Blood Pressure Drugs Linked to Longer Ovarian Cancer Survival

By Amy Norton
HealthDay Reporter

MONDAY, Aug. 24, 2015 (HealthDay News) — Ovarian cancer patients who use certain blood pressure drugs often live longer than other women with the disease, researchers report in a finding that hints at a potential new treatment for the deadly cancer.

The study, of over 1,400 women with ovarian cancer, found that those who were using blood pressure drugs called beta blockers survived longer, on average.

The difference was especially stark among women using older, “non-selective” beta blockers: They typically lived for almost eight years after their cancer diagnosis, versus three years among women not taking any beta blocker.

However, experts urged caution in interpreting the findings, published online Aug. 24 in the journal Cancer.

The study involved a review of patient records, which is not the type of study that can prove a treatment works. There could be other reasons that women on beta blockers lived longer with ovarian cancer.

To get direct evidence of a link, researchers need to run a clinical trial where ovarian cancer patients are randomly assigned to take a beta blocker or stick with standard treatment.

“You need to be very cautious about retrospective data like this,” said senior researcher Dr. Anil Sood, of the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, in Houston. “We still need clinical trials.”

Dr. Christina Annunziata, a researcher at the U.S. National Cancer Institute, agreed.

First, doctors need to know whether it’s even safe to give beta blockers to women with ovarian cancer, said Annunziata, who co-wrote an editorial published with the study.

“If you don’t have high blood pressure and you take a drug that lowers blood pressure, that could be dangerous,” Annunziata said.

The good news, she added, is that two early trials are already underway to test the safety of giving beta blockers to ovarian cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy.

If the drugs are shown to be safe, Annunziata said, there will still be important questions: Which particular women could benefit? What doses work best? At what point during treatment should beta blockers be given?

“We still have a long way to go,” she said.

Ovarian cancer is among the deadliest cancers because it’s rarely caught early, before it spreads beyond the ovaries. About 45 percent of women are still alive five years after their diagnosis, according to the American Cancer Society.

Beta blockers are primarily prescribed for high blood pressure and heart disease. But there is reason to believe they could battle ovarian cancer, Sood said.

The drugs work by blocking the effects of the “stress” hormone epinephrine (also known as adrenaline). And lab research suggests that epinephrine helps fuel the growth and spread of ovarian tumors, Sood explained.

His team found that non-selective beta blockers — which are older formulations of the drugs — were more strongly linked to ovarian cancer survival than newer, selective beta blockers were.

According to Sood, that supports the idea that beta blockers, themselves, have some effect. Non-selective versions have broad effects throughout the body, while the selective medications were designed to target the cardiovascular system alone.

Non-selective beta blockers include drugs like propranolol (Inderal, InnoPran), penbutolol (Levatol) and nadolol (Corgard). The selective type, which are now more commonly prescribed, include atenolol (Tenormin) and metoprolol (Lopressor, Toprol-XL).

The latest findings are based on records from 1,425 women treated for ovarian cancer at four U.S. medical centers. Overall, 75 women were on a non-selective beta blocker.

Those women, the study found, survived substantially longer than others, regardless of the types of cancer treatment they received. And there were no obvious differences between the two groups of women as far as age, weight or cancer stage.

However, there could have been other differences that played a role in longer survival, said Dr. Eva Chalas, chief of gynecologic oncology at Winthrop-University Hospital, in Mineola, N.Y.

She agreed that only clinical trials can answer the question of whether beta blockers have a role in ovarian cancer treatment.

But since the drugs might help by lowering epinephrine levels, that suggests stress reduction could be beneficial, Chalas said.

“If I were a woman with ovarian cancer, I’d look for ways to reduce stress in my life,” she said.

There are many options, Chalas added — from yoga and meditation, to moderate exercise, to social support groups.

“Some patients go through their Rolodex and literally remove people who stress them out,” she said.

Annunziata made the same point. “It might be safer and more feasible to alter [stress hormones] without medication, by modifying your lifestyle and reducing sources of stress,” she said.

Still, she added, researchers should continue studying beta blockers — and not only for ovarian cancer.

“I think it would be useful to see whether they are associated with better survival in other types of cancer, too,” Annunziata said.

The study was funded by the U.S. government and foundation grants.

More information

The American Cancer Society has an overview of ovarian cancer.

