Hormones & Arteries

^ Doctors have recognized from the beginning that in giving patients such potent new hormones as ACTH and cortisone they are playing with fire. Now that the hormones are becoming available to doctors everywhere, the dangers of use without careful controls are increasing. Last week, in the Journal of the American Medical Association, three doctors of Manhattan's Mount Sinai Hospital warned that the hormones might cause hardening of the arteries.

Studying the results of 47 long hormone treatments (26 with ACTH, 21 with cortisone) for a wide range of diseases, the doctors found that 77% were followed by an increase in the amount of cholesterol (a soapy, fatty alcohol) in the patient's blood. So far, nobody fully understands the connection between cholesterol and hardening of the arteries; it may be that only certain giant cholesterol molecules are to blame (TIME, June 5). But, the Mount Sinai doctors warned, enough evidence is already in to demand closer study and great caution.

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