Month: October 2013

Doctors should devote as much attention to people’s unhealthy habits as they do to treating the consequences, such as high blood pressure, a new report says. The new policy statement comes from the American Heart Association (AHA). It urges doctors to follow the “five A’s” in caring for patients. The first “A” would be to assess people’s behaviors that increase their risk of heart disease. Examples might include poor diet, smoking or lack of exercise. Then doctors would advise them to change, such as quitting smoking. Doctor and patient would agree on an action plan. Finally, doctors would assist with treatment and arrange for follow-up care. Part of the plan would be to refer patients to specialists who could help with behavior change. These might include a dietician, a psychologist or a health educator.

There’s not enough evidence to say whether testing and treating children for high blood pressure is a good idea, a panel of experts says. The new report comes from the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force. This is a government-appointed panel that provides advice on preventive care. The task force looked at research on kids and blood pressure published in the last 10 years. The group said it’s hard to predict which children will have high blood pressure as adults. There’s also not enough research on whether treating kids with high blood pressure will improve their heart health as adults. And there’s been little research on whether blood pressure medicines are safe and effective for long-term use by children. The task force said more research is needed. Meanwhile, we do know some things that kids can do to stay healthy, the task force said.

For several years, doctors have been curing dangerous colon infections by transplanting feces containing normal, healthy bacteria into the diseased colon. Now there’s an easier way to deliver the dose: poop pills. Actually, feces from a donor are processed so there’s nothing left but the bacteria. Placed in pills and then swallowed, the healthy bacteria replace the cause of infection: Clostridium difficile (C. diff). These infections often occur in people who take antibiotics for another reason. The drugs also kill healthy bacteria in the gut. But C. diff lives in hardy spores that can become active when other bacteria disappear. C. diff causes dangerous inflammation and diarrhea. Doctors have used transplants of feces to cure C. diff infections that keep coming back. The transplants were put into the colon through the nose or rectum.