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Study links birth control pill to artery-clogging plaque

Digg del.icio.us Newsvine Reddit Facebook What's this? By Steve Sternberg, USA TODAY
ORLANDO — Birth control pills have been linked for the first time to plaques that could potentially endanger the heart, doctors here said Tuesday.
A study of 1,301 women ages 33 to 55 suggests that the likelihood of finding plaques in key arteries increased by 20% to 30% for every 10 years of pill use, Ernst Rietzschel, of Ghent University in Belgium, told an American Heart Association meeting here.

The study also links the pill to potentially artery-clogging plaque in women who no longer use oral contraception, he says, noting that 81% of women in the study took the pill, on average, for 13 years. Doctors cautioned that the study is small and should be confirmed by more research.

The pill is the world's most popular form of contraception. About 12 million women take it in the USA, says the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Despite the widespread use of the pill, researchers have never linked it with heart attacks or strokes, though it's well known to increase blood pressure and raise a woman's risk of getting blood clots. Many of the women in the study used pills with higher doses of estrogen than are used today. "We don't know whether effects will be the same for women taking the pill today," Rietzschel says, adding, "There's no reason to stop taking the pill abruptly; the study needs to be replicated."

FIND MORE STORIES IN: Sternberg
"I think it's a wake-up call," says Jennifer Mieres, of New York University School of Medicine. "If you're going to take birth control pills, you need to be aggressive about reducing your other risk factors: smoking, high blood pressure, cholesterol, diet and lifestyle."

The finding turned up by chance, when doctors studying residents in two Belgian towns found that women who used the pills had triple the expected levels of an enzyme linked with cardiovascular inflammation.

Researchers used ultrasound to test the carotid arteries on each side of the neck and femoral arteries in each leg. A woman's odds of having plaque in one carotid artery went up by 17% and in both carotids by 42% for every 10 years of pill use. The odds of having plaque in a single femoral artery went up by 28% and in both by 34%.

"I'm struck by this, because I'm telling patients that there's no evidence of any increased risk for a woman now because she once used birth control pills," says Sharon Hayes, of the Mayo Clinic. "The fact that these investigators have found it warrants further study."

http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2007-11-06-birth-control-heart_N.htm
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Posted: 11/ 07/ 07 1:28 pm Post subject:

When you consider that until just recently all heart disease research was only done on men this is not suprising. Women who appear at an ER for a heart problem are more likely to receive a pat on the head and a there there rather can an EKG. I would think that a considerable amount of these same women took birth control pills during their lifetime.
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Posted: 01/ 29/ 10 10:15 am Post subject:

Still, beats the alternative.

Posted: 01/ 29/ 10 6:15 pm Post subject:

Posted: 01/ 29/ 10 6:20 pm Post subject:

As soon as I read something like this I assume another motive. The religious freaks know no bounds. NOT having sex is equivalent to abortion to them.
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Opinions expressed by RedDog on Free Dominion are those of RedDog alone and are in no way intended to represent the views of Free Dominion, its principals or moderators.
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Posted: 01/ 29/ 10 6:26 pm Post subject:

Posted: 02/ 13/ 10 5:39 am Post subject:

Posted: 02/ 13/ 10 11:51 am Post subject:

Posted: 02/ 14/ 10 3:01 pm Post subject:

ANYTHING that works against the natural processes of the physical body, INCLUDING medicine, is guaranteed to have derogatopry side effects, some of them serious.

Birth control pills are not exempt from this fact.

This brings us down to the MORAL issue of what is more important, weak and coweirdly males using women and as a penalty that is BY THE WAY, PAID BY WOMEN, having them exposed to physical danger OR is it more important to CONTROL oneself and/or if they choose to become sexually intimate, to accept responsibility for their actions?

Posted: 02/ 14/ 10 3:58 pm Post subject:

Maybe the type of woman who engages in promiscuity is simply more likely to engage in other unhealthy habits like smoking, eating lot's of fat, and being stressed...etc..

Posted: 02/ 14/ 10 4:00 pm Post subject:

Posted: 02/ 14/ 10 5:12 pm Post subject:

Posted: 02/ 14/ 10 8:28 pm Post subject:

Posted: 02/ 14/ 10 8:31 pm Post subject:

Posted: 02/ 14/ 10 8:39 pm Post subject:

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