Medical News

Diabetes and the Heart: Risk Greater in Women

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Diabetes and the Heart: Risk Greater in Women.

Data from 64 studies with both male and female participants yielded a 44% greater multiple-adjusted relative risk ratio (RRR) for incident coronary heart disease (CHD) in women compared with men (RRR 1.44, 95% CI 1.27-1.63), Rachel Huxley, DPhil, of the University of Queensland in Sydney, Australia, and colleagues found.

Pooled data from 52 studies indicated that women also had a 44% greater chance than men of dying from fatal CHD associated with diabetes, Huxley and colleagues reported online in the journal Diabetologia.

Falls and Fall Injuries Among Adults with Arthritis – United States, 2012

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Falls and Fall Injuries Among Adults with Arthritis — United States, 2012.

Falls are the leading cause of injury-related morbidity and mortality among older adults, with more than one in three older adults falling each year,* resulting in direct medical costs of nearly $30 billion (1). Some of the major consequences of falls among older adults are hip fractures, brain injuries, decline in functional abilities, and reductions in social and physical activities (2).

One in Three Patients Not Filling Prescriptions, Study Finds – AAFP News

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OK boys and girls, listen up.  When you see the terms non-adherence or non-compliance in that APS you’re reading does this mean the risk is better or worse?

One in Three Patients Not Filling Prescriptions, Study Finds — AAFP News — AAFP.

For the study, Canadian researchers evaluated the electronic health records of 15,961 patients in a primary care network that included 131 physicians to estimate the incidence of primary nonadherence (failure to fill a first-time prescription) and to ferret out which drug, patient and physician characteristics might be associated with nonadherence. Patients’ health records were linked to insurer data on drugs dispensed by community-based pharmacies in relation to specific office visits.

The researchers found that slightly more than 31 percent of all initial drug prescriptions were not filled within nine months. Nonadherence was highest for expensive drugs and preventive therapies for chronic conditions such as ischemic heart disease and depression. In addition, patients with higher copayments, recent hospitalization and more severe comorbid conditions were at increased risk for nonadherence.

Daily Aspirin – Yes or No?

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Aspirin: FDA Says ‘No’ Others Say ‘Yes’.

I found this article quite helpful in my own decision regarding whether or not to continue my daily aspirin 81 mg dose.

The bump I gave myself on the shin a few weeks ago that bled profusely and took hours to clot was also quite helpful in my decision regarding whether or not to continue my daily aspirin 81 mg dose. 

Update 06.06.14

Check out the following link.  If you’re an older male you might find this of interest.

http://www.webmd.com/erectile-dysfunction/news/20110303/regular-use-of-painkillers-linked-to-ed

Update 07.26.14

This link takes you to the 2012 Circulation article.

Aspirin.

Update 08.04.14

More links for your reading and research pleasure.

Aspirin May Not Protect Against Cardiovascular Disease – Prevention.com.

Benefits of aspirin more modest than previously believed — St George’s, University of London.

Researchers from Professor Kausik Ray’s group at St George’s, University of London investigated the drug’s effectiveness in primary prevention and the prevalence of side effects. They also assessed if aspirin had any impact on the risk of death from cancer among people considered at risk of cardiovascular disease.

They analysed data from nine clinical trials involving over 100,000 participants without a history of cardiovascular disease. Half of the participants took aspirin and half took a placebo. The average participant in the aspirin arm of these trials took aspirin for about six years.

The researchers found that although aspirin in conventional daily or alternate day doses reduced the risk of total cardiovascular disease events by 10 per cent, this was largely due to a reduction in non-fatal heart attacks. It did not include a reduction in other cardiovascular disease events including death from heart attack, or fatal or non-fatal stroke.

The study also showed that this benefit was almost entirely offset by a 30 per cent increase in risk of life-threatening or debilitating internal bleeding events. This means that while one cardiovascular disease event was averted for every 120 people treated with aspirin for about six years, one in 73 people suffered from potentially significant bleeding during the same period.

Binge Drinking Boosts Mortality Risk in Older Adults

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Binge Drinking Boosts Mortality Risk in Older Adults.

They examined the association between episodic heavy drinking and total mortality among 446 regular moderate drinkers aged 55 to 65 years at baseline. Moderate drinking was defined as up to 1 standard drink per day for women and 2 for men.

Of the 446 adults, 74 engaged in episodic heavy drinking, defined as 4 or more drinks on 1 occasion for women and 5 for men.

During the course of 20 years, the death rate was higher in the moderate drinkers who binged (61%, 45 deaths) than in moderate drinkers who did not binge (37%, 137 deaths).

Although more men than women died during the 20-year period, the distribution of deaths across alcohol consumption groups was similar for women and men (P = .76).

In multiple logistic regression analyses, after adjusting for all covariates as well as overall alcohol consumption, moderate drinkers who engaged in episodic heavy drinking had more than 2 times higher odds of 20-year mortality in comparison with regular moderate drinkers (odds ratio, 2.13; 95% confidence interval, 1.14 – 3.97; P< .05).

And from the CDC –

CDC Online Newsroom – Press Release: January 10, 2012.

Binge drinking statistics from the CDC estimate more than 38 million US adults binge drink an average of 4 times a month and the most drinks they consume on average is 8. The report found that binge drinking is more common among households with incomes ≥$75,000, but the largest number of drinks consumed per occasion is highest among households with incomes of <$25,000

Sleep Apnea Linked to Cancer

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Sleep Apnea Linked to Cancer.

Moderate-to-severe OSA was associated with a 2.5-fold higher likelihood of incident cancer (95% CI 1.2-5.0) after adjustment for obesity and a full range of other factors, Nathaniel Marshall, PhD, of the University of Sydney Nursing School in Australia, and colleagues found.

Cancer mortality was 3.4 times more common (95% CI 1.1-10.2) in those with sleep apnea than with no sleep apnea during 20 years of follow-up, they reported in the April 15 issue of theJournal of Clinical Sleep Medicine.

Higher BMI May Be Better for Older Adults

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The association between all-cause mortality and BMI created a U-shaped curve with a broad base (P-nonlinearity <0.001). The “nadir of the curve for BMI and mortality was between 24.0 and 30.9, with the lowest risk being between 27.0 and 27.9 (HR 0.90, 95% CI 0.88-0.92),” wrote Caryl A. Nowson, PhD, of Deakin University in Melbourne, Australia, and her co-authors, in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

They said that mortality risk did not increase with excess weight in this population until BMI was ≥33 (HR 1.08 for BMI of 33.0-33.9, 95% CI 1.00-1.15).

Risk of mortality was highest at a BMI lower than 23, the authors said. Using a BMI of 23.0 to 23.9 as the reference, there was a 12% greater risk of mortality for those with a BMI in the range of 21.0-21.9 (HR 1.12, 95% CI 1.10-1.13) and a 19% greater risk for those with a BMI in the range of 20.0-20.9 (HR 1.19, 95% CI 1.17-1.22), the authors said.

via Higher BMI May Be Better for Older Adults.

BMI and all-cause mortality in older adults: a meta-analysis.