Researchers recently conducted a new study that looked into the benefits of the long-term use of statins and found that patients with Peripheral artery disease (PAD) who take the cholesterol-lowering drug may have a lesser risk of amputation.

Lead researcher, Shipra Arya from Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta, Georgia, states that “PAD, a narrowing of the peripheral arteries to the legs, stomach, arms and head, is the next cardiovascular epidemic,” and feels there is a lack of research into the link between PAD and the use of statins.

Peripheral artery disease is primarily caused by fatty plaque buildup in the arteries and occurs more commonly in the legs increasing the risk of leg amputations.

According to U.S. News and World Report, the study involved analyzing health data from more than 20,000 patients with PAD from the Veterans Affairs’ database and were followed up on an average period of just over 5 years assessing their risk of amputation and death.

The PAD participants of the study were separated into three groups – one that took a high amount of statins, one that took a low to moderate amount, and the final group not using statins at all.

What they found was that people taking statins for PAD had a 33 percent lower risk of amputation and a 29 percent lower risk of death than those not taking the drugs. The team even conclude that a higher dosage of statins could actually lower the risk even further.

“Ours is one of the largest population-based studies on PAD and suggests patients who have been diagnosed with PAD should be considered for placement on high dose statins upon diagnosis if they can tolerate it, along with other medical management, including smoking cessation, antiplatelet therapy and a walking program,”

The findings were presented at an American Heart Association meeting in Nashville and await to be peer-reviewed and published.

A new study just released has found an association between a commonly-prescribed medication for people diagnosed with atrial fibrillation (AF) and an increased risk of dementia, according to CBS News.

In particular, patients taking the drug warfarin, used to prevent blood clots, were found to have an increased risk if the levels of the medication in their blood were often too high or too low.  The study found this applied to those taking the medication for other reasons than AF as well.

“If people’s levels of warfarin were erratic, their dementia risk was higher, whether they had AF or not,” said Dr. Jared Bunch, lead researcher on the study and a cardiologist at Intermountain Medical Center in Murray, UT.  Bunch continued to say the study does not prove that AF or the taking of warfarin caused dementia, but the researchers believe both could contribute to developing the condition, likely because they both affect the blood flow to the brain.

About 3 million adults in the United States have atrial fibrillation, a common heart arrhythmia, in which the upper chambers of the heart do not contract efficiently.  The condition itself is not considered life-threatening, but it can cause blood clots, that may break free and block an artery supplying blood to the brain, resulting in a stroke.

A common treatment for AF is blood-thinning medication, including aspirin or anti-coagulants such as warfarin.  But getting the dosage correct for an individual can sometimes be difficult.  The physicians have to walk a fine line between having a dosage strong enough to prevent clotting, but low enough to avoid internal bleeding as well.  In some people, this means frequent adjustments of the medication.

The study’s findings were based on the medical records of over 10,000 patients who had been taking warfarin for AF and other causes.  Over a period of six to eight years, nearly six percent of the AF patients developed dementia, as compared to only two percent of those taking the drug for other reasons.

Dr. Bunch advised people who were doing well on warfarin to not be concerned, but if you were on of those whose dosage changes frequently, you may want to ask your physician about other alternatives.

With the U.S. amid an opioid addiction crisis, new allegations have arisen towards a pharmaceutical company who misled consumers by marketing a best-selling painkiller incorrectly and adding to the opioid abuse.

Purdue Pharma claimed that the drug OxyContin would have lasting pain-relieving effects for 12 hours – a claim that made them over $35 billion in sales – despite knowing that the pain relief would most likely wear out before this window of time.

OxyContin has helped many people control acute pain but has also been criticized in propelling opioid addiction with many turning to the drug for dependency, addiction and overdose.

The Food and Drug Administration approved OxyContin back in the 1990s based on research that over half of the control groups used to test the drug found that it worked. However, after an investigation by the Los Angeles Times, unseen court records and company documents showed that Purdue Pharma used the marketing strategy knowing that the drug would most likely wear off before the 12 hour period.

Despite doctors recommending to take OxyContin for 8 hours, the company insisted on sticking with the 12 hour marketing plan and even recommended healthcare professionals to prescribe stronger drugs on top of the daily dose of Oxycontin.

