Vitamin B +folic acid reduces age-related vision loss

Taking a combination of vitamins B6 and B12 and folic acid appears to decrease the risk of age-related macular degeneration in women, according to a report in the February 23 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is a leading cause of vision loss in older Americans, according to background information in the article. Treatment options exist for those with severe cases of the disease, but the only known prevention method is to avoid smoking. Recent studies have drawn a connection between AMD and blood levels of homocysteine, an amino acid. High levels of homocysteine are associated with dysfunction of the blood vessel lining, whereas treatment with vitamin B6, vitamin B12 and folic acid appears to reduce homocysteine...

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Vitamin E Can Help Or Hurt You

Vitamin E may decrease and increase mortality of male smokers with high dietary vitamin C intakeSix-year vitamin E supplementation decreased mortality by 41% in elderly male smokers who had high dietary vitamin C intake, but increased mortality by 19% in middle-aged smokers who had high vitamin C intake, according to a study published in the American Journal of Epidemiology.Large-scale controlled trials have not found any overall effects of vitamin E supplementation on the mortality of participants. Nevertheless, the effect of vitamin E on respiratory infections has significantly diverged between different population groups suggesting that the effects of vitamin E may not be uniform over all the population.Dr. Harri Hemila, and Professor Jaakko Kaprio, of the University of Helsinki, Finland,...

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Multivitamins Have No Impact

Multivitamins Have No Impact on Risk of Cancer Or Heart Disease in Postmenopausal WomenThe largest study of its kind concludes that long-term multivitamin use has no impact on the risk of common cancers, cardiovascular disease or overall mortality in postmenopausal women. The results of the Women’s Health Initiative study, led by researchers at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, were published in the Feb. 9 issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine.“Dietary supplements are used by more than half of all Americans, who spend more than $20 billion on these products each year. However, scientific data are lacking on the long-term health benefits of supplements,” said lead author Marian L. Neuhouser, Ph.D., an associate member of the Public Health Sciences Division at the Hutchinson Center.The...

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Jon’s Health Tips - Glutamine Supplements

I am going to start taking L-glutamine. Here’s why:My father died from complications from ulcer surgery. He was only 65. His father died from a stroke age 65 as well. I am now 64. I will regard every year beyond 65 as a precious gift.My father suffered from ulcers his whole life. He was often in intense pain. There was no known cure. He ate almost nothing but eggs and dairy products to soothe his stomach, and was very overweight as a result. He suffered a heart attack, which went undiscovered – just more ulcer pain I guess, and contracted diabetes.Tragically, not long after he passed away, it was discovered that bacteria known as Helicobacter pylori were responsible for stomach ulcers. Since then, antibiotics have become the primary therapy used to combat the H. pylori infection. He could...

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Statins and Lung Fuction

Statins reduce loss of function, keeping old lungs young - even in smokersStatins are known to be good for lowering cholesterol and maybe even fighting dementia, and now they have another reported benefit: they appear to slow decline in lung function in the elderly— even in those who smoke. According to researchers in Boston, it may be statins’ anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties that help achieve this effect.Their findings were published in the second issue for October in the American Thoracic Society’s American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.“We hypothesized that statins would have a protective effect on decline in lung function,” wrote Dr. Joel Schwartz, Ph.D., professor of environmental epidemiology at Harvard School of Public Health, a lead researcher on the...

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Cancer preventive effect for statins

The commonly used prescription statin drugs may have a protective effect in the prevention of liver cancer and lead to a reduction in the need for gallbladder removals, according to two studies published in Gastroenterology. As millions of Americans use statins each day to help lower their cholesterol and risk of heart disease, researchers are learning of the beneficial effects these drugs may have on gastrointestinal disorders. Gastroenterology is the official journal of the American Gastroenterological Association (AGA) Institute.Statins Reduce Risk of Liver Cancer Statin use is associated with a significant reduction in the risk of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), or liver cancer, among patients with diabetes, according to a new study in Gastroenterology."Our study provides the first indication...

