Botox Might Prevent Irregular Heartbeat After Bypass Surgery

By Kathleen Doheny
HealthDay Reporter

TUESDAY, Oct. 20, 2015 (HealthDay News) — Botox isn’t just for crow’s feet anymore. The injectable wrinkle concealer may also help prevent development of an irregular heart rhythm after bypass surgery, new research suggests.

Atrial fibrillation, or a-fib, as the abnormal heartbeat is sometimes called, can lead to serious problems, including kidney damage, stroke or death.

“A few hundred thousand patients undergo heart surgery every year, and a-fib is very common, occurring in about 30 percent,” said Dr. Jonathan Steinberg, director of the Arrhythmia Institute of Valley Health System in Ridgewood, N.J.

Botox is the brand name of a toxin made from the bacterium Clostridium botulinum. Although best known for temporarily reducing the appearance of facial wrinkles, the drug has also been used to treat migraine headaches, overactive bladder and excessive sweating, among other conditions. It works by blocking nerve signals that tell muscles to contract.

For this study, 60 bypass patients were randomly chosen to receive either Botox or saline injections. All had had at least two episodes of heartbeat irregularity before the cardiac surgery and were considered at high risk of new episodes. None were currently taking atrial fibrillation medications.

The injections were delivered into the major fat pads around the heart during surgery, according to the report.

In the first 30 days after surgery, 7 percent of those who got the Botox developed atrial fibrillation compared to 30 percent of those given saline, the investigators found. One year after surgery, none of those who got Botox had the rhythm problem, versus 27 percent of those given saline.

Complications from surgery were similar in both groups. The Botox recipients reported no drug-specific complications, the researchers reported.

Steinberg said one injection would probably be enough. “Atrial fibrillation that occurs after cardiac surgery is a short-term problem, that is, about one week, so a single injection should be sufficient,” he said.

However, Steinberg stressed that the small study was conducted in two Russian hospitals and must be replicated in bigger trials. The results were published Oct. 20 in the journal Circulation: Arrhythmia and Electrophysiology.

The technique might eventually help other patients whose atrial fibrillation is unrelated to surgery, Steinberg said.

In the patients studied, Botox “appears to be very effective,” said Dr. Manish Shah, a cardiac electrophysiologist at MedStar Heart & Vascular Institute in Washington, D.C.

However, “this is not going to be a major treatment strategy for patients who have a-fib that we see most commonly,” said Shah, who was not involved in the study.

More information

To learn more about atrial fibrillation, visit the American Heart Association.

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‘Older’ Blood Poses No Harm to Heart Surgery Patients: Study

By Alan Mozes
HealthDay Reporter

TUESDAY, Oct. 20, 2015 (HealthDay News) — ‘Older’ blood is just as safe for heart patients as transfusions of fresher blood, a new study shows.

Researchers in Sweden found that heart surgery patients given blood stored for more than six weeks faced no greater harm than those who got blood donated within the previous two weeks.

“Prior studies had reported that patients who undergo heart surgery and are transfused with blood stored for more than two weeks have worse survival and more complications than patients who are transfused with fresh blood,” said study author Dr. Ulrik Sartipy, an associate professor in the department of molecular medicine and surgery at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm.

However, “In our study, which is by far the biggest of its kind, including all heart surgery patients in all of Sweden over a 16-year period, we find no evidence that prolonged storage of blood units has negative effects on patient survival or risk of complications,” Sartipy said.

The findings appear in a research letter published in the Oct. 20 issue of Journal of the American Medical Association.

Blood transfusions are a common and relatively safe feature of modern health care, according to the U.S. National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. While roughly 5 million Americans get a transfusion every year, serious complications are considered rare.

But in 2008 a widely publicized study argued that transfusion of blood stored for two weeks or more could jeopardize heart surgery patients. That report called into question the storage practices of most developed nations, which typically allow blood storage for six weeks or more, the Swedish researchers said in background notes.

Hoping to resolve the issue, Sartipy’s team focused on more than 47,000 heart surgeries performed in Swedish hospitals between 1997 and 2012. Procedures involved either arterial bypass surgery, heart valve surgery or both.

The patients were about age 70, on average, and information on their outcomes came from a national heart surgery registry and a national blood transfusion database. Nearly 40 percent were women.

A little more than one-third were transfused with red blood stored for less than two weeks. Roughly one-quarter got two- to four-week-old blood, while nearly one in 10 received blood stored between four and six weeks. More than one-quarter received blood of various ages.

After looking at the risk for post-surgical complications or death at one month, two years and 10 years out, the team determined that older blood posed no greater risk to heart patients than fresher blood.

