10) HRT, Drinking Milk Tied to Cancer Hormone in Women
    [09/11/2002; Reuters Health]

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Drinking milk may raise blood levels
of a cancer-promoting hormone in women, according to two recent
studies. What's more, taking hormone replacement therapy (HRT)
or having multiple children appears to reduce levels of the hormone.

But it is too soon to recommend that women avoid milk products,
since it is not clear whether milk, or a particular component
of milk, is the culprit, the study authors point out. Similarly,
more research is needed into the effects of HRT on cancer risk,
since a large study recently found that taking HRT increased
the risk of breast cancer, they note. 

"We cannot yet make the leap to say that higher levels of milk
intake will increase the risk of cancer," Dr. Michelle D. Holmes,
the primary investigator of both reports, told Reuters Health.
"Foods are complicated, with many components, and they may have
many different actions on the body." 

The data on more than 1,000 women analyzed in both reports was
drawn from the Nurses' Health Study, the longest national health
study conducted in women. The findings are published in the September
issue of Cancer Epidemiology Biomarkers and Prevention. 

The full article can be found at:

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20020910/hl_nm/cancer_women_dc_1

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