Results tagged “hormone replacement therapy” from The Health Culture

The US government, through the Centers for Disease Control, has an official opinion on how much exercise we need. Adults should get 30 minutes a day, five days of week, of moderate activity, such as brisk walking. This doesn't need to happen in 30-minute segments. Ten minutes at a time is enough, as long as it adds up to 150 minutes in a week.

Does this seem too good to be true? Whatever happened to running, jogging, and aerobics with Jane Fonda? Is brisk walking really enough to make a difference in health and longevity?

There was a widely reported story today about hormone replacement therapy (HRT) and a decrease in the size of women's brains. The headlines were predictably but needlessly sensational. In fact, the study did not measure a decrease in the brain size of any individual woman.

First, the headlines. There were 27 stories listed when I checked Google news this afternoon. 19 of these (70 percent) used the word "shrink," definitely a frightening choice of words when talking about one's brain. Five stories (18.5 percent) used a less provocative descriptor: brain-tissue loss... reduced brain size... reduction in brain volume... affects brain mass... loss of brain tissue... You get the idea. Three stories (11 percent) elected not to refer to brain size in the headline. But two of those talked about brain "shrinkage" in the first paragraph, another waited until the third. So all of these stories led you to believe that the brains of women on HRT got smaller.

The rush of stories was based on two papers published in the January 13 issue of Neurology. The primary paper analyzed brain scans for abnormal tissue (lesions) in blood vessels. The second paper analyzed MRIs of the brain and reported:

Much to our surprise, we found a small but significant decrease in the hippocampal and frontal volumes, and a nonsignificant trend towards reduced total brain volume in women who had been randomized to hormone therapy.

I haven't had an opportunity to see the original study, but none of the quotations I have seen use the word "shrink."