Category: news-perspectives

Heart disease and diabetes are more common in people who are obese. But not all obese people have the same risk, a new medical journal article points out. Increasing evidence shows that some people who are obese have normal cholesterol, blood pressure and blood sugar. Doctors say they are metabolically healthy, though obese. These people may be fit even though they are overweight. They may have a relatively small waist size compared with their overall size. And they may be less likely to have long-lasting inflammation in the body. The authors of the new article say a better definition of the condition is needed. This might help doctors target treatments to those who need them most. For example, healthy obese people might be better off avoiding weight-loss surgery, they say. Doctors still don’t know why some obese people don’t suffer the same health problems as others.

We’re making progress, but our habits are still undermining our health. That’s the conclusion of a new report from the American Heart Association (AHA). The AHA wants to reduce heart disease and stroke deaths 20% by 2020. But with current trends, we can expect only a 6% reduction, the report said. Obesity, smoking and lack of exercise are slowing down progress. About 68% of U.S. adults and 32% of children are overweight or obese. Nearly 33% of adults get no exercise at all in a typical week, the report says. Even in high school, 18% of girls and 10% of boys get less than an hour of aerobic exercise each week. Smoking rates are down, but 21% of men, 18% of women and 17% of high school students still smoke. About 8% of adults have been diagnosed with diabetes. The report says broad measures will be needed to encourage change.

Doctors who urge some elderly patients to stop driving may help to keep them safer, a new study suggests. The study was done in Canada. Doctors there must report to licensing officials if a patient has a condition that might impair driving. These conditions include epilepsy, sleep disorders, alcoholism and dementia. In 2006, Ontario started giving doctors a small fee to encourage reporting. Researchers used the fee structure to track more than 100,000 patients. Most were older than 60. Researchers added up the car crashes for drivers from this group in the year before the warnings began. They included only crashes serious enough for the driver to go to an emergency room. Then they kept track of the group for 3½ years. Crashes per year dropped 45%. The study could not tell if the patients stopped driving or were more careful. There was another result, as well.

The brains of people with migraines look a bit different than other brains, a review of research concludes. The review looked at 19 studies. All of them examined people’s brains using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). The images showed that people who have migraines are more likely than others to have changes in the brain’s white matter. These areas help to carry signals within the brain. People with migraines also had more areas in the brain that looked like previous strokes. Researchers said they don’t know why changes in white matter are more common in people with migraines. They don’t know if migraines caused the changes, or if the changes caused the migraines. Or something else could have caused both. They said they have no evidence that the changes affect people’s health.

U.S. labels for statin drugs now will list warnings about two new possible side effects. Some people taking statins have had a temporary loss of short-term memory. Some people have shown a higher risk of developing type 2 diabetes. The new labels will mention these potential risks. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued the changes February 28. Statins include drugs such as atorvastatin (Lipitor), simvastatin (Zocor) and rosuvastatin (Crestor). They are used to lower LDL cholesterol and to help prevent heart attacks. The FDA says the memory problems have not been serious and went away when people stopped taking statins. Recent research has found that the increased risk of diabetes is small but real for people taking higher doses of statins. The new labels also will drop previous advice to have people taking statins get regular blood tests for liver enzymes.

A new kind of device shocks the heart back into normal rhythm without the need for implanted wires that actually touch the heart, a study finds. The device is called a subcutaneous implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD). A standard ICD is implanted under the skin and is attached to wires that touch the heart. The wire on the new device is implanted under the skin. The study included 314 people using the new device. In a 6-month period, 21 people had episodes of a fast heart rhythm that can lead to cardiac arrest. This occurred 38 times in all. Each time, the device shocked the heart back to a normal rhythm. The device detected and fixed 100% of the life-threatening rhythms. However, 41 patients received shocks at times when there was no dangerous rhythm. Cameron Health Inc. makes the device. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved it last year.

A screening program using 2 tests appears to catch ovarian cancer at early stages, new research shows. About 3 out of 4 cases of ovarian cancer now are diagnosed after they have spread. Survival rates are low. The new research uses 2 tests that have been tried before. But in earlier studies the tests had abnormal results for many women who did not have ovarian cancer. The new study included more than 4,000 women, ages 50 and older. All were given a blood test each year for a protein called CA-125. Researchers compared their test results and ages with a database to assess their risk of ovarian cancer. They looked at not only the CA-125 level but how it changed over time. In 11 years of follow-up, only 3% of the women were found to be at high risk. They received a second test called a transvaginal ultrasound. Ten women had suspicious results.

A new study found that giving clot-busting drugs within 90 minutes of a mild to moderate stroke prevents or greatly reduces the chances of disability. Current guidelines recommend giving a clot-busting drug within 4.5 hours of symptoms. A large European study looked at the outcomes of 6,856 people diagnosed with ischemic stroke. Ischemic strokes are the most common type of stroke. They occur when a clot blocks blood flow to the brain. All of the patients received an intravenous (IV) clot-busting drug, called tissue plasminogen activator (tPA), within 4.5 hours. Doctors call this procedure thrombolysis. But patients who got the drug within 90 minutes of symptoms had little or no disability 3 months later, compared with patients who got thrombolysis after 90 minutes. The journal Stroke published the study online. HealthDay News wrote about it August 22.

A new study offers clues to early symptoms of a brain disease linked with head trauma that has affected football players and other athletes. The study focused on chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE). This disease causes brain damage that gets worse over time. People with CTE often are depressed and may show impulsive or erratic behavior. The new study included 36 male athletes who had been diagnosed with CTE after death. Their ages when they died ranged from 17 to 98. Most of them had played football as professionals or amateurs. The rest had been involved in hockey, wrestling or boxing. Researchers interviewed their relatives and asked about early symptoms related to thinking or behavior. They found that 22 of the athletes had behavior or mood problems as their first symptoms of CTE. Eleven had memory or thinking problems first. Three had no symptoms up to their time of death.

The United States has 10 times as many Lyme disease cases each year as the official numbers report. That’s the conclusion of new research by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). More than 30,000 cases of Lyme disease are reported to the CDC each year. But 3 new studies suggest that doctors actually diagnose and treat about 300,000 cases a year. One study is based on medical insurance claims. One uses a survey of clinical laboratories that test for Lyme disease. The third study looks at self-reported Lyme disease, based on a survey of the public. CDC officials were not surprised that their official numbers had been low. They presented their early estimates, based on the 3 studies, at a conference on tick-borne diseases. Final estimates will be published when the studies are completed. HealthDay News wrote about the research August 19.