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Disease-Free Living Through Fitness and Nutrition

ARTICLES


Hormone Replacement Therapy Linked to Breast Cancer

Adding to evidence that hormone replacement therapy (HRT) can potentially raise a woman's risk of breast cancer, a new US study links recent, long-term HRT with a heightened risk of the disease.
Researchers found that HRT with estrogen alone or estrogen-plus-progestin was associated with a 70% increase in breast cancer risk when the therapy was taken for 5 years within the 6 years preceding the cancer diagnosis.

The findings build on previous research showing a link between long-term HRT and breast cancer and help clear up the question of whether combination HRT and estrogen-only HRT carry similar risks.

In addition, the study of about 1,300 women found that HRT use had a particular link to lobular breast cancer, the form of the disease that begins in the breast's lobules. It is far less common than ductal breast cancer, which begins in the milk ducts.

Women who were recent, long-time users of HRT faced a three-fold risk of lobular cancer compared with women who never used HRT.
These women also had about a 50% increase in the risk of ductal cancer.
JAMA February 13, 2002;287:734-741
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Dr. Josheph Mercola's COMMENT:

After all these years of estrogen hype it is becoming more and more clear to traditional medicine that the benefits of estrogen don't outweigh the risks.

Estrogen has long been proven to not help with heart disease nor prevent Alzheimer's.
 
So that leaves us with osteoporosis. Well, a study published less than a year ago in JAMA showed that estrogen was not helpful to prevent against hip fractures.

Fortunately one can get plenty of vitamin D by getting out in the sunshine, eat plenty of vegetables and exercise to address osteoporosis.

One can only logically conclude that there is no reason for a woman to take hormone replacement therapy, unless her ovaries have been removed or she is interested in getting breast cancer.

Premarin Fails to Benefit Bones, So Let's Use Fosamax Instead???
For years, women have been told that taking hormone replacement therapy (HRT) during menopause may help reduce the risk of fractures, despite the fact that scientific evidence of this was lacking. However, according to a new review of 22 previous studies on the subject, HRT does NOT benefit bones.

In an analysis of trials in which postmenopausal women received HRT, British researchers found that across the studies, HRT cut fracture risk by 27%. But many of the trials were of questionable quality and most were not designed to gauge fracture risk, making them less-than-ideal measures of HRT's effectiveness, according to some experts.

After menopause, women are at increased risk of the bone-thinning disease osteoporosis and its related fractures. Many doctors believe that replacing the estrogen lost through menopause will cut the risk of bone breaks. However, this belief is based on research showing HRT might prevent bone loss.

But there is NO solid evidence on fracture reduction.
The researchers showed NO significant benefit for older women, the age group most at risk of fractures.

Could it be that the number one drug in America, Premarin, is being downplayed so a greater market share can be created for a new drug, Fosamax?

That would not surprise me, and I have certainly seen far worse conflicts of interests in medicine.
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Does Fosamax (Aldrenoate) Prevent Bone Loss? Two New Studies Say It Does, I Say Beware!

Experts Advise Against Hormones for Women's Hearts
Reuters

Monday, July 23, 2001
NEW YORK, Jul 23 (Reuters Health) - In the wake of recent study findings that hormone replacement therapy (HRT) may not protect older women's hearts as once thought, the American Heart Association (AHA) is cautioning doctors not to prescribe HRT for heart reasons alone.
In new guidelines issued Monday, the AHA states that women with cardiovascular disease should not be given HRT for the sole reason of preventing future heart attacks. In fact, its panel of experts advises, heart health should essentially be left out of HRT decisions for these patients.

For these women "the issue about whether it protects your heart is a non-issue," the lead author on the panel's report, Dr. Lori Mosca of New York Presbyterian Hospital, told Reuters Health. The results from controlled trials now show that HRT does not cut the risk of heart attack and death for women with established heart disease, she said.

"Primarily the decision should be based on osteoporosis prevention and menopause symptoms," Mosca said, noting that these benefits must be weighed against the potential risks--namely, higher odds for blood clots, gallbladder disease and possibly breast cancer.

The HRT recommendations are published in the July 24th issue of Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association.

The AHA panel based its advisory on the results of several studies of HRT and heart disease, including the Heart and Estrogen/progestin Replacement Study (HERS). That 4-year trial found that among women with heart disease, taking oral estrogen plus progestin actually raised the risk of recurrent heart attack and death during the first year of use, and thereafter lowered it only slightly.

DR. MERCOLA'S COMMENT:

The truth will eventually surface and science will clearly show beyond any question or shadow of a doubt that nearly all estrogen given in medicine does not protect against heart disease as the majority of the estrogen drug company funded studies would have you believe.

Hormone replacement therapy increases breast cancer risk by at least 1% per year; and HRT with progestin (MDA) increases the risk by 8 % per year (possibly 30% after 4 years of use).

Here are some other studies which confirm the dangers of estrogen.

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