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HRT may help heart, Swedish research says

...Manhem's research was funded by the university and had no financial ties to the pharmaceutical industry.The HRT regimen appeared to benefit women's cardiac health, according to the study, which was presented at a recent annual meeting of the American Society of Hypertension in San Francisco."The main finding is that oral hormone-replacement therapy does seem to decrease the left ventricular mass of the heart," Manhem said.Most interestingly, this benefit was only apparent in women not taking blood pressure medications called angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors � drugs that work on a specific chemical system linked to blood pressure."So I think � although, I don't know for sure right now � that HRT might act as a mild ACE inhibitor, in some way interacting with (this) system," Manhem said.The Swedish researcher believes the study results aren't necessarily at odds with the WHI findings."That study started to treat women later in life, at 60 years of age or older," Manhem pointed out.

"In our study, the women were 56 years old on average; they weren't as old.

Estrogen might lose its ability to act as positively in older women."Dr.

Anthony Grieco, a staff physician in obstetrics and gynecology at the Ochsner Clinic Foundation in New Orleans, said the researchers "did seem to get improvement in muscle mass of the heart" using HRT.

"It does sound as if low-dose (therapy) is of beneficial effect," he added.He noted that although the overall WHI results seem to r...

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HRT may help heart, Swedish research says