FDA tries to limit safe Hormone Replacement Therapy options

DQ's Note;  I know the basic story of the FDA and bio-identical hormone therapy has been posted previously, but I thought this message today from Dr, Douglas is a particularly good one.  Hope you agree.

FDA tries to limit safe HRT options

Dear Friend,

Better stock up on your bio-identical hormones while you still can. If Wyeth and the FDA have their way, it won't be long before they'll be locked away for good.

This time around, the FDA wants to ban Internet sales of custom-mixed hormones for menopausal women. Last month, the FDA sent warning letters to companies that produce bio-identical hormone replacement therapy (BHRT), saying that their claims regarding the benefits of BHRT are "false and misleading."

Why does this burn my rear quarters so much? It goes back to an incident in October of 2005, when Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, manufacturers of the synthetic HRT drugs Prempro and Premarin, filed a complaint with the FDA against the sale of ANY KIND of natural or bio-identical hormones.

Of course, as usual it was a money issue. Women had turned away from synthetic HRT drugs in droves because a 2002 Women's Health Initiative Study revealed that both Prempro and Premarin significantly increased women's risks of heart attack, breast cancer and dementia!

So, rather than losing all the money that they'd put into researching and manufacturing Prempro and Premarin, Wyeth thought it would be easier to ask their friends at the FDA to put an injunction on their competitors. That way, Wyteth could go ahead endangering women and making money. Nice, huh?

Wyeth's competitors, in this case, were the makers of bio-identical hormones – natural hormones that are safer (not to mention more effective) than Whyeth's synthetics. In fact, bio-identical hormones had been sold in the U.S. for over 25 years without a single complaint or death associated with them.

Now that you know the back story, surely you see this latest "FDA action in the defense of the public health" exactly the way I see it – as yet another step by the FDA to restrict the makers of natural hormone therapies from doing business. Sadly, it's the same old story that I've told you about before … and will surely tell you about again.

The FDA claims it's acting in the interests of public safety—but we both know better. "We want to assure that Americans receive accurate information about the risks and benefits of drug therapies," said a statement by Dr. Janet Woodcock, FDA's chief medical officer. Accurate information? Since when? If they were so concerned about accuracy and public safety, synthetic hormones would be the ones on the chopping block.

Woodcock added that the FDA is concerned that the claims for effectiveness are misleading not only for patients, but also doctors and others in the healthcare field. If you ask me, what they're really concerned about is that doctors might wake up to the truth about BHRT – which could doubtless get in the way of the doctors pushing Big Pharma products onto their patients.

In the warning letters, the FDA told the BHRT manufacturers that their claims were violating federal laws, but it was unclear what the next step was if these so-called "violations" were to continue. Lucky for the BHRT producers and the menopause sufferers that rely on them, the FDA is a slow-moving bureaucracy that's incapable of rapid action.

This means that BHRT makers can continue forward with these completely true claims (I call them facts) that the feds and Big Pharma don't want you to know about:

Unlike synthetic HRT drugs (usually made from, of all things, horse urine), bio-identical hormones use the three main hormones your own body synthesizes. They don't come in a one-size-fits-all pill, either. Bio-identical hormones can be custom-tailored to individual patients in any compounding pharmacy (they're in every state). Oh, and the compounding pharmacies, whose products are often classified as "risky" by the FDA? Their pharmacists are fully co-educated in standard pharmacy schools AND licensed and regulated by all 50 states.

Even if the purpose of a charade like this is just to slow the growth and public acceptance of BHRT until a company like Wyeth can create a "safer" synthetic HRT, it's still an outrage. Once again, I suspect that the FDA has put business interests ahead of what's best for the consumer.

You can be sure I'll be tracking the progress of this story.

Passing on big hate for the big influence of Big Pharma,

William Campbell Douglass II, M.D.

P.S. Act now! Join the fight to save your access to bio-identical hormone replacement therapy. Visit the Health Freedom Foundation website to find out what you can do to make a difference.