If you follow celebrity news, you’ve undoubtedly heard the buzz about Ozempic, a Type 2 Diabetes drug that stars and influencers have been using off-label to lose weight rapidly. If you keep abreast of weight-loss drug development, you’ve probably heard about FDA-approved Wegovy, which experienced soaring patient demand and shortages in 2023.
If faced with an urgent or necessary medical procedure, most patients will ask questions about its safety and efficacy. Whereas, when contemplating an elective procedure, the first question that comes to most people’s minds is, “Is it worth it?” Few people facing death or significant health risks worry about whether a procedure is “worth it.” If deemed safe and effective, it’s probably invaluable.
While hormone replacement therapy (HRT) is proven effective at treating menopause symptoms, many women remain hesitant about undergoing the treatment. This hesitancy is primarily due to 2002 findings that emerged from an ongoing National Institute of Health study called the Women’s Health Initiative (WHI). Those findings acknowledged HRT benefits but determined that the therapy significantly increased the risk of breast cancer, blood clots, stroke, and other health issues. HRT’s alleged breast cancer risk made the headlines, and the number of U.S. women undergoing the therapy plummeted by more than 80%.
“Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food.”
—Hippocrates, circa 400 BC
As evidenced by the ancient Greek physician’s theories, mankind has inherently recognized the link between food and health for at least 2,500 years. However, it is only within the past half-century or so that we have vigorously tried to understand this link.
To say that the use of hormone replacement therapy (HRT) has been historically controversial is an understatement. Ever since the FDA in 1942 approved the first HRT drug—Premarin—for the treatment of menopausal hot flashes, the popularity of HRT has gone up and down like a spasmodic yo-yo. While some studies, publications, and books touting HRT’s effectiveness made its popularity surge, others would backpedal the surge by warning of health risks. Among the former was the 1966 bestselling book Feminine Forever, which claimed that taking estrogen would allow a woman to remain just that despite menopause. An example of the latter was the 1977 bestselling book Women and the Crisis in Sex Hormones, which warned about studies linking HRT to breast cancer, strokes, and blood clots.
The proverb “clothes make the man” was believed to be coined by Dutch humorist and philosopher Desiderius Erasmus in the 15th Century. Erasmus undoubtedly suspected that other elements were responsible for making a man, but the primary maker of a man was not officially discovered until 1935. That year, several European scientists independently discovered and isolated testosterone, a hormone and anabolic steroid that genuinely “makes the man.”