Every day millions of women confront uncomfortable and sometimes painful health problems related to menopause and hormone imbalances; individualized treatment, including the use of Bioidentical Hormone Replacement Therapy (BHRT) is proving to be a beneficial treatment approach for many of those women.

The Wyeth Corporation (maker of synthetic hormones) has petitioned the FDA against the production of bioidentical hormones. If granted, the petition would undermine the health care provider-patient relationship and limit women in their access to BHRT.

Petition the FDA for your rights here

Pregnant women in this country are for ever being warned about the danger of Fetal Alcohol Syndrome - and don't get me wrong:  I realize it is a very sad and too frequent problem.  However, it has always made me wonder why the entire nation of France, where judicious wine drinking  is  recommended to relax pregnant women and indeed, is an integral part of their lifestyle - how come, as I say, all the  babies born there are not suffering from FAS?

Another French paradox.  And like the other one, dependent on diet.

It turns out that in a mouse study, adding B3 (nicotinamide) to the diet prevented FAS.  B3 is found in :  Lean meat, chicken breast, turkey breast, fish & seafood, kidney, liver, rhubarb, avocado, figs, dates, prunes, free range eggs, milk products, brown rice, white wheat, brewer's yeast, wheat germ, barley, roasted peanuts.

So emphasize B vitamin rich foods for a healthy outcome to a pregnancy, even if a little wine is consumed. Extra wheat germ and brewer's yeast would be good.

Here is the study.

Since one of their most lucrative drugs, Premarin,  has been overtaken by events ( the increasingly common kind, it would seem: death by prescription), Wyeth is fighting back.  They are trying to make over the counter bio-identical hormones illegal, and put compounding pharmacies out of business.

If these tactics arouse your indignation, as they do mine, please take a closer look at what is going on, and send your comments to the FDA as suggested here:

International Academy of Compounding Chemists - BHRT (Bio-identical Hormone Replacement Therapy)