Bio-identical Hormones

Women commonly ask what are bio-identical hormones?
Over the last 10 years, there has been a lot of buzz about bio-identical hormones even since the celebrities Oprah and Susan Summers told women about them. The term bio-identical hormone means that the hormone is exactly the same molecule as the hormone made in your body. These bio-identical hormones are only made from plants sources, either Mexican wild yam or soy.

In the early 1950’s, Russell Marker discovered an economical way to make hormones from the Mexican wild yam. From that time on, drugs have been developed from plants. Prior to his discovery, all hormones were made from animals, and then turned into synthetic drugs. The synthetic pharmaceutical hormones have many undesirable side effects. Fortunately, the bio-identical hormone does not. Bio-identical hormones cannot be patented into a drug, therefore pharmaceutical companies cannot make a profit.

The best quality bio-identical hormones are made from the Mexican wild yam. Hormones could also be made from soy. Many people think that some plant hormones like soy, (called phytoestrogens), have estrogen effects in humans, however they mistaken. Soy has been discredited due to the studies show it has certain undesirable compounds. Therefore, the Mexican wild yam favored for it's high quality.

The plant wild yam gets converted in a lab through four steps, which then turns into bio-identical progesterone. You cannot eat wild yam and expect to get bio-identical hormonal effects. Wild yam is only a plant until it gets converted in the lab to progesterone. After it is made into progesterone, it is used to make all other hormones. Dr. John Lee coined the term, natural progesterone, which means the same thing as bio-identical.

To summarize, the highest quality bio-identical hormone for progesterone comes from the Mexican Wild Yam. Read more about (click the link) Wild Yam and Progesterone Cream.