Posted on 11/07/2007 11:46:06 AM PST by Pyro7480
CHICAGO (AFP) - Women who use oral contraceptives are at increased risk for developing hardened arteries, a condition that can lead to heart attack or stroke, according to a study released Tuesday
Belgian researchers found that women who had used the hormones were more likely to have plaques, or a buildup of fatty tissue, on their arteries than women who didn't use this form of birth control.
Atherosclerosis, or furring of the arteries, typically occurs with age. Complications include heart attack or stroke, which occur when unstable pieces of plaque break off and block a blood vessel leading to the heart or brain.
The findings do not mean that women should suddenly abandon this form of birth control, the authors cautioned.
"The implications are not that women should stop taking the pill. They should look at reducing other risk factors for cardiovascular disease," said Ernst Rietzschel, a cardiologist at the University of Ghent in Belgium.
"They should watch their blood pressure and cholesterol levels, exercise and eat right. If they can limit their exposure (to oral contraceptives), that's good too," he said.
Rietzschel based his findings on a study of 1,300 Belgian women between the ages of 35 and 55. Some 81 percent had used oral contraceptives for an average period of 13 years.
Using ultrasound scans to look at the femoral artery in the leg and the carotid artery in the neck, the researchers found a surprising incidence of atherosclerosis among otherwise healthy women who had taken the pill.
They also noted that the rates of the disease increased dramatically with every decade of usage, rising by between 20 and 30 percent for every 10 years of use.
Rietzschel said the findings could mean we are on the cusp of an increase in heart disease among women now entering their 60s - the first generation of women to use this form of birth control.
"We are coming to a stage where we might see the clinical consequences," he said. "We are the foot of a wave, but we cannot gauge the height of the wave that is coming." The paper was presented at a meeting of the American Heart Association in Orlando, Florida.
To paraphrase what someone I know said after reading this information, these researchers would rather women increase their chance of dying from a heart attack or a stroke long-term than deal with the "inconvenience" of having a kid. That's messed up.
Ping!
Yeah, but in Maine they're only 11 years old. They have a couple of solid decades ahead of them.
Nobody knows how specific in action a body hormone is. Just because scientists have called estrogen a sex hormone, the label does not guarantee the point that this particular hormone will only act on things pertaining to reproduction. It could have myriads of other actions on other parts of the body, actions that haven’t yet been studied by the scientific community yet.
That said, it is certainly idiotic for someone who is otherwise healthy to pump their systems with artificial hormones, over significant portions of their lifetime, in order to curtail a natural function. Hormones are like the body’s control chemicals. Their effects may not be in proportion with quantity.
The other issue nobody is talking about is synthetic hormones vs. natural hormones. Drug companies cannot patent the natural form of a hormone, so they tinker with the molecule when creating a drug (such as birth control pills, or HRT). The result is something not quite what our bodies are used to, with the effects unstudied and unknown. The molecular structure of most synthetic hormones differs from the natural as much (or more) than the difference between estrogen and testosterone. Most people know that estrogen has vastly different effects on the body than testosterone. Nobody knows what all the effects of these synthetic hormones are.
Birth control pills load the body up on a hormone....screwing around with the internal systems....what do they expect?....it’s kinda like menopausal women taking HRT....they’re screwing around with hormones, without balancing them....they really need to BALANCE hormones - AND, they need to look at their “Estrogen Quotient” also to avoid breast cancer.
AND, they need to balance hormones with BIO-IDENTICAL Compounded Hormones transdermally applied.
I think there are other side effects still unknown...because they don’t look for them...one of them is Thyroid problems.
I’ve been doing this for probably 10 yrs - to great success.
Fixed it for ya.
Anyone still wondering about the epidemic of infertility?
That’s true as well.
Seriously! Could anyone imagine a tobacco story which has right in the middle of it:
“researchers caution, however, against the implication that people should quit smoking altogether.”
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LOL! Your response is exactly what I was thinking. You’re at risk of dying but, hey, don’t stop using this drug. Just watch other factors instead so you can continue to have sex without consequences. Ugh!
Birth control pill causes artery-clogging plaque
A new study has shown a link between the birth control pill and artery-clogging plaque. More than 1,300 women aged 33 to 55 participated in this study. The discovery happened 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.” It was found that a woman’s chance of getting plaque in her arteries increased by 20 to 30 percent for every 10 years she is taking the birth control pill.
It has already been proven that the birth control pill can cause health risks. The pill can cause weight gain, acne, breast and cervical cancer and infertility. It lowers immunity to STDs and can also kill the baby that is inside the mother. Not only can the birth control pill cause abortions and increase chances of breast and cervical cancer, but now it has been proven that the birth control pill can endanger a woman’s heart.
Of course you wouldn’t find any of these scientific facts in Planned Parenthood’s “medically accurate” sex education programs. Planned Parenthood received an estimated $180 million of its $345.1 million clinic income during the 2005-2006 fiscal year from the sales of birth control products, including the pill.
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