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Low Dose Estrogen May Help Men's Hearts

By UPI
Contributed by Maiki
Atlanta
March 31, 1998

Estrogen, a hormone normally associated with protecting women's hearts, may help men's hearts as well.

Researchers say that when elderly men are given low doses of estrogen their bad cholesterol decreases, their good cholesterol increases and other risk factors improve - without serious, long-lasting or unpleasant side effects.

Dr. Satyendra Giri, a fellow in cardiology at the University of Connecticut, says the study was prompted by research which shows estrogen replacement therapy reduces heart risk among post-menopausal woman. He wondered if similar effects could occur with men.

Studies in the 1970s had mixed results in the use of estrogen supplements in men. Many of the men taking high doses had bad side effects. But Giri says a small group of patients in those studies did seem to benefit with from lower doses of estrogen without the side effects.

Now, 20 years later, he says he is investigating low dose estrogen to determine just what the hormone can do for men's hearts. He gave oral doses of estrogen to 22 healthy, elderly men whose average age was 74, and then tracked changes in risk factors in the blood and side effects. He found:

_HDL or ''good'' cholesterol, which protects against heart disease, increased 14 percent.

_LDL or ''bad'' cholesterol, which increases risk of heart attack, decreased 6 percent.

_Homocysteine, an independent risk factor for heart disease, decreased 11 percent.

_Fibrinogen, a substance which promotes the production of blood clots that can cause heart attacks, decreased 12 percent.

_PLA-1, another protein associated with clot development, decreased 26 percent.

_Four of 22 men suffered breast tenderness; five of the 22 reported heartburn, but these side effects were transient and didn't force the men out of the trial.

Dr. Paul Thompson, director of preventive cardiology at Hartford Hospital, says, ''We hope the study will encourage pharmaceutical companies to try and develop estrogen products for men that don't have side effects.''

Giri says the study is preliminary, so recommendations for estrogen use by men would not be appropriate based on the trial.

However, he says, ''The lower doses tested _ less than one milligram a day _ seem to be as effective as the two milligram doses in reducing some of these heart disease risk factors.''



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