Steer clear of synthetic hormone replacement (conventional HRT) at all costs. Premarin is synthetic. It damages a women’s health in many ways. The smarter approach is using bio-identical hormone replacement — but you usually won’t get this stuff prescribed by a conventional doctor who is tied to the pharmaceutical industry (like Wyeth-Ayerst). You need an alternative physician who’s smart enough to have followed the latest research.
Secondary consideration is to implement dietary choices that often provide vitamins and calcium to complement a natural approach to controlling menopausal symptoms and can include:
* yams and soy products (the precursors for many HRT drugs)
* fruits, vegetables, whole grains (other phytoestrogen/genistein sources)
* dong quai, motherwort, chaparral, black cohosh, linoleic acid oils
* avoidance of excessive use of caffeine, alcohol, sodas,
* avoidance of high-fat and high-protein diets (high protein has been shown to increase calcium losses).
Lifestyle Choices:
* Decreasing or stopping smoking (which data suggests may increase bone loss and also decrease HRT effectiveness).
* Weight control is very beneficial for decreasing risk of cardiovascular disease.
* Weight-bearing exercise may help counter bone loss, and aerobic exercise will improve cardiovascular fitness.
* Relaxation therapies such as yoga and meditation can help reduce stress.
* Transdermal use of a natural progesterone cream to balance the hormones