MedWorm provides a medical RSS filtering service. Over 6000 RSS medical sources are combined and output via different filters. This feed contains the latest medical blog items that have been tagged with 'heart disease research'. Sat, 03 Sep 2011 02:49:26 +0100 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4872054&cid=t_117320_87_f&fid=36224&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeeds.wsjonline.com%2F%7Er%2Fwsj%2Fhealth%2Ffeed%2F%7E3%2Fqs92KgB3naE%2F Today’s news that an NIH-funded trial of cholesterol drugs ended 18 months early after it found no benefit from Abbott’s Niaspan is the second setback in a week for the drug maker’s cholesterol franchise. The trial, called AIM-HIGH, looked at whether adding Niaspan — a high-dose, extended-release form of niacin, or vitamin B3 — to certain heart-disease patients’ statin drug regimens would prevent more cardiac events than a statin alone. As the WSJ reports, it didn’t; more details from the study will be out later this year. At this point, the FDA has recommended no change to how the drug is currently used. Abbott, meantime, said in a statement the final results of the trial would be reflected in the Niaspan product label, but that it’s still u... WSJ.com: Health Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4872054 Thu, 26 May 2011 19:18:15 +0100 4872054 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4862501&cid=t_117320_87_f&fid=36224&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeeds.wsjonline.com%2F%7Er%2Fwsj%2Fhealth%2Ffeed%2F%7E3%2FzsD7Il1kI1Y%2F Hep C Drugs: Incivek, the hepatitis C drug from Vertex Pharmaceuticals and Johnson & Johnson, won FDA approval, setting up a marketing battle with Merck’s new drug Victrelis, which was approved a week ago, the WSJ reports. Both drugs are added to existing therapies and will be expensive; a course of Victrelis will cost between $26,400 and $48,400, and 12 weeks of Incivek will cost $49,200, the paper says. Paper vs. Paper: Two seemingly conflicting studies have been published on the subject of serotonin levels and bone density, with one research group finding that blocking serotonin production in the guts of mice can help stave off osteoporosis and another group finding no connection, the New York Times reports. The question is important because if there is a causal relationship, ... WSJ.com: Health Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4862501 Tue, 24 May 2011 12:31:12 +0100 4862501 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4789200&cid=t_117320_87_f&fid=36224&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeeds.wsjonline.com%2F%7Er%2Fwsj%2Fhealth%2Ffeed%2F%7E3%2F-p7_8FhFjL8%2F A new study on salt and health is shaking up some controversy. Published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, the observational study tracking 3,681 Europeans who originally had no hypertension found that people who consumed less salt were actually more likely to die from a heart attack or stroke. And, it found that people consuming more sodium didn’t have a higher risk of hypertension. Those people did, however, see a slight uptick in systolic blood pressure over a period of about six years. By dint of its design, the study can’t conclude for sure what salt intake does to the body. But study authors say the findings  — while not negating the need for sodium restriction in people who already have hypertension — don’t support a society-wide cutb... WSJ.com: Health Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4789200 Wed, 04 May 2011 17:12:58 +0100 4789200 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4742365&cid=t_117320_87_f&fid=36224&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeeds.wsjonline.com%2F%7Er%2Fwsj%2Fhealth%2Ffeed%2F%7E3%2FrM1J-KB4oAE%2F A study published this week by BMJ suggests that taking calcium supplements may slightly raise the odds of a heart attack in postmenopausal women. That’s likely to give pause to many women taking calcium supplements to shore up their bones. But physicians say there’s still no solid evidence of a cause-and-effect relationship, and that while more research is needed, the study shouldn’t scare women away from supplementing with calcium up to the recommended daily level. Researchers from the University of Auckland and University of Aberdeen took data from a large Women’s Health Initiative study on calcium and vitamin D consumption and used it to update their analysis of previously published research. That WHI study found no overall ties between calcium supplement use an... WSJ.com: Health Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4742365 Thu, 21 Apr 2011 18:46:43 +0100 4742365 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4419103&cid=t_117320_87_f&fid=36224&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeeds.wsjonline.com%2F%7Er%2Fwsj%2Fhealth%2Ffeed%2F%7E3%2F3hLVx-LytvA%2F If you're a fan of the losing team, the Super Bowl might be literally bad for your heart. (Source: WSJ.com: Health Blog) WSJ.com: Health Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4419103 Mon, 31 Jan 2011 16:54:59 +0100 4419103 