What is Osteoporosis?
It's a crippling bone disease that is preventable and reversible.
Osteoporosis is a gradual decrease in bone mass and density that can begin as early as the teen years. Bone mass should be at its peak in our late 20s or early 30s, but thanks to a poor diet and lack of exercise, many women are already losing bone in their 20s.
Four out of ten white women in the U.S. will fracture a hip, spine, or forearm due to osteoporosis. As many as five out of ten will develop small fractures in their spine, causing great pain and a shrinking in height. This amounts to 15 to 20 million people affected by a crippling and painful disease that is almost entirely preventable and reversible.
Bone loss occurs more rapidly in women than in men, especially right around the time of menopause, when an abrupt drop in estrogen and progesterone accelerates bone loss.**

What happens to our bones?
Bones are living tissue, just like the rest of your body, and they need a good supply of nutrients and regular exercise. New bone is constantly being made, while old bone is being reabsorbed and excreted by the body. Our larger long bones, such as our arm bones and leg bones, are very dense, and they are completely replaced about every 10-12 years. Our less dense bones, such as our spine and the ends of our long bones, are less dense and turn over every 2-3 years. Thus, as you can see, we always have the opportunity to be creating better bone for ourselves.
In osteoporosis, the old bone is being reabsorbed faster than new bone is being made, causing the bones to lose density and become thinner and more porous. The integrity and strength of our bones is related to bone mass and density.**
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How do I tell if I have Osteoporosis?
The early signs of Osteoporosis are typically: Sudden insomnia and restlessness - Nightly leg and foot cramps - Persistent low back pain - Gum disease - loose teeth - Gradual loss of height.

Will taking Calcium supplements help?
Osteoporosis is in fact not a calcium deficiency disease. However, getting adequate calcium is an important factor in preventing osteoporosis. In fact, magnesium deficiency may be more common in women with osteoporosis than calcium deficiency. The best source of these minerals is in many fruits and vegetables.**

My doctor has suggested Estrogen Repalcement Therapy or HRT. Does it help?
There is no question that estrogen can slow bone loss around the time of menopause, but the scientific evidence is very clear that after 5-6 years, bone loss continues at the same rate, with or without estrogen. Also, a very large study published in the New England Journal of Medicine in 1995, studying risk factors for hip fractures in white women, which followed over 9500 women for eight years, found no benefit in estrogen supplementation in women over the age of 65.**
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Do non-steroidal drugs help treat Osteoporosis?
There are a number of pharmaceutical drugs being used to treat osteoporosis, none of which work very well, and all of which have unpleasant side effects. One of the best known is Fosamax, a biphosphonate drug that can slow bone loss. Unfortunately, the old bone which is saved by using fosamax is eventually structurally unsound, and after three or four years it has no benefit, and in fact perhaps tends to increase the rate of hip fracture after about five years. For awhile fluoride was being touted as an osteoporosis drug, but like Fosamax, it only slows bone loss temporarily, and the long term consequence is an increased rate of hip fracture due to structurally unsound bone. Another conventional medicine osteoporosis drug is called Calcitonin-salmon (Calcimar). This is a hormone made by the thyroid gland that can temporarily slow bone loss. Again, the long term side effects are not well known, and its effectiveness diminishes rapidly after a few years.**

How effective is natural Progesterone in treating Osteoporosis?
One of the most important factors in osteoporosis is a lack of progesterone, which causes a decrease in new bone formation. Years of clinical experience giving women progesterone showed that using a natural progesterone cream will actively increase bone mass and density and can reverse osteoporosis. These patients consistently show as much as a 29 percent increase in bone mineral density in three years or less of progesterone therapy. After treating hundreds of patients with osteoporosis over a period of 15 years, it was found that those women with the lowest bone densities experienced the greatest relative improvement, and those who had good bone density to begin with, maintained their strong bones. Postmenopausal women using a transdermal (on the skin) progesterone cream or oil should use the equivalent of 15-20 mg daily for three weeks out of the month, with a week off each month to maintain the sensitivity of the progesterone receptors.
** Source - "The truth about Osteoporosis" - John R. Lee. MD Harvard.

How do I use Progesta Plus?
Progesta Plus provides the daily recommended dose (20mg) of Progesterone with one pump stroke. Apply this amount to various parts of the body (its good for your skin!) once a day for 25 days then stop for 5 days to maintain the senstivity of the progesterone receptors. Repeat the cycle. You will start to feel its effects within a month or two.

Our Strong Recommendation
We urge you to take a Saliva Hormone Balance Test - which is much more accurate than a blood serum test. Our Saliva Hormone Test kit includes all lab testing and a report that tells you where you are, where you should be and how to get there.

CAUTION!
If you are presently using other medications to treat Osteoporosis or related symptoms, it might be wise to discontinue such treatments when you begin Progesterone Therapy.

Also - Progestins, Wild Yam Extract or Soy Extract are NOT Progesterone! Yam or Soy extracts will do nothing for your hormonal balance and Progestins (which are analogs to Progesterone) are treated by the body as a foreign substance and often do much more harm than good.