Talking through the Women's Health Initiative Study

Welcome to the Balanced Body Podcast, where Sherri Griggs, owner of Balanced Body Health and Wellness in Omaha, talks to us about health, wellness, and balancing hormones.

Welcome to the Balanced Body Podcast, where we talk with Sherri Griggs, owner and hormone expert extraordinaire of Balanced Body Health and Wellness here in Omaha. Sherri Griggs, how are you today?

I'm great, John. How are you doing?

It's always a wonderful time when I get to chat with you about hormones and the way in which we can balance them and make sure that we're healthy. And I'm, I'm actually kind of interested to talk with you today because we're talking about how hormones and replacement and balancing everything can help with Possibly cancer prevention. So I am fascinated with that, uh, just in general, just because it seems like cancer is such a terrible thing. And if we can preempt by being a little bit healthier and be balanced, right, I want to know all about it.

And you did not stutter. We're talking about hormones and cancer prevention. Right?

Yes.

Because it's just been so long, 23 years of hormones cause cancer, which we know that's not true. Right? We've beat that horse. We know it's not true. But what we should focus on when you talk about us balancing is how do they help us? Right? They don't just help us feel good or to be healthier or to have more energy or to prevent osteoporosis or to prevent cardiovascular Or how about to prevent colon cancer, for one?

Yeah, I mean, that's huge.

Hormones and colon cancer. That's just one of the cancers, right? Because we know the big one is the breast cancer. And we did the, the podcast with the myths debunked with Dr. Deb Matthew, and she talked about how, you know, we know that they don't cause breast cancer. We know that, in fact, the women that stayed— the Women's Health Initiative study— the ones that stayed on the estrogen only actually had 22% less breast cancer. And I'm making sure I get my statistics right. And those that actually did come down with it had a 40% reduction in mortality, in breast cancer mortality. So not only did the estrogen prevent it for some, but it actually helped. The— I'm gonna say the turnout, the, the end result of the cancer treatment to be positive, right? It reduced mortality by 40%, which is a big number.

Right.

Right.

And, and I was, I was gonna say the, the thing that excites me about this conversation, especially about cancer prevention, is that there's a bunch of studies that Are done on a regular basis about hormones and balancing and how it helps with this. And one of the biggest things that you've said in the past is that people always cite these older studies, kind of the tried and true older studies of how hormones can create cancer. And so that's the debunking there, right?

Right, because we have current studies. And that particular one, that Women's Health Initiative study that came out in 2002, there is a book out there that actually talks about how they data mined. And it was such a small percentage that they— it really wasn't a true number, really wasn't very many. And there is the belief that it was linked to the synthetic progestin, the combination, more so than it was linked to the estrogen side of it. Now, I will preface, and I make this clear with all of my patients as well, that estrogen can be metabolized down different pathways. 3 of them specifically that we look at. And there is a particular 2OH pathway that's actually protective, that protects us against breast cancer. And it is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, by the way. It's October 2nd.

So, oh, that's right. Yes. Okay. This makes a lot of sense.

Yes. And then, you know, our 4-OH and our 16-OH can be proliferative, meaning that it doesn't cause the cancer, but should you have one, it might make it grow quicker. Right. So it could increase your risk. So when we talk about hormone replacement therapy, we talk about safe hormone replacement therapy. Right. We're not using synthetic progestin. We're not using Oral estrogen, which increases risk of blood clots. We're using bioidentical, and we are trying to not only get symptom relief but protect people with the lowest amount. So there are some believers out there that you give a woman so many hormones that she begins to cycle again. Nobody wants to do that, but. Our belief, the way I practice and the BHRT Training Academy, is that we want to benefit you in the best way, protect you, balance you with the least amount possible.

Yes.

And yeah.

Oh, I was just gonna— the only thing I was gonna ask is, so, um, something that we've talked about many times, and I think is an important distinction on how you manage balancing hormones, um, is that it's not just here's a level that you need to hit and everybody's at the same level. It's your number could be completely different, and there's a wide range of these, um, levels for hormones. Like, and, and I, you know, you and I are doing my own, uh, hormone replacement, and just to put it into perspective, I always found it crazy that testosterone has, like, the norm is between something like 400 and 950 or something. And it seems like it's such a wild range of what's your right number? Like, how do you know when you're off it or whatever?

Right. And traditionally, they won't even start to think about saying you're low unless you're, like, under 250. And guys generally start to feel the effects of a lower testosterone under 500. So it's— there is quality of life to be said, um, that we have to look at. And, and you're right, everyone can be so different. And so you're not just a number, it's how are you feeling, right? Um, which I'm gonna— I'm gonna just kind of veer off a little bit because you made me think—

Yes.