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Exercise May Be Good Medicine for Irregular Heartbeat

By Steven Reinberg
HealthDay Reporter

MONDAY, Aug. 24, 2015 (HealthDay News) — Exercise appears to help control an irregular heartbeat known as atrial fibrillation in obese people, a new study finds.

Australian researchers found that “cardiorespiratory fitness” reduced the risk that this potentially dangerous heartbeat will return by as much as 84 percent — even more than losing weight. Cardiorespiratory fitness refers to the ability of the heart and lungs to supply oxygen to the body during sustained physical activity.

“This study adds to a growing body of evidence that aggressive risk factor management with increased physical activity should be an integral component of management of atrial fibrillation,” said lead researcher Dr. Prashanthan Sanders, director of the Center for Heart Rhythm Disorders at the University of Adelaide in Australia.

Atrial fibrillation, the most common abnormal heart rhythm, affects about 2.7 million Americans, according to the American Heart Association. Obesity and inactivity are risk factors for atrial fibrillation, which can lead to stroke, the researchers pointed out.

One expert cautioned that additional research is needed to confirm the findings. Also, patients should consult with their doctor before embarking on an exercise program.

The report was published online Aug. 24 in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

For the study, Sanders and colleagues assigned 308 patients with atrial fibrillation to one of three groups based on their level of fitness: low, adequate, or high fitness. All had a body mass index (BMI) of 27 or more, meaning they were overweight or obese.

The groups were followed for about four years to see how their level of fitness affected the recurrence of the abnormal heartbeat. Patients were also offered a doctor-led weight loss and exercise program.

After four years of follow-up, 84 percent in the high fitness group no longer had atrial fibrillation, compared with 76 percent in the adequate group and 17 percent in the low fitness group, the researchers found.

Sanders’ team also found that for every increase in “metabolic equivalent” — a measure of the amount of oxygen used at rest — the risk of atrial fibrillation recurrence was reduced 20 percent.

Those with increases of two or more metabolic equivalents who also lost weight had especially dramatic declines in the likelihood of atrial fibrillation recurrence, the findings showed.

“Increased physical activity to gain cardiorespiratory fitness is associated with a reduction in atrial fibrillation burden and maintenance of a normal heart rhythm,” Sanders said.

Dr. Paul Thompson, chief of cardiology at Hartford Hospital in Connecticut, said that exercise is a good way to reduce the chances of developing atrial fibrillation in the first place.

“Folks can probably reduce the chance of getting atrial fibrillation by being moderately physically active,” he said.

“In addition, if they get atrial fibrillation and get treated for it, they can reduce their recurrence rate and need for other medications and treatments by starting an exercise training program and getting into better physical shape. Losing weight also helps, separately from the exercise,” Thompson said.

“A great regimen is at least 30 minutes of brisk walking daily,” he said.

But Thompson, author of an accompanying journal editorial, added that becoming fit should not be equated with habitual physical activity.

“Among individuals who have done tons of exercise for their whole lives, like lifelong endurance athletes,” he said, increasing levels of physical activity might possibly raise the risk of atrial fibrillation.

“The problem for most folks, however, is not too much exercise but getting even a little bit of exercise,” he said.

Dr. Gregg Fonarow, a professor of cardiology at the University of California, Los Angeles, voiced some caution after reviewing the findings.

“Traditional treatment for patients with atrial fibrillation has not focused on weight loss or exercise training,” he said.

“Programs to promote weight loss and improve cardiorespiratory fitness may help patients with atrial fibrillation decrease the risk of recurrent atrial fibrillation,” Fonarow said. “However, additional studies are needed to replicate these findings as well as to determine if there are any benefits in terms of stroke risk reduction or improved survival.”

More information

For more about atrial fibrillation, visit the American Heart Association.

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Too Few Blacks, Hispanics Becoming Doctors: Study

By Dennis Thompson
HealthDay Reporter

MONDAY, Aug. 24, 2015 (HealthDay News) — Too few members of minority groups are pursuing careers in U.S. medicine, resulting in a serious lack of diversity among general practitioners and specialty doctors, a new report finds.

Publicly reported data gathered by researchers showed that in 2012:

• Blacks made up just under 4 percent of practicing physicians, 6 percent of trainees in graduate medical education and 7 percent of medical school graduates. The overall population of the United States was 15 percent black in 2013, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
• Hispanics made up just over 5 percent of practicing physicians, 7.5 percent of graduate medical education trainees, and slightly more than 7 percent of medical school graduates. Their share of the total U.S. population is about 17 percent, according to 2013 census figures.