“Since the principles for blood storage are very similar across the western world, I think it is safe to say that our findings should indeed be applicable to an American context,” Sartipy added.

It’s also reasonable to assume that the findings “would apply to other surgical situations beyond heart surgery,” he added.

A spokesperson for the American Red Cross said this study and the results of other recent trials should ease concerns about common blood storage practices.

“Randomized, controlled trials have recently shown that the storage age does not affect clinical outcomes,” said Dr. Mary O’Neill, interim chief medical officer for Red Cross biomedical services in Washington, D.C.

These newer studies, taken together, have involved infants and adults receiving intensive care or heart surgery, she said.

“Based on the best available information, the duration of storage of red cell units does not appear to affect clinical outcomes,” O’Neill added.

More information

There’s more on blood transfusions at the U.S. National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute.

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Study Says Tdap Vaccine Safe During Pregnancy

TUESDAY, Oct. 20, 2015 (HealthDay News) — Even if a woman gets a tetanus-containing shot before she conceives, it is still safe to give her the tetanus-containing Tdap vaccine while she is pregnant, new research indicates.

As it stands, federal guidelines state that the Tdap vaccine, which also guards against diphtheria and pertussis (whooping cough), is recommended for every woman during every pregnancy.

However, there has been a lack of research on the safety of giving the vaccine during pregnancy, the researchers noted. And some women have often balked at the recommendation.

“Pregnant patients are often reluctant to take medications, especially vaccinations,” explained Dr. Jennifer Wu, an obstetrician/gynecologist at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City, who was not involved with the study. “Recent recommendations for Tdap vaccines are often met with resistance from patients. Some of the foremost concerns are safety to the fetus, and also safety to the mother, if she has had this vaccination in the past.”

But the new study should help put those fears to rest, the researchers said.

“Our findings should reassure patients and clinicians who might be hesitant to give Tdap vaccine to pregnant women who recently received a Tdap or other tetanus-containing vaccination,” wrote study author Dr. Lakshmi Sukumaran, from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and colleagues.

Another expert concurred.

“The vaccination can be given at any time during pregnancy as it is not a live vaccine,” said Dr. Tracy Adams, a maternal-fetal medicine specialist at Winthrop-University Hospital in Mineola, N.Y. “This study adds to the growing body of evidence that suggests the safe use of inactivated virus or bacterial vaccines or toxoids in pregnancy in order to prevent disease in both mother and child.”

Meanwhile, the Tdap vaccine protects against whooping cough, which has increased in prevalence over the past decade in the United States, the researchers pointed out. And newborns and infants are more likely to be hospitalized or die from whooping cough than older children and adults.

In the study, the researchers analyzed data from more than 29,000 women who received Tdap in pregnancy in California, Colorado, Minnesota, Oregon, Washington and Wisconsin. They compared outcomes among those women who had received a tetanus-containing vaccine less than two years before pregnancy, two to five years before pregnancy and more than five years before pregnancy.

Regardless of how long it had been since the women last received a tetanus-containing vaccine, there were no significant differences in rates of fever, allergy or local reactions among mothers or in rates of small for gestational age, premature birth and low birth weight among infants.

The study authors added that further research is needed to determine if giving Tdap vaccine to pregnant women who recently received a tetanus-containing vaccine increases the risk of stillbirth or miscarriage.

The study was published Oct. 20 in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

More information

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more about the Tdap vaccine.

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Shorter Radiation Treatment Works for Early Breast Cancers: Study

TUESDAY, Oct. 20, 2015 (HealthDay News) — High-dose radiation therapy over a short period of time treats early stage breast cancer as well as longer, conventional radiation therapy does, a new study suggests.

Researchers from Fox Chase Cancer Center–Temple Health in Philadelphia report that eight years after treatment, there were no significant differences in survival among hundreds of patients who received intense radiation therapy over four weeks or standard radiation therapy over six to seven weeks.

“This is good news for cancer patients because a shorter length of treatment is not only more convenient, but it helps to enable a woman to get her life back to normal after breast cancer treatment,” said Dr. Stephanie Bernik, chief of surgical oncology at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City.

“At this time, the shorter radiation therapy is offered to a select group of women,” Bernik added. “With more and more studies showing equivalence, the hope is that this therapy can be expanded to women with even more aggressive cancers.”

The findings were to be presented Tuesday at the American Society for Radiation Oncology annual meeting, in San Antonio, Texas.

Radiation therapy significantly reduces the risk of local cancer recurrence and improves the chances of survival, but many breast cancer patients don’t get standard radiation therapy because it takes a long time and has higher costs, the researchers said.

