This week we talk with Gina Maisano, author of Intimacy after Breast Cancer, about an important issue that arises after breast cancer treatment. I also interview Susan Brown from the Susan G. Komen Foundation. I want to better understand what types of research the highly successful foundation funds and how it educates women about steps they can take to prevent breast cancer. Call the show at 1-800-281-8255.

FOOD NEWS

Blueberry brutality: The 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals recently ruled that NJ blueberry farmers could proceed with their lawsuit against Novartis Crop Protection, Inc. It seems that the chemical company sold them a pesticide that, when combined with fungicides, reportedly damaged the berries and even killed some of the plants. The suit claims negligent misrepresentation, fraud and product liability.

My 2 cents: The pesticide had unexpected, unpleasant or even lethal side effects when combined with other agricultural chemicals. Doesn’t that sound a lot like what happens too often with medications, especially when several are used? And doesn’t the name Novartis sound familiar? It should. It’s the name of the parent company, pharmaceutical drug giant, Novartis. Organic blueberry farmers don’t have to worry about the side effects of pesticides. Incidentally, blueberries are on the Environmental Working Group’s list of the dirty dozen fruits and vegetables that they recommend we buy as organic.

RESEARCH NEWS

Hormone replacement therapy (HRT) / deaths from breast cancer. The results of an 11-year study of more than 16,000 women published just yesterday concluded that women who took the hormone replacement drug, Prempro® (estrogen plus progestin) are more likely to die of breast cancer.¹ Read details in the Washington Post.

HRT / Lung Cancer. A study published last year showed that women who took the same hormones were more likely to die of lung cancer.² Follow-up research shows that the culprit in that instance is most likely the progestin component, not the estrogen.³

HRT / Kidney stones. Postmenopausal women taking HRT have a 21% higher risk of kidney stones according to a newly published 5-year study of 24,000 women.⁴

My 2 cents: HRT was once enthusiastically hyped and practically forced on women by their physicians. After the medication was shown to increase the risk of heart disease, stroke and cancer, its usage declined and so did the incidence of breast cancer. The HRT Prempro in these studies is a combination of 2 hormones that female human bodies are NOT accustomed to processing. The Premarin® portion is an assortment of estrogens isolated from the urine of pregnant horses. The progestin component is a synthetic chemical that doesn’t even look a lot like the body’s own protective hormone progesterone. Perhaps the synthetic chemical progestin occupies the sites on cells where natural progesterone would ordinarily bind and it therefore prevents real progesterone from doing its job.

Whatever the mechanism, it is becoming increasingly obvious that it isn’t nice to fool Mother Nature. “Bio-identical hormones”, exact copies of what our bodies make, are an alternate choice. It’s logical they might not cause as much mischief and they don’t worry me when they are used in normal dosages. Because they can’t be patented and there therefore aren’t vast profits in them, they unfortunately aren’t promoted in TV ads or widely used. That means there isn’t a lot of research available on the subject, but what is there so far seems promising.⁵

COMPUTER HINT

This hint may sound a little “Hints-from-Heloise-ish” but there is a health connection. Frustration is stressful and stress is hard on our bodies. Maybe we can’t always eliminate the big stressors—such as an election cycle that never seems to end? However, we can sometimes conquer a little one. I bought a plug-in keyboard (from the Salvation Army) to remove the electronic fields my test device found being emitted from my fancy wireless version. Anyway, the keyboard configuration was slightly different and so I kept accidentally hitting “insert” instead of “delete”. Delete is a key I use a LOT, so that meant extra work retyping because, of course, the insert key eats up what you’ve done. I took my hot glue gun and put a little drop on the keys I use more frequently and drew a raised X on the insert key as a warning. I had used this same trick before on my laptop because the built-in signal bumps on the “F” and “J” were too subtle.

Teleseminar: If you missed my recent talk on Natural Alternatives for Acid Reflux, you can listen to a recording of the call and see slides at this link .

My first book : Natural Alternatives to Nexium, Maalox, Tagamet, Prilosec & Other Acid Blockers. Subtitle: What to Use to Relieve Acid Reflux, Heartburn, and Gastric Ailments.

My latest book : Aloe Vera-Modern Science Sheds Light on an Ancient Herbal Remedy

Copyright 2010 Martie Whittekin, CCN

¹JAMA. 2010;304(15):1684-1692. doi:10.1001/jama.2010.1500; Estrogen Plus Progestin and Breast Cancer Incidence and Mortality in Postmenopausal Women, Rowan T. Chlebowski, MD, PhD

²Lancet. 2009 Oct 10;374(9697):1243-51. Oestrogen plus progestin and lung cancer in postmenopausal women (Women’s Health Initiative trial): a post-hoc analysis of a randomised controlled trial. Chlebowski RT

³Climacteric. 2010 Oct 18. [Epub ahead of print] Postmenopausal hormone therapy and lung cancer. Pines A.

⁴Arch Intern Med. 2010 Oct 11;170(18):1678-85. Postmenopausal hormone use and the risk of nephrolithiasis: Results from the Women’s Health Initiative hormone therapy trials. Maalouf NM

⁵Postgrad Med. 2009 Jan;121(1):73-85. The bioidentical hormone debate: are bioidentical hormones (estradiol, estriol, and progesterone) safer or more efficacious than commonly used synthetic versions in hormone replacement therapy? Holtorf K.