Never Mind: Some Very Bad Science

A new WSJ report by Tara Parker-Pope says that the NIH halted studies of hormone therapy in menopausal and post menopausal women based on a stunningly inaccurate reading of the data. The study showed that, overall, women in the study receiving hormone thearapy had higher rates of bad outcomes (cancer, heart disease) than women who didn't. This triggered a massive shift from such therapy by women and their doctors.

The new study of the same data shows that the adverse statistical effects were confined to women over sixty. For women in their fifties, the story was different:
WHI data published in April in the Journal of the American Medical Association showed that women in their 50s who took a combination of estrogen and progestin or estrogen alone had a 30% lower risk of dying than women who didn't take hormones.

Last month, the New England Journal of Medicine reported that 50-59-year-old women in the WHI who regularly used estrogen alone showed a 60% lower risk for severe coronary artery calcium, an important risk factor for heart attack.

The current, more nuanced interpretation of the data does not resolve all the issues.

Is it just coincidence that yet another huge blunder occurred on George Bush's watch? Maybe.

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