menopause treatment online

During menopause, lack of oestrogens increases the risk of suffering cardiovascular diseases. For her doctoral thesis, University of the Basque Country researcher, Ainhoa Ruiz del Agua, studied the effects of substitute treatments and the genetic factors influencing the response to these therapies.

Menopause is a natural period in the ageing process of a woman. On ceasing the ovary function, the body gradually stops producing eggs and female sex hormones (amongst these being oestrogen and progesterone), responsible for regulating the menstrual cycle. Lack of oestrogens increases the risk of very important diseases with respect to premenopause, amongst these being osteoporosis and illnesses related to the cardiovascular system. Amongst these heart diseases atherosclerosis is the most important, being an illness characterised by the presence of plaques full of lipids (fats) along the walls of the arteries, and which restricts the blood flow, causing high blood pressure. If these plaques break, the result is a thrombosis that can block the artery, causing, amongst other things, heart attack.

To slow down the natural drop in oestrogen level and thus prevent associated problems, substitutive hormonal therapies are prescribed during the menopause, either orally or subcutaneously (with patches), as well as by treatments based on substances that modulate the oestrogen receptor, amongst these being raloxifene. However, the effects of these therapies are disputed, given that there are no definitive conclusions about their usefulness: research carried out to date shows their efficacy in preventing osteoporosis, but it has not been clarified if they are capable of reducing the risk of contracting heart disease. Moreover, the response amongst different women to the same treatment can vary according to environmental factors, population, diet and, of course, as a function of genetic factors.

Ms Ainhoa Ruiz del Agua’s PhD thesis addressed these questions when she recently defended it at the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU): Oxidative stress biomarkers during postmenopause: effect of substitutive treatments. Dr Ruiz del Agua is a biochemistry graduate who is currently working as a researcher contracted by the Department of Physiology in the Faculty of Medicine and Odontology of the UPV/EHU. Her work was led by Ms María Begoña Ruiz Larrea and Mr José Ignacio Ruiz Sanz. Treatment with diverse effects

The principal aim of the research is to determine the effect of substitutive treatments normally administered during postmenopause. Moreover, it aims to define the genetic markers that condition the response to each of the treatments. To this end, Doctor Ruiz del Agua analysed the response by a group of women from Bizkaia to two treatments: on the one hand, to raloxifene and, on the other, to a substitutive hormonal treatment combining estradiol (a type of oestrogen) and progesterone (another female sex hormone). (more…)

Acupuncture cannot be shown to have any positive effect on hot flushes during the menopause. This is the conclusion of a systematic review of literature by three groups in Daejon, Busan (South Korea) and Exeter (UK), published in the current edition of the peer-reviewed journal Climacteric.

Many women are concerned by the unfavourable publicity given to HRT use, but still have to deal with the symptoms which can occur during and after the menopause. A significant minority of women look for alternatives to HRT to deal with these symptoms. Often these alternatives are untested, and it can be impossible to balance the risks and benefits of these treatments against the risks and benefits of conventional treatments or the discomfort of untreated menopause.

The researchers reviewed studies on the use of acupuncture for the relief of hot flushes during the menopause. They identified 106 studies in total, which they eventually narrowed down to the six most relevant to the study. These six studies were randomised controlled trials (RCTs), which included testing the effects of real acupuncture against the effect of sham acupuncture. Only one RCT reported favorable effect of acupuncture on the frequency and severity of hot flush after 4 weeks follow-up, while the other five RCTs demonstrated no such effects.

Researchers caution that the quality of good studies is not great, and that because of this the use of acupuncture cannot be completely ruled out. However, the available literature indicates that acupuncture does not seem to be effective in the treatment of menopausal hot flushes.

Lead researcher, Dr Myeong Soo Lee (Korea Institute of Oriental Medicine, South Korea) said

Although the availability of good Randomised Controlled Trials is too small to draw any firm conclusion, in general the evidence from sham-controlled RCTs for the effects of acupuncture for treating menopausal hot flush is not convincing. We would always recommend that women wanting relief from menopausal symptoms consult their clinician before undertaking any course of treatment.
(more…)

Wyeth on Thursday said that regulatory approval of its new drug, Pristiq, a nonhormonal treatment for hot flashes and other menopause symptoms, is delayed until at least July to give FDA time to review new data on the drug, the AP/Forbes reports. FDA was scheduled to decide whether to approve Pristiq next week. The drug is a new version of Wyeth’s depression treatment Effexor, which will lose patent protection in 2010. According to the AP/Forbes, Wyeth is seeking approval from FDA to market Pristiq as a depression treatment for older women, as well as a treatment for menopause symptoms. FDA’s review of the drug as a depression treatment also will be delayed (Perrone, AP/Forbes, 4/19). Company officials in a conference call with analysts on Thursday said that they are sending FDA data showing effectiveness but improved tolerability for a lower dose, 50-milligram dose of Pristiq, Reuters reports. The company expects that Pristiq will be approved to treat hot flashes in the third quarter of 2007 but that approval to treat depression will not come until the first quarter of 2008 (Reuters, 4/19).

