Integrative approaches to managing menopause are vital.(Brief Article)

1902 MAR 28 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- by Lynn Yoffee, senior medical writer - The postmenopausal population is expected to double in the next 3 decades with a subsequent increased healthcare burden of illnesses linked to estrogen depletion. Much attention is being paid specifically to related cardiovascular disease, osteoporosis, breast diseases, and central nervous system disorders such as Alzheimer disease.

Although there is controversy about estrogen's preventive effects, mortality is considered by many to be lower in women who use estrogen for symptoms and diseases related to loss of cyclic ovarian function.

Yet less than 40% of U.S. menopausal and postmenopausal women use estrogen replacement therapy (ERT) or (combined with progesterone) hormone replacement therapy (HRT). Of the women who take hormones to alleviate menopausal symptoms such as hot flashes, hirsutism, and acne postmenopause, fewer continue to take it beyond a year or two.

On the flip side, women are taking complementary and alternative medicines (CAM) in droves. Marc R. Blackman, MD, clinical director and chief, Laboratory of Clinical Investigation for the National Institutes of Health's National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine, addressed these controversial issues at the American Academy of Dermatology's 60th Annual Meeting in New Orleans.

Blackman highlighted the most frequently used menopause-related CAMs for the ...