NIH stops to the study of niacin to prevent crises cardiac

WASHINGTON - a drug that stimulates the good popular cholesterol not a go to prevent heart attack or stroke, leading authorities to abruptly stop an important study Thursday.

Disappointing results imply niacin super-strength, a type of vitamin b that many physicians prescribe already as a potential heart protection. Study failed mark the latest setback in the quest to exploit the good cholesterol against bad type.

"This sends a little to the drawing board", said Dr. Susan Shurin, cardiovascular Chief at the National Institutes of Health.

The wrong kind of cholesterol, called LDL, is the main source of artery clogs. Popular statin drugs, sold under such names as Zocor and Lipitor, generic shapes, are the pillars by lowering LDL. Yet many Statin users still have heart attacks, because LDL is not history.

Cholesterol HDL, the good kind, helps combat accumulation artery carrying fats in the liver to be disposed of. It is one of the reasons that people with too little HDL are also at risk of heart disease. If scientists are checking if giving HDL-stimulate statin drugs could provide cardiac patients added protection.

The latest study tested Abbott Laboratories' Niaspan, a form of niacin extended-release is a dose more than found in food supplements. The drug has been sold for years, and previous studies have shown that it increases levels of HDL. But nobody knew if that translates in heart attacks.

Researchers enrolled more than 3 400 Statin users to the United States and the Canada who had heart disease stable and controlled LDL, but was at risk due to low concentrations of HDL and too much a different bad fat triglyceride. They received Niaspan or a dummy pill to add to their daily medicine.

As expected, Niaspan users saw their rise of levels of HDL and their levels of drop of more than risky triglycerides people taking a statin alone. But the treatment of the combination does not reduce heart attacks, stroke, or the need for compensation artery as angioplasty procedures, said the NIH.

This conclusion "" unexpected and striking contrast with the results of previous tests, "said Dr. Jeffrey Probstfield, Washington University, who helped conduct the study."

But he led the NIH to stop the study 18 months in advance.

Adding the decision was a small increase of strokes in users high-dose niacin — 28 among those 1,718 given Niaspan, compared to 12 among the users of 1,696 placebo. The NIH said that it was not clear if this small difference was simply a coincidence. previous studies have shown no risk of stroke of niacin. In fact, some of the strokes occurred after Niaspan users stop taking this drug.

What is the message for cardiac patients?

Users Statin that have very low LDL levels, like those in this study have not need an additional prescription for niacin, said Dr. Robert Eckel, cardiologist of the University of Colorado and spokesperson for the American Heart Association who was not involved in the study.

But it is not clear if niacin would have no effect on people at high risk or those who do not yet have a diagnosis of heart disease, but take niacin as preventive, said study co-leader Dr. William Boden, of the University at Buffalo.

"We cannot generalize these findings... for patients that we investigate," he said.

Eckel said it is "really hard to envision exactly what will happen in offices of physicians" in coming weeks as they discuss the niacin with patients. The NIH has urged people not to stop high-dose niacin without consulting a physician.

Neither the conclusions stop hope that raise HDL finally will be panoramic, Eckel said. While two other drugs were not so, it closely monitors some much higher HDL-boosters, including a drug from Merck & Co., called anacetrapib, which are being developed.

Tai Chi prevent Falls, stimulates mental health in the elderly: study (HealthDay)

 Tai chi helps reduce the risk of falls among the elderly and also improves their mental health, a new study has found.

However, art martial ancient Chinese/exercise does not help ease the symptoms of cancer or rheumatoid arthritis, according to researchers who analyzed 35 reviews to assess the effects on the health of tai chi.

Reviews in English, Chinese and Korean databases examined the impact of tai chi on a variety of diseases, including diabetes, high blood pressure, cancer, osteoarthritis, Parkinson's disease, musculoskeletal pain, rheumatoid arthritis, osteoporosis and cardiovascular disease.

Some of the reviews considered effect of tai chi on mental health, balance and prevent falls, muscle strength, flexibility, and aerobic capacity.