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Statin Use Benefits Multiple Areas of Urologic Health

New Body of Research Suggests Statin Use Benefits Multiple Areas of Urologic Health Several new studies presented at the American Urological Association's (AUA) 104th Annual Scientific Meeting suggest that the use of statins--commonly prescribed to lower cholesterol--may benefit men with prostate cancer, erectile dysfunction or lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS). Several key research studies highlighting these benefits will be presented during a special panel for the media on Monday, April 27 from 9 to 10:30 a.m. during the 104th Annual Scientific Meeting of the American Urological Association (AUA).The following study findings will be discussed by authors during the panel press conference:Abstract 576: Is statin use associated with prostate cancer aggressiveness?Use of statins may be associated...

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Aspirin can prevent liver damage

Aspirin can prevent liver damage that afflicts millions, Yale study findsSimple aspirin may prevent liver damage in millions of people suffering from side effects of common drugs, alcohol abuse, and obesity-related liver disease, a new Yale University study suggests.The study in the January 26 edition of Journal of Clinical Investigation documents that in mice, aspirin reduced mortality caused by an overdose of acetaminophen, best known by the brand name Tylenol. It further showed that a class of molecules known as TLR antagonists, which block receptors known to activate inflammation, have a similar effect as aspirin. Since these agents seem to work by reducing injury-induced inflammation, the results suggest aspirin may help prevent and treat liver damage from a host of non-infectious causes,...

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Aspirin can reduce risk of Alzheimer's disease

Ibuprofen, aspirin, naproxen may be equally effective at reducing risk of Alzheimer's diseaseDifferent types of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), such as ibuprofen, naproxen, and aspirin, appear to be equally effective in lowering the risk of Alzheimer’s disease, according to the largest study of its kind published in the May 28, 2008, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. Experts have debated whether a certain group of NSAIDs that includes ibuprofen may be more beneficial than another group that includes naproxen and aspirin.Using information from six different studies, researchers examined data on NSAID use in 13,499 people without dementia. Over the course of these six studies, 820 participants developed Alzheimer’s disease.Researchers...

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Aspirin may reduce or increase blood pressure

Aspirin at night = significant reductions in blood pressureData unveiled today at the American Society of Hypertension's Twenty Third Annual Scientific Meeting and Exposition (ASH 2008) revealed for the first time that people with prehypertension who are treated with aspirin may experience significant reductions in blood pressure—but only if they take the pill before bedtime, and not when they wake up in the morning.People with prehypertension (a blood pressure reading between normal and high; when systolic blood pressure is between 120 and 139 or diastolic blood pressure is between 80 and 89 on multiple readings) are at significant risk of hypertension, or consistently high blood pressure—the biggest risk factor for heart disease and stroke, the two leading causes of death in the Western...

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Aspirin= + Prostate cancer in prevention/treatment?

Common painkillers lower levels of prostate cancer biomarkerBut impact on a man's risk for getting prostate cancer is unclear, physicians sayCommon painkillers like aspirin and ibuprofen appear to lower a man's PSA level, the blood biomarker widely used by physicians to help gauge whether a man is at risk of prostate cancer.But the authors of the study, which appears online Sept. 8 in the journal Cancer, caution that men shouldn't take the painkillers in an effort to prevent prostate cancer just yet."We showed that men who regularly took certain medications like aspirin and other non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, or NSAIDS, had a lower serum PSA level," said first author Eric A. Singer, M.D., M.A., a urology resident at the University of Rochester Medical Center. "But there's not enough...

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Aspirin in the prevention/treatment of osteoporosis

USC School of Dentistry researchers uncover benefits of aspirin for treating osteoporosisDrug appears to prevent both improper bone resorption and the death of bone-forming stem cellsResearchers at the University of Southern California, School of Dentistry have uncovered the health benefits of aspirin in the fight against osteoporosis. Forty-four million Americans, 68 percent of whom are women, suffer from the debilitating effects of osteoporosis according to the National Institute of Health. One out of every two women and one in four men over 50 will have an osteoporosis-related fracture in their lifetime.This latest study identifies aspirin's medicinal role on two fronts. In mice, the drug appears to prevent both improper bone resorption and the death of bone-forming stem cells. The findings...

