I was in a dreamy sub-awakened state when I was thinking about the courageous people in our past who spoke truth about a particular passion, and they were harmed, physically, emotionally, professionally.

This same feeling comes over me when I think of the HPV vaccine and what it represents.

During my decades long practice of medicine within the hallowed halls of the pharmaceutical-industrial complex, I was encouraged to speak with all my patients to have this expensive vaccine, three injections over time. I was to educate them that this vaccine prevents cervical cancer, a virulent cancer that ravaged my patients in the 1960s before Pap smears were commonly done as they are now.

This PAP test, I might add, has saved millions and millions of lives and has reduced the death rate significantly, actually by greater than 85%.  With yearly Pap smears, there is no reason women must die of cervical cancer.

Yet I was to have convinced my young teens and their mothers that this was a wise choice.  After all, sexual activity is beginning in early teen years, and in some cultures, pre-teen years.  And we are finally understanding that cervical cancer is caused by the HPV virus, so a vaccine sounds perfectly appropriate.

But understand that it protects against only two of the many subtypes (16 and 31), and two subtypes which cause genital warts (6 and 11).  Furthermore, its effects only last 5 years, so it must be repeated.  Now they are speaking about giving it to young boys!!  …and did one of our political candidates mandate this in his state recently?!

Years ago on a website, Health Freedom, I learned of the deaths caused by this vaccine.  Yet when I shared my concern with my partners, I was told these are rare circumstances.  Now, however, when I listen to the sage counsel and startling statistics of young women at the prime of their lives dying or becoming neurologically impaired – sometimes permanently – I must speak out my feelings.

My friend and colleague, Dr. Sherrill Sellman (www.whatwomenmustknow.com)  in her series, The Gardasil Files,  interviews scientists, pathologists, parents, whose lives have been affected by this vaccine.  I do urge you to listen, and form your own opinion.

My writing is not to stir you into fears about a conspiracy to keep us in the dark for self-serving reasons.  But rather, to remind you that we exist in two paradigms: that of the scientific approach, which is often tainted by agendas less than honorable, and that of the emerging belief that we are responsible for our health, and must question everything.  Again, somewhere in the middle exists that term I am always striving for: BALANCE.

Years ago, before understanding how horses were abused and their lives made miserable by making Premarin, the largest selling hormone, and at one time, most lucrative drug on the market, I nonetheless felt repulsion for it, that higher self again, suggesting that there must be a gentler way to create hormones for women.  And there is: soy beans, wild yams.  The pharmaceutical industry has been creative and found ways of patenting plant-based hormones, so we are making advances.  And this came about,  interestingly, from women speaking out against the harm done to our horse sisters (pregnant mares, not stallions were used).

Transparency is the new byword in all walks of life: religion, corporate America, politics, entertainment.  We are hungry to understand the underpinnings of how they work, and rise and how they fall.  The same with my profession, which is the only one I can intelligently speak on, having been immersed since 1961.

The drug Fosamax, which every woman is encouraged to take to prevent osteoporosis, the somewhat invented disease in America, now has a blackbox warning because its use causes non-healing fractures, besides destruction of the jaw bone and esophageal cancers.  Does this not cause pause, and the question which I always ask: what are you doing good for yourself?  Are you remembering that everything you put into your body becomes you, so eat healthy?  Are you moving those lovely bodies to engage your happy bubbles and keep strong and supple?

In every way, we are becoming awake to realize that we are responsible for our health.  Young women are responsible for maintaining boundaries and having discernment in how they use their bodies.  Sexual intimacy is a most powerful force, and engaging in intimacy without understanding the ramifications of this power is responsible for thousands of unwanted pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases, not the least of which is AIDS.

So, my beloveds, back to the original thesis: To Be …or HPV: do we get a vaccine that has been plunged into so much controversy, yet steadfastly recommended by my colleagues?  My suggestion is that we read the science not promoted by the industry producing the vaccine, but engage your skepticism by hearing what the authorities not reaping financial rewards are saying, and you decide.

I think medicine kick starts our drive, our dreams, but the true doctor within emerges like a butterfly to speak the truth that God has buried deep within.

