The Women's Health Initiative was planned in 1991-92 to resolve dozens of research problems, that The Framingham Heart Study could never answer satisfactorily. They intended to enroll 50,000 women, and to spend four million dollars over 10 years.
The 19,541 women chosen for the Dietary Intervention Study, were the luckiest women in the world. They were offered 10 years free dietary and exercise advice. They were promised that they would be able to lose weight.
The study stopped short at 8.5 years. The health outcomes for the women on the recommended "healthy diet" were WORSE that the outcomes for those who didn't get help and advice on how to be more healthy. This was a very solid result, but it was unexpected and can't be satisfactorily explained. Eventually the cost rose to over seven million dollars.
The study stopped because for people with existing heart disease, and people with existing cancer; the recommended diet made things worse not better.
What Can You Expect to Learn Here?
Some of today's content may surprise you, because it contradicts much of what you "know" about health.
Most of what you've been taught about how to live a healthy life, is based on the Framingham Heart Study, running since 1948. But that old study had lots of problems and kept on producing confusing results.
The Women's Health Initiative demonstrates that the healthy diet you've been told to eat for 50 years, is at best neutral, and harmful to some. The researchers say it "has no health benefits."
Here's what you can learn today
Lifestyle changes you can add years of good health to your life.
Dietary change is the easy and obvious thing to do.
