A Practitioner’s Guide to Natural Menopause Therapies
review by Jule Klotter

Natural Therapies for Menopause and Osteoporosis
by Nancy Beckham, ND, DBM
Australian Natural Health Promotions Pty Ltd., P.O. Box 734, Gosford NWS 2250; Fax 043-243-352
Softbound, 88 pp., 1997, $25.00 (Aust)

Nancy Beckham, ND, a practising naturopath, herbalist, and homeopath in New South Wales, Australia, uses natural therapies to treat the symptoms of menopause and osteoporosis. Drawing on over 20 years of clinical experience and study of research literature, Beckham has published a booklet, Natural Therapies for Menopause and Osteoporosis, for health care professionals. She hopes that this booklet will provide practitioners with a helpful guideline and will encourage research and an exchange of information about natural treatments.

Menopause, the natural cessation of menstruation, is not an estrogen disease that requires hormone therapy, says Beckham. Not all women experience flushing or other symptoms. For those who do have symptoms, the "tincture of time," during which the body adapts to its lower hormone level, heals the symptoms of most. Beckham points out that not all problems suffered by women going through menopause are due to hormone changes and that, despite popular myth, menopause does not cause an increase in emotional problems. Beckham's survey of 108 research studies brought her to the conclusion that negative or stereotyped attitudes about menopause can cause distress; but, other life stresses have the greatest effect on emotions.

For those who experience moderate to severe symptoms, Beckham has found that phytoestrogenic foods and herbs provide the most effective natural treatment. Although all plants contain estrogen-like hormones, which are necessary for the plant's own growth and sexual development, only some of these phytoestrogens function as hormone balancers in humans. The most researched and, possibly, most useful phytoestrogens are isoflavones. Isoflavones use the same binding sites as the more potent estrogens produced by the body. In menopausal women and others who have low estrogen levels, these phytoestrogens can partly take over the function of endogenous estrogens. Phytoestrogens are found in soya beans and soy products, legumes, and some vegetables and herbs. Although Beckham has no reservations about recommending phytoestrogens for breast cancer patients, she does not recommend a diet high in phytoestrogens for patients taking tamoxifen because no one knows how they interact with one another. Her basic treatment for menopause symptoms consists of individualized morning and evening herbal extract formulas. For some patients, she recommends yogic relaxation therapies and exercise. For dry skin conditions commonly found among menopausal women, apricot kernel oil and cream containing calendula, licorice, and/or St. John's wort often help.

Phytoestrogens have less of a role in Beckham's program for osteoporosis. To prevent bone loss and increase bone mineral density, she uses a combination of supplements, diet guidelines, and exercise – such as yoga, which strengthens muscles and improves balance (leading to fewer fractures), and walking. Depending on an individual's need, she recommends a readily absorbable form of calcium (such as microcrystalline hydroxyapatite or calcium citrate), magnesium, zinc, vitamin E and K, fatty acids, and boron. Beckham says that 50% of her arthritis patients have benefited from boron supplementation within 3 to 6 months. It may take a year before its therapeutic effect on osteoporosis can be evaluated. Beckham monitors the effectiveness of her treatment with bone mineral density scans. Although she says that scans can vary greatly depending on the sequence (software) used and the angle from which they are taken, she considers them the best means of measuring bone strength.

Beckham takes exception to the current push for wild yam products as a therapy for menopausal symptoms because she could not find any good evidence that linked wild yam and related products to human hormonal biological action: "I have no argument with those who say that wild yam (or any remedy) appears to reduce menopausal or menstrual symptoms but it is incorrect to pronounce that wild yam contains progesterone, progesterone precursors, is phytoestrogenic, balances the pituitary or hypothalamus, or increases DHEA etc - in the absence of sensible evidence." She views progesterone that has been made in a laboratory from the diosgenin in wild yam as a medicinal hormone. Beckham has recommended hormone replacement therapy of any kind to very few of her patients because of the numerous contraindications, warnings, and adverse effects associated with even natural hormones. She has found that non-hormone therapies work in most cases and that these natural therapies often have beneficial side effects. Beckham presents her views in Natural Therapies for Menopause and Osteoporosis in the hope of opening discourse with other practitioners, who are also interested in verifying their treatments.