Natural Menopause Aid Doesn’t Work, Says Study
I’m going to dash a lot of hopes of middle-aged women today. Get ready. Here it is:
Black cohosh, a member of the buttercup family that is the most widely used herbal remedy for hot flashes, does not work, according to a just-released study.
Now, maybe the pharmaceutical companies influenced the outcome of this federally funded study so that women would keep doing Hormone Replacement Therapy. Who knows?
Read more at That’s Fit and Science Blog.
December 19th, 2006 at 4:03 pm
I read this today too. Go figure eh?
Thx for stopping by my diet blog. I have been letting it fall be the wayside lately, but have updated it today…finally.
cheers!
December 19th, 2006 at 4:09 pm
Well stepping outside in my pj’s when it’s -10 works pretty well. Can’t take HRT
December 19th, 2006 at 4:27 pm
I tried all the “natural” remedies during my 10 years of Menopause Hell. None of it worked. Didn’t do HRT either, now that I’m officially post I feel ever so much better!
December 19th, 2006 at 4:42 pm
I find it ironic that they come out with this study when another study was just released saying that because of the drop in the use of hormone replacement therapy, brest cancer rates are down. I also know many women who would disagree and swear by Black Cohosh
December 19th, 2006 at 6:04 pm
Hi, Rhea. Thanks for the Happy Chanukah greeting and for stopping by my blog.
I was on HRT since 1989 following the big H. After I heard about the new study citing a 7 percent drop in breast cancer rates because women stopped using estrogen, I decided that enough was enough. No more Premarin. It’s only been a couple of days, but so far so good. I guess I can live with anything my body throws my way.
Happy Chanukah to you and yours.
December 19th, 2006 at 9:34 pm
Hot flashes must be terrible – when the said on the news that hormone therapy may cause cancer I figured my wife would stop taking it. Nope, she said she would rather be dead than start having flashes again!
December 20th, 2006 at 10:11 am
Thanks, everyone (even Mushy), for writing in. I gotta know what to expect when the Big M hits.
December 20th, 2006 at 10:41 am
Rhea,
I know women who don’t take hrt or black cohosh and live with hot flashes and night sweats and grin and bear it (with an open window at 40 degrees.) Natural supplements and herbs are holistic as they enable your system to help cure itself. It takes time for your body to work with the herb or supplement and sometimes it just doesn’t work for an individual. I take Vit. C and garlic pills, every day, for my immune system. If I do get a cold or virus (which is rare) it lasts half the time as it would normally to heal (a study said vit. c does nothing) Too much of a coincidence hrt = possible breast cancer and back cohosh story.
Check out video, “Thank You For Smoking” to see how the spin masters work. yourdrum
December 20th, 2006 at 11:25 pm
I was going to say what motherkitty said too. The statistics are dead against hrt. But I won’t know how hard it is going to be to manage until it hits me.
The flashes haven’t hit yet but I’m terrified of breast cancer. I’ll stay of hrt if I can. I lost my grandmother to breast cancer. She was 62.
December 21st, 2006 at 1:24 am
Darn! I’m cutting back on my HRT (with doctor’s blessing) and hopefully will get onto something a little more natural. Been taking this stuff for five years now. I figure I would be going through the “change” naturally by now anyhoo. We’ll see if I turn into a raving maniac! Thanks for sharing!
December 21st, 2006 at 7:05 am
Gday Rhea
I was on hrt for many years couldnt live without it ( The Patch)
I got bowel cancer Supposedly not related to hrt but i was operated on and now not allowed hrt but dont need it now . My Sister never used hrt and was operated on 3 months ago breast cancer.
December 21st, 2006 at 5:05 pm
I’ve been taking black cohosh, evening primrose oil, soy, and flaxseed oil. I don’t know which one’s working, but I’ve been flash-free ever since. My moods are also leveled out now. When I forget to take my supplements for a few days….BANG, moods and hotflashes return.
December 22nd, 2006 at 8:45 am
Rhea – Black cohosh may not help hot flashes, but I think it does help moods swings. But ask me on a bad day and I’ll tell you Black cohosh sucks!!
December 22nd, 2006 at 2:23 pm
Well, I have 2 things to say….. First, this is why God made air conditioning. Nothing wrong with keeping the house a cool 60-65 degrees (my friends claim mine is colder). In the winter you can save money. Turn off the heat and leave the windows open. If you live with a man and he complains about the cold, let him know that he can get warm by having sex with you! I have found that when I’m having sex the hot flashes just go away!!!! Imagine bottling that for sale ;0
December 22nd, 2006 at 2:37 pm
I was determined to get through menopause without using HRT. Through a process of experimenting, plus doing a lot of research, what helped me was a combination of herbs (for me, black cohosh and vitex worked best), vitamins, minerals (especially chromium and selenium, since my blood sugar was very touchy during menopause), and good-quality essential oils.
Although I had hot flashes and some migraines, as well as mood swings and some of the other menopausal symptoms, there were only two really bad months.
December 26th, 2006 at 11:04 am
I think women fell for HRT out of a sense of panic at growing old. My first gynecologist warned me against hormones, and I never took them, not even for birth control. It was tough to go through menopause when my friends were all taking HRT and seemingly doing well with it, but now I’m glad I bit the bullet, so to speak.
December 29th, 2006 at 2:33 pm
Interesting food for thought!
Homoeopathy is a perfectly safe and very effective method of navigating menopause as well as maintaining heath in general. Though, it would be wise to consult a homoeopath for the right remedies and not self-prescribe for something like this– as there are many factors in choosing the right remedy (or remedies) for an individual. Nutrition also has a huge influence on our ability to adapt to systemic changes easily.
Re the black cohosh/herbs: It strikes me that these studies which debunk herbal therapies always have an agenda of some sort. They tend to prove whatever the thinker thinks in either extreme. As we all have completely different constitutions and requirements, it would be impossible to say that any one thing would work well for everyone.
January 7th, 2007 at 6:14 pm
I found Black Cohosh worked well…???? And now they’re allowing breast cancer patients to use estrogem cream.
June 4th, 2010 at 6:25 pm
Thank you for your article. There are a lot of sites out there that don’t make as much sense about menopause, so that’s refreshing. I’m going to bookmark your site and come back to it.