The Link Between Estrogen and Arthritis

Media coverage of medical research studies can be unreliable—with results that are narrow and preliminary often getting blown out of proportion by sensational story lines. And in fact, sometimes the studies themselves can be unreliable too—there can be errors in methodology or sample size, for instance. Because of this, it is often dangerous to put your faith in any one article or study. Instead, it is generally a good idea to wait until there is a preponderance of evidence on a topic before acting on it. However, when a research institute conducts a focused, condition-specific double blind study of over ten thousand people spanning the course of two years, you should probably pay attention to the results. That is what the Los Angeles Biomedical Research Institute did, analyzing the effects of estrogen replacement therapy on thousands of menopausal and post-menopausal women, most of whom presented with moderate to severe joint pain in one form or another, usually caused by arthritis. The study was surprisingly very conclusive, and the results were impressive. Read more…