Medical News

No Age Limit on Benefits of Eating Well

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Older people who eat properly are likely to live longer.

That’s the implication of a study looking at mortality and eating habits among a cohort of nearly 4,000 people 65 and older, according to Luis Afonso, MD, of Wayne State University in Detroit, and colleagues.

After an average follow-up of 13 years, participants with a good diet had lower rates of all-cause and cardiovascular mortality, compared with those who had a poor diet, Afonso and colleagues reported in the Feb. 13 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine.

via Medical News:No Age Limit on Benefits of Eating Well – in Primary Care, Diet & Nutrition from MedPage Today.

I’ll take fries with that.

Biomarkers May Help Heart Failure Risk Prediction

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After accounting for the clinical risk score, several echocardiographic findings were independently associated with incident heart failure HRs 1.11 to 2.91, P≤0.001 for all:

  • Reduced left ventricular ejection fraction
  • Abnormal mitral inflow E/A peak velocity ratio a measure of diastolic function
  • Enlarged left atrium Increased left ventricular mass

These variables were used to create an echocardiographic score.Elevated levels of NT-proBNP also were independently associated with heart failure risk HR 1.61 as a continuous variable and HR 2.7 for values greater than 190 pg/mL, P

via Medical News:Biomarkers May Help Heart Failure Risk Prediction – in Cardiovascular, CHF from MedPage Today.

Patient Access to Core Attributes of Primary Care Linked to Lower Mortality

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Specifically, authors of “Primary Care Attributes and Mortality: A National Person-Level Study” found that patients who reported three attributes in their usual source of care — comprehensiveness, patient-centeredness and enhanced access — had lower mortality during up to six years follow-up than patients reporting less access to those three attributes.

via Patient Access to Core Attributes of Primary Care Linked to Lower Mortality — AAFP News Now — American Academy of Family Physicians.

50-Year-Olds Get New Knees in Record Numbers

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During the past three decades there has been a dramatic, 130-fold increase in knee replacement surgeries, particularly among individuals in their 50s, a Finnish study found.

via Medical News: 50-Year-Olds Get New Knees in Record Numbers – in Surgery, Orthopedics from MedPage Today.

Knee replacement cost – cost of knee replacement surgery.

After reading about the dramatic increase in the number of knee replacements I did a Google search for “average cost knee replacement” without the quotation marks in the search string.  At the top of page one was the second link above.

Taiwan anyone?

Medical News: Death Rate High Long After VTE – in Cardiovascular, Venous Thrombosis from MedPage Today

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The risk of death for patients with thrombosis was highest in the first year after the event, with a hazard ratio of 14.4 95% CI 7.1 to 29.2, according to Frits R. Rosendaal, MD, PhD, and colleagues from Leiden University in the Netherlands.But the risk remained elevated eight years later HR 3.8, 95% CI 0.5 to 30.8, the researchers reported in PLoS Medicine.

“Remarkably,” the mortality rate was five times higher among patients with malignancy and thrombosis than among those who had a malignancy without thrombosis (SMR 5.5, 95% CI 5 to 6.1), the researchers observed.

via Medical News: Death Rate High Long After VTE – in Cardiovascular, Venous Thrombosis from MedPage Today.

MedPage Today Blogs – Health News Watchdog

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We’re going to see a lot of these “what to do in the New Year” health tips columns. We hope more of them are more evidence-based than this one was. And we hope that journalists don’t act on these news tips without doing their own homework on the state of the evidence.

via Cleveland Clinic’s “Top Tests for 2012” Clash With Many Guidelines – MedPage Today Blogs – 30297.

Check your facts.

Cat Allergy Depends on When You Get the Cat

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With apologies to all cat lovers out there

Acquiring a cat as an adult can lead to allergies to cat dander; the risk is lower if one had a cat as a child but higher if allergies were already present.

via Medical News: Cat Allergy Depends on When You Get the Cat – in Allergy & Immunology, Allergy from MedPage Today.

Bottom Line:

If you have allergies, asthma, or never had a cat as a child, don’t get a cat.