HBL

Taught deference as a nursing student, I was expected to stand when the physician entered the room, 99.9% being a male.  Even attempting medical school at the age of 37, I was warned I was too old, and not a good enough student, having an A-B average.  Fast forward to 1982, again that ageism thing, being told I was too old to withstand the rigors of an obstetrical residency.  Well, here I am thirty long years later having achieved far more.

Though we have made awesome advances in the sciences in the practice of medicine, we are just now scratching the surface of the new kid on the block: epigenetics.  What an incredible dimension it has added to the diagnosis, treatment and maintenance of disease.  Change our DNA, our very cellular matrix with our thoughts, words, behavior??  Blasphemy, the vast majority of practitioners bellow.

Let me portray a scenario: you smoke, you imbibe more than what would be considered socially acceptable alcohol; you partake in drugs known to harm; you are a couch potato with the TV remote fused to your hand, the only exercise being to open the refrigerator or cabinet door for another diet soda, chips, or drive through fast-food fare for your favorite chemicalized treat.

You would have no issue with your physician warning that unless you change your habits, your inevitable lung disease, fatty liver, and overworked pancreas and blood vessels will gift you with the essentially preventable illnesses that plague millions of Americans.

Now the scenario more and more recognized by readers: you drink healthy ph alkaline water; you eat greater and greater amounts of organic foods, more vegetables, beans, grains and fruits than animal protein; you pride yourself on elegant daily elimination, and you present yourself regularly to the gym, your yoga classes, even my most recommended, meditation classes.

But, what you may not accept as vital for your ultimate health and peace is releasing your ‘stinkin’ thinkin;’ forgiving your ex-spouse for stopping the alimony, forgiving your mother for not making you chocolate chip cookies 40 years ago; even forgiving your sexual abuser those many painful decades ago.  But this, my beloveds, is the key to vibrant health: forgiveness of self, then others; compassion for your unwise behavior, then that of others.  The mind/body/spirit is indeed one energy- all one source, and the most magnificent thing of all—as well as the most frightening—is that we are the masters of our lives.    Read more in my book: HARDWIRED FOR LOVE.

Helene B. Leonetti, MD, FACOG, DABIHM

www.helenebleonettimd.com

Dr. Lee had the wisdom –and temerity—that I was seeking, and our chance meeting in Allentown, PA during a lecture was auspicious and powerful, and I was ripe for change.  For several years after my residency ended, I spent my time and energy learning how to help women feel balanced hormonally, because even though I was unaware then how powerfully our hormones respond to our emotions, intuitively I knew that balancing our physical body first, then tackling the emotional baggage that we tenaciously carry around like a ball and chain, and finally acknowledging soul pain, all is essential for vibrant health.

Dr. Lee’s serendipitous discovery of natural transdermal progesterone cream and how it balances our hormones was the starting point of my journey of discovery.  Firstly, let me remind you that this magnificent hormone has been present on planet earth for 500 million years.  So much technology and many eons later, we proudly present it to the world in the only way conventional medicine knows to do: as a patentable version, known as a ‘progestin,’ found in such well known preparations as birth control pills, depo-provera  injections, or pills such as medroxyprogesterone acetate, given for hormone balance or to control fertility.  After many years of observing success in treating women with natural hormones, which by virture of their appearing in nature, so not patentable by the pharmaceutical industry (we cannot patent a tree or butterfly, eh?) natural progesterone was put into a capsule with peanut oil, and the unique delivery system rendered it  a pharmaceutical prescription-ready for physicians to use.

Not bad, certainly, but not the ideal delivery system.  What I may have learned light years ago in medical school biochemistry and rapidly forgotten is that when we swallow natural progesterone, it must travel through and be metabolized by the liver.  By this very fact, 80-90 percent of it is transformed into metabolic byproducts that make us sleepy, dizzy, occasionally faint.  In a word, it is not efficient.  On the other hand, used transdermally (through the skin) it is very efficient and delightfully takes advantage of the largest organ in our body: the skin—for excellent absorption, and requiring doses 5-10 times less than when given by mouth.