Theodore J. Cicero of the Washington University School of Medicine says that with the drug wearing off before the 12 hour period, the patient enters “the beginning stages of acute withdrawal” and “that becomes a very powerful motivator for people to take more drugs.”

OxyContin remains popular with 5.4 million prescriptions written in 2014 and the company defended itself against the claims that were brought against them by the Los Angeles times investigation.

“In an attempt to resurrect a long-discredited theory, the paper ignores the clinical and regulatory data that directly contradicts their story,” the company said. “Over the course of two years, Purdue Pharma provided the LAT with more than a dozen hours of briefings and discussions regarding the clinical evidence supporting OxyContin’s 12-hour dosing and the regulatory requirement that we promote the product as such.”

 

The common blood-thinning drug warfarin, that is used to treat atrial fibrillation, has been found to increase the risk of dementia in patients taking the drug.

A study was carried out by Dr. T. Jared Bunch and a team of researchers at the Intermountain Medical Center Heart Institute in Salt Lake City, who found that people who ingested warfarin on a long-term basis were more likely to develop dementia as well as other detrimental diseases such as Alzheimer’s and vascular dementia, according to Medical Xpress.

At this point in time, nearly 2.7 million Americans are living with atrial fibrillation with 20 million taking warfarin as a preventative measure against life-threatening blood clots.

The study was presented at the Heart Rhythm Society’s 37th Annual Scientific Sessions this month and took data from over 10,000 patients to focus particularly on the link between warfarin-use, dementia and atrial fibrillation. The researchers used other patients in the study that used warfarin for non-atrial fibrillation conditions such as thromboembolism and valvular heart disease. The study took place over 7 years and the patients involved had no prior history of dementia.

The results showed that dementia was significantly higher in those that took warfarin for atrial fibrillation as blood thinners increase the amount of brain bleeds which can have a negative impact on brain functioning over time.

“First, as physicians we have to understand that although we need to use anticoagulants for many reasons including to prevent stroke in AF patients, at that same time there are risks that need to be considered some of which we are only right now beginning to understand,” says Bunch. “In this regard, only those that absolutely need blood thinners should be placed on them long-term. Second, other medications like aspirin that may increase the blood thinners effect should be avoided unless there is a specific medical need. Finally, in people that are on warfarin in which the levels are erratic or difficult to control, switching to newer agents that are more predictable may lower risk.”

 

After two deaths and six more people sent to the hospital, Pasco-based CRF Frozen Foods is expanding their voluntary recall to include almost 360 different organic and non-organic frozen fruits and vegetables that could be contaminated with the potentially lethal Listeria monocytogenes bacteria, reports The Charlotte Observer.

The outbreak was announced on Tuesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It was first identified in March, after several people got sick after consuming frozen vegetables produced by CRF Frozen Foods and sold under the Organic by Nature brand.

One patient died in Maryland, and another one died in Washington state; however, listeriosis is not thought to be the direct cause. The other cases are from California.

A full list of the recalled products can be found on the U.S. Food and Drug Administration website. It currently encompasses 42 different brands packaged at CRF Frozen Foods of Pasco, Washington. These vegetables were available for purchase at Trader Joe’s and Costco. The company has provided a dedicated hotline (844-483-3866) for concerned consumers.

Listeria monocytogenes, commonly found in soil and water, can cause a serious infection, which is especially dangerous for the elderly, newborns, people with weak immune systems. When the infection affects pregnant women, it can even lead to miscarriages and premature delivery, among many other complications.

People who have recently consumed frozen fruits and vegetables should watch for common symptoms, which include fever, muscle aches, and diarrhea. If the symptoms are present, an immediate hospitalization is necessary.

Although research on human embryos outside of the body has been going on for some time, until now scientists have been unable to keep the developing for more than a week.  But new research has found a way to keep them alive for up to fourteen days, possibly much longer, according to a story on NPR.

The research team ended the experiment due to a long-standing rule that put a limit on human embryo research of only being allowed in the first fourteen days, and some are beginning to question whether the rule should be changed in light of the new discovery.

The research was built on work done by scientists that found a way to keep mouse embryos alive for longer periods in a lab environment and prompted the team to wonder if the same could be done with human embryos.

