Category: news-perspectives

Having strong muscles as a child may help to lower the risk of future heart disease, a new study suggests. The study included more than 1,400 sixth graders. Researchers tested their hand-grip strength. This has been shown to reflect overall muscle strength. The study also included tests of blood pressure, cholesterol and blood sugar. Kids with greater grip strength tended to have lower levels of LDL (“bad cholesterol”) and triglycerides, another blood fat. They also had more HDL (“good cholesterol”) and slightly lower blood pressure. Their blood sugar levels also were a bit lower, which could lead to a lower risk of diabetes. Researchers adjusted their numbers to account for other things that can affect heart disease risk, such as being thinner or getting more exercise overall. They found that strength by itself was linked with healthier measurements.

Blood pressure should be checked more often in people who have had a stroke, says a study. That’s because keeping blood pressure consistently low can reduce the risk of a second stroke. But many stroke survivors do not maintain low blood pressure (under 140/90), according to a study of nearly 3,700 stroke patients. Those who had low blood-pressure readings more than 75% of the time also reduced their chances of another stroke by 54%. And they lowered their risk for heart attack. But only one-third of study participants had low blood-pressure readings this frequently. Study authors said that people who have had a stroke need to take medications as directed and have their blood pressure checked more often. The study was published online March 27, in the journal Stroke. U.S. News and World Report wrote about it the same day.

Magnetic brain stimulation improved symptoms and quality of life in people with fibromyalgia. That’s the finding of a study of 38 patients. Fibromyalgia causes chronic pain, fatigue and other symptoms. Previous brain imaging studies have suggested brain abnormalities are associated with the condition. Researchers randomly assigned the subject to receive either transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) or a “sham” stimulation. With TMS, electrodes applied to the head send small electric charges to the brain. The study lasted 10 weeks and involved 14 sessions of real or sham TMS. The people who got the real TMS reported small improvements in their quality of life compared with the people who got the sham treatment. But the treatment had no effect on pain. PET brain scans of the people who got the real TMS showed changes in the area of the brain involved in emotion.

People who have a variant gene and experienced a high level of stress were more likely to experience depression, a new study suggests. Researchers looked at the genes of nearly 2,361 white people from the United Kingdom and Hungary. They asked them about past and recent life events. These included childhood abuse or neglect, financial problems and illnesses. The participants were also assessed for current depression and anxiety. The researchers found that people with genetic variations in a brain chemical called galanin were more likely to be depressed and anxious after stressful life events. Galanin seems to have a role in pain, sleeping, waking mood and blood pressure. It’s suspected to also play a role in stress and anxiety disorders. The results may help develop new drugs to treat depression and anxiety.

Electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes) aren’t all they’re touted to be, according to a U.S. study. Researchers focused on whether they were effective smoking cessation tools. They found that e-cigarettes did not help people quit or cut down on smoking. The study followed 949 smokers. Of them, 88 said they were also using e-cigarettes at the start of the study in 2011. One year later, 14% of the total group had quit smoking. The e-cigarette group did not quit at a greater rate than the larger group. The study and its findings are not without controversy. Critics claim that the study was too small for the findings to be conclusive. The study was published in JAMA Internal Medicine online. HealthDay News reported on it March 24.

Mammograms can help detect breast cancer. But these screening tests did not reduce the number of advanced breast cancer cases diagnosed in older women. So says a study in the Netherlands. The study looked at the effect of extending regular screenings to women between the ages of 70 and 75. It included more than 25,000 women in this age group. All had been diagnosed with breast cancer between 1995 and 2011. While early stage breast cancer cases rose quite a bit in these women over those 16 years, advanced breast cancer cases did not show marked improvement. Researchers expected that, with increased detection of early breast cancer, advanced breast cancer diagnosis would significantly decrease. It did not. Regular mammograms in this older age group could do more harm than good, the researchers said.

Under new guidelines, statin drugs could be recommended for up to half of U.S. adults between 40 and 75. That’s an increase of nearly 13 million Americans. The estimate comes from a new study. It focuses on the effect of new guidelines for reducing LDL (“bad cholesterol”). The American Heart Association and the American College of Cardiology published them last fall. The new group eligible for statins includes adults ages 40 to 75 who have a 7.5% risk of developing heart disease in the next 10 years. Researchers looked at medical records for 3,700 people. They found that statin use would increase most for those 60 to 75. Under the old guidelines, about 30% of men in this group who did not have heart disease were eligible to take statins. The new guidelines would boost that to 87%. Statins would be recommended for 53% of women ages 60 to 75 without heart disease.

Colon cancer rates have fallen 30% for Americans age 50 and older, the American Cancer Society says. That drop occurred between 2000 and 2010. Researchers said the main reason is clear. Rates of colonoscopy rose steeply during the same period. This screening test can find and remove colon polyps before they turn into cancer. In 2000, 19% of adults ages 50 through 75 had been screened with colonoscopy. That jumped to 55% in 2010. The study found that colon cancer rates declined faster at the end of the decade than at the beginning. The drop was especially steep among people age 65 and older. Between 2008 and 2010, colon cancer rates in this age group dropped 7.2% a year. Colon cancer deaths also fell for adults 50 and older. During the decade studied, deaths dropped about 3% a year. The decline was about 2% a year in the 1990s. The study did find one worrisome trend.

Riding in cars with impaired drivers greatly increases the risk that a teenager will also drive after drinking, a study finds. The study was based on surveys of about 2,500 teenagers. They were surveyed every year from 10th through 12th grades. Depending on the survey, about 12% to 14% reported impaired driving in the last month. About 23% to 38% reported riding in cars with someone who was drunk or drugged in the last year. Numbers were adjusted to account for factors that affect the odds of impaired driving. These included drinking habits, gender and the level of parents’ education and teen supervision. The more often teens rode with impaired drivers, the more likely they were to drive while impaired themselves. Those who reported riding with an impaired driver on a single survey were 11 times as likely to drive impaired as teens who never rode with an impaired driver.

Even slightly high blood pressure can increase the risk of stroke, a new review of evidence concludes. The American Heart Association classifies readings above 140/90 as high blood pressure. Below 120/80 is considered normal. The new study looked at the range in between. This is called prehypertension. Researchers put together data from 19 long-term studies. They included a total of 760,000 people. They kept track of people for up to 36 years. Depending on the study, 25% to 54% of people had prehypertension. Nearly 20% of all strokes occurred in this group. The new study also divided this group into 2 different levels of prehypertension. One group had blood pressure readings between 130/85 and 139/89. The other group had blood pressures between 120/80 and 129/84. People in the higher range were 95% more likely to have strokes than those with normal blood pressure.