Category: news-perspectives

Some athletes use anabolic steroids to help build muscle. But long-term use weakens the body’s most important muscle, the heart, a small study concludes. The study included 19 male weight lifters. Seven said they never used steroids. The other 12 said they had taken the drugs for about 9 years. Researchers used echocardiograms to view each man’s heart function. They looked at a measurement called ejection fraction. This is the amount of blood pumped with each heartbeat. In 10 of the 12 steroid users and 1 of 9 non-users, the ejection fraction was below normal. The steroid users’ hearts also relaxed only half as much as normal between beats. These signs of heart weakness could lead to heart failure. Researchers said more study is needed on larger groups of steroid users. The journal Circulation: Heart Failure published the study online. HealthDay News wrote about it April 27.

Americans are spending twice as much on diabetes drugs as they did just six years ago, a new study finds. Costs rose to $12.5 billion in 2007. There were two reasons for the change. More people were treated, and doctors often prescribed costly new drugs for them. But another new study found that an old, low-cost drug may be better. The study found that metformin helped to prevent heart disease. A newer drug, Avandia, did not. The Associated Press wrote about the studies October 28. Both were in the journal Archives of Internal Medicine.

A PET brain scan can diagnose types of “parkinsonian” disease, new research finds. The study looked at the brains of 167 people. All had signs of what could be Parkinson’s disease. But two other diseases can have similar symptoms. PET stands for positron emission tomography. PET scans use small amounts of a radioactive chemical to produce images of the body’s functions. Researchers said the scans accurately showed whether a person had Parkinson’s disease or a similar disease. The journal Lancet Neurology published the study online. HealthDay News wrote about it January 11.

Many cancer patients use complementary therapies, a survey shows. These are therapies not used in conventional medicine. More than 4,000 cancer survivors took the survey. This occurred 10 months to 2 years after diagnosis. The one used most often was prayer (61%). Other top choices included relaxation techniques (44%), spiritual healing (42%) and supplements such as vitamins (40%). Women used all therapies more often than men did. HealthDay News wrote about the study August 4. It appeared in the journal Cancer.

Common versions of genes increase the risk of cancer of the testicles, a study has found. Researchers scanned all genes of 277 men with testicular cancer and 919 men without it. The biggest risk was linked to a gene called KTLG. Men with two copies of the most common version of this gene were 4½ times more likely to get testicular cancer than men with two copies of the less common versions. Researchers also looked at versions of genes next to a gene called SPRY4. Men with two copies of the common versions were about 1½ times more likely to get cancer than men with two copies of less common versions. Many men have these common gene versions. More study is needed to find out what other factors lead to cancer. Nature Genetics published the study online. HealthDay News wrote about it June 1.

Surgery and angioplasty unclog arteries equally well. But angioplasty may not last as long, a new study finds. Bypass surgery reroutes blood around clogged arteries. Angioplasty flattens the blockage with a tiny balloon. Then a tube called a stent is used to prop open the artery. The new study included about 3,000 people with blocked arteries. More than 1,200 needed a specific procedure. The others were randomly assigned to one or the other. In the next year, about 14% of those who had angioplasty needed another procedure. So did about 6% of the surgery group. The Associated Press wrote about the study September 2. Results were presented at a heart conference.

The United States has greatly improved stroke care in the last decade, the American Stroke Association says in a new report. But now more focus must be placed on prevention and recovery, the report says. The association’s main goal is to reduce deaths from heart and artery disease by 20%. This would include a reduction in stroke, which is caused by blockage of a blood vessel or bleeding in the brain. The report was published February 24 in the journal Stroke.

A group of nutrition and economics experts has called for a new tax on sugar-sweetened drinks. It could help to reduce obesity and raise funds for health programs, they said. The proposal came in an article in the New England Journal of Medicine. The Associated Press wrote about it September 17. The authors included the surgeon general of Arkansas, the health commissioner of New York City and five academic experts. Studies show that women who consume more sugar-sweetened drinks also are more likely to be obese or have diabetes. The new proposal calls for a tax of 1 cent per fluid ounce. The tax could raise $15 billion in its first year, the group said. The tax is also could get people to cut back, they said. They estimated that soda drinkers would lose an average of two pounds a year.

A new drug is just as effective as warfarin (Coumadin) for preventing a second blood clot in a vein, new research finds. More important, researchers said, the drug, dabigatran, is easier to manage. Both drugs are blood thinners. People taking warfarin need frequent blood tests to make sure their blood clotting time is neither too fast nor too slow. Unlike warfarin, dabigatran does not interact with foods or most other drugs. People don’t need regular blood tests. The study included 2,500 people with venous thromboembolism. This is a clot in a vein. People were assigned at random to receive one of the two drugs. After 6 months, about 2% of each group had another clot in a vein. People who took dabigatran were less likely to have any bleeding than those who took warfarin. Serious side effects were similar in both groups.

Devices to shock the heart back to normal rhythm save lives among elderly people with heart failure, a study concludes. The study looked at results among people ages 65 to 85 with one type of heart failure. This condition put them at risk of a heart rhythm problem that could make the heart stop. The study included 4,685 people discharged from hospitals with heart failure. Only 8% of those eligible received an implantable defibrillator to correct dangerous heart rhythms. All of the people were treated with medicines. After three years, 38.1% of patients with a defibrillator had died. But 52.3% of those without the devices died. Dow Jones newswire wrote about the study. It appeared December 15 in the journal Circulation: Heart Failure.