The WHI was heralded as being truly representative of women during and after menopause, and the WHI investigators repeatedly stated that all of the women they recruited were healthy at the outset of the study, but neither assertion was true. Fully 35 percent of the women were considerably overweight, and another 34 percent were obese; nearly 36 percent were being treated for high blood pressure; nearly half were either current or past cigarette smokers.39 Moreover, the median age of participants was
