Positive Health Online

A Transcript     Contents     Introduction: Dr Goodman     Dr Bond (Intro)     Dr Lee

Dr Bond     Q&A: Drs Lee and Bond     Dr Smallbone     Dr Griffin     Beth MacEoin

Q&A: Smallbone, Griffin & MacEoin     Leslie Kenton     Q&A: All     Exhibitors & Speakers

Introduction

by Dr Sandra Goodman - Publisher of Positive Health magazine

Welcome to the Natural Approaches to the Menopause Symposium. It is a pleasure to see you all here today, and I hope that we will all benefit personally and achieve a cross-fertilisation of the various disciplines that are assembled here today.

As you can see from the Programme, there is an extremely accomplished set of speakers here – several of them from abroad – from various disciplines. All these people are leading experts in using Natural Approaches to treat menopausal problems. All of them are highly qualified in their field, so I'm sure we are all looking forward not only to hearing what they individually have to say, but also the interaction between you, the audience, and each other – and I think that is where all the excitement is going to come from.

As I am sure everybody here is aware, the menopause is not something that just 'happens' when a woman reaches 45 or 50; it is not only an individual's problem of suffering and discomfort if that happens (and I'm sure many of us in this room are going through a process in which we are suffering). It's a much wider issue of global significance, because many of the problems that are occurring (as we know) are due to enormous hormonal imbalances in the environment, and these hormonal imbalances are causing drastic declines in fertility – male fertility; the rising incidence of breast cancer, prostate cancer, endometrial cancer; even causing feminisation of fish in the lakes and rivers. We all know that apart from our own personal interest in this subject, this is something that goes way beyond our own individual selves. I hope we can all bear that in mind throughout the day. I hope that this message will spread like ripples and really get out because it is only just starting to be heard, even though a lot of the research and work is decades old.

As you know and have seen, there is a fairly well-rounded programme today: in the morning, we are going to be looking at hormonal treatments with Drs Shirley Bond and John Lee; in the afternoon we are going to look at nutrition, herbal approaches and homoeopathy, followed after lunch and a coffee break by Leslie Kenton, who will talk about exercise, lifestyle and spiritual approaches; and at the very end of the day we will all come together and have a round table discussion. After each session there will be question & answer periods. We have remote radio microphones that will be passed round to the audience, the entire day is being recorded and we'll be producing a transcript, so I'd ask people not to do any recording: we will be processing that in due course.

I would like to introduce Kate Neal, formally the senior tutor at the Institute of Optimum Nutrition, who is now on her own and will be working with the University of Westminster to achieve an accredited programme in Nutrition. She is my stand-in if for any reason I need to be called away. She has written a book on hormones and is highly qualified to conduct all meetings, so if you have any questions and cannot find me, relating to speakers and so on, please avail yourself of Kate's services. As you have seen, there are a number of tables in the hall, all dedicated to providing information in the form of books, some products and information, so I hope that this day will really benefit everyone.

I'd like to introduce the two morning speakers. They will be doing a bit of an exchange in that Dr Shirley Bond will be discussing an overview of conventional medical treatment for the menopause, followed by Dr John Lee, who will speak in-depth about Natural Progesterone; and Dr Bond will return to talk about her experience combining oestrogen and progesterone. I would like to introduce both of them so that we do not interrupt the morning.

Dr Shirley Bond is a GP working in London who specialises in the treatment of women's menopausal and other problems.

Dr John Lee, from California, has been in private practice for over 35 years, he has been teaching courses in optimal health for about a quarter of a century, and he is one of the leading pioneers in the clinical use of natural progesterone. He has come from California especially for this symposium and has written two books about the subject, both of which are available during the breaks.

So without any further ado, I would like to introduce Dr Shirley Bond. Thank you very much.