“My father graduated medical school in 1960, and at that time only 3 percent of doctors were black,” said Dr. Wayne Riley, president of the American College of Physicians (ACP) and a clinical professor of medicine at Vanderbilt University in Nashville.

“This study shows 3.8 percent of doctors are black. We’ve had barely perceptible progress. Over a 50-year period, we are still nowhere near African-American and Latino physicians representing their percentage of the population,” said Riley, who is black.

The study findings were published in the Aug. 24 edition of JAMA Internal Medicine.

Diversity is important for many reasons that relate directly to patient care, experts said.

For example, many minority doctors wind up going into primary care and returning to the communities they came from, helping to treat people who otherwise might not be able to find a physician, said Marc Nivet, chief diversity officer at the Association of American Medical Colleges.

Some studies have shown that patients can relate better to doctors who look like them, said Dr. Laura Riley, an obstetrician who is director of Labor and Delivery at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) in Boston. She also wrote an accompanying commentary to the study. She is not related to the ACP’s Riley.

“Sometimes there really is that connection that can make a difficult conversation or circumstance a little less difficult,” she said.

Other research has found that doctors from the same racial and ethnic group as a patient may be more sensitive to the issues that a patient faces, Nivet said.

For example, they can design medication schedules or treatment protocols that patients are more likely to stick with, because they’ve taken into account the background of the patient, he said.

Doctors from different racial and ethnic groups also increase the cultural competency of all the doctors around them, helping them better understand the different circumstances of patients, he added.

“It gives all physicians an opportunity to raise their level of cultural competence, because they have peers who are different,” Nivet said.

Women have successfully made inroads into medicine, the study showed. For example, women now represent 48 percent of medical school graduates and 46 percent of trainees in graduate medical education, the study found.

Women also are the majority in seven specialties among graduate medical education trainees, including obstetrics and gynecology, pediatrics, dermatology, family medicine and pathology, researchers revealed.

A number of roadblocks remain for minorities, starting with the primary education they receive.

“There’s uneven quality in K-through-12 education,” said the ACP’s Riley. “We have to improve public education, and make sure we expose young men and women to the notion that they too can become medical professionals and participate in a wonderful life serving others in a health care setting.”

Cost is another factor. “Medical school is ridiculously expensive,” MGH’s Riley said. “I think we need to be sure it isn’t something that takes people off the path.”

More scholarships and financial assistance would help, but Nivet added that students also can be encouraged by people who provide a broader perspective on that cost.

“For low-income students, the idea that you could have $200,000 in college debt causes some to weed themselves out of the process,” Nivet said. “The only way they’ll stay in is if they have good counselors or role models that tell them that it’s a solid investment in their future, and that the return on that investment will be extremely high.”

Diversity also could be helped by more people of color reaching higher levels of responsibility, MGH’s Riley said.

“I am energized and excited by the number of people in the pipeline, but I am discouraged by the number of people who make it to the top,” she said. “Within medical schools, deans and department chairs need to look at their faculty and advance people who deserve to be advanced.”

ACP’s Riley noted that he is only the third black president that the American College of Physicians has had in its 100-year history.

“I don’t want to be an aberration in the history of the American College of Physicians,” he said. “We need more physicians to follow in my footsteps. I worry it may be many, many years before someone like me rises to a leadership position.”

More information

For more information on minorities in medicine, visit the Association of American Medical Colleges.

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ADHD Risk Rises for Each Week a Preemie Is Born Early

By Tara Haelle
HealthDay Reporter

MONDAY, Aug. 24, 2015 (HealthDay News) — The more premature a child is born, the higher the likelihood of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), according to a recent Finnish study.

Babies born particularly underweight or overweight for their gestational age also had an increased risk of ADHD, researchers found.

“Although ADHD is more common in babies who are either underweight or overweight, the risks are greatest for those babies with the most severe degree of poor growth in the womb,” said Dr. Andrew Adesman, chief of developmental and behavioral pediatrics at Cohen Children’s Medical Center of New York.

“The reality is that the additional risk for ADHD is relatively low for babies born close to their due date but is significantly greater for babies born seven weeks or more prematurely,” said Adesman, who was not involved in the study.