Findings on the effects of tai chi were contradictory for a number of conditions, but it seems clear that it offered advantages for general health for the elderly, was effective in the prevention of falls and improvement of mental health, according to the authors of the study Myeong Soo Lee of Korea Institute of Oriental Medicine in Korea & Dr. Edzard Ernst, the University of Exeter in England.

The study results were released online may 16 before publication in an upcoming issue of printing in the British Journal of sports medicine.

"Our overview shows that tai chi, which combines deep breathing and relaxation with slow and gentle movements, can exercise a-based on the exercise of the general benefits for the prevention of falls and to the improvement of the balance in the elderly"as well as some effects of meditation to improve psychological health "wrote the authors of the study."

"We recommend tai chi for seniors for various physical and psychological benefits." However, the tai chi cannot effectively to treat inflammatory and disorders diseases cardiorespiratory, "they concluded."

Chemo Combo may help prevent Cancer of the pancreas mortality

A diagram of four deadly pancreatic cancer chemotherapy drugs has almost doubled compared to standard chemotherapy of the duration of survival of patients, a new study suggests.

In the late trials, French researchers divided a group of 342 patients with advanced PANCREATIC ADENOCARCINOMA, the most common disease, in two groups form. Gemcitabine half received the standard treatment, while the rest received FOLFIRINOX, a combination of four drugs of Oxaliplatin, irinotecan, leucovorin and fluorouracil.

Time of median survival improved 6.8 months for group gemcitabine 11.1 months in the FOLFIRINOX group, according to the study, which is published in the May 12 of the New England Journal of Medicine. The Group of the combination made suffer more side effects of treatment, however.

"Explain us to patients the benefits and the toxicity of these two patterns,", said Dr. Thierry Conroy, Professor of the University of Nancy-medical oncology and Center Alexis Vautrin in Nancy (France), author of the study. "The FOLFIRINOX schema has managed to stabilize patients longer with the best quality of life and delay of degradation of the quality of life." Unfortunately, it is still a treatment palliative but capable of recording months and sometimes years of life. ?

PANCREATIC ADENOCARCINOMA was the fourth leading cause of death from cancer of the United States in 2010, the study said, and the 5-year survival rate is only 6 per cent in the United States and in Europe.

Participants in the study, whose average age was 61, were still fully active and able to carry out daily activities, and more ill patients were not eligible. The trial was conducted in 15 centers in France the second phase of the trial and extended to 48 centres during the third phase of the trial.

Patients stop study at their request, or if they have experienced unacceptable toxic effects - which included diarrhea, blood cell counts and neuropathy - or evidence of the progression of the disease. A patient in each group died of causes related to the treatment, and 273 of 342 patients had died at the end of the median follow-up period of 26 months.

Dr. Alberto Montero, Professor Assistant of medicine at Sylvester Comprehensive Care Center at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, said that the results were "notable" because the FOLFIRINOX group has experienced an improvement in survival rate.

Montero warned, however, that a small minority of patients with PANCREATIC ADENOCARCINOMA corresponds to the State of the patients in the study even conducting normal daily activities. Even newly diagnosed patients are often very sick, he said and would not be able to tolerate the toxic effects of drugs in the combination.

"To see a doubling of survival is impressive," said Montero, also a medical oncologist. "" "". For many reasons, this cancer is highly resistant to chemotherapy. I think that this trial is a first step. ?

Selenium does not prevent cancer: report (Reuters)

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - there is no convincing evidence that the fact to the high doses of selenium - a popular dietary supplement - can prevent cancer, according to a new review.

Selenium is a mineral that is essential for humans and is also present in the soil and rocks.

Although the recommendations of daily selenium of the United States and the World Health Organization vary between 30 and 55 micrograms per day for adults, the authors note, companies selling supplements claim that higher doses have a range of health benefitsincluding the prevention of cancer.

However, Mr. Marco Vinceti, one of the authors of the new journal of the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, in Italy, "we have still not an accurate picture of what Selenium is for human health," said Reuters Health.

