For Immediate Release
Contact: Theresa L. Thompson, PhD
Research Director
Dimera Incorporated
Phone Number: 503-295-2775
FAX Number: 503-295-2757
Email Address: tlt@dimera.netNovel Insights for Heart Disease in Women
Portland, OR, July 17, 2008 – Heart disease is the leading cause of death and a major cause of disability among women in the United States. Diagnosing and effectively treating heart disease is more difficult in women than men. Four prominent scientists, Drs. Hermsmeyer, Thompson, Pohost, and Kaski, writing in the July issue of Nature Clinical Practice Cardiovascular Medicine, have reported novel insights and called upon the medical community to reconsider and fully explore the benefits of progesterone treatment of menopausal women who suffer from cardiac chest pain and related sleep disturbances.
Until recently, many women used hormone replacement therapy (HRT) to help reduce their risk of heart disease. But when the outcomes of large randomized clinical trials failed to demonstrate cardiac benefits, women and their physicians abandoned HRT. In fact, current medical practice guidelines advise against HRT for the purpose of reducing cardiovascular (CV) risk in post-menopausal women.
Lead author Dr. Kent Hermsmeyer asserts that, “it is important to remember that the hormone replacement therapy rejected by these landmark studies did not involve use of progesterone; in distinction, most HRT involves use of a synthetic progestin called medroxyprogesterone acetate, which does not exhibit the heart protective effects offered by progesterone. Rather than simply rejecting all steroid hormone supplement therapies, it is time to consider what is known and what is not known in the heart research in women reported to date.”
The NIH supported projects leading to this publication were conducted by Dimera in association with Cardiology Consultants in Medford Oregon, the Oregon National Primate Research Center, the Washington National Primate Research Center, and with contributions of respected FAHA authors Gerald M Pohost at the University of Southern California and Juan Carlos Kaski at St George’s Hospital Medical School in London UK.
Dimera investigators correctly predicted that progesterone, a naturally occurring hormone, plays an important role in reducing CV risk in post-menopausal women. They contend that the apparent blanket condemnation of steroid hormones has not sufficiently distinguished between the CV actions of progesterone and the synthetic progestin that was used in HRT.
The article cites the mounting evidence that progesterone improves CV function and proposes that it improves heart health and well being. It also points out that the route of administration is key, and that delivering progesterone in a vanishing cream that is applied to the skin is a safe, effective way to help women reduce CV risk, relieve heart-related chest pain, and consequently improve their likelihood of undisturbed sleep and improved quality of life.
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