Harvard Health Content API

New guidelines from American Cancer Society stress more than ever that doctors should discuss the pros and cons of prostate cancer screening before men have a PSA blood test. The PSA test helps find early prostate cancer, but it can lead to unnecessary treatments that have side effects. The ACS made their recommendations based on early findings from two large studies that look at whether finding and treating prostate cancer early saves lives. The new guidelines appeared online in CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians. The Associated Press and HealthDay News wrote about it March 4.

Price increases in soda and fatty foods might lead people to consume less of them, a new study concludes. The study included more than 5,000 young adult Americans. Researchers studied their eating habits for 20 years. They also kept track of food prices in the areas where the people lived. In that time, people drank less soda and ate less pizza as prices increased. If prices rose 10%, calories consumed from soda fell by 7% and calories from pizza fell 12%. A $1 increase in the price of soda was linked to 124 fewer soda calories per day. Researchers estimated that an 18% tax on soda would lead to an average of 56 fewer calories consumed daily per person. This number of calories is equal to a weight loss of about 5 pounds per year, they said. Study results were published in the journal Archives of Internal Medicine. USA Today wrote about the study March 9.

If all Americans cut their salt intake by less than half a teaspoon a day, we could save up to $24 billion in health costs every year. Researchers from Johns Hopkins University built a computer model to test the idea. Experts recommend less than 5.8 g of salt per day. Women eat about 7.3 g per day, and men 10.4 g. Most salt in the diet comes from processed foods, such as lunchmeat, canned food and sauces. The study was published January 20 in the New England Journal of Medicine. HealthDay News wrote about it the same day.

New data have not relieved concerns about a possible cancer risk among users of Vytorin. This cholesterol pill combines two drugs. They are simvastatin (Zocor) and ezetimibe (Zetia). A study released in July found more cancer cases in people who took Vytorin compared with fake pills. Leaders of two other Vytorin studies decided to take an early look at their data. They didn’t find more cancer cases with Vytorin. But rates of cancer death were higher. The New England Journal of Medicine published both studies online. An editorial said doctors should prescribe Vytorin with caution until more is known. The Associated Press wrote about the issue September 2.

Brand-name vitamins may not provide any better quality than store brands, a consumer group says. The New York Times wrote about the issue of vitamins and quality December 5. ConsumerLab.com did tests on many brands of vitamins, the Times said. The group found a quality problem in about 30% of them. Some house brands from large discount stores were just as likely to contain accurate amounts of ingredients as better-known brand names, ConsumerLab found. It said discount store brands were more reliable, on average, than drugstore house brands. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) does not test vitamins before they are sold. An industry spokesman said the FDA allows some variation in the amount of ingredients in a product. He said pills may contain up to 15% more of a vitamin than the label indicates.

Teens who watch sexy TV shows may be more likely to get pregnant, a study finds. Researchers did a telephone survey of more than 2,000 girls and boys, ages 12 to 17. They were asked about what shows they watched and how often. In another survey three years later, researchers asked girls if they had been pregnant. Boys were asked if they had gotten a girl pregnant. Pregnancy was twice as common for teens who watched a lot of shows such as Sex and the City as for teens who seldom watched sexy shows. The Associated Press wrote about the study November 3. It appeared in the journal Pediatrics.

Statin drugs may increase problems with breathing and exercise in people with one form of heart failure, a new study suggests. Researchers looked at medical records of 136 people. Most of them had diastolic heart failure. With this condition, the heart is stiff or does not relax fully between beats. The other patients had systolic heart failure. This means that the heart does not contract fully when it beats. Some people in both groups took a statin drug. These drugs reduce cholesterol and inflammation. Among people with diastolic heart failure, those who took statins had poorer lung function than those who did not. They also did only about half as much exercise. These effects were not seen among statin users with systolic heart failure. Muscle pain is a side effect for some people who take statins.

At least 10 interest groups have a stake in the debate over health care reform. Today, four of the largest ones will offer President Obama a plan to help, the Associated Press (AP) writes. The four groups are hospitals, insurance companies, drug makers and doctors. Their representatives will meet with the President today. They will reveal a plan to slow their rate increases by 1.5 percentage points each year, AP says. The four groups all want to prevent expansion of government insurance. Other groups involved in the health care debate have different agendas. They include workers, older adults, people with health conditions or no insurance, and small and large businesses.

Special counseling and medicine may help women who worry about weight gain quit smoking, a study suggests. The study included 349 women smokers who were concerned about weight gain if they quit. They were assigned at random to one of four groups. They received either regular or specialized counseling. They also received either the anti-smoking drug bupropion SR (Zyban) or placebo (fake) pills. The special counseling tried to change attitudes about weight gain. After 6 months, 34% of the women who got this counseling plus Zyban were still not smoking. The success rate was 21% for regular counseling plus Zyban. Women who got placebo pills had a 10% to 11% success rate. But the advantage of special counseling did not last. After 1 year, 24% of those who got the counseling plus Zyban still were not smoking. This compares with 19% of the group with regular counseling plus Zyban.

Eating fish may help reduce Japanese men’s risk of heart disease, a new study suggests. The study included 281 Japanese men, 306 white American men and 281 Japanese-American men. Researchers measured plaque deposits in the arteries of the neck and around the heart. Levels were lowest in Japanese men. They were highest in Japanese-Americans. Nearly half of Japanese men smoke. This increases the risk of heart disease. But Japanese men eat lots of fish. Researchers said that may be why they have such healthy arteries. HealthDay News wrote about the study July 29. It was in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.