To try to get better attention on this image for cancer in particular, Vinceti and his colleagues reviewed 55 studies on the relationship between the different types of cancer and selenium.

Most of those that have so-called "observational studies" - scientists measured how much selenium people ate every day or how much they had in their blood or nails, then followed which has cancer over the next few years.

The other 6 studies have been conducted through more rigorous testing, in which researchers divided randomly participating in a group which took supplements of selenium for a month or more and the other took a pill without drug placebo or nothing - then follow their cancer. It is believed that these types of studies are better accounting of external factors that may affect cancer risk.

Observational studies suggested that speak of selenium can be linked to a slightly lower risk of cancer - both men and women.

But in randomized trials, people assigned to take selenium at doses at least four times higher that the daily recommendation were not less likely to get cancer - prostate cancer and cancer of the skin in particular - those taking not of selenium.

And some of these tests has raised the question of whether doses of selenium could be dangerous, such as increasing the risk of diabetes.

The journal is published in the Cochrane Library, a publication of the Cochrane Collaboration, an international organization that evaluates medical research.

"If you place all together, it is not a good story for patients," Dr. Neil Fleshner, researcher at the Toronto University health network who has studied the effect of selenium on the risk of prostate cancer, told Reuters Health.

He said that it is always possible that selenium may help prevent cancer over a very long time period, or some types of selenium could operate while others do not. But good, "exists now that no good not evidence at all that Selenium is beneficial," said Fleshner, who was not involved in the control.

James Marshall, of Roswell Park Cancer Institute in Buffalo, said that the enthusiasm of selenium began with the evidence that animals or people very low selenium in the diet are at an increased risk of cancer.

While people could benefit from a supplement of selenium, is where the anti-cancer effects of the mineral appear at the end.

"Once you get an animal or a person to a place where the intake of Selenium is adequate, then, this is where the evidence has proved disappointing,"Marshall, who was not related to the research, said Reuters Health."

"Put on more selenium will not make them any good, and it may in fact their wrong," said Marshall.

Vinceti said that although few people in Europe selenium as a supplement, it is common to the United States.

Selenium supplements are about $2 a month supply.

Vinceti added that additional research is needed to determine the range of daily selenium which is beneficial for human health - as both too and too few seem to have health risks. In this regard, we are not at the end of history", he said.

But when it comes to cancer prevention, at least for the moment, the evidence is not there.

"There are several ways of preventing cancer, but put more selenium...".on your breakfast cereals, is probably not one of them, "Marshall concluded."

SOURCE: http://bit.ly/iqHcFo The Cochrane Library, online on May 10, 2011.

Can hormone therapy or the pill prevent brain aneurysms? (HealthDay)

(Thursday, may 5, HealthDay News) - taking birth control pills or hormone replacement therapy may protect against brain aneurysms women later in life, a new study suggests, although a mis neurologist cast doubt on the quality of the research.

Cerebral aneurysm to occur when a blood vessel in the brain weakens and balloons out, which can lead to a stroke hemorrhagic cerebral (or bleeding) if the ship explodes. These types of aneurysms are more frequent among women than men, possibly because the decrease in the female hormones after menopause plays a role in their development, said the authors of the study.

Brain aneurysms are more common after the age of 40 years and are more likely to burst when people are in their fifties.

In the study, Dr. Michael Chen of Rush Medical University Center and colleagues interviewed 60 women who have suffered brain aneurysms and asked about their use of oral contraceptives and estrogen hormone replacement therapy and their responses were compared to those of a group of almost 4 700 other women in the U.S. public.

Women who had brain aneurysms were significantly less likely to have taken oral contraceptives or received hormone therapy, and were also more likely to have entered menopause earlier, according to the report published online may 4 in the Journal of NeuroInterventional Surgery.

Previous research suggested that taking birth control pills decreases the risk of stroke (bleeding) haemorrhagic life. However, women who either start your rules at an early age, have children, or both, face a higher risk.

Because estrogen is important for the repair and maintenance of the walls of blood vessels, a decrease in the female hormone levels is supposed to be the reason for the increase in the risk of the structure of these ships, the authors of the study noted in general information about research.