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4309580&cid=t_117320_87_f&fid=36224&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeeds.wsjonline.com%2F%7Er%2Fwsj%2Fhealth%2Ffeed%2F%7E3%2FCysZcOELoJA%2F The study also finds that those patients who didn't meet the guidelines had a higher risk of dying in the hospital and of complications from the implantation. (Source: WSJ.com: Health Blog) WSJ.com: Health Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4309580 Tue, 04 Jan 2011 22:33:54 +0100 4309580 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4214067&cid=t_117320_87_f&fid=36224&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeeds.wsjonline.com%2F%7Er%2Fwsj%2Fhealth%2Ffeed%2F%7E3%2FeHlx5PVyfeI%2F Peripheral artery disease often goes hand in hand with coronary artery disease, but costs about 5% more to treat. (Source: WSJ.com: Health Blog) WSJ.com: Health Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4214067 Tue, 30 Nov 2010 14:16:13 +0100 4214067 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4175667&cid=t_117320_87_f&fid=36224&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeeds.wsjonline.com%2F%7Er%2Fwsj%2Fhealth%2Ffeed%2F%7E3%2FNVshC2LvAx4%2F Merck persisted in developing anacetrapib despite the similarity to a Pfizer drug that was scrapped due to safety concerns. (Source: WSJ.com: Health Blog) WSJ.com: Health Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4175667 Wed, 17 Nov 2010 20:30:50 +0100 4175667 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4167940&cid=t_117320_87_f&fid=36224&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeeds.wsjonline.com%2F%7Er%2Fwsj%2Fhealth%2Ffeed%2F%7E3%2FFPV-Z-d39QU%2F When you look only at data from patients who stayed on their drugs throughout the study, rivaroxaban outperformed warfarin in preventing stroke. (Source: WSJ.com: Health Blog) WSJ.com: Health Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4167940 Mon, 15 Nov 2010 17:38:43 +0100 4167940 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3746718&cid=t_117320_87_f&fid=36224&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeeds.wsjonline.com%2F%7Er%2Fwsj%2Fhealth%2Ffeed%2F%7E3%2Fae81qnAbQS4%2F Also: a new anti-AIDS strategy; questioning the AMA's lobbying prowess; calling for action on food-safety law. (Source: WSJ.com: Health Blog) WSJ.com: Health Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3746718 Mon, 12 Jul 2010 12:28:40 +0100 3746718 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3714151&cid=t_117320_87_f&fid=36224&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeeds.wsjonline.com%2F%7Er%2Fwsj%2Fhealth%2Ffeed%2F%7E3%2F7nM0WGJhBOI%2F There are a couple of reasons not to make sweeping conclusions about testosterone use on the basis of this study. (Source: WSJ.com: Health Blog) WSJ.com: Health Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3714151 Wed, 30 Jun 2010 21:16:56 +0100 3714151 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3710545&cid=t_117320_87_f&fid=36224&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeeds.wsjonline.com%2F%7Er%2Fwsj%2Fhealth%2Ffeed%2F%7E3%2F5IfmaMdxEZw%2F Also: a new way to rank drug makers; hypertension in kids; the states' role in implementing health-care overhaul legislation. (Source: WSJ.com: Health Blog) WSJ.com: Health Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3710545 Tue, 29 Jun 2010 12:56:26 +0100 3710545 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3306816&cid=t_117320_87_f&fid=36224&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeeds.wsjonline.com%2F%7Er%2Fwsj%2Fhealth%2Ffeed%2F%7E3%2FZdx7tLl_ziE%2F Doctors are narrowing their recommendation on who should take daily aspirin for heart health, based largely on concerns about the drug’s side effects, which can include bleeding ulcers. See here for more about that. But there’s another type of person who might someday be advised to steer clear of a daily aspirin: those for whom the pain reliever doesn’t work well as a blood clotter. In most people, aspirin has an an anti-clotting effect on the blood, which is believed to be the most important reason for its ability to reduce the risk of heart attack and stroke. But when some people take the drug, their blood still clots, a phenomenon traditionally called “aspirin resistance.” That suggests that they may not get as much heart-protection benefit from it. Estimates of how common t... WSJ.com: Health Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3306816 Wed, 24 Feb 2010 22:26:39 +0100 3306816 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3003719&cid=t_117320_87_f&fid=36224&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeeds.wsjonline.com%2F%7Er%2Fwsj%2Fhealth%2Ffeed%2F%7E3%2FSe_Q_IWgzQs%2F Cardiologist Gregory Thomas was visiting Cairo’s Egyptian Museum in 2008 when he happened to notice a nameplate for the mummy of Pharaoh Merenptah. It said the ruler of Egypt some 3,200 years ago had atherosclerosis, arthritis and dental decay when he died. “I didn’t believe it,” says Thomas, who is also an imaging specialist at University of California, Irvine. “I wanted to