So what are a few of the many benefits of natural transdermal progesterone cream:

• Protects us from breast cancer
• Protects us from uterine cancer
• Assists thyroid health
• Prevents bone loss
• Protects us from heart disease
• Assists with hormone balance and revs up our sex drive (although remember what I am always teaching: our brain is our most important sex organ)
• Is a natural antidepressant
• Is a natural diuretic
• Neutralizes the stimulating, carcinogenic effects of estrogen
• Enhances fertility and can prevent miscarriage
• Most recently has been demonstrated to assist in treating strokes

You ask,  how may I get this magic potion?  Yes, it is sold in health food stores, and on the Internet, most of which are good sources, and by a compounding pharmacy, which prepares the doses ordered by a physician, and with my 22 years of experience,  after testing all of the hormones: estrogen, progesterone, testosterone, DHEA, and cortisol (adrenal health) 4x in one day, through the saliva.  This is a safe, non-invasive, and most accurate way to evaluate hormones.  I have been using ZRT lab these long years, and have been successful in helping thousands of my beautiful goddesses achieve hormone balance.

Are there any side effects, you may wonder:  the only one I have found is if too high a dose is used, and the cortisol levels are very low, implying adrenal fatigue, we may witness higher than desirable dosing which some fear is building in the fat cells causing imbalance.  I have only witnessed this  a handful of times, and it is with use of high doses (greater than 50mg transdermally daily) and when we forget how essential it is to heal the adrenals (diet, nutrients, herbs, healthy sleep, and vitally important- MEDITATION).

Remember, all healing is a function of the three parts of us: mind/body/spirit.  When we shortchange one and focus on the easiest to correct: the physical –we forget the great power we have to achieve and maintain vibrant, delicious health.

Peace and love, Helene

-Stop SHOULD-ing  yourself.

-Make reasonable, effortless commitments to treat yourself better.

-Let go of all emotional baggage you drag around your ankle like a ball and chain that has kept you victim for perhaps decades.

-Look in the mirror buck naked, into the looking glass of your soul—your eyes, and say, “I LOVE YOU, EXACTLY IN THE PACKAGE YOU ARE” and watch the magic.  Say it daily for at least 21 days and like all habits you want to develop, you will have it for life.

-Do not pine for youth: it was the stepping stone to the magnificence and wisdom of the goddess-years: remember that in Native culture, only when women ‘held their blood’ (became menopausal) were they allowed into tribal politics.

-Make a list of everything and everyone that you are grateful for, including those you perceive have hurt you, for they are your greatest teachers.

-Spend time this holiday season eating all your favorite foods, for they often are lovingly prepared only once a year; realize, however, that you probably will overdo it, as I do with struffoli  – deep fried pieces of white flour dough cut in tiny pieces and soaked in honey :  wowie, zowie, I could eat a pound, and when I do I get the greatest tummy ache, but ah, once a year?  I am worth it!!

- So to follow up with the prior confession: after indulging in the sweets, rich foods: commit to at least one day after the holidays to do a lemon water/juice/herbal tea fast, eating no food to give your liver and digestive system a break.

-I love this quote from Marianne Williamson: “You can either be a host to God, or a hostage to your EGO (edging God out).

-Guilt sucks.

-Mother Theresa said to do small things with big love.

-Surround yourself with people who have succeeded in living a treasured life: those with patience, persistence, and passion.

-And that means as well, surround yourself with uplifting people who love you enough to be ruthlessly honest with you and not flatter you.

-Shrug off complainers and fear-mongers and those who demean you and say that you cannot do what it is that you have been sent here to do–  BECAUSE,

-Each of us has been given a divine mission: I cannot do yours, you cannot do mine; and when you do not do that which you have been given, you cheat me and the world of your magnificence.

-LAUGH- especially at yourself.  Having a smile on your face develops crows feet, which to folks in the know, acknowledge you as a spiritually evolved being.

-HUG TREES: grandfather trees are here to protect our MOTHER EARTH with her shade, her moisture, her nurturing fruits and seeds, and during the hug, if you listen with your heart instead of your head, you will receive a healing message.

-Eat chocolate, especially dark: it contains ‘anandamide’ which in Sanskrit means “bliss.”

-Tell your beloved you adore him or her every day and leave love notes around the house and in lunch boxes;  and if you do not have a beloved, write a letter to yourself as if it came from him/her.

-During your shower, brush your skin to stimulate your lymphatics, which transport toxins out of the body; and—not for wimps—I still complain but do it anyway:  finish your shower with bursts of hot then cold then hot then cold, ending with cold to push all that oxygenated blood deep into your core.