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Aspirin may prevent atherosclerosis

Aspirin has become one of the most widely used medications in the world, owing to its ability to reduce pain, fevers, inflammation, and blood clotting. In animal studies, aspirin has also been shown to prevent atherosclerosis, though none of its known mechanisms of action would seem to account for this. In a new study, though, researchers have uncovered the mechanism that may explain aspirin's ability to prevent arterial plaque buildup.Using cell culture and mouse models, Sampath Parthasarathy and colleagues observed that aspirin –specifically its active byproduct salicylate– can greatly increase the expression of two proteins: paraoxonase 1 (PON1) and apolipoprotein A1 (ApoA1); in the mouse studies, low dose aspirin supplements could increase PON1 and ApoA1 levels by 7- and 12- fold, respectively.Both...

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Aspirin offers lowers risk of asthma

Low-dose aspirin offers lower chance of asthmaIn a large, randomized, placebo-controlled study of 22,071 healthy male physicians, taking a low-dose of aspirin every other day lowered the risk of receiving an initial asthma diagnosis by 22 percent._These findings, based on data from the double-blind Physicians' Health Study, appear in the second issue for January 2007 of the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, published by the American Thoracic Society.Tobias Kurth, M.D., Sc.D., of the Division of Aging at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Massachusetts, and five associates studied physicians, ages 40 to 84, over a period of 4.9 years. Among the 11,037 individuals who took aspirin, 113 new cases of asthma were diagnosed, as contrasted to 145 in the placebo group.Asthma...

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Aspirin Saves Heart Attack Victims

Aspirin saves lives of cancer patients suffering heart attacks, despite fears of bleedingMany cancer patients who have heart attacks often are not treated with life saving aspirin given the belief in the medical community that they could experience lethal bleeding. Researchers at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, however, say that notion is now proven wrong and that without aspirin, the majority of these patients will die.__Researchers say that their study, to be published in the February 1, 2007 issue of the journal Cancer and now available online, turns common medical assumptions upside down and will likely change medical practice for cancer patients. Because aspirin can thin blood and cancer patients experience low platelet counts and abnormal clotting, physicians view...

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Aspirin may reduce risk of breast cancer

Aspirin may reduce risk of common type of breast cancerTaking aspirin on a daily basis may lower women’s risk of a particular type of breast cancer, according to results published in BioMed Central’s open access journal Breast Cancer Research. In this large study, aspirin use was linked to a small reduction in estrogen receptor-positive breast cancers. However, unlike in some previous research, aspirin and related painkillers were not found to reduce the total risk of breast cancer.Around 75% of breast cancers are estrogen receptor-positive (ER+), which means the cancer cells have receptors for the female hormone estrogen on their surface. Estrogen helps the cancer cells grow, so drugs that block the action of estrogen are often used to treat ER+ cancer.It is feasible, in theory, that aspirin...

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Aspirin can reduce colorectal cancer risk

Three recent studies confirm that aspirin can reduce colorectal cancer risk:Aspirin can reduce colorectal cancer riskA study of Medicare patients with osteoarthritis provides additional evidence that non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) such as aspirin reduce the risk of colorectal cancer. Earlier investigations of the drugs’ impact on tumor development could not rule out the possibility that an observed protective effect was caused by other preventive health care measures. The current study, led by a Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) physician, appears in the August 2007 Journal of General Internal Medicine.“This is good news for people who take NSAIDs regularly for osteoarthritis,” says Elizabeth Lamont, MD, MS, of the MGH Cancer Center, the study’s lead author. “Although patients...

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Aspirin Fights Cancer

Aspirin Fights CancerLong-term use of adult-strength aspirin linked to a moderate decreased cancer risk_A daily dose of adult-strength aspirin may modestly reduce cancer risk in populations with high rates of colorectal, prostate, and breast cancer if taken for at least five years.The Women's Health Study trial recently reported that long-term use of low-dose aspirin (about 100mg every other day) does not reduce a woman's cancer risk, but it did not examine whether high doses of aspirin have an effect on cancer risk.Eric Jacobs, Ph.D., of the American Cancer Society in Atlanta, and colleagues looked for associations between long-term daily aspirin use (at least 325mg/day) and cancer incidence in a group of nearly 70,000 men and 76,000 women. Aspirin use was determined by a questionnaire.During...