know whether it was accurate and if it was, how often did people have it.” Thomas ended up serving as principal investigation for a study confirming evidence of hardening of the arteries in nine mummies dating back as far as 3,500 years. For details, here’s the WSJ story on the research that was presented today at the American Heart Association scientific meeting in Orlando, Fla., and also is bein... WSJ.com: Health Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3003719 Tue, 17 Nov 2009 23:35:15 +0100 3003719 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2989126&cid=t_117320_87_f&fid=36224&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeeds.wsjonline.com%2F%7Er%2Fwsj%2Fhealth%2Ffeed%2F%7E3%2F1d26-vqspKo%2F The American Heart Association’s big scientific meeting starts Sunday, and everybody’s buzzing about results that will be presented Monday from a comparison of Merck’s cholesterol drug Vytorin against Abbott’s Niaspan. There’s a preview of the study on the front page of the New York Times business section this morning, Bloomberg News had an item a few days ago and Dow Jones Newswires ran a story earlier this month. The trial was stopped early, and most observers seem to think that happened because Niaspan performed significantly better than Vytorin. Here’s the thing, though: It was a small study (about 200 patients) that didn’t measure the kind of real clinical outcomes — heart attacks, strokes, that sort of thing — that really matter... WSJ.com: Health Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2989126 Fri, 13 Nov 2009 14:10:04 +0100 2989126 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2930953&cid=t_117320_87_f&fid=36224&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeeds.wsjonline.com%2F%7Er%2Fwsj%2Fhealth%2Ffeed%2F%7E3%2FXlPxYDWhOgs%2F There’s a growing recognition that heart-attack risk rises for women after menopause — and that cardiovascular disease is the leading killer of U.S. women. Now it may be time to pay more attention to heart attack risk for younger women. In recent decades, heart-attack risk rose for women aged 35 to 54, even as it fell for men in the same age group, according to an analysis published today in the Archives of Internal Medicine. The shift was significant, though the absolute prevalence is still way higher for men in that age group. The numbers: Between 1988 and 1994, 0.7% of middle-aged women had heart attacks. That figure rose to 1% between 1999 and 2004. The figures for men were 2.5% and 2.2%, respectively, for the earlier and later time periods. Among people who didn’t ha... WSJ.com: Health Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2930953 Mon, 26 Oct 2009 20:34:30 +0100 2930953 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2865633&cid=t_117320_87_f&fid=36224&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeeds.wsjonline.com%2F%7Er%2Fwsj%2Fhealth%2Ffeed%2F%7E3%2Fl1uC8WOL41g%2F If you’re 20 or older and don’t have diabetes or heart disease, you can plug a handful of simple variables — things like age, cholesterol level and blood pressure — into a Framingham risk calculator and find out your chances of having serious heart trouble (a heart attack or coronary death) in the next 10 years. Still, some 300,000 Americans die every year of sudden cardiac death outside the hospital, and many of those people don’t have classic risk factors for heart disease. Non-fatal heart attacks, too, remain difficult to predict for many patients.So there’s an understandable urge on the part of researchers to find new measures that will better predict who is at risk. In particular, it would be nice to have a clearer picture of the 23 million U.S. adu... WSJ.com: Health Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2865633 Mon, 05 Oct 2009 21:25:45 +0100 2865633 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2757722&cid=t_117320_87_f&fid=36224&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeeds.wsjonline.com%2F%7Er%2Fwsj%2Fhealth%2Ffeed%2F%7E3%2FEyn90rCbTOQ%2F Boston Scientific showed that its $30,000 devices that slow heart deterioration, called cardiac resynchronization therapy defibrillators, produced clinical benefit in a 1,820-patient clinical trial, according to results published in today’s New England Journal of Medicine. The company announced in June that the study, known as MADIT-CRT, demonstrated that the resynchronizers reduced hospitalizations, but these complete results showed the devices were even more effective than earlier reported, according to the WSJ. But an accompanying editorial in today’s NEJM asks whether expanded CRT use in patients with heart failure is cost effective. Mariell Jessup of the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, points out that despite evidence that patients with certain types of hear... WSJ.com: Health Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2757722 Tue, 01 Sep 2009 19:21:42 +0100 2757722 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2744057&cid=t_117320_87_f&fid=36224&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeeds.wsjonline.com%2F%7Er%2Fwsj%2Fhealth%2Ffeed%2F%7E3%2FJ1NhXpbO7Yg%2F The annual European Society of Cardiology meeting begins this weekend in Barcelona, and here are three key late-stage trials on different anti-clotting agents from big drug makers that are headlining the session: 1) RE-LY: This large study examined the safety and efficacy of Boehringer Ingelheim’s investigational anti-clotting therapy, Prodaxa, against the current gold standard, warfarin, for stroke prevention in atrial fibrillation, a heart condition that affects 2.2 million Americans. Some 18,000 patients with non-valvular AF and at least one other risk factor for stroke, such as a previous stroke, heart failure or high blood pressure were followed for at least one year in this long-term study. 