Alternative Therapy For Women

Many women are discovering conventional medicine combined with alternative treatments is beneficial for a wide variety of conditions, reports Correspondent Kris Eisenhauer of CBS Affiliate KOIN-TV in Portland, Oregon.

Since traditional methods of treating of menopause, osteoporosis, and heart disease aren't entirely effective, they also use alternative therapies.

"It just has not found it's way into conventional medical practice," says Dr. Hudson, who wrote the Women's Encyclopedia of Natural Medicine.. "But naturopathic physicians have been gleaning that information and passing it along to their patients for decades."

One of his patients, Lucy Martin takes soy, Vitamin E and garlic for heart disease, vitamins and a blend of minerals for osteoporosis.

More research is being done to discover which treatments work best. Oregon Health Sciences University and Kaiser Permanente were recently given a $16 million grant to study alternative therapies over the next five years.

Gail Fleming gave alternative medicine a try when the mood swings and sleeplessness from menopause hit.

"I decided I needed to take care of this. This was not good. It was getting worse," Gail recalls.

"There's absolutely no need for menopausal women to suffer with whatever symptom they have. There are effective natural solutions in addition to effective conventional solutions," Hudson explains.

Dr. Hudson prescribed Gail a blend of five herbs for overall relief and a natural, less aggressive estrogen and progesterone combo called "Osta B-3".

"It was within four days that I noticed a lessening of (the symptoms) and I was able to sleep more at night," Gail says.

Before you walk into your local health food store and choose just any product off the shelf, make sure you check with your naturopathic or conventional physician first, to get the product that's right for your particular condition.

Also keep in mind that the FDA does not regulate alternative therapies.