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Saturday, 24 February 2007 00:02 |
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A new treatment for the millions of women who suffer from menopause symptoms is Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT). It was found to increase the risk of cancer, stroke and heart attack, but a new treatment is hormone-free and all natural.
"It's like somebody's just opened up your own little personal sauna," said Angela Sauve, cancer survivor and menopause sufferer. "It just feels like intense heat radiating out.""I was crying all the time, sobbing, and really couldn't tell you why," said Pam Coffman, pre-menopausal sufferer.Symptoms of menopause can be harsh and with HRT's health risks, women aren't left with many options."What we're looking for is a treatment that would work, and at the same time, be safe," said Dr. Deborah Grady. Researchers may have found one—a therapy called MF101."It's a combination of Chinese herbs—22 of them," said Dr. George Sawaya. "We don't know exactly how MF101 works. As you can imagine, anything that's an extract of 22 herbs, it's very hard to pinpoint the exact mechanism of action."In the first phase of the study, MF101 improved menopause symptoms by 30 percent. It appeared safer than HRT because it doesn't affect reproductive hormones or promote tumor growth—suggesting it will not increase the risk of cancer.Monique Louvigny, 46, is participating in the study."I could obviously benefit from this," Monique said, "but also everyone else who is my age."MF101 will have to undergo at least one other clinical trial before getting FDA approval for use by the public. The herbs have been used for thousands of years in Chinese medicine, but have never before been tested for safety or efficacy. |
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Last Updated on Thursday, 01 March 2007 15:31 |
