Arch Intern Med
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The "timing hypothesis," in addressing findings from the Women's Health Initiative trial, suggests that hormone therapy (HT) should be initiated within 6 years of the menopause transition to extend a favorable estrogenic environment after menopause. ⋯ Although HT users had some more favorable lipid profiles than premenopausal and postmenopausal women, there was evidence of adverse HT effects even in women free of atherosclerosis studied within the approximate 6-year period proposed with the timing hypothesis.
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Diabetes mellitus is common, costly, and increasingly prevalent. Despite innovations in therapy, little is known about patterns and costs of drug treatment. ⋯ Increasingly complex and costly diabetes treatments are being applied to an increasing population. The magnitude of these rapid changes raises concerns about whether these more costly therapies will result in proportionately improved outcomes.
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A hospital admission provides an opportunity to help people stop smoking. Providing smoking cessation advice, counseling, or medication is now a quality-of-care measure for US hospitals. We assessed the effectiveness of smoking cessation interventions initiated during a hospital stay. ⋯ Offering smoking cessation counseling to all hospitalized smokers is effective as long as supportive contacts continue for more than 1 month after discharge. Adding nicotine replacement therapy to counseling may further increase smoking cessation rates and should be offered when clinically indicated, especially to hospitalized smokers with nicotine withdrawal symptoms.