This section of my website used to be dedicated to triathlon training, personal race results and certification reviews, like Turbo Kick. I am expanding it to include more generic health & fitness topics. Also, I talk a lot about "D" -- he's my husband (Dave Liu)!

Wednesday, May 28, 2003

Hormone Supplements May Increase Risk of Dimentia

According to this Wall Street Journal (WSJ) article (subscription may be required) and New York Times (NYT) article, a new study has shown that hormone therapy "doubled the risk of Alzheimer's disease and other types of dementia in women who began the treatment at age 65 or older", quite the opposite of previously held beliefs.

The results are from the Women's Health Initiative, which the WSJ describes as "the largest and most rigorous set of human studies to test hormone replacements in prevention of disease, rather than relief of symptoms of menopause". NYT says that the findings are from a "four-year experiment involving 4,532 women at 39 medical centers. Half took placebos, and half took Prempro, a combination of estrogen and progestin, the most widely prescribed type of hormone therapy". The new report on dementia is being published today in The Journal of the American Medical Association.

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