Reversing the tide
You wouldn't let a baby stick things into its mouth willy-nilly. You'd be vigilant when those tiny fingers hesitate over something on the floor and then slowly begin the climb to the mouth. What I find jaw dropping is that so many people are willing to buy into a profit-driven industry - pharmaceuticals - and put things into their mouths without proper investigation or a look at the long-term picture. Unfortunately, the pushers are your friendly neighborhood docs, and trusting patients follow their advice without always understanding the full consequences of their decision.
Take menopause hormones. Let's face it: Hot flashes, sleep difficulties, brain fuzz, and moodiness are not fun. Who wouldn't want to be rid of annoying symptoms like that? Ah, that's what the pharmaceutical industry is counting on: Your being annoyed just enough to take their product. Well make way and look out for its byproduct - a big study had found that these hormone pills raised the risk breast cancer, and many women dropped those hormone pills like hot potatoes. And they'll be glad they did.
A research team has looked at U.S. breast cancer rates, and reports a drop of more than 7 percent in 2003. Here are some pretty numbers: 14,000 fewer women were diagnosed with breast cancer than what was expected. Even better, the researchers think that tumors that were developing might stop growing, shrink up, or better - disappear altogether.
The news is especially good among women 50 and older, which is the group most likely to be taking hormones. It was found that the biggest decline was for tumors that grow with a steady diet of estrogen - the very same tumors most affected by hormone use. When looking at this age group along with estrogen-positive tumors, the drop was even greater: 12 percent.
What is interesting is that with every single cancer registry that reports incidence of cancer to the federal government, the decline was found in each, with no matching decline in any other major type of cancer.
Breast cancer is the most common major cancer for American women, and the second leading cause of their cancer deaths. What was found was that incidence of breast cancer in the U.S. rose almost 2 percent per year from 1990 to 1998, then tapered off and began to decline a bit. New warning labels were placed on the hormone drugs and women were urged to use the lowest dose possible for the shortest amount of time to alleviate menopausal symptoms. Within about a year, about half of women who were taking hormones stopped. In turn, breast cancer rates dropped, and the trend has been in favor of a continued decrease, with estrogen-sensitive tumors declining twice as much as non-estrogen sensitive tumors. For the 50 to 69 age group, the decline was three times that of other age groups.