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Aspirin not as good for women as for men

Long-term aspirin = reduced risk of dying in women?Long-term aspirin use associated with reduced risk of dying in women_Women who take low to moderate doses of aspirin have a reduced risk of death from any cause, and especially heart disease–related deaths, according to a report in the March 26 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.Some studies have provided evidence that aspirin may reduce the risk of heart disease and some types of cancer, the two leading causes of death in U.S. women, according to background information in the article. However, it is unclear whether aspirin reduces the risk of death overall for women.Andrew T. Chan, M.D., M.P.H., Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, and colleagues examined the association...

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Coated Aspirin As Bad on Stomach as Plain Aspirin

Some people take aspirin without ever having a problem with their stomach. Others develop low-grade stomach pain or get an ulcer. A few develop gastrointestinal bleeding severe enough to require a transfusion. But coated or buffered aspirin doesn’t do much to help.Coated aspirin, also called enteric-coated aspirin, is the pharmaceutical industry’s attempt to limit the drug’s effect on the stomach. It’s a great idea: Cover aspirin with a coating designed to withstand stomach acids so it sails through the stomach untouched and dissolves in the more neutral small intestine. Keeping aspirin intact for as long as possible might mean it won’t damage the lining of the stomach. Yet studies show that coasted aspirin has virtually the same effect on the stomach as plain, uncoated aspirin.The Harvard...

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U.S. Preventive Services Task Force: Aspirin

Risks of Using Aspirin to Prevent Heart Attack Or Stroke Differ by Gender and AgePatients and clinicians should consider risk factors-- including age, gender, diabetes, blood pressure, cholesterol levels, smoking and risk of gastrointestinal bleeding-- before deciding whether to use aspirin to prevent heart attacks or strokes, according to new recommendations from the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force. These recommendations do not apply to people who have already had a heart attack or stroke.The recommendations are published in the March 17 issue of the Annals of Internal Medicine. The Task Force reviewed new evidence from the National Institutes of Health’s Women’s Health Study published since the last Task Force review of this topic in 2002, including a recent meta-analysis of the risks...

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Mediterranean diet = lower heart disease

A review of previously published studies suggests that vegetable and nut intake and a Mediterranean dietary pattern appear to be associated with a lower risk for heart disease, according to a report published in the April 13 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals. However, intake of trans-fatty acids and foods with a high glycemic index may be harmful to heart health."The relationship between dietary factors and coronary heart disease has been a major focus of health research for almost half a century," the authors write as background information in the article. Although "a wealth of literature" has been published on the topic, "the strength of the evidence supporting valid associations has not been evaluated systematically in a single investigation."Andrew...

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White Tea Helps Weight Loss

White tea -- the solution to the obesity epidemic?Possible anti-obesity effects of white tea have been demonstrated in a series of experiments on human fat cells (adipocytes). Researchers writing in BioMed Central's open access journal Nutrition and Metabolism have shown that an extract of the herbal brew effectively inhibits the generation of new adipocytes and stimulates fat mobilization from mature fat cells.Marc Winnefeld led a team of researchers from Beiersdorf AG, Germany, who studied the biological effects of an extract of white tea – the least processed version of the tea plant Camellia sinensis. He said, "In the industrialized countries, the rising incidence of obesity-associated disorders including cardiovascular diseases and diabetes constitutes a growing problem. We've shown that...

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Wine may boost life expectancy by 5 years

Half a glass of wine a day may boost life expectancy by 5 yearsLong-term wine consumption is related to cardiovascular mortality and life expectancy independently of moderate alcohol intakeDrinking up to half a glass of wine a day may boost life expectancy by five years—at least in men—suggests research published ahead of print in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.The Dutch authors base their findings on a total of 1,373 randomly selected men whose cardiovascular health and life expectancy at age 50 were repeatedly monitored between 1960 and 2000.The researchers looked into how much alcohol the men drank, what type it was, and over what period, in a bid to assess whether this had any impact on the risks of their dying from cardiovascular disease, cerebrovascular disease, and...

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