Alternatives for Hormone Replacement Therapy The Sexy Years by Suzanne Somers
Recently, a patient thrust a book called The Sexy Years written by Suzanne Somers into my hands, saying, “I want my hormones balanced, just like Suzanne’s.”
Hmm, I thought. It takes a celebrity to speak of alternatives for hormone replacement therapy and get the message of bio-identical hormone therapy and natural hormonal balancing out into the mainstream world.
Along with this valuable information, Somers gives an exuberant and adamant endorsement of alternative and complementary medicine, a healthy lifestyle, adequate exercise, and sensible healthy eating habits.
The New York Times bestseller has a lovely photo of the apparently perennially youthful Suzanne Somers on its cover. Inside is the sensitive, poignant story of her struggle with breast cancer. She chronicles the difficulty of her determined search as she follows the less trodden path toward optimal and full healing of the dread disease.
Most of the book is written in a no-nonsense testimonial style which is easy for nearly every lay and non-medical person to understand. It is evident that she has done her homework. She interviews several highly respected medical doctors who are practicing on the forefront of complementary and alternative medicine. She also interviews ordinary women who tell of their struggles with menopausal and hormonal imbalances who were seeking a natural hormone supplement. They recount how their lives were improved with the use of alternative hormone treatment vs synthetic drugs, in lieu of, or in addition to, rather than the current conventional mandate of strict adherence to the protocols of harsher, more invasive therapies, radiation, surgery, chemotherapy and chemical drugs.
Somers adamantly declares that women do have a right to choose the form of healing that they desire. She emphasizes that it needs to be individualized for each person, as no two people are the same.
What is so great about this book is that it popularizes the idea of natural medicines and shows they can be effective in dealing with the unpopular symptoms of hormonal imbalance, aging and menopause. With adequate testing of blood, saliva and urine, physiological hormone levels can be monitored under the guidance of a knowledgeable and well-trained alternative care physician. Natural healing can balance the processes of bodily glandular and hormonal functions. As Somers says, real proof is in the subjective feel-good attitude of “I feel like my old self again.”
I invite each of you to step out of the mainstream medical model, and venture forward into the alternative, natural, holistic healing model.
By Dr. Leia Melead
