THE TRUTH ABOUT PREMARIN
SHOCKING RESULTS
Hopkins: Hormone Therapy and Cardiac Risk, August 24, 1998
of the 4 year HERS Study
BALTIMORE (Johns Hopkins) - There are good reasons for older women to begin hormone replacement therapy. But for now at least, reducing the risk for a future heart attack does not appear to be among them.
Results are in from one of the largest studies of hormone replacement therapy ever conducted. More than 2,700 women with heart disease were studied at 18 different medical centers around the country, including Johns Hopkins. Hopkins cardiologist Dr. Roger Blumenthal was a principal investigator in the study. He says doctors expected to find that a pill combining estrogen and progestin (PremPro) would help lower the risk for a heart attack in women who had already developed heart disease.
"To our surprise, we found that overall, during the 4 year period of the trial, there was no beneficial effect to the hormone therapy," explains Blumenthal. "What is very interesting is that within the first year of the trial there seemed to be an adverse effect of the hormones."
In other words, hormone therapy appeared to raise the risk of a heart attack in these women for the first year, then decrease by the fourth year leaving "no overall benefit. In addition, there was a three-fold increase in venous thromboembolic events (blood clots in the legs and lungs) and a significant increase in gallbladder disease in the user group. Researchers plan on further study to try to get to the bottom of it. The Johns Hopkins University, 1998.
{Ed. Note: Dr. Judith Reichmann, The Today Show's resident M.D., said on August 19, 1998, "There was a 50% increase in heart attacks during the first year for women who were on PremPro, (participating in this study) but that women should continue taking PremPro. ??? Other surprising findings revealed that although the 'good' cholesterol (HDL) increased by 10 per cent and the 'bad' cholesterol (LDL) decreased by 10 per cent, this change had virtually no protective effect. The HERS Study did not provide findings regarding HRT and breast cancer. However, in June of 1998, an extensive review of previous studies by Graham Colditz in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute concluded that HRT substantially increases the risk of breast cancer. Unsurprisingly, the study does not mention how the other estrogen products, Estrace, Ogen, etc., would do since the study was funded by Premarin's manufacturer, Wyeth-Ayerst.}
The HERS report
The FDA has not approved any form of HRT for the prevention of heart disease because the studies conducted to date have been observational only and do not measure up to the standards typically used to prove a drug is effective.
Back to THE TRUTH ABOUT PREMARIN Home Page
Sonja Timmers, e-mail: nrsprntg@athenet.net
Contact page author