May 18, 2006
Notes on healthy living (Or, 160,000 women can’t be wrong)
Dr. Andrea LaCroix, a leading researcher and study director with the Women’s Health Initiative, will present a Healthy Aging Lecture for the School of Nursing’s deTornyay Center for Healthy Aging.
She will speak on From Prevention Trials to Practice: What 160,000 U.S. Women Have Taught Us About Staying Well from 2 to 3 p.m., Thursday, May 25, in Hogness Auditorium at the Health Sciences Center. The presentation is free and open to the public.
LaCroix is co-principal investigator for the Women’s Health Initiative Clinical Coordinating Center at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center.
She is also a UW professor of epidemiology and a scientific investigator for the Group Health Cooperative Center for Health Studies.
The Women’s Health Initiative (WHI), a large, landmark study of postmenopausal women’s health, has made news since its hormone replacement therapy findings were first released in 2002. In recent months, additional hormone findings and results from its dietary and calcium/vitamin D trials have challenged some long-held beliefs about healthy aging and disease prevention.
- Should women take hormone therapy to prevent heart disease?
- What about the effects of hormones on breast cancer?
- Does a low-fat diet prevent breast cancer and colorectal cancer?
- Can fractures and colorectal cancer be prevented by taking calcium and vitamin D supplements?
LaCroix will talk about the WHI findings and what they mean for healthy aging in older adults.
LaCroix received her B.S.N. from Georgetown University, an M.P.H. in public health nursing and a Ph.D. in epidemiology from the University of North Carolina.
She also completed a postdoctoral fellowship in cardiovascular epidemiology at the Johns Hopkins University.
For more information, contact the de Tornyay Center for Healthy Aging at joyna@u.washington.edu or 206-616-4276.
