MENOPAUSE
- a new perspective
by Dr. Warwick D. Raymont, Ph.D., D.Sc., Grad.Dip.Sc.Tech.Comm., M.A.C.S., M.N.Y.A.S., D.G., O.I.A.
Today, the word “menopause” strikes fear into the hearts of almost all Western women. But that was not always the case.
In years gone by it always was, just as it should be today, a gradual and symptomless transition. Even today, in the Pacific Basin (including the Americas and South East Asia), women who maintain their traditional native diets rarely reach menopause until well into their fifties and pass through this stage without symptom or discomfort. PMT and menstrual pain simply do not exist and the western woes of osteoporosis and breast cancer are virtually unheard of.
The question begs to be asked, “Why?”
The culprits are the twentieth century and the chemicals we have put, either directly or indirectly, into our bodies. Chemicals such as pesticides, plastics and heavy metals, for these act often as “oestrogen mimickers”. By attaching themselves to oestrogen receptors they upset the oestrogen/progesterone balance and disrupt the natural synergy of a woman’s body.
The oestrogen-based birth control pill, too, must carry much of the blame. Besides also upsetting the hormone balance, the “pill” may be the culprit for many other problems. In Japan, for example, where this pill is still prohibited, breast cancer and hysterectomies are almost unheard of compared with in Australia. Claims are now made that the birth control pill was invented by men to absolve themselves from any responsibility for contraception and without consideration for the long-term health effects it may have upon women. Interestingly enough, the male “pill”, developed around the same era, was never proceeded with as the long term health effects it may have had upon men were not known!
In any event, HRT (hormone replacement therapy), besides being aesthetically displeasing (e.g., oestrogen from the urine of pregnant mares), is not necessarily the answer as this, too, may increase dramatically the likelihood of breast and other cancers.
Much of the answer may well lie in the native diet of the Pacific Basin women. This diet is either rich in Soy or rich in diosgenin from the Wild Yam. Both of these native foods provide the building blocks for the body to produce, naturally, minute amounts of a hormone called DHEA (dehydroepiandrosterone or prasterone). Over a lifetime, these minute amounts of DHEA so produced are claimed to slow down the ageing process and to enable a smooth and symptomless transition through menopause.
DHEA has been referred to as “the mother of all hormones” due to the body’s ability, in turn, to convert it to other needed hormones such as progesterone. Progesterone, besides eliminating menopausal symptoms, has now been shown even to reverse osteoporosis.
Unfortunately, it is virtually impossible for a menopausal western woman to achieve a forty year retrospective diet of Soy or Wild Yam and don’t think for one moment that a “Wild Yam Cream” alone will provide any such benefit*. However, it has now been demonstrated that, for example, diosgenin from Wild Yam may be activated (either by animal glandular extracts or herbally) to increase enormously its conversion by the body to DHEA. It is now possible to make up for those forty years in as little as three months or so.
In other words, there may well be a viable alternative to hysterectomies and/or HRT in many, if not most, cases. “The light at the end of the tunnel is not necessarily an on-coming train!”
* Some Wild Yam Creams “laced” with the prescription drug progesterone have been
marketed in Australia illegally, i.e., other than on a doctor’s prescription. It is understood that
these “creams” have been seized and ordered off the market and that prosecutions have
been launched. © Dr. W.D. Raymont
|