As mentioned in a previous post, I am volunteering for the 3-Day event in 2 weeks. In one of the many emails preparing me (and the thousands of other walkers and crew) they included this paragraph:
Breast Health Fact: Over the last 25 years, breast cancer incidence rates have risen approximately 30 percent in westernized countries, although incidence rates decreased in the U.S. from 1999-2006 in part due to lower use of postmenopausal combined hormone use.
When I read this I am saddened by the growing trend but particularly the extra 30% of U.S. women who got breast cancer before 1999 because they were taking postmenopausal combined-hormones (estrogen and progesterone). This was a medication combination that the general medical system declared as standard care and safe for women, and yet it caused this massive “side effect.”
I don’t want to get on a soapbox, but it’s worth taking this example to remind everyone that there is no such thing as a totally safe medication/drug. Medications change the body’s homeostasis or balance point which then will ALWAYS cause side effects. I don’t want you to think that I believe medications are bad, but I just want our society to use them as sparingly as possible, and sometimes the bombarding of drug commercials makes us think there is a pill for everything and that’s the answer.
We need to remember that commonly used drugs such as post-menopausal hormone therapy (PHT), hormone replacement therapy (HRT), and menopausal hormone therapy (MHT) resulted in increased breast cancer rates, which is a prime example of how every medication has its consequences.