Most US women face stroke risk

Research on two continents signaled more bad news for menopause hormones,offering the strongest evidence yet that they can raise the risk of breast cancer and are tied to a slightly higher risk of ovarian cancer.New US government numbers showed that breast cancer rates levelled off in 2004 after plunging in 2003-the year after millions of women stopped taking hormones because a big study tied them to higher stroke and breast cancer risks.Experts said the levelling off shows that the 2003 drop in the cancer rate was real and not a fluke.The trend was even stronger for the most common form of the disease-tumours whose growth is fuelled by hormones .

Canadian researchers have found that a hormone generated during pregnancy may be a potent tool in fighting multiple sclerosis,the crippling disease of the central nervous system, according to a new report.Taking note that MS often goes into remission in pregnant women, scientists at the university of calgary studied the way that the hormone prolactin, generated during pregnancy, acts to protect myelin, the all-important substance which coats nerve cells and helps conduct messages through the central nervous system. Studying mice, the scientists showed that prolactin helps the formation of new myelin, according toa summary of their research. In people with MS,myelin is attacked and damaged by the body's own immune system.