Health News for Early February 2008

Minds, Brains, & Mental Health

Older Women & Depression

A study published in the February edition of Archives of General Psychiatry found that older women had higher rates of depression than older men. The study followed 754 people over the age of 70 for 72 months. At all time points during the study, a significantly greater percentage of women were depressed compared to men, and the women were more likely to become depressed and remain depressed.

Folate & Dementia

Seniors with low levels of folate, or vitamin B9, are three times more likely to develop Alzheimer's disease and other forms of dementia. Furthermore, the onset of dementia corresponds to a sharp decrease in folate levels. The findings were published online on February 5 in the Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery, and Psychiatry.

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Lifestyle & Health Issues

Pop Music Depictions of Substance Use

According to a new study in the February edition of Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, listening to pop music exposes a typical teen to 84 references to substance use each day. Depictions of alcohol use were the most frequent, followed by marijuana, other/unspecified substances, and tobacco. The number of references varied widely by musical genre – 77% of the rap songs analyzed mentioned substance use, compared to 14% of rock songs and 9% of pop songs.

Lifestyle & Medical Costs

Preventing smoking and obesity saves lives, but it does not save on overall healthcare costs. A Dutch study published on February 4 in PLoS Medicine used a simulation model to calculate lifetime health costs for three groups of people: Thin and healthy, obese, and smokers. Surprisingly, the thin and healthy group had the highest overall healthcare costs due to their longer life spans. The thin and healthy group lived to 84 on average, and required US$417,000 in healthcare costs. The obese group lived to 80 and cost US$371,000, while smokers lived to 77 and cost US$326,000.

Cannabis Smoking & Periodontal Disease

A new study published on February 6 in The Journal of the American Medical Association found that smoking cannabis may be a risk factor for periodontal disease, and that the effect is independent of tobacco use.

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Cancer

Mistakes on Breast Cancer Websites

Seeking breast CA information online? An early view article published online on February 11 in Cancer says that 5% of breast cancer websites have mistakes, and that those involving complementary/alternative medicine are the most likely to be misleading. Using five popular search engines to find information using 15 breast cancer-related queries, researchers examined 343 unique pages and found that one in 20 contained inaccuracies. Overall, researchers found 41 inaccurate statements on 18 (5.2%) of the websites.

Prostate Cancer Genes

Letters by three research groups, which were published in advance online on February 10 in Nature Genetics have identified at least 10 genes that could up a man's risk of prostate cancer. The papers are entitled Multiple newly identified loci associated with prostate cancer susceptibility, Multiple loci identified in a genome-wide association study of prostate cancer, and Common sequence variants on 2p15 and Xp11.22 confer susceptibility to prostate cancer.

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Cardiovascular Health

Plavix & Heart Health

The anti-clotting drug Plavix (clopidogrel bisulfate) is often prescribed for acute coronary syndrome. However, stopping the drug may increase a patient's risk of heart attacks and death. New research published on February 6 in The Journal of the American Medical Association followed 3,317 patients who were prescribed Plavix and then discontinued the drug. Patients had the highest rates of heart attacks and death within the first three months after they stopped taking Plavix, and about 61% of all adverse events occurred during this period. This is believed to be caused by a "rebound effect," where blood clots are more likely to occur immediately after patients stop taking an anti-clotting drug. The researchers stated that the study does not negate the benefits of Plavix, but more caution may be needed as patients go off the medication.

Airport Noise & Cardiovascular Health

An article published online on February 12 in the European Heart Journal investigated the effect of short-term changes in noise levels on blood pressure and heart rate during the nighttime sleep of 140 individuals living near four major European airports. They found that loud noise instantly boosts a sleeping person's blood pressure, and that the louder the noise, the higher the blood pressure.

Heart Disease Numbers Up?

While looking at autopsy results from 515 unnatural deaths (accident, suicide, homicide, undetermined) of individuals aged 16-64 in one Minnesota county, researchers have found that 425 (82%) had coronary anatomy graded, and of these, 8.2% had high-grade disease, and 83% had evidence of any disease! This led the authors to state: "Study findings suggest that declines in coronary disease prevalence have ended." The findings were published in the February 11 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine.