I just had a patient in here today, a gentleman that said, dragging, I tired. I'm just— I'm fatigued and I'm just not feeling like myself. And so, you know, when we noticed he burned through his testosterone quicker than he normally does, but he was still above 500, so I said something else is going on in your body.

Oh.

So, um, I got a couple lab numbers back and I said, hmm, I'm seeing some high DHEA. That's one of our other hormones. And homocysteine, which is an inflammatory marker, What's going on? Are you stressed? He said, well, I don't know that I'm that stressed. And we got his levels back and his cortisol was off the charts.

Whoa.

Stress. Stress. Cortisol will trump testosterone every day. So what he did have, he couldn't use. You know, the best way to deal with stress is, is lifestyle, which is easier said than done. We did put him on a pretty aggressive A couple supplements to help bring that down. But we we understood that if I just if I just would have looked at his testosterone number, I would have said you're fine. Nothing wrong with you. You're over 500.

And it's so crazy because it's just which part of the puzzle is off? You know that one of them is off.

Yeah.

Which one is it?

And I and I had told him before we ever got the cortisol results back. I believe it's adrenals. I believe it's stress from your symptoms and from these, you know, the fact that the testosterone is up and the homocysteine, which inflammation can be caused by many things besides cortisol. I think this is what it is. And then the numbers proved it. So it's, um, that's why we don't ever just look at a number. We use our numbers as guidelines, but not How to specifically treat.

And that makes it tougher just from the outside looking in. I mean, I don't know because I don't practice this, but that just seems like it would be so much harder because it's not just this straightforward map of we need to get you here. It's kind of checking back in and making sure that this is right and what's going on with this. And yeah, John, you went on vacation and you just Threw everything out the window.

And I tell people, I had this one guy, I said, he didn't have to tell me he ate gluten. I just knew he did.

Guilty, guilty.

But, you know, but sometimes you need— we need these things, right, to tell us. You know, for him, I said, well, this is what's going to happen. We're going to bring the cortisol down. And in 4 weeks, after you've been on these 2 supplements for 30 days, you're practicing this mindfulness for 30 days, your pellets will have dissolved. You should feel Amazing. Amazing. But if you don't, then you might need to be on these for a little longer. Right? Something is still off. We think we found the culprit, but our bodies are so complicated and all the hormones, as we said, the car, they're all so intertwined and interrelated that it's— there are some places out there that are chains that would have just dismissed him. Because his testosterone was fine. They would have never looked at his cortisol. They would have never considered his inflammatory markers. They would have just said, your testosterone's fine. What's wrong with you?

Maybe you got a bug.

Get out. Right? So that's why it's important. And I feel like, as you say, it being difficult is the additional knowledge. Is, is having that additional knowledge, taking that time to consider all these things. Like you said, the puzzle, not just a number. It would be easier if I had to say, well, all you have to do is be here between 5 and 7 and life is good. Life would be easy.

It's true.

But the human body is not that simple. So.

So when it comes to this idea of cancer prevention, because.

Yes.

Hormones being balanced, is there a specific set of hormones that, you know, you want to look at very specifically for that of the, of the, the whole puzzle? Or is it just sort of the same thing? If you have a balance and you get back to it, then it's— the records show that you have a lower chance of getting, like, colon cancer as an example.

That's a very, and actually that's, I was gonna say it's a simplified way to put it, but when you think about it, it's correct because when our bodies are out of balance, we frequently end up with inflammation. And inflammation, we all know inflammation is the root cause of cancer. So if you're out of balance and you're in inflammation, then your risk is higher. Now, sometimes inflammation could be due to toxicities. We know, you know, we say, okay, if toxicities cause cancer, You know, how do they affect the cell? Is it the inflammation that they're causing? So when we talk about particular hormones, like take estrogen for women in particular, we know it's estrogen is an anti-inflammatory hormone. So that's the one that helps protect against breast cancer. And these are studies for mortality, long-term follow-up with the Women's Health Initiative. It was 2020. It was a study from 2020. Why we should no longer be afraid of breast cancer and hormone therapy, 2022. And, um, and then menopausal hormone therapy and breast cancer risk. All progestogens are not the same. That was 2020, 2021. And then for the, for the colon cancer one, that was also related to estrogen, and these studies were related to women. Because they found that the women on estrogen had less cancer in general, and there were some more— some cancers in particular, and colon— colorectal cancer was one of them, right? Breast cancer, colorectal cancers, ovarian and lung cancers had a 33% risk in a Yale study that looked at estrogen therapy. So those particular cancers, 33% lower in long-term use of estrogen.

Wow. That's wild.

That is wild. And when you look at the words long-term use, because you will still have some practitioners that believe women should only replace them for a number of years. I've had ladies say to me, well, how long can I replace my hormones? I said, until you die. But there are some beliefs that you can't replace them forever, or you should only replace them for so long, and then you need to get off of them.

