For the first time in history, millions of women have the opportunity to grow old as vigorous, vitally engaged, and productive people. Advances in health care and medical knowledge now offer a solid foundation for those who want to reduce their health risks and improve their quality of life. Estrogen is one of the secrets to healthy aging. Men have an estrogen level of about 40 pgm/ml from boyhood until age 70. But for women after menopause, estrogen typically drops to 10 to 15 pgm—levels that may actually be dangerous to their health. Wise use of estrogen can lower a woman's risk of colon cancer, osteoporosis, hip fractures, heart disease, and dementia, yet fewer than 17 percent of American women for whom hormone supplements are appropriate actually take them. This reflects consumer mistrust of the pharmaceutical industry and medicine in general, worsened by fears regarding breast cancer. Conflicting reports in the medical literature have only amplified the confusion.
Bioidentical hormones—invented animal-derived molecules identical to those found in the human body—broaden the options, providing women with another resource, another way to meet the needs of aging with increased safety when used intelligently. The Pocket Idiot's Guide™ to Bioidentical Hormones provides the evidence on what is safe and what is not and presents a wide range of options for supplementing hormones, within an easy-to-answer discussion of Hormone Replacement Therapy in general. Completely objective, the book answers all the questions that have gone unanswered in hurried doctors' office visits, as well as the ones women haven't even known to ask.
Coverage includes:
* The case for hormones—bioidentical or otherwise.
* The safety issue—which bioidenticals work, which don't really help much, and which may be harmful.
* Bioidentical hormones on their effect on the heart, bones, and brain.
* Creating an individualized health plan—which hormones, in what combination—how much and how often