2) PLATO: AstraZeneca will reveal the complete data from this head-to-head comparison be... WSJ.com: Health Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2744057 Fri, 28 Aug 2009 22:42:52 +0100 2744057 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2634368&cid=t_117320_87_f&fid=36224&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeeds.wsjonline.com%2F%7Er%2Fwsj%2Fhealth%2Ffeed%2F%7E3%2Fh2D0sT9ItkQ%2F The other day, the Health Blog was perusing a seemingly ordinary JAMA article on heart failure risk when something unusual caught our eye. In the middle of a list of familiar risk factors — weight, smoking, exercise, alcohol intake, consumption of fruits and vegetables — was one we hadn’t seen before: “consumption of breakfast cereals.” Besides being curioius by nature, the Health Blog eats a lot of cereal (for breakfast and otherwise). We had to learn more, so we called Luc Djoussé, a Harvard doc who was one of the authors on the paper. As it turns out, Djoussé and his colleagues have been looking for a while at the connection between health and cereal. Their source is a project that gathered health information from about 20,000 male doctors over the course... WSJ.com: Health Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2634368 Thu, 23 Jul 2009 22:17:27 +0100 2634368 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2601966&cid=t_117320_87_f&fid=36224&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeeds.wsjonline.com%2F%7Er%2Fwsj%2Fhealth%2Ffeed%2F%7E3%2FrBcH3qVLC3Q%2F Sometimes in medicine, what seems like common sense isn’t backed up by data. Consider the case of patent foramen ovale, a common heart defect. For a long time doctors have believed PFO is linked to a higher risk of stroke. About a quarter of the adult population has the condition but most people don’t experience any symptoms. It’s basically a hole in the heart, which occurs when a flap-like opening between the upper chambers of the heart doesn’t close during normal fetal development and which may allow a blood clot to get through to the brain more easily. Data showing that PFO causes stroke are shaky, and there’s no consensus about whether to fix the hole or not. But when surgeons find the hole while they’re doing surgery for some unrelated heart problem... WSJ.com: Health Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2601966 Tue, 14 Jul 2009 20:06:34 +0100 2601966 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2598200&cid=t_117320_87_f&fid=36224&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeeds.wsjonline.com%2F%7Er%2Fwsj%2Fhealth%2Ffeed%2F%7E3%2FHdWOzEoWGG8%2F Scanning for calcium deposits in the walls of the arteries around the heart can help detect coronary artery disease — the most common form of heart disease in the U.S. — but the CT scans that are used for the screening come at a cost: an increased risk of radiation-induced cancer. A new study in the Archives of Internal Medicine finds that if adult men were to be scanned every five years from ages 45 to 75, and women from 55 to 75, there would be an estimated additional 42 cases of cancer for every 100,000 men and 62 cases per 100,000 women, over the course of a lifetime. That added risk may not sound like much, but it adds to the controversy surrounding coronary calcium scans. The US Preventive Services Task Force recommends against routine coronary artery calcium screening u... WSJ.com: Health Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2598200 Mon, 13 Jul 2009 21:37:33 +0100 2598200 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2561222&cid=t_117320_87_f&fid=36224&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeeds.wsjonline.com%2F%7Er%2Fwsj%2Fhealth%2Ffeed%2F%7E3%2FCz15ajWsdWE%2F The inflammatory biomarker C-reactive protein, or CRP, doesn’t appear to be a risk factor for cardiovascular disease, though it has long been thought to be one. A study in the Journal of the American Medical Association today finds that CRP is associated with the disease but doesn’t appear to cause it. This means that developing therapies that specifically target the protein likely won’t help prevent heart disease, according to the authors, who collaborated internationally. A separate study, also appearing in today’s JAMA, found that that CRP and other biomarkers are limited in their benefit in predicting individuals’ risk of coronary heart disease. The