It sounds almost like the— there's a couple of cultures out there that once you become a certain age, that you start having to, like, have, like, a specific type of walking stick that, like, makes you scrunch over. And it's almost like a way to make older people Start becoming old.

Right? Yeah. So, all right. So let's, let's talk some numbers on this colon cancer. So studies show it may reduce the risk, HRT, hormone replacement therapy, of colorectal cancer as much as 63%.

Wow.

Huge.

So you start thinking to yourself, okay, so colon cancer is in my family, breast cancer is not. I might want to use estrogen and not even worry about it, right? Let's see, pull up some more studies here for you. This one is 2009. Journal of Clinical Oncology, use of hormone replacement therapy and the risk of colorectal cancer. There was one study, it was BMJ, British Medical Journal, 2017, that showed menopausal hormone therapy and colorectal cancer when they were looking at registries in Norway. Right? So, Who has cancer? Who's on estrogen? Who isn't? And again, they look at the combined, right? The progestogen, the synthetic, and what it does. So they're looking at that and again saying it does depend on the type. So I implore— and mainly women are put on the progestogens— make sure you're not getting a synthetic. Right. If you are receiving hormone replacement therapy, everything I'm telling you about, it does not— it's not the same if it's a synthetic as opposed to the bioidentical.

Interesting.

Okay.

Now, I know that you very specifically say that when you're looking for ways to add hormones into somebody's regimen, that you look very specifically for bioidentical hormones. And is that— that's got to be the core reason for that, is this study talking about how the— I almost want to call them fake, but their hormones just created differently, right? Is that what that is?

They're synthetic hormones. So bioidentical is meant that is closer to the biology, the identity of the hormones that occur to us naturally. For instance, thyroid is a hormone. We have levothyroxine, or people know it as Levo, or a T4. That is a synthetic form. Now we know that all synthetics are not bad, right? Some things have to be synthetic. But if we can get it naturally, it's closer to what our body makes. It would make more sense that it would be better to balance or cause less— I don't want to say less inflammation, but, um, it would just be better for our body to balance and our bodies to use it if it's closer to our natural biology.

Okay, that makes sense to me. Definitely.

Yeah.

So if somebody has a history in their family of different types of cancers, then I'm assuming from this conversation really It behooved them to have a conversation with you, discuss that family history with you so that you can point to specific studies, talk about why you're going to go down this one route after you kind of look at the numbers and tests and make sure you have all the information in front of you. Because again, I say it's a puzzle because when we were looking at my, my numbers, we were looking at DNA, we were looking at 5 different tests, we had everything in front of us.

Right.

How are we going to level all these out?

But we would find that they would support each other, right? We would find that we would say, oh, this supports this finding. This DNA result supports that finding. Right now, if they do have other cancers, like, let's just say breast cancer runs in the family, then what we would want to do is we want to make sure that that particular woman, if she says, I don't care. I'm replacing my estrogen. Okay. One, we want to make sure you get your mammograms, or as we know, this QT scan that is a better scan than the mammogram. They're not everywhere in the United States yet. We do actually have one in Des Moines, not far from us. I have a patient going there tomorrow to have her QT scan done.

Interesting.

It's very interesting. It doesn't use radiation. It can see through breast dense tissue where the mammogram has difficulty. And she said, I'm never going to have a mammogram. Don't want the radiation. You know, people will say— she says, you might tell me it's as much as an airplane, but it's focused in one spot, right? Where it's not an airplane. So she is going to drive to Des Moines and go have the QT scan. Because breast cancer does run in her family. And she's going to do that first before we start on anything. And then we'll check to make sure she's metabolizing down the proper pathways. And there are things we can do to assist in that. So if we find that she is somebody that metabolizes her hormones down the the proliferative pathway, then we will do things to help make sure she metabolizes them down the protective pathway.

Okay.

See, and that sounds, that sounds like you have not just a plan in place for helping people balance out hormones, which to me already sounds complex, but then you've got multiple different avenues of let's just avoid these things, let's watch these things. And I know that to be true with my Hormone replacement. We are watching everything so closely. It's awesome, but it's also like, how does it, how does it affect your day that you're looking at 100 different things for every single person?

Well, those are those days that I'm like, now remind me, you know, try to keep everything written down. And, and, um, but, you know, and, and meeting you where you're at, right? Um, I have somebody else that has Hashimoto's thyroiditis that is not gluten-free. And eventually their thyroid will be completely destroyed, and they will not feel well, and we'll replace it as best we can. But nothing as good as what you have yourself.

That sounds awful.

And it's you know. But but again, you look at quality of life. This person does not feel. That their quality of life— I have a couple of those— that their quality of life would be such that if they had to avoid gluten, that they would be happy.