Intense radiation therapy shortens treatment by weeks and is far less expensive for patients, the study authors explained.

“This is an important study showing the benefits of accelerated radiation for this disease,” said Dr. Jonathan Haas, chief of the division of radiation oncology at Winthrop-University Hospital in Mineola, N.Y. “If the radiation is more precise and more convenient, this translates into much better medicine for the patient.”

The data and conclusions of research presented at meetings should be viewed as preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed journal.

More information

The U.S. National Cancer Institute has more about breast cancer treatment.

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Good Results From IVF Egg Donors Over Age 35

TUESDAY, Oct. 20, 2015 (HealthDay News) — Results of in vitro fertilization (IVF) cycles using eggs from older donors are as good as those using eggs from younger women, a new study finds.

Because egg quality declines with age, most IVF centers only accept eggs from donors younger than 35, says Resolve, the National Infertility Association, based in McLean, Va.

But Canadian researchers found that pregnancy and live birth rates from IVF cycles using eggs donated by women over 35 were comparable to those using eggs from women younger than 35.

Relaxing donor age restrictions could make more eggs available to infertile couples, especially in countries like Canada, which prohibits payments to egg donors, experts say.

“Extending the limit of acceptable donor age could make the process easier for Canadian patients with friends or family over 35 who want to donate eggs to them, and also expand the pool of altruistic donors who want to help patients unknown to them,” said Dr. Rebecca Sokol, president of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine.

“In the United States, a greater willingness to work with older donors could also help patients who prefer to work with a relative or friend as donor,” Sokol said in an association news release.

The study, conducted by Dr. Tal Shavit and colleagues at McGill University in Montreal, looked at more than 400 IVF cycles done with donor eggs — 345 from women younger than 35 and 83 from donors older than 35.

The older donors were given higher doses of hormonal drugs and produced fewer egg cells. The researchers found, however, that pregnancy and live birth rates involving the older egg donors were not significantly different from those using eggs from younger women.

The study’s findings were scheduled for presentation Tuesday at the annual meeting of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine in Baltimore. The research was also published online simultaneously in the journal Fertility and Sterility.

More information

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention provides more information on assisted reproductive technology.

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Prescription Naproxen as Good as Narcotic Painkillers for Low Back Pain: Study

By Steven Reinberg
HealthDay Reporter

TUESDAY, Oct. 20, 2015 (HealthDay News) — Naproxen — a drug available over-the-counter and by prescription — appears to provide as much relief for low back pain as a narcotic painkiller or a muscle relaxant, a new study suggests.

The study compared the use of prescription-strength naproxen (Naprosyn) alone to the use of naproxen with the narcotic painkiller oxycodone with acetaminophen (Percocet), or the muscle relaxant cyclobenzaprine (Amrix). Patients who took a combination of drugs fared no better than when they took naproxen alone, the researchers said.

“Acute low back pain is a frustrating condition,” said lead researcher Dr. Benjamin Friedman, an associate professor of emergency medicine at Montefiore Medical Center and Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York City.

Many patients have already taken over-the-counter nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), such as naproxen (Aleve) or ibuprofen (Advil, Motrin), before they arrive in the emergency room, he said. Some people may have taken insufficient doses at incorrect intervals and could be advised to optimize their NSAID regimen, he said.

“But for those patients who have already optimized their NSAID regimen, there are no additional medical therapies available,” Friedman said.

“We don’t have good medical treatment for acute low back pain,” he added.

The report was published Oct. 20 in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

For the study, Friedman and colleagues randomly assigned just over 300 patients who came to an emergency room complaining of lower back pain to 10 days of treatment with one of three combinations. The combinations included 500 milligrams (mg) of naproxen plus a placebo pill; 500 mg of naproxen plus 5 mg of cyclobenzaprine; or 500 mg naproxen plus a pill containing 5 mg oxycodone and 325 mg acetaminophen.

All of the study participants were given a 10-minute education session on low back pain before leaving the hospital, the study authors noted.

Adding the narcotics or muscle relaxants to naproxen therapy didn’t help pain or function any more than naproxen alone, Friedman said. “Nearly 50 percent of patients were still suffering one week later. Nearly 25 percent of the patients were still suffering three months later,” he said.

But regardless of the treatment, nearly two-thirds of patients had significantly less pain and better movement one week after starting treatment, the investigators found.

Dr. Houman Danesh, director of integrative pain management in the department of anesthesiology-pain at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City, said, “This is another study to add to the pile that says narcotics are not appropriate to treat back pain.”

Although fewer doctors are prescribing narcotic painkillers for back pain, many still do, he said.

Danesh said that the side effects of narcotic painkillers outweigh the benefits. One side effect is addiction, but it’s not the only one, he explained.