These findings imply that the pathways in the fetal brain may develop differently in children who are not adequately nourished, or are overnourished, in the womb, or once a child is delivered prematurely, said Dr. Glen Elliott, chief psychiatrist and medical director of Children’s Health Council in Palo Alto, Calif.

However, he added, this type of study cannot show that premature birth or growth rate in the womb actually causes ADHD. Symptoms of the common brain disorder include inattention, impulsive behavior and hyperactivity, which can affect a child’s ability to learn and make friends.

The findings were published online Aug. 24 in the journal Pediatrics.

Finnish researchers led by Dr. Minna Sucksdorff of the University of Turku compared more than 10,000 children with ADHD against more than 38,000 children without ADHD but similar in terms of gender, birth date and place of birth.

The researchers used birth medical records to see how far along in the pregnancy the mother was when the child was born. They also looked at whether the children were underweight or overweight for what is expected at that gestational age.

The study results showed that the risk of ADHD increased for each week earlier that a child was born. A full-term pregnancy is considered to be 40 weeks.

The children with ADHD had more than 10 times greater odds of being born at 23 or 24 weeks of pregnancy than the children without ADHD. And kids with ADHD were at least twice as likely to be born between 27 and 33 weeks, compared to those without ADHD.

This finding remained after the researchers took into account other factors that affect gestational age and ADHD risk, such as the mother’s age and whether she smoked or used drugs or alcohol.

In terms of birth weight, the researchers also found a higher risk of ADHD for children among the lowest and the highest weight percentages.

“Poor fetal growth is a result of many factors, ranging from genetic to environmental,” Elliott said. “It is not so surprising that a fetus that is growing less vigorously than usual might have effects on brain development. More surprising is the suggestion that growing too vigorously also is associated with an increased risk of later being diagnosed with ADHD.”

Heavier-than-normal babies have been associated with gestational diabetes or maternal obesity, according to background notes with the study.

The findings are unlikely to affect when women plan a cesarean birth, however, because early C-sections occur when the fetus or mother or both experience stress, Elliott said. Most other C-sections are planned closer to the due date. But the findings may give doctors something to consider in making another decision.

“Since both gestational weight and gestational age have marked effects, clinicians may face difficult choices if a fetus is not thriving in the womb at an early gestational age,” Elliott said. “Does one deliver the child early to enhance nutrition or delay to minimize the effects of premature delivery?”

The risk is still low overall, however, that a child will have ADHD, and these findings are based on a child’s relative risk of having the condition compared to others, Elliott added.

“For quite premature births, the associated risk of ADHD rises dramatically,” Elliott said. “Obstetricians already work hard to keep the fetus in the womb until week 35, if possible, but it still is only a relative increase, not an immutable fact.”

More information

For more on ADHD, visit the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

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5 Lean, No-Cook Meals for When It’s Way Too Hot Outside

Photo: Getty Images

Baby, it’s HOT outside! When it feels like a sauna outdoors, the last thing you want to tuck into is a warm dish, and you most certainly don’t want to heat up your kitchen. Trouble is, chilled meals can be far more caloric than you might expect. A chicken Cobb salad, for example, can pack nearly 700 calories, a chicken Caesar wrap 600, and just one spicy tuna roll (not including the sides) can contain 400. (Bummer.)

But don’t fret. If you’re looking to keep it light, but your usual healthy options require slaving over a hot burner, I have some tricks and recipes for you.

RELATED: 10 Best Foods for Your Heart

First some tips

Before we get to the recipes, I have some general rules for creating healthy, no-cook meals on the fly. During the summer, I advise stocking your freezer with healthy frozen ingredients, including greens, fruit, shrimp, and organic corn. You can also store canned tuna, beans, and chickpeas in the fridge rather than the pantry, so they’ll be chilled and ready to eat. And finally, the key to keeping meals slim is to choose healthy condiments as seasoning. I recommend balsamic vinegar, mustard, and tahini, rather than fatty dressings like ranch or mayonnaise.

Now, check out five of my easy, breezy no-cook go-tos. None of these tops 365 calories, and each one is satisfying—and ultra refreshing.

Mediterranean Tuna Salad

In a small bowl, combine three ounces of chunk light tuna (canned in water, drained) with a half teaspoon of minced garlic, one teaspoon of fresh squeezed lemon juice, two teaspoons of Dijon or spicy brown mustard, a tablespoon of balsamic vinegar, and a teaspoon of dried Italian herb seasoning. Place the tuna mixture over two cups of mixed greens, and top with a half cup of chickpeas (canned, drained and rinsed) and a quarter of a ripe Hass avocado, diced.

