Doctors training notes

Try selenium as hrt replacement

I run a natural hormone replacement clinic, and I have found that the majority of women who seek my advice for ‘menopausal symptoms’ do not have hormonal problems and therefore do not need HRT.


Other illnesses are the cause of their distress - for example, a parasitic infestation, especially with the alcohol-secreting variety. Such women have not only a variety of abdominal symptoms, but also the side-effects more typical of an alcohol abuser.


On top of this, these women usually fail to absorb some of the nutrients in food or supplements. Selenium deficiency is very common and can cause a variety of ‘hormone’ symptoms due to its effect upon the pituitary gland.


As many other symptoms of selenium deficiency are the same as those attributed to the menopause, many women probably have an inappropriate prescription for HRT. Yet, despite the recent Royal College of Physicians’ warning of malnutrition, NHS laboratories do not make estimations of mineral content in the body.


Very low levels of selenium are commonly associated with other diseases such as heart disease and cancer. Now, supposing that a woman is given HRT unnecessarily and that, due to selenium deficiency and accidental alcohol abuse, she is already developing heart disease or cancer. We can postulate that the addition of one or two synthetic drugs could very well hasten death.


Not unnaturally, we also see many people with osteoporosis. Strangely enough, here we rarely see a deficiency of oestrogen or calcium, not even as a cause of osteoporosis. Although the ingredients and lifestyle needed for bone formation are known, doctors rarely routinely assess anything treatable and reversible.


Yet another effect of low selenium is sudden infant (cot) death. Does anyone know of either the mother or the dead infant ever being checked for selenium? I would also like to contact the solicitor of the Salisbury woman who is appealing against the conviction of killing her children. Can anyone help me obtain his name and address? - Dr John Millward, Bournemouth

Related WDDTY Content

Menopausal symptoms

Q My life is being made hell by hot flushes and night sweats. I am 50 years old and reluctant to take HRT. And now all the herbs have been discredited...

Menopausal symptoms - More plant remedies for the menopause

* Gamma-oryzanol. This naturally occurring mixture of the plant chemicals sterols and ferulic acid esters has proved effective for reducing menopausal...

Getting rid of menopausal symptoms naturally

Eat a variety of foods and increase your intake of plant foods. This increases the number of different phytochemicals you ingest and decreases the lik...

Alternative treatments of menopausal symptoms

Several doctors have reported success in treating the menopause without drugs. Nutritional medicine experts Drs Stephen Davies and Alan Stewart recom...

Cot death: - Is geopathic stress the secret killer?

Cot death or SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome) has been blamed on mothers, on hot bedrooms, on the baby's sleeping position, on the blankets, and on...

Cot death - More than one death is not so unusual

The legal and medical systems have been a little like Oscar Wilde's Lady Bracknell when it comes to cot deaths - one is unfortunate, but two or more i...