Medicine Health

The study conducted by the National Institute on Aging and the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine on the use of herbal medicine black cohosh revealed that it was not effective in relieving menopausal symptoms.

Katherine M. Newton of Group Health in Seattle, said that the findings was a big disappointment to women based on the doses administered. The study did not show that the remedy could be safe and effective.

In a report from the Annals of Internal Medicine, those women of who used the supplement in a trial basis showed that the effects were not more than a placebo except for the estrogen which resulted in decreased hot flashes.

If this is the case, medical practitioners and women alike will have to seek for another alternatives in remedying menopause according to Dr. Carol M. Mangione of UCLA's Geffen School of Medicine.

Statistics show that in America alone, approximately 2 million women turn 50 a year, and around 80% of them experience symptoms of menopause.

Those women who took estrogen replacement therapy had increased risk of breast cancer and heart disease, according to a 2002 federal study. Quite a number of women turn to black cohosh as an alternative to hormone therapy, but the result was very minimal. The reduction was found to be at 0.5 symptoms a day if compared to those who took placebo.

Newton admits "that menopause is a natural event, it is not an illness." She recommends that women should limit hormone intakes to the minimum dosage and at the shortest time.