-Deepak Chopra taught this: whisper the words “aham, bramasmi” to each child you see (it means in Sanskrit ‘you are in the world, and the world is in you.”)

-If you cannot go to the gym or do not have a treadmill, march in place to some funky music and get your blood pumping.

-Lastly, GUILT SUCKS!!  (I had to say it twice:  we need to be reminded!!)

Treat everyone you meet with love and compassion and a smile: it will make you feel wonderful, as well as the person you are gifting.  We all need love—actually we are HARDWIRED FOR LOVE;  in the great scheme of things, love is all there is.

Hugs,
HBL

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Measuring the hormones in the serum (the straw colored liquid once the red blood cells are spun down in a centrifuge) is like looking outside for the car keys you dropped on your kitchen floor.  It serves me not: hormones measured in the blood this way tells me what is protein bound, inactive, not what is actually happening in our cell tissue.  And that is why I use saliva testing to see where our hormones are, including estrogen, progesterone, testosterone, DHEA, and cortisol- 4x in one day, to see the state of our adrenal health (our immune state).

So I do deviate from most of the authorities in her books; moreover, I am especially vociferous about her working with a woman, neither a physician, nor a scientist, called T.S. Wiley, who speaks of the “Wiley Protocol,” which uses such high doses of estrogen, cyclically, generally in transdermal form, then withdraws them for a time each month, so that women get their bleeding back, even if they are 60- 70 years old and beyond!!!  This to bring us back to our youthful exuberance.  I think this is very unwise, and truly unnecessary.

More and more doctors are becoming certified as ‘anti-aging specialists.’  Dear God, I do not want to go back to my brain-dead anxious years when I did not know my magnificence , and spent many wasted years looking outside myself for someone to love me, when  it was ME who needed to love me.  Now, with my not so sexy breasts that are tending to go south, as are my lovely eyelids, and my numerous spider veins and cellulite on my legs, I nonetheless can look in the mirror—buck naked, as I tell my fellow goddesses—and say, “Helene, I love you EXACTLY as you are.”  And I mean it.  I do not want to be an anti-anything: I want to celebrate my wise-woman years, and strive to be the best I can be in the present package I am.  That takes a lot of heat off me.  And most importantly, I have peace and joy knowing I am enough.

Bioidentical translates into hormones that, once getting into the circulation, act as if they are made by the body.  Premarin, for example, is PRE-gnant MAR-es  urINe, coming from a beautiful pregnant horse, and certainly bioidentical for horses, but not for humans.

Hormones that are made in the laboratory from wild yam or soy as the base ingredient are then synthesized into natural progesterone, testosterone, or the three forms of estrogen: estradiol, estriol, estrone , as well as DHEA, pregnenolone, are then taken by a compounding pharmacy and made into a cream, for transdermal  use(rubbed into the skin) or inserted vaginally; capsules ingested;  buccal variety (placed into the mouth to be absorbed through the mucous membrane); injections; or into pellets that are injected under the skin and absorbed slowly over a specified time.

More confusing yet is that the pharmaceutical industry, besides producing synthetic hormones (such as Premarin, Prempro, all birth control pills) produce as well some bioidentical hormone.  For example, Prometrium is a capsule made with natural progesterone that can be patented, because it has a unique delivery system (in peanut oil).  Many of the estradiol patches, such as Climara, Vivelle, Menostar —though bioidentical—can be patented because the vehicle that delivers the hormone is unique and does not appear in nature.  In other words, if it appears in nature, such as a bird, or butterfly it is not patentable and saleable by the pharmaceutical industry.

And as a physician, with direct connection to the Insurance and Pharmaceutical Industry, the AMA, and the FDA, if I am to remain safe from censure and disapproval from my profession, I would continue to use patented medicine only and not bioidentical hormone replacement therapy, such as I have been doing for over 20 long years.

However, I have always practiced outside the box, because for some quirky reason, I want to explain why my beautiful goddesses are given something, how it behaves in their body and what they can do in their life to maximize the positive effect.    Next time we will muse about the effect that Suzanne Sommers has had on this subject.

Stay tuned.

Hugs, HBL