“We know that narcotics lower testosterone levels in both men and women,” Danesh said. For men, replacing testosterone with supplements can increase the risk of heart attack and death.

“In women, you have no idea of where or how to replace testosterone, so you are changing their biochemistry, which can make them more sensitive to pain,” he said.

“Most back pain gets better on its own without anything,” Danesh said.

Friedman agreed. “Don’t despair — passage of time will cure most low back pain,” he said.

“Some type of complementary therapy such as stretching, yoga, or massage may be more appropriate for many patients,” Friedman said. “The solution to lower back pain is not potent medication.”

More information

To learn more about low back pain, visit the U.S. National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke.

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How Your Favorite TV Shows Might Actually Make You a Better Person

Photo: Getty Images

Feeling guilty about lounging around and binge-watching shows like Mad Men and Grey’s Anatomy for hours at a time? Turns out that those marathon sessions may actually be a good thing—for your personality, at least.

A study published in the Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts found that watching acclaimed television dramas can increase your emotional intelligence, and make you more empathetic.

Roughly 100 people were asked to watch either a television drama series (Mad Men or The West Wing) or a documentary-style show (How the Universe Works or Shark Week: Jaws Strikes Back) before taking a psychological test used by experts to measure emotional intelligence. The test involved looking at photos of different eyes and decoding the emotions behind each pair. The researchers repeated the experiment, only switching up the shows (The Good Wife or Lost versus Nova or Through the Wormhole) for good measure.

In the end, those who’d watched the fictionalized shows did better on this test than those who’d watched the nonfiction ones. Same was true for those who watched any shows before taking the test versus those who watched nothing beforehand.

What gives? The study authors say that fictional narratives may force the viewer to consider a problem from multiple perspectives. Since not every character’s emotion is point-blank spelled out the audience has to do some creative mental work to fill in those gaps, making a guess at the inner lives and thoughts of the character in the process. In other words, when you watch a really engrossing, emotional show, you get practice at sympathizing with others.

Now, if only that made up for the effects of sitting still all that time. For that, the best advice might be to take a 10-minute walk in-between episodes or even do a few sets of push-ups to get you through the commercials. This way you’ll be doing your mind and body good.

RELATED: This Is Your Body on a Binge Watch

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The Number of Moles on Your Right Arm Could Be Tied to Your Cancer Risk, Study Finds

Photo: Getty Images

Moles are usually harmless, but they can be used to assess a person’s risk for developing skin cancer. Someone with more than 100 moles across their body, for example, can be at a greater risk for melanoma, according to experts. Now a new study suggests that physicians may not have to look at a patient’s entire body—instead, doctors can focus on the patient’s right arm, where the presence of 11 or more moles could signal a greater risk of melanoma.

The study, published in the British Journal of Dermatology on Monday, looked at 3,594 twins, and then a larger group of men and women, who all had nurses count how many moles they had on 17 different parts of their body. The researchers found that the number of moles on a person’s right arm was most predictive of their total number of moles on their body. Women with over seven moles on their right arm were nine times more likely to have over 50 moles on their whole body. People with over 11 moles on their right arm were more likely to have over 100 moles on their whole body.

Other areas of the body that stood out as possible predictive regions were above the right elbow, the legs and, for men, the back.

Additional research is needed to gain more understanding of the findings.

This article originally appeared on Time.com.

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The Acne Scar Foundation Routine You Need to Try

Products Used:
Make Up Forever HD Micro-Perfecting Primer
Shiseido Wrinkle Filler Primer
Dermablend Cover Cream
Dermablend Smooth Indulgence Foundation
(Smashbox, Makeup For Ever or Dior’s Airflash are good too)
Elf Cosmetics Kabuki Face Brush
Benefit Cosmetics Hello Flawless Powder

About Cassandra: Cassandra Bankson, 22, was born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area and since a young age, has always had a passion for helping others. During middle and high school, she developed severe acne that engulfed 90% of her face, and the ridicule from other peers and classmates influenced her to leave public school to pursue private study.

She learned how to cover her severe acne with cosmetics, allowing her to create a “Flawless Foundation Routine”. Through this discovery, she was able to become a successful runway and lifestyle model, and made it her mission to help others with makeup, confidence, acne and other skin conditions. Taking to Youtube as a Beauty Guru under the user-name “Diamondsandheels14“, she began creating weekly Youtube videos to help others with makeup, acne and other embarrassing problems. Now, over 100 million views later with over 750,000 subscribers, she is exposing all of her secrets, tips and tricks to the world, and living her dream of helping others with their insecurities, one Youtube Video at a time.