data suggest that there is some — but not a lot — of added value in using biomarkers to predict... WSJ.com: Health Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2561222 Tue, 30 Jun 2009 21:32:11 +0100 2561222 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2510299&cid=t_117320_87_f&fid=36224&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeeds.wsjonline.com%2F%7Er%2Fwsj%2Fhealth%2Ffeed%2F%7E3%2FfdiQpgTN1Xk%2F Vitamin D has long been thought to be important to health. This past fall, national pediatric guidelines doubled the amount recommended for kids. And concern over vitamin D deficiency has increased the U.S. demand for testing by 80% to 90% last year, according to an executive quoted by the Financial Times. Now, a large, $20 million government-funded trial is going to study whether vitamin D and fish oil lower the risk of cancer, heart disease or stroke in healthy individuals, reports the Boston Globe. The study will follow 20,000 healthy older adults for five years. The study will also investigate whether vitamin D deficiency is one reason for higher rates of disease in African-Americans. The thought is that it is harder for people with darker skin to make vitamin D from sunlight, and perh... WSJ.com: Health Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2510299 Tue, 23 Jun 2009 15:25:35 +0100 2510299 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2458047&cid=t_117320_87_f&fid=36224&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeeds.wsjonline.com%2F%7Er%2Fwsj%2Fhealth%2Ffeed%2F%7E3%2FZmVVbKCV3rQ%2F GlaxoSmithKline finally got some good news from a study of its diabetes drug Avandia, but some top leading cardiologists remain unconvinced, saying the company’s new research has serious flaws. The results, unveiled late this afternoon at the American Diabetes Association conference in New Orleans, found Avandia doesn’t increase patients’ risk for heart attacks, according to a report from Jared A. Favole of Dow Jones Newswires and WSJ’s Alicia Mundy. The new findings, contained in a study called Record, contrast about 10 other studies, including some by Glaxo, and a key analysis in 2007 that raised serious questions about its safety. “The findings essentially are that, in overall cardiovascular terms, the drug is safe,” said Dr. Philip Home, chairman of the... WSJ.com: Health Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2458047 Fri, 05 Jun 2009 22:30:01 +0100 2458047 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2389683&cid=t_117320_87_f&fid=36224&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeeds.wsjonline.com%2F%7Er%2Fwsj%2Fhealth%2Ffeed%2F%7E3%2FY_16EXXnoOc%2F Kenneth Mukamal, a Harvard doc, is recruiting patients for a federally funded study. Those assigned to the placebo group drink a daily “150 cc flavored, calorie-free beverage” — Crystal Light. Those in the experimental arm drink the same beverage, with a bit of grain alcohol mixed in. The idea is to see whether a little bit of drinking really does reduce the risk of heart disease. Here’s the clinicaltrials.gov page for the study; here’s a story in this morning’s Boston Globe. Previous studies have suggested a drink a day may be good for the heart. But those studies haven’t been definitive, largely because researchers have typically asked people to describe their drinking habits, then looked for correlations between drinking and health outcomes. Bu... WSJ.com: Health Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2389683 Wed, 06 May 2009 12:26:45 +0100 2389683 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2217273&cid=t_117320_87_f&fid=36224&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeeds.wsjonline.com%2F%7Er%2Fwsj%2Fhealth%2Ffeed%2F%7E3%2Fh-09E481vrw%2F After some of the heated controversies over heart treatments from Avandia to Vytorin in the past couple of years, perhaps it should be no surprise that most of the recommendations backed by cardiologists aren’t supported by rigorous scientific testing. But it is a bit jarring, considering heart disease is among the most widely studied illnesses in all of medicine, as the WSJ notes. Just 11% of more than 2,700 established heart recommendations are backed by high-quality testing, says a study in the current issue of JAMA. The American College of Cardiology and American Heart Association jointly issue guidelines to doctors, WSJ explains. The ones thought to have the highest level of evidence are based on multiple randomized clinical trials. Those considered weakest are backed by expert ... WSJ.com: Health Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2217273 Thu, 26 Feb 2009 21:50:45 +0100 2217273 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1833582&cid=t_117320_87_f&fid=36224&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeeds.feedburner.com%2F%7Er%2Fwsj%2Fhealth%2Ffeed%2F%7E3%2F403977576%2F For the second time this month, a federally funded study of a treatment known as chelation could be in trouble. This time, it’s a trial that involves more than 1,500 heart attack survivors, the AP rerorts. EDTA grabbing a copper ion. (WIkimedia Commons) Last