You will probably here in the news if you have not already that the drug company Wyeth, maker of Prempro® hormone therapy, has paid ghostwriters to play up the benefits and downplay the harm of the drug in articles published in medical journals.
Researchers from Georgetown University Medical Center in Washington and fellow colleagues have analyzed dozens of ghostwritten reviews and commentaries.
It turns out that Wyeth, now owned by Pfizer, paid a medical communication company, Design Write $25,000 to ghostwrite articles on clinical studies. The researchers also noted that Design Write was also assigned to write 20 review articles about the drug at $20,000 each.
Researchers went on to say that the company was expected to promote unauthorized use of the drug to prevent dementia, Parkinson’s disease, vision troubles and even wrinkles.
One particular statement in the article from Reuters said, “The team said the articles where intended to mitigate concerns that hormone replacement therapy raises the risk of breast cancer, and to support the unfounded idea that the drugs offer some protections against heart disease.”
Now this statement can be misleading, so let us help to clear the confusion. It groups all hormonal therapy into one category, which we feel needs to be further defined.
Optimal hormonal therapy, in my humbled option consists of customized approaches of nutrition and hormonal therapy, what is known as bio-identical hormonal therapy to the individuals needs, based off of testing and symptom management by their physician. This should not be confused with the utilization of Prempro® and other non-bio-identical treatment regimens.
Prempro® is considered to be hormone replacement therapy, although it does not consist of hormones that are bio-identical to the human body. Prempro® is a combination of conjugated horse estrogens obtained from horse urine as well as medroxyprogesterone which should not be confused with bio-identical human progesterone.
Much of this hormone debate began when the government sponsored Women’s Health Initiative Program halted its study using Prempro®, estrogen alone and progestin alone, back on July 9, 2002; which was 3 years early due to an increased risk of breast cancer in women taking these hormones.
Other findings were as follows:
• The stroke rate was 41% higher in women taking Prempro®
• Women on Prempro® had double the rate of blood clots
• Women on Prempro® had a 22% increase in heart disease
• Women on Prempro® had a 26% increase in breast cancer
In no way is this letter intended to implicate Prempro®, but to educate and open the conversation with our customers about concerns, options, and solutions to their health and hormonal needs.
Where there is a considerable amount of research on the benefits of bio-identical hormones, we do not find it prudent to make a blanket statement calling them safe.
It is our belief that with the wisdom of nature and science, looking at the body as a whole with proper assessment, treatments is the best option taking into account the individuality of the patient.
For further information, please let me know…
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