Key findings from the Nurses’ Health Study- BWH Bulletin - For and about the People of Brigham and Women's Hospital
Key findings from the Nurses’ Health Study- BWH Bulletin - For and about the People of Brigham and Women's Hospital
Skip to contents
June 1, 2001
Browse the archive
Current issue
In This Issue:
Nurses Health Study
Key findings from the Nurses’ Health Study
Who’s News
Dennis Thomson Compassionate Care Lecture
Fitcorp News
Quality Rounds
BWH 2nd Quarter Stats
While many of the study’s findings in Healthy Women, Healthy Lives are now common knowledge—a link between smoking and heart disease, for example—they made headlines when first unveiled. Among the revelations from the study are:
Hormone replacement therapy (HRT) reduces the risk of osteoporosis, a disease in which bones become porous and prone to fracture. HRT may also lower the risk of heart disease and colon cancer. It may, however, increase the risk of breast cancer, gallbladder disease and blood clots in the lungs.
Women who drink moderate amounts of alcohol have a 30 percent higher risk of breast cancer than non-drinkers. Those who consume two or more alcoholic drinks per day, whether it be beer, wine or alcohol, are at even greater risk.
Regular exercise, including brisk walking, protects against heart disease, stroke, diabetes and colon cancer. In helping to keep weight down, it also cuts the risk of many other diseases.
Obese women are about three times more likely to develop heart disease, twice as likely to have a stroke, and 50 percent more likely to develop colon cancer than lean women. Being overweight also increases the risk type 2 diabetes, endometrial cancer, gallstones, kidney stones and asthma. Losing a modest amount of weight confers significant health benefits, as does maintaining a steady weight throughout adulthood.
Women taking birth control pills for at least five years are half as likely to develop ovarian and endometrial cancers as those who’ve never taken them—and the protective effect lasts for at least a decade. However, women taking oral contraceptives have a slightly higher risk of breast cancer than those who don’t.
Eating lots of fruits and vegetables, especially citrus fruits and green leafy vegetables, helps protect against heart disease, stroke and some cancers. Nuts, once shunned as fattening, may trim the risk of clogged arteries and heart disease.