Traditional Chinese Medicine:A Women's Guide to a Hormone-Free Menopause.

Dr. Nan Lu in his book, Traditional Chinese Medicine: A Women's Guide to a Hormone-Free Menopause, offers an in-depth look at how TCM  views and treats this time in a woman's life. With the current HRT dilemma, women are seeking natural ways to pass through what traditional Chinese medicine views as the last great healing opportunity. 

Traditional Chinese Medicine:A Safe and Sound Pathway Out of the HRT Dilemma

 The signs have been there for years.  So when a study published in the October 2010 issue of JAMA, the Journal of the American Medical Association, found that women who took hormone replacement therapy (HRT) drugs had a 50 percent higher risk of death from breast cancer, it instantly and definitively confirmed what the research has been loudly hinting at, if not showing outright, all along.  The study reviewed 11 years of data from the Women's Health Initiative (WHI).  It found that the HRT drug (specifically, estrogen with progestin, a synthetic form of the hormone progesterone) also increased the incidence of very aggressive breast cancer, a type that spreads to the lymph nodes.  

In 2002 a WHI trial examining the efficacy of treatment with HRT, sponsored by the NIH (National Institutes of Health), was stopped three years early because the preliminary results showed statistically significant increases in a number of diseases in study participants:  invasive breast cancer, coronary disease, stroke, and pulmonary embolism.  The researchers concluded that the overall risks of HRT exceeded its benefits.  At that point in time evidence appeared to show that HRT reduced the incidence of hip fractures and colorectal cancer.  The 2002 WHI study had also hoped to determine if HRT prevented heart disease, a theory that has since been completely overturned.

As millions of women stopped HRT after the halt of the 2002 WIH trial, breast cancer rates dropped in the United States.  The incidence of breast cancer declined 7 percent between 2002 and 2003, alone.  Reports from 2004 to 2010 also show a drop in the overall incidence of this disease.  Some attribute this decrease to better detection through mammography; some believe it resulted from women shying away from HRT treatment in fear.  (In 2001 roughly 60 million prescriptions for HRT were filled; in 2005 that number fell to 20 million.)  The question remains, why do so many U.S. women continue to take HRT?  Even a cursory look at the trials, reports and findings indicates taking HRT is like playing with fire.  It seems strikingly ironic:  women in one of the world's most medically advanced societies are not being offered safe and sound options to treat their menopausal symptoms.                

Western women must be made aware of the natural yet highly effective healthcare solution that traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) offers.  With a focus on true prevention and treatment strategies that are free of harmful side effects, TCM can address all women's health issues and especially those that can arise with the natural transition of menopause.  TCM treatment is customized to each individual, so the root cause of a woman's health problem is diagnosed and treated.  This approach aims to resolve the problem and not simply mask it, only to have it reappear later on in a more advanced state of disease.  A key component of this unique holistic medical system, in continuous practice for at least several thousand years, is its body-mind-spirit orientation.  This framework provides modern women the multidimensional support they need to heal their health issues.

Ideally, if women really begin to understand the potential positive consequences and take responsibility for their health early on in their lives, TCM can help them prevent many of the illnesses that now plague so many in our society.  In the process, perhaps a transformational shift will occur:  from a country stubbornly fixated on the increasingly burdensome and frequently ineffective model of treating symptoms to one that cooperates with and even embraces systems that actually promote and practice prevention and create health and wellness.

Recently, after the publication of the JAMA report, TCM World Foundation staff interviewed Dr. Nan Lu, the founding director of TCM World Foundation.  Dr. Lu, a high-level Qigong master, acupuncturist, author and educator, maintains a private practice at the Tao of Healing in Manhattan's Chelsea section.  He is the creator of the foundation's Breast Cancer Prevention Project and its Wu Ming Qigong for Breast Health program as well as the author of two books that focus on women's health issues:  Traditional Chinese Medicine:  A Woman's Guide to Hormone-Free Menopause and Traditional Chinese Medicine:  A Woman's Guide to Healing from Breast Cancer. 

