Heart Health

Widening the Use of a Cholesterol Drug May Come With Risk

AstraZeneca, makers of the popular statin Crestor, are aiming to market their drug as a preventive measure for millions of people who do not have cholesterol problems. But experts say this may not be a healthy move. Cholesterol-lowering drugs, or statins, are the most commonly prescribed drugs in the United States, but they may not be as safe a preventive medicine as previously believed for people who are at low risk of heart attacks or strokes. Recently published evidence indicates that statins could raise a person’s risk of developing Type 2 diabetes by 9%. Crestor may now be prescribed for apparently healthy people if they are older — men 50 and over and women 60 and over — and have one risk factor like smoking or high blood pressure, in addition to elevated inflammation in the body. A study found that taking Crestor resulted in a 55% reduction in heart attacks, 48% reduction in stroke, and 45% reduction in angioplasty bypass surgery. However, critics say that in real world terms this means 500 people would need to be treated with Crestor for a year to avoid one usually survivable heart attack. And at $3.50 a pill, the cost of prescribing Crestor to 500 people for a year would be $638,000 to prevent that one heart attack. Some doctors also say this will turn healthy people into patients, committing them to a lifetime of medication.

Click here to read the full New York Times article: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/31/business/31statins.html?pagewanted=1&tntemail1=y&emc=tnt

Alzheimer’s

Fighting Alzheimer’s With Games

A new project, the Cognitive Fitness and Innovative Therapies, or CFIT, is trying to see if the onset of Alzheimer’s can be delayed, perhaps indefinitely by keeping people at risk for the disease intellectually and physically fit with quizzes and other cognitive challenges. Participants in the program follow an exercise regimen and a meal plan based on the Mediterranean diet, and control blood pressure and cholesterol. A recent study published in JAMA showed that people who exercised more and followed the Mediterranean diet more closely had a 35% to 44% lower risk compared with those who didn’t follow these regimens. There are also social activities at the center, since one of the risk factors for cognitive decline isn’t having friends, like a Wii station where people can join in games. People are also encouraged to take on increasingly difficult brain challenges to improve cognitive function. It’s recommended that people begin efforts to prevent Alzheimer’s disease in their 50s, and even if someone is destined to get the disease, delaying its onset for even a few years could dramatically improve quality of life.

Click here to read the full Wall Street Journal article: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703416204575145921517534304.html

Breast Health

Bone Strengthening Drug May Reduce Spread of Breast Cancer

Results of a new study suggest that Zometa (zoledronic acid) may reduce the spread of breast cancer by preventing chemotherapy-related bone loss. Chemotherapy speeds up bone turnover, which releases bone-derived growth factors that can promote tumor growth in breast cancer patients. The study looked at 120 women undergoing chemotherapy for locally advanced breast cancer. It found that among women who had no tumor cells in their bone marrow at the start of the study, 87% of those in the zoledronic acid group were free of tumor cells at three months, compared with 60% of those who received chemotherapy alone. After one year, the rates were 40% and 33%, respectively. The study also found that zoledronic acid prevented chemotherapy-related bone loss.

Click here to read the full U.S.News & World Report article:  http://www.usnews.com/health/family-health/cancer/articles/2010/03/31/bone-strengthening-drug-guards-against-spread-of-breast-cancer.html

General Health

The Bigger the Smile, the Longer Your Life?

A new study published in the journal Psychological Science has linked the size of smiles with longevity. Researchers looked at smile ratings of baseball players and compared that with data from deaths. They found that longevity ranged from an average of 72.9 years for players with no smiles (63 players) to 75 years for players with partial smiles (64 players) to 79.9 years for players with big smiles (23 players). Positive emotion has been linked to both physical and mental well-being. And big smiles are more likely to reflect true emotion than partial smiles. Previous research has also shown that people who smile a lot are usually happier, have more stable personalities, more stable marriages, better cognitive skills and better interpersonal skills.

Click here to read the full Los Angeles Times article: http://www.latimes.com/features/health/la-he-capsule-20100329,0,4042521.story

Congress Approves Public Initiatives to Prevent Disease and Encourage Healthy Behavior

These new initiatives are an effort to counter sedentary lifestyles, smoking, and eating high-fat, high-calorie foods. Some of these include requiring chain restaurants to provide nutrition information on their menus and a new federal trust fund to pay for more bicycle paths, playgrounds, sidewalks and hiking trails. There are also some provisions to reduce the toll of preventable diseases, including allowing more access to cancer screenings, which will result in catching cancers earlier when they’re more treatable. The law will also entitle each Medicare beneficiary to an “annual wellness visit,” in which a doctor can assess the patient’s condition, check for signs of Alzheimer’s disease and draw up a “personalized prevention plan” with a screening schedule for the next 5 or 10 years. The Secretary of Health and Human Services said these initiatives have immense potential to “save lives and to save money.”

Click here to read the full New York Times article: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/05/health/policy/05health.html?ref=health