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A study has found that HRT raises the risk of heart attacks by increasing blood levels of a substance called C-reactive protein (CRP). And women with higher levels of CRP and another substance, interleukin 6, have higher risk - regardless of HRT. You might recall that earlier this year there was a great to-do about hormone replacement therapy (HRT), and how it increased the risk of heart disease and breast cancer. It came from a huge trial involving tens of thousands of women. Now more is coming out from this trial that puts the issue into a bit more perspective and gives women helpful information about their risk of heart disease. The study measured two substances in the blood which are a sign of the kind of inflammation that goes on in damaged arteries. One's called C-reactive protein (CRP) and the other interleukin 6 (IL-6). The theory is that HRT raises CRP and IL-6 and that's why the risk of heart attacks goes up. But while the study showed that HRT did raise CRP levels, it didn't touch IL-6. The other and far more important finding was that women's risk of a heart attack was more closely related to how high their CRP and IL-6 levels were at the start of the study than whether they were on HRT or not. In other words, HRT was less of a risk than those signs of inflammation, which by the way – and here's the good news – tend to decline when you quit cigarettes, eat well, and take exercise.
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