TWO NEW KLRI PEER-REVIEWED PUBLICATIONS: Hormone Therapy May Reduce Atherosclerosis in Women Close to Menopause; Growth Hormone May Increase Risk of Diabetes, Improve Lipid Prof...( PHOENIX Aug. 3 -- ...),Health

PHOENIX, Aug. 3 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Phoenix-based Kronos Longevity Research Institute (KLRI) has published two new publications on hormone therapies and their effects on reducing the risks of cardiovascular disease in older adults.

Cardiovascular disease caused by atherosclerosis, or the build-up of plaques along the arterial wall, is the greatest single killer of American women--40% of total deaths--and the rate of mortality is nearly as high for men. Atherosclerosis can lead to the blockage of arteries that commonly support the heart, brain, kidneys and extremities, and cause blood clots, heart attacks and stroke.

Published in the American Society for Reproductive Medicine's Menopausal Medicine, KLRI publications findings were twofold that there are certain benefits to menopausal hormone therapy (HT) in newly postmenopausal women, but that there are risks and a potential loss of benefit to estrogen therapy in women who have been postmenopausal for several years and may have pre-existing atherosclerosis.

"This research continues to underscore the theory that estrogen may be cardio-protective if administered close to menopause," said Dr. S. Mitchell Harman, M.D., Ph.D., KLRI's Director and President.

The Postmenopausal Estrogen/Progestin Interventions (PEPI) trial compared conjugated equine estrogen (CEE) with three different CEE-progestin combinations and placebo in 875 healthy, postmenopausal women, aged 45 to 64. KLRI has found that other trial results used by the FDA, American Heart Association and other groups began menopausal HT use much later than in usual clinical practice--beginning trials on women of a median age of 63, as opposed to 51 (the average age of menopause in the United States). Younger women saw benefits from menopausal HT; older women saw the opposite.

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