Follow Cassandra on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram

This article originally appeared on MIMIchatter.com.

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High Blood Pressure During Pregnancy Tied to Newborn Heart Defects

By Amy Norton
HealthDay Reporter

TUESDAY, Oct. 20, 2015 (HealthDay News) — Babies born to moms with a pregnancy complication called pre-eclampsia may have a heightened risk of heart defects, a large new study finds.

The Canadian researchers stressed that the risk is still very low: More serious heart defects were seen in only about 0.1 percent of newborns whose mothers had pre-eclampsia.

And the findings, reported Oct. 20 in the Journal of the American Medical Association, do not prove that pre-eclampsia actually causes those heart problems.

Instead, the results suggest that pre-eclampsia and congenital heart defects share some underlying biological causes, explained Dr. Siobhan Dolan, medical advisor to the nonprofit March of Dimes.

“That’s why this study is important,” said Dolan, who is also a professor of clinical obstetrics and gynecology at Montefiore Medical Center, in New York City.

Dr. Nathalie Auger, the lead researcher on the study, agreed.

“Ultimately, we want to prevent both pre-eclampsia and congenital heart defects,” said Auger, of the University of Montreal.

This is the first study to find an association between the two, Auger pointed out. The hope, she said, is that it will trigger more research to dig into the reasons behind the connection — and potentially find ways to cut the risks of both.

Anywhere from 2 percent to 8 percent of pregnant women develop pre-eclampsia, according to the March of Dimes.

The condition is marked by high blood pressure and other signs that a woman’s organs, such as the kidneys and liver, are not functioning properly. Those signs include protein in the urine, severe headaches and vision problems.

Pre-eclampsia can have serious complications, such as preterm delivery and low birth weight. It also raises a woman’s risk of seizures, coma and placental abruption — where the placenta separates from the uterus, sometimes causing life-threatening bleeding.

The exact cause of pre-eclampsia is unknown, but it’s thought to involve abnormal development in the blood vessels that supply the placenta, Dolan explained.

Pre-eclampsia is typically diagnosed later in pregnancy — after the 20th week, and often in the third trimester. In contrast, the major fetal heart structures take shape early in pregnancy.

So it seems unlikely that pre-eclampsia would be causing congenital heart defects, according to Auger.

Instead, the researchers suggested, underlying problems in new blood vessel development might contribute to both.

The findings are based on medical records from nearly 2 million infants born in Quebec between 1989 and 2012. Close to 73,000 mothers had pre-eclampsia.

Overall, Auger’s team found, infants born to moms with pre-eclampsia had a higher prevalence of “critical” heart defects: Just over 0.1 percent, versus roughly 0.07 percent among babies whose mothers did not have pre-eclampsia.

The higher risk did appear limited to women who’d developed pre-eclampsia earlier — before the 34th week of pregnancy, the findings showed.

On the other hand, pre-eclampsia was linked to milder heart defects regardless of when it arose during pregnancy. About 1.5 percent of babies born to moms with pre-eclampsia had a “non-critical” heart defect, compared with 0.8 percent of other infants.

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, critical heart defects account for one-quarter of all congenital heart defects in the United States. The defects typically require surgery or some other treatment within a baby’s first year of life.

“Those are the heart defects we’re really concerned about,” Auger said.

She stressed that women with pre-eclampsia should not be alarmed, since the risk to their baby would still be quite small. But doctors should be aware that there’s a connection, she said.

Heart defects can sometimes be picked up during pregnancy through ultrasound. Other times, Auger said, they’re caught soon after birth through a simple newborn screening test that measures the baby’s oxygen levels.

Both Auger and Dolan said the findings underscore the need for good prenatal care, in part to catch pre-eclampsia as early as possible.

The only cure is to deliver the baby. But if it’s too early in pregnancy for that, women may receive more intensive monitoring or possibly medication, such as a blood pressure drug.

Dolan added that women who’ve had pre-eclampsia in the past are at increased risk of developing it again. So it’s important, she said, for them to talk to their doctors about planning for their next pregnancy.

“Going into pregnancy as healthy as possible is crucial,” Dolan said. “You want to be at a healthy weight. If you have diabetes or high blood pressure, you want to get it under control.”

A doctor might also recommend low-dose aspirin starting around the 12th week of pregnancy, Dolan said, since there is evidence that it cuts the risk of recurrent pre-eclampsia.

Auger also stressed the importance of taking folic acid before and during early pregnancy.

“It’s already recommended for preventing neural tube defects,” she said. “And there is also some evidence that it lowers the risk of congenital heart defects.”

More information

Visit the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for more on critical heart defects in newborns.

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