Following are Dr. Lu's comments on the HRT issue and the TCM approach to this subject:

When Western doctors prescribe HRT drugs for women who are nearing menopause or who have already started it, their treatment perspective is only looking at one angle of this health issue.  The bottom line is this approach doesn't consider a woman's body as a whole—it looks at her body as having a medical condition and treats just the symptoms.  Western doctors only look at the angle of the hormones; they only consider that a hormone imbalance can cause menopausal problems like hot flashes, night sweats, and mood swings.  From this angle, what they see is true.  A hormone imbalance—a lack of estrogen—can cause these symptoms.  

However, the Western approach hasn't seen that adding chemicals to the body in the form of HRT drugs doesn't actually balance a woman's hormones.  It's what we call "unnaturally balancing the hormones,"� which means the hormones haven't really been balanced, additional ones have just been given from the outside.  When the body receives these hormones, it has to process them.  Women are told to take these drugs for years, sometimes for the rest of their life.  When the body cannot process all these unnatural hormones, it can cause the internal organs to get even more and more out of balance.  

In the Western concept, replacing what is missing (hormones) will restore a woman's body to function so it won't have menopausal symptoms.  The TCM understanding is that replacing hormones from the outside will not restore the natural function of a woman's body.  Actually, it suppresses it.  The body's wisdom senses the addition of hormones and gets the message that its own natural hormone production is not necessary any more.  And then how do we really know the body is "designed"� to handle a higher level of hormones than it naturally produces all the way through old age?  TCM believes that if the root causes of menopausal symptoms are not addressed, a woman's body will never function in a healthy way.  That's the basic concept.

One fundamental TCM belief is that we are all born with a healing capacity.  Women have a unique ability for self-healing because of their menstrual cycle and their special organs—the ovaries and uterus.  It is this inborn capacity that allows women to rebalance and relieve menopausal symptoms without outside hormone therapy.  The TCM understanding is that if she has a healthy, balanced body, a woman can produce enough estrogen on her own for her entire life.  Naturally, as she ages it won't be at the same level when she was able to have children, but it can still be at a level sufficient for her body to maintain its healthy function.  

From the TCM viewpoint, menopausal symptoms are not caused by the onset of menopause but by the unbalanced state of a woman's body when she begins this natural transition.  This is a key point because many of the symptoms Western women experience with their menstrual cycle, often for years, are seen by TCM doctors as signs that a woman's body is out of balance.  When these symptoms—PMS, irregular periods, excessive bleeding, breast tenderness, headaches, digestive disturbances, and mood swings, to name just a few—are not addressed, as a woman ages and reaches menopause, they can lead to more serious issues like heart problems or issues involving cysts, tumors, masses and even breast or uterine cancer.  TCM's focus on true prevention helps women understand that the discomfort they have with their periods is not natural and that effective treatment with natural methods can help them go through menopause and the rest of their life in a healthy, balanced way.  

 

If a woman has been taking hormones for five or ten years, stopping might be difficult.  First, in terms of her emotions:  she might worry that if she doesn't stop she could get breast cancer, but then worry if she does stop she won't feel good.  This situation can cause too much worry and maybe even anger at the situation the woman finds herself in.  Strong emotions like these are very powerful, and from the TCM perspective they can further unbalance a woman's health.  

The truth is most women cannot just stop HRT drugs all at once.  You have to look at it this way:  for many years this kind of problem in a woman's body was never really addressed.  It was being hidden—put in the basement.  The root cause of her health issues at several stages in her life—before menopause and after it started—were never addressed.  That's the whole issue.  For women who have been taking HRT, their body hasn't been able to get better, to really heal; taking the hormones has made her body function even worse.  The drugs further weaken the body's energy system.  If she stops, she might suffer from other symptoms.  More symptoms in her life might be more difficult for her to handle.  Then that creates more stress that leads to other conditions.  So you cannot just immediately stop this kind of treatment.  You have to slowly get off it.  

