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A USA Today article trashing bioidentical hormones caught my attention because it contained almost pure misinformation. Written by Associated Press AP medical writer Marilynn Marchione, this syndicated article was broadcast over the news media.
Marchione's writing is a perfect example of trash, or junk journalism. I find it astounding that the news media force feeds this kind of nonsense to the public. Medical writer Marchione's article discredits bioidentical hormones as non-FDA approved, and not proven safe nor effective.
Before analyzing the nonsense in her article, let's take a humerous look at what if Marchione took her own advice seriously, assuming that naturally occurring human hormones are harmful and dangerous non-approved chemicals. Left Image: Trash can courtesy of wikimedia commons.
Marilyn might be horrified to know that these non-FDA approved bioidentical hormones, (estradiol, progesterone, estriol and testosterone), are floating around in her blood stream right now, and have been since she was a child.
Oh My Gosh!!! Get them Out !!
Also, Marilynn Marchione might be horrified to know that there are thousands of other non-FDA approved natural substances (chemicals) floating in her blood stream. Oh, the Horror of it!!.
How can I get these non-FDA approved chemicals out of my body!!!
Also, Marilynn Marchione might be horrified to know that doctors write 65 million prescriptions yearly for non-FDA approved medications, as part of routine medical practice. Two examples are phenobarbital, an anti-convulsant, and chloral-hydrate, a sedative.
So, don't do anything impulsive or crazy to remove these non-FDA approved chemicals from your body. They are supposed to be there. In fact, these same little non-FDA approved bioidentical hormones have been present in the blood stream of primates (this includes AP medical news journalists and monkeys) for 40 million years. That's a long time, even for an AP journalist.
Both FDA Approved and Non-FDA Approved
But Wait! No need to even worry about it, because, Bioidentical Hormones ARE INDEED FDA approved. Marilynn Marchione even says so in her article. This list of FDA approved bioidentical hormones is presented below. But wait! How can bioidentical hormones be both FDA approved and non-FDA approved? If they are in a bottle at the corner drug store, they are FDA approved, and if they are in my body, they are non-FDA approved. This is really confusing.
The answer can be found in the textbook of biochemistry used by all medical schools, Lehninger Principles of Biochemistry Chapter 23 Hormonal Regulation. This authoritative source says the chemical structure of a hormone is independent of where it is. The hormone can be in the human body, in a glass of water, in a bottle at the corner drug store. This doesn't matter, the hormone has the exact same chemical structure. This means that if a bio-identical hormone is FDA approved in a bottle of pills at the drugstore, then BY DEFINITION, the same chemical structure is FDA approved in the human body or any where else, it's the same stuff. But for some strange reason, the FDA doesn't work that way and separate paperwork has to be submitted for each one. Welcome to the US government.
But first, lets take a closer look at Marilynn Marchione's disinformation below:
Millions of women have tried custom-compounded hormones .... since 2002, when a big federal study found risks from traditional hormone replacement therapy, or HRT.
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