RELATED: 3 Anti-Bloat Foods for a Flatter Belly

Spicy Shrimp and Corn Gazpacho

In a large bowl combine one and a half cups (12 ounces) of chilled low-sodium 100% tomato juice or a 100% tomato-based vegetable juice with 1 small diced vine-ripened tomato, one quarter cup each minced green bell pepper and cucumber, two tablespoons minced red onion, one tablespoon fresh chopped cilantro, and one teaspoon each minced garlic and jalapeno. Top with a half-cup frozen organic corn and three ounces of frozen pre-cooked, cleaned shrimp (thaw the corn and shrimp by running them separately under cold water in a colander). Garnish with a quarter of a ripe Hass avocado, diced.

Cannellini Bean Basil Balsamic Lettuce Boats

In a small bowl whisk together one tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil with one tablespoon of fresh squeezed lemon juice, half a tablespoon of balsamic vinegar, one teaspoon of minced garlic, one eighth teaspoon of ground black pepper, and a half teaspoon of dried Italian herb seasoning. Toss a half cup of chilled cannellini beans (canned, drained and rinsed) in the seasoned oil, spoon into three large Romaine leaves, and garnish each with one chopped fresh basil leaf.

RELATED: The 20 Best Foods to Eat for Breakfast

Tahini Egg Salad

Place two level tablespoons of tahini in a small bowl. Stir in one teaspoon of fresh squeezed lemon juice, a half teaspoon of minced garlic, and one-eighth teaspoon each cayenne pepper and cumin. Chop one whole hard-boiled egg and the whites of three other hard-boiled eggs and toss in the tahini. Serve with a plate of one half-cup each carrot and celery sticks for scooping.

Chocolate Cherry Kale Smoothie

Fill a blender with a half-cup each frozen pitted cherries and frozen kale, one cup unsweetened coconut milk, two tablespoons non-Dutched (non-alkalized) cocoa powder, half a tablespoon chia seeds, one scoop of unsweetened pea protein powder, and a half tablespoon raw organic honey. Whip until smooth and dive in.

RELATED: 17 Best and Worst Foods of Summer

What’s your take on this topic? Chat with us on Twitter by mentioning @goodhealth and @CynthiaSass.

Cynthia Sass is a nutritionist and registered dietitian with master’s degrees in both nutrition science and public health. Frequently seen on national TV, she’s Health’s contributing nutrition editor, and privately counsels clients in New York, Los Angeles, and long distance. Cynthia is currently the sports nutrition consultant to the New York Rangers NHL team and the New York Yankees MLB team, and is board certified as a specialist in sports dietetics. Cynthia is a three-time New York Times best-selling author, and her brand new book is Slim Down Now: Shed Pounds and Inches with Real Food, Real Fast. Connect with her on Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest.

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Finally, How to Apply Highlighter Without Becoming a Human Disco Ball

Photo: Getty Images

Everybody wants to look glowing and bring light to the right area of their faces. No one wants to look so shiny that they physically reflect light, so applying highlighter can be a precarious little tango. One step too far and people might have to wear sunglasses just in case they catch the glare from your face… We kid, but we still want you to know the simplest, most subtle yet effective way to highlight, so all of our MIMI beauties are radiating beauty outwardly as well as inwardly.

Here’s the skinny on highlighter:

1. Use a small or medium size brush to apply.

2. Place highlighter on top of cheekbones, center of nose, cupids bow, peak of chin, collar bones

3. Dust very little on forehead

Makeup artist: Andreana Ellerby; Shot in Ammon Carver Studio in NYC; Video shot and edited by 811media

This article originally appeared on MIMIchatter.com.

More from MIMI:

How to Properly Apply Bronzer, Once and For All

How to Look Like You’re Not Wearing Makeup, When You Are

MIMI Chatter is an endless stream of beauty content. We bring together the must-knows and the how-tos from your favorite sites, beauty influencers, our editors, and YOU.

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Brief Drop in Blood Sugar at Birth Tied to Poorer School Performance

By Amy Norton
HealthDay Reporter

MONDAY, Aug. 24, 2015 (HealthDay News) — Children who experience a brief drop in blood sugar right after birth may have a harder time with reading and math when they go to school, a new study suggests.

