Turning to Plants to replace Premarin, or, They Kill Horses, Don’t They?
There are than 50 million menopausal women in the United States. About 10 million of them are taking Premarin, derived from pregnant mares’ urine, for estrogen replacement. However, a number of health specialists question whether Premarin should be used.
Michele Broad, a certified OB-GYN adult nurse practiitoner and owner of Women’s Health and Wellness in Murrieta, says: I have never written a new prescription for Premarin. Some of my patients on it have experienced severe leg cramps, weight gain and breast tenderness.”
Amy Allina, program director for National Women’s Health Network, a non-profit education and advocacy group based in Washington, D.C., says, “Premarin is not simply a harmless aid for getting through menopause. It can increase other health problems, and women need to know that.”
Jeff Stone, pharmacist and owner of Innovative Compounding Pharmacy in Murrieta, says studies last year showed the definite connection between breast cancer and equine estrogen. “Equine estrogen, or Premarin, is positively foreign to the human body, including to perimenopausal or menopausal women.” Other side effects of Premarin include bloating, headaches and depression. With long term use, some believe, there is the potential for breast cancer, blood clots, ovarian cancer, endometrial cancer, gall bladder disease, and stroke.
Why not use bio-identical plant-derived hormones instead?
In Europe, pharmaceutical companies began producing natural progesterone derived from plants back in the 1940s. According to Jeff Stone, “the trend now is to get women off Premarin and put on bio-identical hormones, such as bi-est, which is a combination of the hormones estrial and estradial. These are used for maintaining bone density and eliminating hot flalshes and night sweats, among other symptoms.
Author Marcus Laux, physician at the National College of Naturopathic Medicine in Portland, Oregon, and Christine Conrad, in their book “Natural Woman, Natural Menopause,” state that plant-derived hormones can improve sleep, have a natural calming effect during the day, have a positive effect against hypertension, improve the body’s ability to use and eliminate fats, promote new bone formation, may protect against breast cancer, normalize the libido and regrow scalp hair.
Broad’s Murrieta office provides blood and urine tests to determine what hormones women are lacking, and then based on the results, the pharmacy creates the appropriate bio-identical treatment. Broad states: “We can make creams, gels, pills or suppositories. The ingredients are plant-derived and mimic our body’s chemical structure, thereby lowering the side effects. And most PPOs cover these hormone treatments. HMOs are coming around slowly, and the usual out-of pocket for the non-insured is about $35 a month.”
Aside from the ill-effects of premarin on a woman’s body is the squalor that pregnant mares live in. They are tied in place and catheterized, and not given enough water so that their urine is more concentrated with hormones. They are also overfed so that when they are all used up and can no longer produce foals, they will be extra fat for slaughter. Most of the foals of the pregnant mares are slaughtered for horse meat.
More about this at Premarin.org, Humane Society of the US, Farm Animal Reform, United Animal Nations and many more advocacy groups.
Stop using premarin and tell everyone you know. Stop killing mares and foals.
