Nutraceuticals and nootropics for anti-aging

Hormone replacement therapy under attack despite benefits

Last May a government-conducted study of Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT) was halted because the incidence of breast cancer exceeded the limit chosen at the beginning of the study. The media frenzy which followed caused the entire concept of female HRT to be widely regarded as worthless and unacceptably dangerous.

Media accounts and government pronouncements regarding this study (the Women’s Health Initiative, or WHI) made little or no mention of various facts that would have provided a more rational perspective — presumably because the dramatic impact of their stories required an irrational perspective. For example:

• Countless previous studies have established unequivocally the value of HRT for various conditions, such as osteoporosis, cognitive problems, and depression.
• The elevated risk of breast cancer from HRT has been known for a long time and is factored into people’s decisions to use HRT.
• The people who conducted the WHI study chose a particular mathematical formula to weigh the risks and benefits of HRT. Why should we accept their formula instead of some other one?
• The WHI was not a general study of HRT, it was a study of one particular combination of drugs: namely, a mixture of estrogens extracted from pregnant horse urine, plus a progestin called “medroxyprogesterone acetate”.

By failing to give the public the whole story, and playing up the dramatic-sounding elements of the WHI study, the government and the journalistic media have misled millions of people, leaving them with distorted views on an issue that affects their overall health and well-being.

The damage done to the field of female HRT may be about to be repeated with male HRT — this time not out of mere carelessness or a desire for publicity, but rather with the deliberate intention to fool a naive public.

Male HRT is still in its infancy, for several reasons:

• Our society places a low value on men’s general well-being, preferring to concentrate on life-threatening conditions.
• Anti-aging research has, until very recently, been denigrated by the medical profession.
• The U.S. government has obstructed research in male HRT because agencies like the Drug Enforcement Administration want to be able to continue demonizing anabolic hormones (like testosterone) and arresting people for using them.

Because male HRT is only now starting to become widely appreciated, it is even more vulnerable than female HRT to disruption by propaganda campaigns directed against it.

The seeds of such a campaign are being sown by the National Academy of Sciences, which is gearing up to design a “study” of male HRT. A fair, well-written article by Judy Peres of the Chicago Tribune provides a good preview of the issues involved. Peres contrasts the life-transforming benefits reported by individuals using testosterone replacement with the negativity of a group of researchers who are promoting the government-approved view that male HRT may be too dangerous to be allowed. The research will, of course, be conducted with government money (and, it’s reasonable to assume, with hidden agendas).

Link to Judy Peres’s article:

Hormones now men’s issue

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On a more positive note, Ellen Barry of the Boston Globe reports that testosterone is receiving renewed attention from pyschiatrists as a treatment for depression. She cites a recent study in which it was shown that a transdermal testosterone treatment is an effective antidepressant in many men for whom ordinary antidepressant drugs are ineffective.

Link to Ellen Barry’s article:

Testosterone tested as mood drug

Link to an abstract of the testosterone study:

Testosterone gel supplementation for men with refractory depression

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Another positive development in the hormone world is a story in the online edition of The Hindu, reporting that India and Israel are planning a joint venture to manufacture steroid hormones and their precursors on a large scale, thereby undermining the near-monopoly that China now holds in this market. We should therefore look forward to an eventual drop in price of many of steroidal supplements, such as androstenedione, testosterone, estradiol esters, etc. (We should note, however, that such price decreases will occur only in countries where people have prevented their governments from illegalizing these substances — countries with totalitarian drug laws will pay high black market prices.)

Link to the article in The Hindu:

Indo-Israeli JV set to end Chinese steroids monopoly