Magdelena Zernicka-Goetz, a professor of developmental biology at the University of Cambridge in England and her colleagues came up with a mix of amino acids, hormones and growth factors, that according to Zernicka-Goetz “would allow embryos to feel as good as they would feel in the body of the mother.”

Zernicka-Goetz’s group, along with a team from Rockefeller University in New York, decided to conduct the experiment, and successfully kept the embryos developing for an additional week.  Previously, scientists had thought human embryos would only continue to develop in the womb after reaching the critical seven-day mark, when the embryo becomes embedded within the womb.

The researchers were astonished to see the embryos in the dish begin to organize themselves into early stages of organs and tissues, without receiving instructions from the body of the mother.

This new discovery has scientists thinking about how much can be learned from studying the development of the embryos outside the body, but also fuels the debate about at which point life begins.  Some suggest abandoning the 14-day rule would lead to researchers taking liberties with embryos, and asking if there is a limit to what we will do in search of scientific knowledge.

Likely there will be a great deal of debate, from both the scientific and the moral positions on human embryos before any rule changes can be considered, as was the case when the rule was first implemented.  Scientists say there could be many valuable lessons learned that may even help prevent miscarriages and birth defects with increased research in the area.

A new study from the Tulane University School of Medicine has discovered that testosterone actually acts as an anti-diabetic hormone in men, and this knowledge may help identify new treatment options for type 2 diabetes. It has long been known that low testosterone levels increase the risk of type 2 diabetes, but this is the first time the cause has been identified.

Testosterone helps men regulate their blood sugar levels by triggering key signaling mechanisms in the clusters of cells located in the pancreas, known as islets, that produce insulin. Men with decreased testosterone due to age or prostate cancer therapies are at higher risk for the disease.

The study used male mice that were specially bred to have pancreatic beta cells that lacked the receptor to testosterone, known as the androgen receptor. The mice were fed a diet rich in sugars and fats and then tested for their response to glucose. The mice with no androgen receptors all showed lower secretion of insulin, which led to glucose intolerance when compared with normal mice in the control group.

When the researchers administered glucose and testosterone directly to human islet cells that had been treated with an androgen receptor inhibitor, and islet cells from mice that had no androgen receptors, both showed decreased insulin production when compared to islet cells with normal testosterone receptors.

Further experiments with mouse and human islet cells showed that the insulin-producing effect of testosterone could be stopped by inhibiting the hormone the body produces after a meal. The research team suggests that testosterone amplifies the islet impact of this hormone, which is presently used as a treatment for diabetes.

If you are one of the estimated 10 percent of people suffering from insomnia in the U.S, then you may have tried sleeping pills and medication to help you get your full amount of shut-eye.

However a new study conducted by the American College of Physicians has revealed that insomnia-related conditions are more successfully treated with regular therapy and counselling and should be tried before considering the medication route.

The experts say that cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) which involves talking with a therapist and implementing behavioral techniques could help those with chronic insomnia, according to UPI. If the course of therapy has little impact then patients should then discuss the possibilities of medication.

The study was based on data from 10 years of study in order to fully see the long-term effects that CBT has on sleep-deprived conditions. The results showed that CBT had a significant positive effect on sleep patterns in people with chronic insomnia.

The study aims to improve and re-evaluate new guidelines into the treatment of insomnia and will also expect to see a decrease in costs to the health care system. The president of the American College of Physicians, Dr Wayne Riley believes that too many people are being over-subscribed medication for conditions that could be dealt with in more effective ways.

“We know chronic insomnia is a real problem that patients present within our [doctors’] offices. We want to get away from the overtendency to prescribe sleep medications, and clearly CBT can be a very nice tool in the toolkit.”

Sleep medications can have the potential to cause long-term damaging effects which experts and doctors want to avoid. Using CBT will empower patients to naturally take control and tackle their sleep problems and therefore increasing their overall well-being and experts want to at least give patients an opportunity to trial the new course of treatment.

“We looked at [the issue] very broadly; we don’t say don’t use a medication, we say, give your patient a trial… and if they come back still having problems sleeping, maybe add short-term use of a medication. We try to counsel against using [medication] longer than 10 to 14 days because we know dependence can be an issue.”

The new guidelines have been published this week in Annals of Internal Medicine.