Have you heard that taking soy supplements does not prevent bone loss or reduce hot flashes?
These supplements are often taken by women during menopause as an alternative to hormone replacement therapy.
Why is this news important to breast cancer survivors? It’s imports to those women using these natural supplements to ease the side effects of five years of hormone therapy, following active treatment, which include bone loss, hot flashes and night sweats.
Recently Health.com ran an article about the results of a study that found no improvement in bone density or reduction in hot flashes. In the new study, published in the “Archives of Internal Medicine,” 248 menopausal women were randomly assigned to receive a placebo pill or 200 milligrams of soy isoflavone supplements per day — a dose “equivalent to approximately twice the highest intake through food sources in typical Asian diets.
At the end of the two-year study, bone scans showed no differences in bone mineral density between the two groups.
Likewise, the soy supplements did nothing to ward off hot flashes. In fact, 48% of the women who took soy experienced hot flashes, compared with just 31% percent of those in the placebo group. Roughly one-third of the women in the soy group also reported constipation as a side effect, versus 21% in the placebo group.
Have you heard that Medicaid denied coverage for a 26 year old male with breast cancer on the basis that he was male?
Raymond Johnson recently went to the emergency room in a South Carolina hospital with chest pains. It was discovered that he has breast cancer.
Mr. Johnson meets every federal assistance qualification for breast cancer patients, except for being a woman.
When he heard that Medicaid coverage for his breast cancer treatment was denied Mr. Johnson stated, “I just can’t tell you how floored I was when I got that letter saying I didn’t quality for help,” Johnson says. “The bills are going to be huge. I have breast cancer. I really don’t see how that’s possible.”
The South Carolina Department of Health and Human Services has tried more than once to get coverage under The Breast and Cervical Cancer Prevention and Treatment Act for male patients. There were two other men in the last four years who met all other aspects of the act’s criteria, but have been denied coverage under the act simply because they are men.
The Center for Medicare and Medicaid are working with the Center for Disease Control (CDC ) and South Carolina to see what options may exist to address Ray Johnson’s situation.