While gradually stopping HRT, a woman should try to find someone using TCM or an alternative medicine approach to help her get her body back into balance.  Remember, a healthy body can produce enough hormones for the rest of a woman's life.  A healthy body shouldn't have menopause symptoms; menopause symptoms are a sign that the body is out of balance.  

When a woman slowly goes off HRT she still has to do something to help her body gain more energy.  Generally Chinese medicine looks at this health issue as an energy (Qi) deficiency.  As we age our energy naturally declines.  This is why health problems can start to show when a woman reaches middles age.  So where does the extra energy come from?  How can a woman add to her body's energy supply?  It can only come from two sources.  One is from food; the other is from a Chinese energy practice called Qigong, which works internally to break up blockages in the meridians (the body's energy pathways), enhance the immune system and increase Qi.  Both proper diet and Qigong can increase the amount of energy available to balance the body.  Without this balance a woman's body cannot go on without hormones.  

The bottom line is how can a woman achieve balance?  There are a couple of issues women have to be concerned with, and these have to be made a priority.  Number one is lifestyle.  Different lifestyles "cost"� different amounts of energy.  A stressed-out, over-busy lifestyle uses up an enormous amount of energy, so if a woman has this kind of energy-draining lifestyle, she has to change.  Then the emotions—women have to consider how to balance their emotions.  Different emotions also cost different amounts of energy.  Anger, worry, stress—these all drain the body's energy supply.  Third, the diet has to be changed.  Different kinds of diets also cost a different kind of energy.  These are the outside factors women have to look at.  The lifestyle has to change; the emotions have to change; and then eating habits have to change.  

Think about it:  hormones come from where?  A healthy body will produce a healthy amount of hormones.  So hormones come from health.  Women are not getting sick from the hormones in a balanced body.  Women are getting sick because their body is out of balance.  And it's not the body out of balance, it's the emotions out of balance; it's not the emotions out of balance, it's the lifestyle out of balance.  We really have to go to the root cause of the problem. 

Americans have to wake up.  We cannot just treat symptoms anymore.  We have to understand where the real problem started.  The real problem starts with a lifestyle out of balance.  A lifestyle out of balance will cause the emotions to fall out of balance.  When the emotions are out of balance, they can cause the body to be off balance.  When the body is out of balance, the symptoms we see depend on which part of the body is affected and what kind of imbalance.   Hormones out of balance, blood out of balance, with conditions like high cholesterol and high blood pressure, are all signs that the body is out of balance.  Tracing all these back, we can say they are caused by a lifestyle out of balance.  Chinese medicine understands the body-mind-spirit dimension of health and how these aspects of being interrelate and affect a person's overall health.  

For thousands of years TCM has had practical clinical experience successfully treating women's health issues.  It recognizes that women have a unique capability to rebalance their body.  As long as their body remains balanced, menopausal symptoms won't exist and a woman's health will be good throughout her entire life.  In modern times, this means not having to take hormones that are unsafe.  TCM practitioners treat health problems related to menopause with acupuncture and natural herbal therapy, an approach that doesn't have any negative side effects.  Without a healthy body internally, even if a woman has a good diet her body still cannot absorb the nutritive essence of the food she eats, so the digestive system really has to be rebalanced.  Only then will she be able to get off hormone replacement therapy and start to get real relief from her symptoms with natural treatments.  

Maybe now is a good time for Western women to seriously think about what is important for their own life, for their own health.  If this is the issue, then women have to consider doing something—taking care of their precious health—before menopause comes, before disease and illness enter.  Why not learn how to keep your body healthy and balanced, so when the time comes you will be able to go through this transition without any struggle?  Then you will be able to enjoy the rest of your life in good health.  TCM's main concept is prevention.  True prevention is the real cure.  We have to go back to this approach.  

Source: Traditional Chinese Medicine World Foundation