Hormones, and natural versus synthetic
Apr. 17th, 2007 01:41 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
danaerisThis guy at the Pagan Pub Moot tonight was going on about Equilin, horse hormones that are used in Hormone Replacement Therapy/for birth control, and how it is identical to our hormones and safer to use than normal HRT or BCPs.
He's wrong, but hearing this from him enabled me to read some interesting stuff.
Native versus foreign hormones
The gist is that, setting aside the issue of "natural" vs. "synthetic," the real question is "native" vs. "foreign." The hormones in Equilin, HRT, and BCPs of all types are foreign. They are not chemically identical to the hormones that (hopefully) naturally occur in our bodies, and as a result, they can interact in unpleasant and unexpected ways, causing side effects.
However, it is altogether possible to create synthetic native hormones. That is, hormones that are literally identical to the ones that are created in your body, chemically speaking, but which were created in a laboratory. The problem is that large-scale studies are expensive, and since native hormones can't be patented, no one has done studies on these, so most doctors will hesitate to prescribe them. However, if you can find one who is willing, the scrip can be filled by any compounding pharmacy.
Super interesting. I'd like to read more about this and maybe talk to my endocrinologist about it. I'm not totally sold, but at the same time, it makes sense to me.
I usually hate the whole "organic natural is better" concept. It is painfully facile to assume that if something occurs naturally it must be good/better (consider arsenic and nightshade, for instance). But perhaps more importantly, I think it is important to remember that the ideal medical treatment perfectly targets the actual problem. Many early drugs are worse because they have extra components which interact with parts of your system with which you do not want them to interact, causing side effects. The same is true of natural products. In fact, they are bound, ultimately, to be worse. The goal of medication development is to continue to refine drugs, removing those parts which are detrimental and/or not part of the desired effect.
The thought of taking lots of natural substances by choice gives me the willies. Do you want all those ingredients that are coming along for the ride circulating in your system, doing goddess knows what? Sure, that can happen with synthetic substances too, but at least with synthetic substances, it is possible that there won't be extra stuff included in your dosage.
That's exactly why I like the idea of the synthetic human hormones. They are exactly what we need -- we already know that. No extra chemicals hanging off. No bizarre horse-shape. It may not be "natural," since it was made in a lab. But it is EXACTLY like the stuff we make in our bodies, and therefore, I suspect, it will turn out to be EXACTLY what the doctor ordered.
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pcos_support
He's wrong, but hearing this from him enabled me to read some interesting stuff.
Native versus foreign hormones
The gist is that, setting aside the issue of "natural" vs. "synthetic," the real question is "native" vs. "foreign." The hormones in Equilin, HRT, and BCPs of all types are foreign. They are not chemically identical to the hormones that (hopefully) naturally occur in our bodies, and as a result, they can interact in unpleasant and unexpected ways, causing side effects.
However, it is altogether possible to create synthetic native hormones. That is, hormones that are literally identical to the ones that are created in your body, chemically speaking, but which were created in a laboratory. The problem is that large-scale studies are expensive, and since native hormones can't be patented, no one has done studies on these, so most doctors will hesitate to prescribe them. However, if you can find one who is willing, the scrip can be filled by any compounding pharmacy.
Super interesting. I'd like to read more about this and maybe talk to my endocrinologist about it. I'm not totally sold, but at the same time, it makes sense to me.
I usually hate the whole "organic natural is better" concept. It is painfully facile to assume that if something occurs naturally it must be good/better (consider arsenic and nightshade, for instance). But perhaps more importantly, I think it is important to remember that the ideal medical treatment perfectly targets the actual problem. Many early drugs are worse because they have extra components which interact with parts of your system with which you do not want them to interact, causing side effects. The same is true of natural products. In fact, they are bound, ultimately, to be worse. The goal of medication development is to continue to refine drugs, removing those parts which are detrimental and/or not part of the desired effect.
The thought of taking lots of natural substances by choice gives me the willies. Do you want all those ingredients that are coming along for the ride circulating in your system, doing goddess knows what? Sure, that can happen with synthetic substances too, but at least with synthetic substances, it is possible that there won't be extra stuff included in your dosage.
That's exactly why I like the idea of the synthetic human hormones. They are exactly what we need -- we already know that. No extra chemicals hanging off. No bizarre horse-shape. It may not be "natural," since it was made in a lab. But it is EXACTLY like the stuff we make in our bodies, and therefore, I suspect, it will turn out to be EXACTLY what the doctor ordered.
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Date: 2007-04-17 11:07 am (UTC)Premarin is the most common brand of HRT and Trans hormone BTW.
Many people are against Equilin because of the treatment of animals mostly to the way the Equilin was produced and collected. Now most is actually synthetic, some people still swear by the "natural" but may drugs don't contain it anymore.
That's all my understanding of the matter.
Thx for sharing this. I too dislike "natural nuts" without cause. People like simple thinking that means they don't have to examine things closely or make difficult decisions every day. Therefore natural = good.
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Date: 2007-04-17 11:08 pm (UTC)It is, however, a fallacy to assume that there must therefore be only ONE compound at work and if we were to simply purify that compound it would work perfectly. Kinda like how artificial strawberry flavor never tastes right - because real strawberry is actually a whole bunch of compounds working together and interacting, wheras with the artificial stuff they pulled out one or two main compounds and "purified" them. If, say, mint tea helps my headaches and a lab goes out and pulls a single compound out of that plant, synthesizes it and markets it as a headache drug but there were actually several components of the mint all working together on my headaches they've actually reduced the efficacy. Not to mention that they're now spending energy and resources synthesizing the product when I could go out to my yard and pick some for a much lower energy input.
That's exactly why I like the idea of the synthetic human hormones. They are exactly what we need -- we already know that. No extra chemicals hanging off. No bizarre horse-shape. It may not be "natural," since it was made in a lab. But it is EXACTLY like the stuff we make in our bodies, and therefore, I suspect, it will turn out to be EXACTLY what the doctor ordered.
Why don't they do that for my birth control pills? The synthetic hormones they give me AREN'T like my body's hormones - and it's not that they have impurities that cause side-effects - the active ingredient itself causes the side-effects. They're not coming from a horse or a person or, well, anything found in nature. They're completely made-up hormones. So there's more to it than just purity.