I just saw on Facebook a free app one can download from Premier Health: (and I quote) “Download our free checklist of Preventive Screenings for Women at various stages of life. Women’s Health Institute-Be proactive about your health by staying on top of necessary screenings and health care visits. Regular checkups and screenings are critical for women throughout their entire lives. Our checklist includes recommended screening for every phase of your life. Some of the screening include: breast cancer screening, thyroid disease screening, bone density/osteoporosis screening, cervical cancer, hearing exam and many more. Take the first step to a life-change today by downloading our free checklist of preventive screenings for women!”
Now, let me emphasize that I like the message–taking care of our health. There is nothing wrong with this or the checklist. After all, I just wrote a book entitled, “Own Your Journey….to Optimal Hormone Health,” and no one is more passionate about creating AND DOING checklists than me! But let me be the one to point out that SCREENING for disease IS NOT PREVENTION of disease. It is DETECTION! There is a world of difference between these 2 concepts. I am ALL about prevention. I think you might be challenged to find anyone anywhere who is more passionate about prevention of disease than me. After all, I founded my Happy Hormone Cottage 5 years ago to educate women on a darn good way to prevent: heart disease, osteoporosis, dementia and breast cancer. And I can tell you that refilling depleted hormone receptors that deplete as we age (starting at age 35 with progesterone) with physiological doses (exactly what each body needs based on viable lab work that is more inclusive than standard of care blood work) is KEY for the prevention of these diseases. This is true prevention….not screening for a disease. Because when you screen for a disease and find it….you already have it. So isn’t the term “preventive screening” an oxymoron? Unless you mean that if you detect the disease early enough through screening, it may prevent death.
Screening programs are vital for treating disease (not prevention OF the disease). The earlier illness is detected, often the better chance for successful treatment. As Jeff Hogrefe RPh, FAARM, writes in an earlier blog, ‘Open Letter to Dayton Daily News,’ “Early screening is NOT preventative medicine. It is simply early screening. I believe there is a strong correlation in the medical literature that having a vitamin D level in the 60-80 ng/ml reduces the risk of colon cancer 80-85%. Colonoscopies for detecting colon cancer are a great screening tool. Measuring vitamin D levels and supplementing to goal of 60-80 is preventative medicine. Screening for osteoporosis using dexascan is also a valuable tool. Understanding that the underlying cause of osteoporosis is a depletion in the hormones progesterone, estradiol, and testosterone in combination with excessive cortisol levels, then effectively correcting these imbalances is good preventative medicine. Contrast with current treatment strategies of using biphosphonates (Boniva) and high dose chalk (calcium carbonate) supplementation. According to the FDA, biphosphonates have only been shown to be safe and effective for maximum of 5 years (most menopausal women I know plan on living longer than 5 years). I have to believe there are better, smarter treatment strategies than the current standard of care.”
Wouldn’t it make more sense for us to spend our time and resources getting educated and then implementing ways to STAY HEALTHY? To me, this would be real prevention. For example, becoming aware of environmental toxins in the foods we eat, and in the products we use (using deoderants instead of anti-perspirants with aluminum chlorohydrate) would be a good place to start. How about understanding that taking 2000 mg per day of omega 3’s helps lower metabolism, pushes thyroid into the cells of the brain for brain clarity and reduces inflammation. Could we understand the negative impact that sugar plays in our health and then adopt eating strategies that incorporate eating less sugar? Pick up a copy of Dr David Purlmutter’s bestseller, “Grain Brain” to understand the role eating wheat flour plays in the heightened risk of Alzheimer’s and insulin resistance/diabetes. Invest in a copy of Dr Jeffrey Dach’s “Bioidentical Hormones 101……Made Exceedingly Simple” for real answers to the confusion in hormone therapy, often perpetuated by the media, with the big pharma agenda, and often written by ghostwriters hired by the pharmaceutical industry to downplay the risks of their products while shedding doubt on bioidentical hormones. These are just a few examples. Truly, one MUST Own Your Journey to your best health naturally. Doing this, in my mind, is the best prevention of disease we have.
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