The study, of nearly 1,400 fourth-graders, found that kids who had so-called “transient hypoglycemia” as newborns typically had poorer reading and math skills than their peers.

Experts stressed that the findings show only a correlation, and do not prove cause and effect.

But the study, published online Aug. 24 in the journal JAMA Pediatrics, could add to a long-standing controversy over transient hypoglycemia.

The term refers to cases where an infant’s blood sugar drops to an abnormally low level within three hours after birth, but quickly recovers. Experts have long been divided over its significance in otherwise healthy, full-term infants.

The newborn brain needs glucose (sugar) for energy, and it’s known that prolonged hypoglycemia can cause irreversible brain damage in infants. Because of that, newborns at high risk of severe hypoglycemia have their blood sugar screened soon after birth.

That includes babies who are preterm, abnormally small or large, or born to moms with diabetes, said Dr. Jane Harding, a professor of neonatology at the University of Auckland in New Zealand.

“We’ve found that about half of babies at [high] risk do, in fact, become hypoglycemic,” said Harding, co-author of an editorial published with the study.

But when it comes to other newborns, guidelines from the American Academy of Pediatrics advise against routine blood sugar screening.

The new findings are not enough to change those guidelines, said lead researcher Dr. Jeffrey Kaiser, of Baylor College of Medicine in Houston.

“We have to be very careful about interpreting this, because it’s retrospective data from a single medical center,” he said. “This is just one piece of the puzzle.”

But given the possibility this study raises — that even transient hypoglycemia could harm infants’ brains — more research is needed, Kaiser said.

“I hope other researchers will look into this and see if they replicate our findings,” he said.

The results are based on records from 1,395 children born in 1998 at the University of Arkansas, which had a policy of screening all newborns for hypoglycemia. Kaiser’s team matched the children’s medical records with their school records to see whether short-lived hypoglycemia showed any correlation with standardized test scores in fourth grade.

They found that from 6 percent to 19 percent of the children had suffered transient hypoglycemia as newborns, depending on the definition of “low” blood sugar. And those kids were roughly half as likely to perform at grade level on tests of math and literacy.

For example, 6 percent of children had had a single blood sugar measurement drop below 35 mg/dL soon after birth. Of those children, 32 percent performed at grade level on literacy tests, compared with 57 percent of other children.

The problem, though, is that many things happen in a child’s life between birth and fourth grade. Kaiser said his team did account for factors like children’s birth weight and mothers’ education levels.

“But we couldn’t control for what happened to those children over the next 10 years,” he said. “We don’t know if their parents read to them. We don’t know what their nutrition was like.”

Plus, Kaiser said, transient hypoglycemia might simply be a “marker” of some other problem that occurred during fetal brain development. If that’s the case, it’s not clear that detecting and treating low blood sugar would be helpful.

The academy guidelines suggest treating transient hypoglycemia with earlier bottle- or breast-feeding, or IV glucose. But Kaiser said there is little evidence that this prevents any ill effects on the brain.

Harding agreed that it’s too soon for routine, universal screening of newborns. One reason is, there are potential harms.

“Pain-induced stress,” from needle sticks, may affect newborn brain development, Harding said. And if treatment causes blood sugar to spike, that itself could worsen any brain damage.

For now, Harding said, the “safest approach” is to screen high-risk newborns only.

As for prevention, Kaiser said that when mothers have diabetes, good blood sugar control can reduce the risk of newborn hypoglycemia. Other than that, he said, there are no established ways to prevent the problem.

More information

The American Academy of Pediatrics has more on supporting children’s early brain development.

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Sharp Spike Seen in Statin Use in Elderly Without Heart Disease

MONDAY, Aug. 24, 2015 (HealthDay News) — There has been a sharp rise in the use of cholesterol-lowering statins among elderly patients who do not have heart disease, a new study finds.

But there is little research to guide the use of these medicines in this group of patients, the investigators added.

In the study, researchers analyzed data from more than 13,000 people who took part in an annual national survey between 1999 and 2012.

“We found high rates of statin use in primary prevention among patients older than 79 years old who didn’t have vascular disease,” lead investigator Dr. Michael Johansen, a family medicine physician at Ohio State University’s Wexner Medical Center, said in a university news release.

Rates of heart disease among the very elderly people rose from about 28 percent in 1999-2000 to nearly 44 percent in 2011-12, but this increase was believed to be related to survey methods. Over the same period, statin use for primary prevention rose from nearly 9 percent to about 34 percent.