week, we noted that the feds had decided not to go forward with a planned trial of chelation in children with autism. Chelation — which removes heavy metals and minerals from the body — is sometimes used to treat both heart attack patients and children with autism, despite a lack of clear supporting evidence. Patients in the heart attack study (described here) are receiving a chemical called EDTA, also used as a food preservative. The feds recently opened an investigation into the study, after receiving complaints ... WSJ.com: Health Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1833582 Sat, 27 Sep 2008 15:01:48 +0100 1833582 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1502886&cid=t_117320_87_f&fid=36224&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeeds.wsjonline.com%2F%7Er%2Fwsj%2Fhealth%2Ffeed%2F%7E3%2F308107974%2F The third of three diabetes studies testing whether aggressively lowering blood sugar reduces risk of heart attacks and death from cardiovascular disease offers doctors and patients some clarity amid conflicting reports on the issue, the Los Angeles Times reports. You don’t need a fourth leaf for good luck in managing heart risks of diabetes The study, called the Veterans Affairs Diabetes Trial, was reported yesterday at the American Diabetes Association meeting underway in San Francisco. Put in perspective with results from the other reports–ACCORD from the National Institutes of Health and ADVANCE from Australia that were unveiled Friday–three broad messages for doctors and patients with Type 2 diabetes emerge, the LAT says. First, the best way to reduce risk from c... WSJ.com: Health Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1502886 Mon, 09 Jun 2008 22:19:52 +0100 1502886 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1127451&cid=t_117320_87_f&fid=36224&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeeds.wsjonline.com%2F%7Er%2Fwsj%2Fhealth%2Ffeed%2F%7E3%2F210502617%2F Hospital staff are supposed to respond within two minutes when patients’ hearts stop beating. That’s not much time to mobilize the hollering code-blue team and to get the defibrillator paddles on a patient’s chest to shock the heart back into action. And a study published in this week’s New England Journal of Medicine found that almost a third of the time, this life-saving intervention takes longer than two minutes, significantly reducing a patient’s chances of survival. On average, response times were slower in smaller hospitals, in patients not hospitalized for heart conditions and between the hours of 5 p.m. and 8 a.m. Response was also slower on average for black patients, though the study’s author told the WSJ that may be because blacks are more lik... WSJ.com: Health Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1127451 Thu, 03 Jan 2008 14:12:03 +0100 1127451 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=737507&cid=t_117320_117_f&fid=34612&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.thedoctorweighsin.com%2Fjournal%2F2007%2F7%2F16%2Fto-an-engaged-life.html Brian KlepperOK, I'll admit it. I love reading the obituaries. They recount the marvelous achievements as well as, occasionally, the equally glaring flaws, of people we knew or, more often, didn't know.  I can't help being astonished, shocked, delighted, repulsed. Who knew all that was lurking under there?There's a good one in Saturday's New York Times that's relevant to this blog.  Epidemiologist Ralph S. Paffenbarger Jr., MD, DrPH, ScD died at 84, ironically of heart failure. Dr. Paffenbarger became nationally influential for his work describing the relationship between exercise and longevity and for promoting vigorous activity to prevent heart disease. He was a professor at both Harvard and Stanford, and in 1987 he became President of the American Epidemiological Society. He h... The Doctor Weighs In blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=737507 Mon, 16 Jul 2007 23:39:34 +0100 737507 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=595205&cid=t_117320_87_f&fid=34866&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.thecardioblog.com%2F2007%2F05%2F07%2Fhigher-white-blood-counts-linked-to-heart-health-risk%2F Filed under: Research, Smoking, StressInflammation has been named as a culprit in a number of chronic diseases, and the results of a 45-year study are adding fuel to that particular fire.The study, which followed 2,800 healthy adults for several decades, found a link between elevated white blood cell counts and premature death, especially from cardiovascular disease. Though the connection is significant -- researchers found that every time white blood counts over 3,500 rose by 1,000 the risk of death increased by 10% -- it's not clear whether the higher white blood count caused the disease or was a reaction to it. However, those in the study who had the highest blood counts tended to smoke and be less active, and white blood counts in general dropped in study subjects over the years as lif... The Cardio Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=595205 Mon, 07 May 2007 04:00:00 +0100 595205