Health wise: The mammoth 15-year Women's Health Initiative study has come to an end. Here's how it has made us smarter.

Byline: Marie McCullough

Feb. 20--In the wake of the mixed results from the most ambitious, definitive study of postmenopausal women's health ever conducted, what's a woman to do?

That's the question now that the federally funded Women's Health Initiative has wrapped up. It took 15 years, $725 million, 40 medical centers, and the steadfast participation of 161,000 American women ages 50 to 79.

The WHI set out to test strategies touted as ways women could ward off cancer, heart disease, osteoporosis and Alzheimer's disease -- "the major causes of death, disability and frailty in older women of all races." Could hormone supplements fight these chronic diseases? Could a low-fat diet rich in fruits and vegetables? Could calcium and Vitamin D pills?

The WHI's hormone trials, which began reporting results in 2002, shattered conventional wisdom, reversed doctors' advice, and turned off the flow from cash-cow hormone products. The results of the diet and calcium/Vitamin D trials, published this month, are also surprising and controversial.

Still, translating the WHI into helpful advice is tough because the results are complex and reveal more about what doesn't work than what does. The bottom line:

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