Groundbreaking Review Demonstrates That Bioidentical Hormones Reduced the Risk of Breast Cancer and Have Greater Cardiovascular Benefits Compared to Standard Synthetic Versions of HRT

TORRANCE, CA -- (Marketwire) -- 03/02/09 -- The most comprehensive analysis to date, published in the Postgraduate Medical Journal, a leading peer-reviewed publication for practicing clinicians, showed that bioidentical hormones are associated with reduced health risks and are more efficacious than their synthetic counterparts. Conducted by a leading expert in hormone replacement, Kent Holtorf, M.D., medical director of the Holtorf Medical Group in Torrance, California, the paper reviewed and evaluated results from more than 200 physiological and clinical studies. It demonstrated that bioidentical hormone replacement therapy is both more effective and has greater health benefits for women suffering with symptoms of menopause than hormone replacement therapy with synthetic hormones. Synthetic forms of hormone replacement therapy prescribe substances such as Premarin, Provera and Prempro and present real health risks with increased risks of breast cancer, stroke and heart attack.

"Many physicians and so-called experts state that there is no evidence that bioidentical hormones are safer than synthetic HRT. A thorough review of the medical literature, however, clearly supports the claim that bioidentical hormones have some distinctly different, often opposite, physiological effects to those of their synthetic hormones," said Dr. Holtorf, whose practice treats more than 7,000 patients each year. "The medical literature demonstrates that bioidentical hormone replacement therapy is highly effective and carries a reduced, rather than an increased risk of breast cancer and cardiovascular disease."

The review also showed that patients undergoing bioidentical HRT were less likely to experience sleep problems, anxiety, depression and cognitive effects -- common side effects of synthetic hormones and are associated with a reduced risk for breast cancer and superior cardiovascular protection.

This review has opened the eyes of many "mainstream" physicians who have been told, and have told their patients, there are no studies showing bioidentical hormones are a safer form of HRT. Dr. Eldred Taylor, gynecologist, states, "As a board certified OB/GYN trained at Emory University I am embarrassed by what I learned in residency concerning hormone physiology. It is a crime that this information is not taught in residencies. Instead we are bombarded with propaganda and misinformation by the so-called leaders in our field."

Many mainstream physicians, including gynecologists, internists and endocrinologists, are upset about the misinformation put out by their societies regarding bioidentical hormones.