Black Cohosh Totally Safe for HRT

Black cohosh that herb native to North American and known under various names including rattleweed and rattleroot, marketed as a dietary supplement in the United States, primarily used by many women to ease hot flashes and other menopausal symptoms has revealed it is totally safe despite conflicting studies which have surfaced for years.

The controversy surrounding this herb had promoted countries such as the United Kingdom and Australia to place a warning label on the product due to reports of liver inflammation and liver failure.

However, it was not determined positively that this herb was actually to blame. In numerous cases where the liver was harmed, practitioners could not account for patients alcohol consumption habits or use of medications which could harm the liver.

There are a great number of menopausal women that are distressed by hot flashes and night sweats that simply opt for trying black cohosh instead of taking hormone replacement therapy (HRT) and has become questionable since 2002, when the Women's Health Initiative, sponsored a tremendous government clinical trial and had discovered that women on HRT had greater rates of heart attack, stroke, breast cancer and blood clots than women on a placebo.

Health experts are now advising that while HRT may be an effective treatment women should take the lowest dose possible and for a short time span.

This new study has been reported in the journal Menopause. Researchers had gathered the outcomes of five past published clinical trials of the black cohosh product Remifem. In total these studies had consisted of 1,100 women who used either this product or a comparable substance which was either in an inactive placebo or a hormonal medication called tibolone for a period of three to six months.

In total 88 women had dropped out of the studies but none was due to abnormal liver enzymes, a potential sign of liver damage.

There also was no evidence noticed that black cohosh had set off damaging changes in liver enzymes. In both groups around five percent of women developed abnormally high levels of liver enzymes known as AST.

However, among 37 black cohosh users who had abnormally high AST levels before treatment had a 62% level drop back to normal range during treatment.

Dr. Belal Naser of Salzgitter, Germany based schaper & Brummer GimbH & Company which manufacture Remifemin, headed the study.

An expert who was not part of this study had stated that the outcomes from this study are consistent with other evidence that black cohosh is safe.

In a 2009, clinical trail at University of Illinois College of Pharmacy, note that even though their study did not show the herb to relieve hot flashes, when testing for liver damage they too had found the herb to be non-toxic to the liver.

Experts are still recommending women to stop black cohosh and alert their practitioners if they have any potential signs of liver toxicity which includes abdominal pain and dark urine.

In the United States a three month supply of Remifemin costs around thirty dollars which is the same as Premarin a widely used hormone replacement drug.

Milk thistle is another herb that can also aide with hormonal changes in the body and is good for the liver.

Chiropractic

Chiropractic deals specifically with the spine and nerve system. When the spine is under stress it irritates and decreases the function of the nerves which sends signals to control the levels of estrogen and progesterone. Stress as simple as sitting for a long time, food preservatives or work stress can easily have the spine misalign causing a subluxation.

Chiropractic treatments will reduce or eliminate the subluxations using gentle adjustments of the spinal vertebra.

Just by using chiropractic care, exercising and consuming hormone free foods along with adequate rest will aide to regulate and balance the hormonal system that will aide in management and diminish the effects of menopause.

Acupressure or Acupuncture

Both treatments can aide in decrease menopausal symptoms such as night sweats, mood swings, insomnia and weight gain. Sources:

Reuters

Office of Dietary Supplements

Your Spine

Natural Menopause