For the first time, scientists have been able to identify genetic factors that influence the age at which natural menopause occurs in women. Ms Lisette Stolk, a researcher from Erasmus MC, Rotterdam, The Netherlands, told the annual conference of the European Society of Human Genetics that a greater understanding of the factors influencing age at menopause might eventually help to improve the clinical treatment of infertile women.

Ms Stolk and her team performed a Genome-Wide Association Study (GWAS) in 10,339 menopausal women. The data analysed were taken from 9 different studies undertaken in The Netherlands (the Rotterdam Study 1 and 2), the UK (the TwinsUK study), USA (the Framingham study, the Cardiovascular Health Study, the ARIC study, the HAPI Heart Study), Iceland (AGES-Reykjavik) and Italy (the InCHIANTI study). The scientists found 20 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in four different places on chromosomes 19 and 20. SNPs are common genetic variants that influence how humans look, behave, develop disease or react to pathogens. In genetics they are used to compare regions of the genome between different groups of individuals and to identify those regions that are associated with a particular disease or characteristic. The SNPs the researchers found had not been identified before, and the part of the body where they might have an effect has yet to be identified, though the researchers speculate that this is likely to be in the ovaries or brain.

“We found that the 20 SNPs were all related to a slightly earlier menopause”, said Ms Stolk, “and women who had one of them experienced menopause nearly a year earlier than others. We know that ten years before menopause women are much less fertile, and five years before many are infertile. In Western countries, where women tend to have children later in life and closer to menopause, age at menopause can be an important factor in whether or not a particular woman is able to become a mother.”
(more…)

Over-the-counter remedies for menopause symptoms are growing in popularity among some women who fear potential risks from prescription hormone replacement therapy, the New York Times reports. According to the Times, the market for alternative therapies — such as natural supplements and topical creams — jumped in 2002 after initial results from the Women’s Health Initiative suggested that HRT could increase risk for heart disease, cancer, stroke and blood clots.

Gynecologists estimate that about one-third of menopausal women are treated with conventional prescription hormones, and about one-third are treated with bio-identical hormones — plant-derived synthetic hormones that mimic the molecular structure of human hormones. The remaining one-third either do not seek therapy for symptoms, are not bothered by symptoms or use over-the-counter therapies. There are more than 500 over-the-counter products available that claim to alleviate menopause symptoms, the Times reports. The treatments include such products as teas, low-dose progesterone creams, black cohosh capsules and phytoestrogens derived from soy and red clover, according to the Times. According to Nutrition Business Journal, the U.S. dietary supplement market associated with menopause increased from $211 million in 1999 to $337 million in 2007.
(more…)

Earlier this year, the BBC reported that “HRT – Hormone Replacement Therapy – can shrink women’s brains”1, after a study was published which showed that brain volume in women taking HRT was smaller in two key areas involved in thinking and memory.

This comes in addition to earlier results from the Women’s Health Initiative (WHI) Memory Study2 that linked HRT to an increased risk of memory loss and dementia, and an article in the Lancet3 which concluded that HRT “substantially increases the risk of dementia of any cause and cognitive* decline” (* memory, thinking and understanding).

This adds to the growing body of evidence that the risks of HRT far outweigh any perceived benefits, evidence that Nutri Pharma feels needs to be brought to the attention of the 150,000 women in Norway and millions of women across Europe who are still being prescribed this treatment.

Nutri5® is Nutri Pharma’s natural product for the relief of menopausal symptoms, shown to be effective in an open pilot study. In addition to reducing menopausal symptoms, improving heart health and reducing the risk of osteoporosis, clinical trials4 on soy diets containing high levels of soy isoflavones like those found in Nutri5® have also shown that, unlike HRT, these can actually improve the cognitive function of post-menopausal women (aged 45+). (more…)