I tell you what, and this is— I don't think I told you this when we sat down, but that was one thing I told myself when I started hearing about people going gluten-free. I didn't know why people were going gluten-free around me. But, you know, 1 or 2 people brought it up, and then I just kind of offhanded was like, well, if I can't eat bread or cheese, then I'll kill myself. And of course I won't. But, but when you said, John, you got to go gluten-free, it was one of those things that stung because I threw it out in the universe, and karma will get you in the end.

Yep.

It's what— and it's not that bad. It really is not that bad anymore.

It's not that bad. You get used to it. It's so much easier than it used to be. You know, I tell people when they want to lose weight, just go gluten-free and don't buy the processed stuff. Just go gluten-free and don't buy the processed stuff because you have no idea how much you snack. You grab a cookie, you grab a donut, you ate a piece of bread, right? When you cut all that out, it, it changes.

It does. And it takes a little while to change that. You know, I'm sure, I'm sure my journey is not very different than a lot of people's, but The snacking is what really got me.

Oh, it's hard. It's hard to find things to eat or, yeah, or to go places. I've gone to conferences where I'm like, there's nothing here I can eat. I can eat nothing here. You have nothing here that I can eat.

I have noticed since going gluten-free that there's a lot of bread that surrounds you in your life when you don't watch it. It's just always there.

It is. Yeah.

We should probably, we should probably talk about ways in which gluten-free is not that bad and come up with game plans for it, because I bet you that would be something that a lot of people would want to listen to because it's just, there's bread everywhere. It's littered in my entire life.

And we can, we can definitely do that. I would have some great advice. Some things you can do in place of. So, yeah, we could definitely make that one of our conversations.

Because, I mean, look, talking about ways in which hormones help balance and make sure that you have a better chance of not getting cancer, like, of course, it's not 100%, but 60% in colon cancer alone, like, that's That seems like a no-brainer to try to make happen because, right, shoot, that ups your odds a lot.

It does. It really does. And so it's like, so why wouldn't you? Well, there's all these other things and there's so much out there, right? There's so much noise out there. There's so much talk out there. And, and it's hard to know what's real, what isn't. It just has to be what's right for you and what you feel comfortable with. I will never try to convince anyone. that they need to be on bioidentical hormones. I mean, granted, I love mine, but, um, you know, if someone doesn't feel comfortable, then we don't want to force that on them, and we make do with what we have or which ones they are willing to replace and make sure they're educated. To me, that's the most important thing, is when you make your decision on whether you replace your hormones or you'll go gluten-free, or just to make sure that you know The benefits by doing it and, and maybe what the downfalls are if you don't and what the risks might be.

Well, I can tell you from my own experience that I went from not feeling myself a lot of the time, and I'm still on this journey. We're still trying to find the right balance of everything for me, but I feel so much better. I was telling somebody Yeah, I was telling somebody this today that it just is— it's wild that I didn't do it sooner, you know what I mean? But I had a lot of those reservations. I have to be honest, I had a lot of those reservations initially when I started doing my own research and looking and finding what's out there and what people say. And you're right, there is a lot of information out there, just a lot of noise.

There is a lot of noise. And, you know, and people don't realize how bad they feel because it tends to happen slowly.

Right?

It doesn't happen overnight, which I also say, you didn't feel this way overnight, you're not going to feel better overnight either. There are the few— there are a few people that have, like, literally been a week later, wow! You know, but that's not the norm.

Yeah. I tell you what, though, I may not have felt where I am now. So if I go back, you know, like a week or a month or 2 months in on my journey in particular, I didn't necessarily feel where I am now. But I definitely started feeling better pretty quick, and I think it's because of that detox that you kind of have as sort of a mandatory, mandatory first step.

So, and it's a really good step, right? Because toxins cause inflammation, and let's just get that down and get you started on the right path.

So, Sherri, thank you so much for taking time to talk to me about balancing hormones and what effect it has on different types of cancers. If somebody wants to reach out and see you, They can do that on the website, balancedbodymedical.com.

Absolutely. Or they can call 402-807-5333. Um, there's a lot we can do telehealth. I can't replace testosterone, but there's a lot we can do. Gut health, we can look at what's going on, we can get a consultation. So, and then there's always the free discovery call that you can sign up for on the website.

Perfect.

Well, we will talk to you next time.

Sounds good, John. Thank you.

Thank you so much.

This has been the Balanced Body Medical Podcast with Sherri Griggs, owner of Balanced Body Health and Wellness. If you're looking to find Sherri, go ahead and look for the website balancedbodymedical.com. If you're looking for the business and you want to find Sherri at her office, you can find her at 10815 Elm Street in Rockbrook Plaza. Thank you.