Birth control pills much safer if you lower the inflammation they cause....

Today's post: Monday, 7-21-2008

Birth control pills looked to have some health risks, particularly for women who smoked. One solution was to check to see if lower doses still worked to provide contraceptive effects. They did seem to do so & the normal and recommended doses are now a good bit less than they were when birth control pills first came out. (Smoking is such a health risk by itself, clearly it made sense for women worried about their health to not start or to quit regardless of whether or not they took birth control pills.)

So, it looked as if women who didn’t smoke could probably take birth control pills safely at the lower doses.

Last week I discovered this may ONLY be true if you take action to reverse the increase in inflammation they cause.

The article was in the Total Health Breakthrough email I got on Tuesday last week.

Here it is.: (I add some comments after it.)

"This article appears courtesy of Early to Rise's Total Health Breakthroughs, offering alternative solutions for mind, body and soul. For a complimentary subscription,
visit http://www.totalhealthbreakthroughs.com"

“Birth Control Pills -- Still Hold Risks

By James B. LaValle, R.Ph, ND, CCN

Years ago I started educating health professionals and patients in my practice about birth control pills. If they -- or their wives, daughters, or patients were taking them -- they should make sure to supplement with a multivitamin and mineral containing higher dosages of B vitamins.

The reason?

Studies have found that oral contraceptives deplete several nutrients including vitamins B2, B6, and B12, folate, vitamins C and E, magnesium, and even CoQ10.1-5

These nutrient depletions have far-reaching effects; they can contribute to everything from depression, migraines, and anemia -- to cervical dysplasia -- the precursor to cervical cancer.

Today it is common medical practice to discontinue the use of birth control pills for a few months before trying to get pregnant because the folate depletion they cause can increase the risks of a baby being born with spina bifida.

As recently as 2003, a study found that young women who took birth control pills had twice as much C-reactive protein (CRP) in their blood.6 CRP is a product of systemic inflammation and is known to cause narrowing and hardening of the arteries. This was a small study, but it showed that birth control pills promoted inflammation in the body -- part of which is very likely due to the nutrients they deplete.

I emphasized the word "young" because this study showed that the inflammation is happening at a young age. While the authors stated that the study could not determine whether the elevated CRP would increase the risk of heart disease, it only stands to reason that the longer a woman lives with elevated CRP, the greater her risk will be of developing damage from it.

Many gynecologists today still believe the risks from birth control pills were mainly in the past when dosages of the hormones were higher. In fact, most gynecologists still encourage the use of birth control pills because some research suggests that they lower the risk of ovarian cancer and pelvic inflammatory disease.

While this is a very personal decision, I believe women should know that even today's birth control pills can deplete nutrients -- and that any woman using them should protect herself by taking a good multivitamin every day as well as extra CoQ10 (60 to 90 mg per day).

If you or your significant other uses birth control pills, protect yourself with extra nutrients, and measure your CRP levels to see if they are elevated. If they are, you should try to decrease other sources of inflammation to your body like high intake of sugars and other high glycemic index foods.

Taking the nutrients mentioned above plus additional antioxidants will help to reduce CRP levels. If CRP still doesn't come down, you may need to consider other methods of birth control.

References

Webb, JL, J Reprod Med 25(4) (Oct 1980) : 150-56.
Ahmed, F et al., Am J Clin Nutr 28(6) (Jun 1975) : 606-15.
Bermond, P Acta Vitaminol Enzymol 1982;4(1-2):45-54
Seelig MS, J Am Coll Nutr, 1993 12(4):442-58
American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology (194, 5:e35-e38, 2006).
Dreon D, et al. American Physiological Society Annual Meeting, San Diego, 2003.

[Ed. Note: James LaValle, R.Ph, ND, CCN, is the founding Director of the LaValle Metabolic Institute, one of the largest integrative medicine practices in the country. He was named as one of the 50 most influential pharmacists in the US by American Druggist magazine. Dr. LaValle is the author of more than a dozen books including the bestseller, Cracking the Metabolic Code: 9 Keys to Optimal Health..”

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I have two comments on this article.

First, both the doubling of the CRP reading & the depletion of vitamins B2, B6, and B12, folate, vitamins C and E, magnesium, & of CoQ10 have significant and known health risks.

So this information is a good bit more serious a health threat than it might appear.

Some studies have found that high CRP readings predict heart attack & cardiovascular risk a good bit better than total cholesterol or LDL cholesterol.

In addition, depleting these vitamins increases homocysteine levels. This produces cardiovascular damage & accelerates aging.

(It may be the mechanism that causes the increased inflammation.) It definitely helps explain why smoking increases the risk of birth control pills since smoking also increases homocysteine levels. So women who both smoke and take birth control pills are being hit with two things that raise their homocysteine levels.

Second, this information may well reveal how birth control pills can be taken safely.

The good news is that taking a good multivitamin plus mineral and a good balanced B complex supplement and taking extra B12 of 1,000 micrograms and 1600 iu of folic acid and enough B6 to get the total taken to but not above 75 mg can help.

Also, if a woman is taking birth control pills, she can get her homocysteine level checked directly. Since levels of 9.0 and above tend to produce health damage, if hers are 9.0 or higher, she may need to add 500 or 1,000 mg of NAC & TMG a day each to bring it down – in addition to taking these B vitamins.

Magnesium & CoQ10 both provide essential health protection. So it may be wise for women taking birth control pills to take an extra 200 mg a day of magnesium and 100 mg a day of CoQ10.

Also, sharply increasing your intake of omega 3 oils from fish oil supplements, DHA supplements and eating wild caught fish & beef fed only grass -- plus sharply lowering omega 6 oils by eliminating refined grain foods and oils like corn, safflower, and soy and replacing them with some whole grain foods, vegetables, and olive oils and extra virgin olive oil is a known way to sharply lower CRP and to lower triglycerides. Both those effects reduce health & heart risks.

So, women who take birth control pills would be well advised to make these changes in order to have more omega 3’s and less omega 6’s.

(However, some fish, tuna is one, it’s wise to eat much less often as it’s a bit too high in mercury.)

The bottom line is that it may be safe to take birth control pills if you also monitor CRP and homocysteine and take these foods & supplements to compensate for these effects of the birth control pills.

It certainly looks as if it is NOT wise to take birth control pills if you do not take these protective actions.