Do these heavily promoted hormones justify the claims made for them?

Ever since Harvard Women’s Health Watch began publication in 1993, our readers have been concerned about the risks and benefits of postmenopausal hormones. In the past few years, there’s been growing interest in “bioidentical” hormones, which are promoted as safer and more effective than FDA-approved hormones. The interest is driven in no small part by claims made in entertainer Suzanne Somers’ 2006 book, Ageless: The Naked Truth About Bioidentical Hormones (and her January 2009 appearance on the Oprah Winfrey Show).

Somers endorses the use of bioidentical hormones not just ...

Constant noise in the head rarely indicates a serious health problem, but it sure can be annoying. Here’s how to minimize it.

Tinnitus (pronounced tih-NITE-us or TIN-ih-tus) is sound in the head with no external source. For many, it’s a ringing sound, while for others, it’s whistling, buzzing, chirping, hissing, humming, roaring, or even shrieking. (To get an idea of what people with tinnitus hear, go to www.ata.org/sounds-of-tinnitus.) The sound may seem to come from one ear or both, from inside the head, or from a distance. It may be constant or intermittent, steady or pulsating.

Almost everyone has had ...

With age come changes in the structure and quality of our sleep. After about age 60, we have less deep (slow-wave) sleep and more rapid sleep cycles, we awaken more often, and we sleep an average of two hours less at night than we did as young adults. It was once thought that older people didn’t need as much sleep as younger ones, but experts now agree that’s not the case. Regardless of age, we typically need seven-and-a-half to eight hours of sleep to function at our best. So if you’re not getting enough sleep at night, what about daytime ...

Annual screening for ovarian cancer with the CA-125 blood test and transvaginal ultrasound (TVUS) does not reduce a woman’s risk of dying from the disease, according to the results of a large clinical trial sponsored by the National Cancer Institute. Ovarian cancer is 90% curable when treated early, but most cases are diagnosed late, when the five-year survival rate is less than 30%. Nearly 14,000 women die from the disease every year.

As part of the Prostate, Lung, Colorectal, and Ovarian Cancer Screening Trial, researchers at the University of Utah evaluated whether yearly screening could lead to earlier detection and ...

Q. Could you discuss the benefits of creatine supplements for older, postmenopausal women? Are there any drawbacks?

A. Creatine is a substance made in our bodies from the amino acids arginine, glycine, and methionine. Amino acids are the chemical building blocks of protein; we get them from dietary protein. The body makes 1 to 2 grams of creatine a day, and we also get creatine from certain foods, such as fish and meat. Most (95%) of the body’s creatine is located in muscle, though some is found in other tissues, including the brain and retina.

Creatine increases energy by producing ...