However, commenting on the study, neurologist Dr. Cathy Sila said research is flawed and its conclusions exaggerated.

Other research is more reliable, noted Sila, Director of the Center stroke & stroke University hospitals case Medical Center in Cleveland. "Doctors are paid in better data," she said, adding that she hoped that the study convincing physicians to change how they prescribe birth control hormone replacement drugs.

Another expert called the finding "interesting", but it was a study.

"[This] deserves an additional investigation, in a large group of women" said the Dr. David j. Langer, Director of stroke research at the institutes of neuroscience Cushing, part of the North Shore-LIJ health system in Manhasset, New York, "no doubt"", women maintain a higher risk of cerebral aneurysm to men and the connection to hormone differences between men and women can be a contributing factor in this preference", he said.

"Whenever published studies such as this one must be careful in drawing general conclusions, but the results support more research in this area", said Langer. "One question, could be would it be that the incidence of hypertension and smoking was in this group of 60 women and how that compare with the greatest control group"?

In a press release of the editor of the journal, the authors of the study stated that, according to them, that their findings add to the understanding of how the brain aneurysms develop and progress and can stimulate new treatments for patients who have an aneurysm or are at risk of developing a. Current methods of treatment include the control of blood pressure, quitting smoking and possibly surgery to try to prevent future failure.

More information

For more information on aneurysms, visit the U.S. National Library of Medicine.

Prostate cancer do not prevent supplements: study

NEW YORK  a new study dégonfle hope that some nutritional supplements may delay cancer of the prostate cancer the second more common among men.

Canadian researchers have discovered that the vitamin E, selenium and soya, taken daily for three years, not provided no benefit to men who have a higher risk of developing the disease.

The results come from three years after a study more than men who were at no increase in the risk of prostate cancer, also found no benefit of supplementation with selenium or vitamin E (see the report on the health of Reuters)(, October 28, 2008).

Initially, there were high hopes for these supplements, said Dr. Neil Fleshner, who worked on the new research and heads Urology at the University Health Network in Toronto.

Surveys of people who consumed high levels of vitamin E, selenium or soybean through diet or supplements that a decrease in the risk of developing cancer of the prostate and experiments in laboratory animals have also shown a profit.

Vitamin e and selenium are two antioxidants present in food.

In this study, researchers randomly 303 men take a combination of supplements or a non-nutritive powder resembling supplements every day for three years.

The combination included soybean 40 g (approximately 1/3 of a cup), 800 U 0.2 g of selenium (four times the dietetics recommended amount) and vitamin E (approximately 35 times the diet recommended levels).

All men had signs of pre-cancerous cells, which are exposed to a risk of developing prostate cancer.

Fleshner and his colleagues by the number of cases of cancer in each group, the results are almost identical. Twenty-six of 100 men developed prostate cancer after three years, regardless of whether if they took the supplement or powder based on whey placebo.

"To our sorrow, no there was no benefit," Fleshner told Reuters Health.

Current research differ from previous work in that it included the soybeans. Said FLESHNER of prostate cancer rates are much lower in China and the Japan, where consumers consume soy in large quantities, to the United States or the Canada.

The results exclude soybeans may be useful to those who eat frequently during decades, but do not appear three years additional soy to help prevent prostate cancer.

The Canadian Institute for research on Cancer funded the study, and supplements the company was provided by a company which manufactures the.

"I think that, in the absence of more convincing, scientific data for the vitamin e and selenium, that we should spend," Dr. Eric Klein, President of the Institute of the Cleveland Clinic kidney and urological Glickman who led the study of 2008told Reuters Health.

Prostate cancer is diagnosed in 156 of every 10,000 men to the United States each year. But some tumors may never become deadly and there is debate on how best to treat them.

FLESHNER agreed with Klein, who was not involved in the new study, that there are sufficient data now to justify the abandonment of the research on vitamin E, selenium and soya and their potential benefits for the prevention of prostate cancer.

"We must look at new strategies and new nutritional agents," said Fleshner.