Hormone Therapy, Antioxidants Do Not Protect Against Heart Disease

A study of 423 postmenopausal women with heart disease has shown that hormone therapy and high-dose antioxidant vitamins?either alone or in combination with hormones?do not protect against heart attacks, death, or progression of coronary disease.

In fact, participants taking both hormones and vitamins had the highest death rate, whereas participants on placebo versions of both treatments had the lowest death rate.

Furthermore, participants taking hormones and vitamins had either more or equal progression of their coronary disease, compared with participants taking placebo versions of these treatments. These findings were reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association (November 20, 2002).