What's Ahead for Health in 2008

Cardiology: Will HRT Make a Comeback?

Nieca Goldberg, MD, a New York City-based cardiologist and the medical director of the New York University Women's Heart Program and author of several books including the forthcoming Dr. Nieca Goldberg's Complete Guide to Women's Health, fears that 2008 may bring about some disheartening news.

"If we don't get young people to quit smoking, we will see a resurgence of heart disease in the future," she says.

Hormone replacement therapy (HRT) may make the news again in 2008, she says. The use of hormones fell from grace in the summer of 2002 when the U.S. government halted the hormone arm of the Women's Health Initiative early because of an increased risk of heart attack.

"We are going to get some more fine-tuned information about hormone therapy because of the increased numbers of women going into menopause and who have symptoms," she says. Such as? "For women who don't have heart disease risk factors or have heart disease, maybe HRT is not as harmful to the heart as we once thought," she says. Stay tuned.