Word: estrogenous
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 2000-2009
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...years, it has seemed obvious that taking estrogen is good for a woman's heart. Most women don't suffer heart attacks until they've gone through menopause and their bodies no longer produce much of the hormone. But researchers discovered a funny thing when they tried to prove the obvious. Taking estrogen doesn't always protect women against heart disease--and may sometimes make matters worse...
...FORGET ESTROGEN? It looks like estrogen may not be an effective treatment for Alzheimer's, after all. Doctors had every reason to believe it might be; studies show it may prevent the brain-deteriorating disease, and several preliminary reports suggested it could actually be used to treat it. But now the largest and longest study on the subject--100 women with mild to moderate Alzheimer's who took estrogen for a year--finds that the drug did nothing to improve patients' memory, attention span or language skills...
ANDRO STRIKES OUT Good thing Mark McGwire stopped taking it. In doses of 300 mg daily, androstenedione, the over-the-counter supplement the slugger used during his record 70-home-run season, can raise testosterone above normal levels and increase blood levels of the female hormone estrogen. Both are potentially hazardous. In men, elevated testosterone may lower good HDL cholesterol; in women, it's linked to beard growth and male-pattern baldness; and in kids, it can cause premature puberty. And elevated estrogen? In guys, that can lead to breast enlargement...
...assumed that estrogen and estrogen-progestin were the same," says UCLA breast surgeon Dr. Susan Love, a prominent critic of hormone-replacement therapy. "Suddenly we are starting to get evidence that they're not." Like many others, Love is eagerly awaiting the findings of a large clinical trial launched by the Women's Health Initiative in 1993. That trial, which involves nearly 30,000 women between the ages of 50 and 79, is specifically designed to assess the pros and cons of estrogen-progestin therapy. The first results won't be ready for five more years...
...preventing bone loss and heart disease. The American Heart Association, for example, recommends the use of cholesterol-lowering drugs as the front-line treatment of choice for women whose blood lipids remain high despite diet and exercise. Similarly, there are new drugs designed to combat bone loss, including estrogen look-alikes that appear to act as antigrowth factors in the breast. As new and better drugs become available, the case for long-term hormone replacement will weaken...