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Taking a common heart drug before surgery may reduce death rates for some patients, a new study suggests. Researchers looked at non-heart surgeries involving almost 137,000 people. About 40% of the patients took a type of drug called a beta-blocker before surgery and for 30 days afterward. People with a high risk of heart or blood vessel problems were more likely to take these drugs. They slow the heart rate and are used to reduce blood pressure and treat heart rhythm problems. People who took beta-blockers were less likely to die in the 30 days after surgery than similar patients who did not take them. The drugs reduced the risk of death and problems such as heart attack most for higher-risk surgery patients. People with higher risk included those with prior heart disease, stroke, heart failure, diabetes and kidney disease.

Young women with breast cancer don’t live as long if they delay treatment 6 weeks or more, a new study finds. These delays occur about twice as often for young women who are black, Hispanic, poor, on Medicaid or uninsured. About 6% of breast cancers occur in young women. These cancers are more likely to grow and spread quickly than breast cancers in older women. Researchers looked at medical records for 8,860 women, ages 15 to 39. About 8% of white women and 15% of black and Hispanic women received treatment at least 6 weeks after diagnosis. About 80% of those who delayed treatment lived at least 5 years. That compares with 90% survival for those treated within 2 weeks after diagnosis. Fewer than 10% of women with private insurance had delayed treatment, compared with 18% of those who had Medicaid or no insurance.

Some alternative treatments may slightly lower blood pressure, a new report says. But the only non-drug treatment with strong, proven benefit is aerobic exercise. Those are the conclusions of an American Heart Association (AHA) review of research. It found that transcendental meditation (TM), biofeedback and guided breathing may help some people. But the effects on blood pressure were small. Other types of meditation did not lower blood pressure. Neither did yoga or acupuncture. Aerobic exercise had the strongest research support. It also lowered blood pressure more than any treatment other than medicine. The AHA recommends aerobic exercise for most people with pre-hypertension or high blood pressure. Resistance exercise that involves movement also may lower blood pressure, the report says.