
Gerstung, D.C. Reprinted with permission fo the
publisher: Healing Arts Press, a division of Inner
Traditions International, www.innertraditions.com
Click here to order this book.
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Editor's Note: Where to buy this product
Due to readers' requests
we have searched and found
a source of a progesterone cream mentioned in the article.
We now sell a progesterone cream "Pure-gesterone?"
which contains progesterone as well as herbs.
To read more on this product
or to purchase some,
click here.
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About The Authors
Raquel
Martin suffered for years after the left side of her body was temporarily
paralyzed from a blood clot in her brain in the early 1970s. She
went to many specialists and tried many drugs which caused further chaos
in her body. Eventually she learned to do her own research and make her
own decisions. She discovered the cause of her disorders and took control
of her health. She has recovered, and her life is now dedicated to
spreading information about the need for safe natural alternative
therapies. Her other works include Today's
Health Alternative &
Preventing
and Reversing Arthritis Naturally. Visit her website: www.healthcare-alternatives.com
for information on upcoming seminars.
Judi Gerstung, D.C., is a chiropractor and radiologist with special
interest in the detection and prevention of osteoporosis. She lives in
Colorado.
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