“We observed an increasing trend in statin use in both primary and secondary prevention, but didn’t find that high potency statin use was associated with vascular disease,” Johansen said.

Secondary prevention refers to treatment in people with vascular (heart) disease.

The findings were published online Aug. 24 in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine.

The use of statins for primary prevention in the very elderly is popular among U.S. doctors, but caution is needed due to the lack of research into the use of the drugs in this group of patients, the researchers noted.

More information

Read about previous research on statin use in the elderly.

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No Mental Benefits Seen for Elderly Who Stop Blood Pressure Meds

MONDAY, Aug. 24, 2015 (HealthDay News) — Discontinuing high blood pressure treatment in seniors with mild memory and thinking problems did not improve their mental functioning, a new study shows.

It’s known that high blood pressure during middle age is a risk factor for cerebrovascular disease — impaired blood flow in the brain. But the effect of high blood pressure on the brain during old age is less clear, the research team said. In fact, some studies have suggested that lower blood pressure in old age, rather than higher blood pressure, might boost a person’s odds for mental decline.

So, the new study focused on whether discontinuing high blood pressure medications might make any difference to an older person’s thinking and memory.

The question is worth asking, one expert said.

“Patients frequently question whether medications such as cholesterol- and blood pressure-lowering therapy contribute to memory impairment,” said Dr. Kevin Marzo, chief of cardiology at Winthrop-University Hospital in Mineola, N.Y.

The new study, published online Aug. 24 in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine, included 385 people, aged 75 and older. All had mild memory and thinking problems and were taking high blood pressure medications. None had serious heart disease, however.

Half of the participants were randomly selected to stop their high blood pressure treatment, while the other half continued their medication. Both groups were followed for four months, according to a team led by Dr. Justine Moonen, of Leiden University Medical Center in the Netherlands.

However, by the end of that time, the Dutch team saw no improvement in the participants’ mental functioning, whether they stopped the medications or not.

The researchers said there are a number of possible reasons why halting high blood pressure treatment had no effect on brain function, including the fact that none of the participants had serious heart disease.

Dr. Luca Giliberto is an investigator at the Litwin-Zucker Research Center for the Study of Alzheimer’s Disease, part of the Feinstein Institute for Medical Research in Manhasset, N.Y. He said that the issue of blood pressure control and mental function in the elderly is worth looking into, because the vessels that supply blood to the brain deteriorate with advancing age.

“Our brain becomes less able to adapt to varying blood pressure, both high and low,” Giliberto explained. Episodes of high blood pressure might trigger “mini-strokes” that could impair mental function, he said, while episodes of low blood pressure might hamper cerebral blood supply. All of this might end up contributing to declines in memory and thinking, Giliberto said.

But he added that the study has its limitations, especially because people with serious heart disease were not studied. And he believes that the study period may have been too short for any real effect to become apparent.

According to the researchers, future studies with longer follow-up might help determine if seniors with poor blood circulation in the brain could benefit from more relaxed blood pressure targets.

More information

The U.S. National Institute on Aging has more about seniors and high blood pressure.

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Family Doctor Can Safely Assist Many Births

MONDAY, Aug. 24, 2015 (HealthDay News) — In low-risk pregnancies, delivery of the baby by a family doctor or an obstetrician is equally safe, a new study finds.

The researchers analyzed nearly 800,000 births at 390 Canadian hospitals between 2006 and 2009. They found there were 3,600 newborn deaths and nearly 14,400 cases of complications in mothers.

The risk of death or complications in low-risk deliveries was the same whether the births were handled by family doctors or by obstetricians, according to the study published Aug. 24 in the Canadian Medical Association Journal.

“It is common to assume that more specialized or higher-volume medical care will result in improved outcomes,” wrote researcher Dr. Kris Aubrey-Bassler, an assistant professor of family medicine in the Primary Healthcare Research Unit at Memorial University of Newfoundland in St. John’s, Canada.

“The obstetric literature has consistently shown that outcomes for high-risk newborns and mothers are best at higher-volume, more specialized hospitals; however, findings from the literature on low-risk deliveries are variable,” Aubrey-Bassler explained in a journal news release.

The researchers emphasized that their findings apply only to low-risk pregnancies, and that women with high-risk pregnancies need to be cared for by specialists.

More information

The U.S. Office on Women’s Health has more about labor and birth.

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