Word: estrogen
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Heart disease. Several studies, including the famous Nurses Health Study that followed 120,000 nurses for more than 10 years, have found that postmenopausal women on estrogen have about half the incidence of heart disease of those who don't take hormones. HRT seems to improve a woman's ratio of good cholesterol (HDL) to bad cholesterol (LDL) and also maintains the pliability of the blood vessels, lessening the risk of blockage...
Osteoporosis. Estrogen is the most effective means of preventing the thinning of bones that makes older women so vulnerable to fractures. Studies have shown that it cuts the risk of hip fractures up to 50% if treatment begins at menopause. And new evidence suggests that it could help prevent devastating fractures even when treatment begins at 70 or older...
Mental deterioration. Several small trials have indicated that estrogen improves memory for postmenopausal women. And a tantalizing study, reported in 1993, found that HRT enhanced the mental function of women with mild to moderate symptoms of Alzheimer's disease...
Colon cancer. A large study released in April found that estrogen users had a 29% lower risk of dying from colon cancer than nonusers. For those on estrogen more than 10 years, the risk was 55% lower...
Given all this, it's no wonder doctors are handing out estrogen prescriptions with almost gleeful enthusiasm. According to researchers at the Food and Drug Administration, estrogen prescriptions in the U.S. more than doubled between 1982 and 1992. About a quarter of U.S. women at or past menopause -- roughly 10 million -- take the hormone, making estrogen a billion-dollar business. As baby boomers approach menopause, those numbers will skyrocket...