Stopping HRT drops cancer risk fast I've always been down on Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT). Why? Well, pick a reason. Every time I turnaround, there's more and more bad news about it. In recent months, I've told you about studies that have pointed to HRT's seemingly endless list of nasty side effects like brain shrinkage, dementia, and even gallbladder disease. But my biggest issue with HRT has always been the role it plays in causing cancer. And now a new study published in the New England Journal of Medicine seems to indicate that taking women off of HRT cuts their cancer risk - and fast. For years, drug companies have pushed synthetic HRT on women as a panacea for hot flashes and the other ills of postmenopausal life. But I've always been disconcerted with the fact that women risk cancer, stroke, and blood clots just to overcome periodic discomfort. The new study was conducted by UCLA oncologist Dr. Roman Chelbowski, and it found that the rate of breast cancer in postmenopausal took a nosedive in the first two years after they stopped using HRT, and then continued to drop each year afterwards. On the other hand, the women in the study who also took hormone supplements of estrogen and progestin were TWICE as likely to develop cancer over five years, compared to women who weren't on any form of HRT. Chelbowski says cutting off excess estrogen could have acted as a kind of treatment for small, preclinical cancers in the women - cancer too small to be detected or treated with traditional methods. Dr. Jonathan Berek, an OB-GYN from the Stanford University School of Medicine, said, "This study isn't an indictment of hormone use at menopause. It just means that like all medicines, hormones have their benefits and risks, so they have to be used very judiciously and for a short time." Don't believe it for a minute. The list of health negatives associated with HRT is as long as a gorilla's arm. As for me, I'm inclined to back Chelbowski's study - or any study - that advocates the end of HRT as a viable treatment for menopause. Putting fluoride in your water is bad enough. But check out what ended up in one unfortunate city's water supply. Someone in the town of Bellaire, Ohio, mistakenly put hydrochloric acid into the town's water supply, thinking it was fluoride. Whoops. Of course, according to the water plant superintendent, "It's not just one (person) at fault; it was an accident." An accident? Officials claim that it was a negligible amount of hydrochloric acid fed into the system, and it happened because the two substances "came in the same container." As if the one with acid wasn't labeled as corrosive, or didn't have a big skull and crossbones on it! So far, there have been no reports of any serious injuries as a result of the contamination. But the point is that the system failed, as systems do… which is why I'm always uncomfortable when the government puts their finger in things in the interest of "the public good." | 
