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Researchers
report that women who take hormone replacement therapy (HRT)
after menopause appear to reduce their risks of cataracts.
The researchers,
who examined more than 500 menopausal women who took part
in two long-term studies, the Framingham Heart Study and the
Framingham Eye Study, reported that taking estrogen supplements
after menopause appears to reduce the chance that the lens
in the eye, which must remain clear for good vision, would
start to become cloudy.
The researchers
reported not only that those taking estrogen were less likely
to develop the signs of cataracts, but found that the longer
they had been taking estrogen, the less the risk of developing
clouding of the lens.
"Women
who had taken estrogen for 10 years or longer had a 60 percent
reduction in risk compared with nonusers," the researchers
said in their report in the Archives of Internal Medicine.
"Data
from our study and other studies suggest that a reduction
in the risk of lens opacities may be an additional benefit
of postmenopausal estrogen use," the researchers concluded.
Source:
Medical Week staff,
week of July 22, 2001
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