Diet After Heart Disease Diagnosis

Do you think people change their diets after a diagnosis of heart disease? According to research published in the February issue of the Journal of the American Dietetic Association, the answer is no. Researchers questioned 555 patients with CHD one year after a diagnostic coronary angiography, and found that only 12.4% of subjects met the recommended consumption amounts for vegetables, 7.8% for fruit, 8% for cereal fiber, and 5.2% for trans-fat intake.

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Infectious Diseases

Infectious Disease Hospitalizations Among American Infants

In 2003, infectious diseases sent 286,739 American infants to the hospital, and accounted for 43% of all infant hospitalizations. The median cost for each hospitalization was US$2,235, and the total annual cost was approximately US$690 million. Respiratory disease was the most common type of infectious disease, and accounted for more than half of all hospitalizations. Infants who were younger, male, and nonwhite had higher rates of hospitalization. These findings were published in the February edition of Pediatrics.

Virus Immunity Created in the Lab

Researchers at Montréal's McGill University have discovered a way to boost an organism's natural anti-virus defenses, effectively making its cells immune to influenza and other viruses. As explained in a press release, "Their process – which could lead to the development of new anti-viral therapies in humans – involved knocking out two genes in mice that repress production of the protein interferon, the cell's first line of defence against viruses. Without these repressor genes, the mouse cells produced much higher levels of interferon, which effectively blocked viruses from reproducing. The researchers tested the process on influenza virus, encephalomyocarditis virus, vesicular stomatitis virus and Sindbis virus." The researchers detected no abnormalities or negative side-effects resulting from enhanced interferon production in the mice. The findings were published online on February 13 in Nature.

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Miscellaneous

Diabetes & Mortality

Treating type 2 diabetes patients with multiple drug combinations and behavioral changes decreases the risk of death. A study published on February 7 in The New England Journal of Medicine followed 160 high-risk diabetes patients. Half of the group received conventional therapy, and the other half received intensive therapy that included tight glucose regulation, renin-angiotensin system blockers, aspirin, and lipid-lowering agents. Patients in the intensive therapy group had significantly lower mortality rates from all causes, especially heart disease.

Live to 100+ Years?

Two articles published in the February 11 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine looked at men and women who had reached or nearly reached the 100-year mark. In one investigation, researchers did a cross-sectional, nationwide study that included 523 women and 216 men aged 97+. They found that about two-thirds had avoided significant age-related conditions, such as diabetes, dementia, heart disease, etc., and that the remaining 32% were "survivors" – a person who had developed an age-related disease before reaching 85. Among survivors, many functioned nearly as well as their disease-free peers. However, researchers also found that male centenarians, though far fewer in number than female centenarians, tended to have significantly better cognition and physical function. In the second investigation, researchers looked at 2,357 healthy men (average 72 years) from the Physicians' Health Study (1981–2006), and found that 41% reached at least age 90. They concluded: "Modifiable healthy behaviors during early elderly years, including smoking abstinence, weight management, blood pressure control, and regular exercise, are associated not only with enhanced life span in men but also with good health and function during older age."

Smokers & Sleep

Do you have trouble sleeping well? If you're a smoker, researchers may have found an explanation: An article published in the February issue of Chest conducted polysomnography on a group of 40 smokers and 40 nonsmokers, and concluded that "Cigarette smokers manifest disturbances in the sleep EEG that are not evident in conventional measures of sleep architecture. Nicotine in cigarette smoke and withdrawal from it during sleep may contribute to these changes and the subjective experience of nonrestorative sleep."

Med Schools & Industry Money

A contribution published in the February 13 issue of The Journal of the American Medical Association reports, based on survey responses of 86 of 125 US allopathic medical schools, that only 30 schools (38%) have adopted institutional conflicts of interest policies applicable to financial interests held by the institutions, though a much higher number have adopted policies applicable to the financial interests of the officials.

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