Word: estrogen
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...ESTROGEN...
...part of the big government-funded study known as the Women's Health Initiative was abruptly halted in 2002 after researchers found that women who took estrogen and progestin to replace the hormones lost during menopause raised their risk of heart disease, stroke and breast cancer. This year the National Institutes of Health shut down another arm of the study, one involving women who had had a hysterectomy and were taking estrogen therapy without progestin. It turns out that taking estrogen alone also raises a woman's risk of stroke and blood clots. There are benefits from taking estrogen--among...
...over 65, it's a good idea to take a bone-mineral-density test every few years. It measures how "full" your bones are. If you have osteoporosis or advanced osteopenia, your doctor may prescribe drugs such as bisphosphonates or estrogen substitutes as well as a weight-training program. If you've already suffered a fracture, injections of parathyroid hormone can actually rebuild bone...
Caution may be in order. No one wants a repeat of the problems that happened with diethylstilbestrol (DES), a synthetic estrogen-like drug that was used in the 1950s and '60s to prevent premature delivery and turned out to cause, among other things, reproductive-tract abnormalities and a rare cancer. Unlike DES, however, progesterone has a long safety record. And it is not being used in the earliest days of pregnancy, when birth defects are more likely to occur. What progesterone doesn't have is a major manufacturer, because the drug is not protected by a patent. Instead...
Meanwhile, you have other options for keeping your bones strong. Exercising with weights and making sure you have enough calcium and vitamin D in your diet are good ways to start. Estrogen, which used to be prescribed to postmenopausal women in part to prevent osteoporosis, is no longer recommended because it carries too high a risk of breast cancer. And there are other drug treatments available that are safe and effective...