Help With Menopause Questions I Am At My Wits Ends :( Posted: 04-08-04 22:18pm
I am 44 and for years have been taking all
the natural vitamins to help prevent all
the symptoms of menopause, e, b6, b12, c,
cal/mag/zinc, ginseng, guarana, a multi,
some 17+ a day. I also have taken
bio-change with black cohosh and black
cohosh, also for years, seemed to do the
trick, although I did get hot flashes
every once in a while I could live with
that. Last week my mother told me she
read up on black cohosh that it could
cause cancer and should only be taken up
to 6 months, I have been taking them for
years, some 540 mg. In one and 40 mg in
the other, my mom told me I shouldn't take
them. Not a couple days later after I
stopped the two vitamins it started big
time, I now get hot flashes, some 10 or
more a day, and night sweats, I haven't
gotten my period for over a month and I am
so tired, fuzzy headed, I have bad pains
in my neck & back, I can't seem to do
every day things, I just want to sleep. I
also have very bad allergies all year
round, once they are triggered it goes
into a sinus infection, they now have
seemed to worsen. I have had 3 sinus
surgeries and take daily advil cold &
sinus daily and an allergy drug called
zyrtec. The zyrtec seemed to help for a
very long time until now. I am a very
active person and this is killing me. I'm
not sure if this is caused due to stopping
the black cohosh all of a sudden. I look
to see if there might be any other natural
vitamin and most, if not all, have black
cohosh in them. I am out of work and
feeling this way I don't even have the
energy to look for another job and I have
no health insurance so I can't even go to
the Dr. I'm hoping someone can tell me if
they take natural vitamins and which one
might help. I also have no idea of how
much of what vitamin can help, one said
take 400 mgs of this or 200 mgs of that so
I have no clue as to how much and what to
take. I looked into soy which I read can
help and then read they are finding that
isn't good for you either. Any
suggestions would be greatly appreciated I
am at a loss. Thank you very much~ kat
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Suerain
New User, Becoming EHEALTHy
Joined: 08 Apr 2004 Posts: 3 Location: Chappaqua, NY
Re: Help With Menopause Questions I Am At My Wits Ends :( Posted: 04-13-04 00:32am
Kat-
the test regarding black cohosh and cancer
is nothing to be terribly alarmed at.
(certainly good to know, but no major
problem). The test basically said: study
results acording to breast cancer.Org:
"the animals (mice) that got the black
cohosh did not have significantly more
breast cancers than those that did not get
this supplement. But nearly 3x more
breast cancers had spread to the lungs in
the animals fed the black cohosh (27%) as
compared to those given the standard diet
(11%). "
30 more mice than the control group had it
spread. While a lot more, it is tough to
extrapolate that it was the black cohosh
because they all were bred to have breast
cancer and breast cancer spreads.
According to them again: "remember that
this is an early small study, done on
mice. It's very hard to take information
from animal studies and apply it to
people." bottom line: if!you have breast
cancer you probably should not take black
cohosh until further studies are
completed.
Also the 6 month rule is in effect
because that is as long as the test of
black cohosh went. As more studies are
done we will know more of the long term.
However, I know or have spoken with
through websites and friends 20-30 women
that have taken it for years and years and
none of them have or had cancer or any
other problems.
