APPROACHING A WOMAN'S MIDLIFE CHANGE WITHOUT THE RISKS OF PRESCRIPTION HORMONE THERAPY: A NATURAL PATH TO MENOPAUSE

For more and more menopausal women — currently 30 million in the United States, increasing to twice that many by 2020 — using traditional drug therapies to ease suffering that often accompanies the hormonal shifts of midlife are no longer an acceptable alternative. Whether a desire for nature-based remedies or simply to avoid the many unknown side effects of medicalized therapies, more and more women are seeking drug-free, yet effective ways to relieve hot flashes, irritability, headaches, depression, sleep disturbances, nervous tension and other troublesome symptoms associated with menopause.*

Now, Oöna, a new standardized herbal extract made from the root of the black cohosh plant and complemented with chaste berry extract, offers that alternative to women who want to take control of their health and get the relief they seek.* An all-natural supplement, black cohosh is one of the few botanicals shown to bring effective menopausal relief — with more than than 40 years of use by over 1.5 million European women. Oöna, in a similar yet stronger extract, is now available in America.

Unlike myriad alternative approaches currently marketed in the United States, Oöna 's main ingredient, black cohosh, has been thoroughly tested in Germany's extensive Commission E Studies — part of thousands of painstaking studies conducted by that country to determine the efficacy of various botanicals — to relieve painful symptoms often associated with menopause.* (The New York Times reported last fall that black cohosh — known by the Latin name Cimicifuga racemosa — is also now being intensively tested at New York Presbyterian Hospital. One lead researcher noted that even though the herb has estrogen-like effects, it does not raise blood levels of estrogen.)

Although it's not fully understood exactly how black cohosh works to relieve hormonal symptoms, researchers have found that primary constituents of particular importance, triterpene glycosides, work in concert.* One known effect of these glycosides is that they suppress the secretion of the pituitary hormone LH (leutinizing hormone). In a woman experiencing menopause, suppression of LH means suppression of hot flashes.* The FSH (follicle stimulating hormone) and prolactin remain unchanged. This is important because FSH is the hormone that causes the beginnings of ovulation and production of estrogen so Oöna never hinders the natural ability to ovulate or produce estrogen. Most recent studies conclude that black cohosh offers relief by running interference with neurotransmitters, rather than having an estrogenic effect.*

Each day, about 3,500 women enter menopause in the United States. For generations, doctors have relied upon prescription drug therapies to alleviate the troublesome, sometimes painful manifestations of menopause. The increased risk of breast cancer for those who take a combination of estrogen and progestin — up to 20 percent higher, according to a study in the Journal of the American Medical Association in January 2000 — and the fact that estrogen is suspected to stimulate breast cancer cells make prescription therapies an unwelcome alternative for most women.

The once widely held notion that estrogen protects the heart from strokes and heart attacks (even touted in drug company sponsored advertisements that urged women, as recently as spring of 2000, to continue estrogen therapy for the sake of a healthy heart), has now been thrown into serious question. Last May, researchers of the first large-scale controlled clinical trial examining the relationship between estrogen drug therapies and reduced risk of heart disease, involving 25,000 women, released findings showing that, instead of protecting the heart, such therapies may actually increase, albeit slightly, risk of heart attacks and strokes.

Enter Oöna. Once available only in Europe, this all-natural tablet contains the powder of the root of the black cohosh, a member of the buttercup family that is a native of pine forests of eastern North America. Though its medicinal uses predate European settlement of America, black cohosh has emerged during the past 50 years as a significant treatment for menopausal symptoms, now backed by evidence developed by the Commission E Studies.*

Oöna is not just ground up herb in a capsule but a standardized extract made from the highest quality harvest, carefully produced to ensure that the active ingredients (triterpene glycosides) are consistent from serving to serving. Further, the black cohosh is balanced with a chaste berry extract to address the widest variation of symptoms.* Most women experience beneficial relief within 10 to 14 days.*

Valerie Otto, New York founder of Becoming, Inc., which first came to notice for its fashion lines tailored to the needs of women in cancer treatment, sees Oöna as a logical extension of Becoming's mission. "This is all about empowering women with the knowledge and products to make their own health-related decisions," says Otto, who started Becoming, Inc. while helping her mother through a mastectomy five years ago, after seeing firsthand the difficulties cancer recovery patients must endure. Realizing the connection between prescription estrogen therapies — even when prescribed in conjunction with progestin — with breast cancer, Otto set out to find an alternative approach, rather than traditional drug treatments for the menopausal symptoms (symptoms she was beginning to experience personally).

That research brought her to several black cohosh-based products made across Europe that many women swore by and have used safely since the 1960s. That anecdotal evidence was then backed up by the Commission E Studies. Otto set out to bring the best aspects of these products into one and manufacture, package, and distribute a premier black cohosh product under the name Oöna. It took two and a half years of hard work.

"Oöna works, it's safe, and allows most of us healthy women a chance to approach menopause as a part of natural womanhood, not as a disease*," says Otto. The product is low cost, too. A 96- package of Oöna, a one-month "gear up" supply or two-month maintenance supply, costs $24.95.

Like the fashions of Becoming, Inc., Oöna is available on the Internet (www.oonausa.com) or toll-free at 1-888-596-5154. "This assures total privacy and convenience for women, no matter where they live or when they shop," says Otto.

Oöna will debut on line and through its 800 number at 10 am, December 15, 2000.