It has mystified me for years that the positive research about FDA-approved bioidentical hormones was ignored in the mainstream media.  Now, nearly five years after government scientists told women that taking estrogen replacement therapy increased their risk of heart attacks and strokes, researchers have concluded that the drugs are beneficial for many.  (the following adapted from The Boston Globe) – Continuing analysis of the original data indicates that the researchers raised a false alarm for most women and that, if women begin taking the hormones shortly after menopause, the drugs do not raise the risk of heart disease and, in fact, might lower it.  The latest piece of evidence, in today’s New England Journal of Medicine, shows that taking estrogen for seven years or more after menopause reduces calcification of the arteries — one of the key indicators fo atheroscclerosis — by as much as 60 percent.  (more…)

The yuck factor is HUGE with hotel room jacuzzis and public hot tubs, whether they are bubbling away at the Four Seasons, on the deck of a Celebrity Cruise, or next to the pool at the Y.  No one with a compromised immune system – the elderly, people on chemo or steroids, smokers, those with delicate urinary tracts or recovering from an illness, and certainly NOT babies – should use these public hot tubs.  As those relaxing bubbles burst around you, they may be releasing Legionnaire’s Disease, (more…)

Does alli, the Orlistat weight loss drug now available without prescription, really help you lose weight, or will it be alli-OOPS?  Two words describe the worst side effect of alli – anal leakage.  If you eat too much fat while on the alli weight loss program, you can have “loose oily or fatty stools, possible uncontrolled bowel movements, flatulence with discharge, and abdominal pain.”  Will the threat of that keep you on your low-fat plan?  Will alli act as an effective FAT NAZI to your diet?
Perhaps it will, because the other side effects of alli are GOOD, and test subjects actually did lose more weight using alli than (more…)