AAcckk! Off-topic bad science (RJV) (fwd)

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PHIPPS
Pee-u !  What a stinker.  (Not you, Jason.  The study)  It's way
of-topic, but I've *gotta* respond.
Maybe there's more to the study than this, and if so I'm happy to
retract.  But there are just so many other differences in the
physiologies (and statistically in the lifestyles) of the genders, that
to say the heart attack risk is related to the relatively minor amount
of blood loss seems wildly speculative.  

<Snip>
peace,
jp

RJV 1/13 Later
Well,
  I did some more searching around, and found it on a web site.  I
couldn't remember if I read it in a medical journal or some other mags I
get.  Unfortunately I threw most out, but after getting your message, I
thought I'd check discover....
 
http://magazines.enews.com/magazines/discover/magtxt/9712-2.html#10

Here's the article...

Personally, I'm surprised the Red Cross hasn't jumped all over this.  What
a great way to advertise to get people to donate blood...

*********************************************************************

The Benefits of Bleeding

BEFORE MENOPAUSE, women suffer only about half as many heart attacks as
men of similar age do. But after menopause the statistics even out. Many
medical researchers suspect that because estrogen production drops sharply
after menopause, the hormone might somehow help ward off heart disease.
But a recent study suggests that in addition to estrogen, the monthly loss
of blood may protect women from heart disease, and that men might benefit
by regularly donating blood. 

David Meyers, a cardiologist at Kansas University Medical Center, became
interested in a possible link between blood loss and heart disease after
reading about a Finnish study that found that men with high levels of iron
in their blood had more than twice the risk of heart attacksthan men with
lower levels. He wondered whether the regular loss of blood, by depleting
the body's iron reserves, might reduce that risk. 

To find out, Meyers studied a group of Nebraskans who had participated in
a health survey ten years ago. He followed up on 3,855 men and women in
the original survey, all of whom are now over 40, and noted how many went
on to develop heart disease and how many had donated blood in the past
decade. Meyers found that men who had donated blood at least once in the
last three years were 30 percent less likely to have developed heart
disease. He found no difference for women between donors and nondonors. 

What causes the effect? When women menstruate, the blood loss also reduces
their stores of iron. Women typically have about half as much iron as men.
Iron, researchers believe, acts as a catalyst in cholesterol oxidation,
transforming cholesterol into a more dangerous molecule. "Cholesterol is
kind of a mild irritant, but oxidized cholesterol is just a really nasty
irritant," he says. "It causes lots of scar formation in the arteries,
hardening them." 

Meyers believes that more studies are necessary to make sure that blood
loss does indeed lower the risk of heart disease. It's possible, he says,
that the earlier studies may just reflect that blood donors tend to be
healthier than nondonors. "To answer that question, it's going to take
another decade of trials where we randomly decide who will and who will
not donate blood," says Meyers. "Then we'll see what happens." 

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