Aspirin underutilized for heart attack prevention
Although it’s well known that taking aspirin regularly can lower a person’s risk of heart disease, few Americans, it seems, use the common pain reliever for heart health.
A new study finds that use of aspirin for the prevention of a first or second heart attack or stroke is very low, even among adults at increased risk for such events.
Consumer group says Celebrex ad downplays risks
A consumer group accused Pfizer Inc. on Monday of downplaying safety differences between its Celebrex medicine and other painkillers in a new advertisement and said U.S. regulators should ask that the ad be pulled.
Pfizer, the world’s biggest drugmaker, began running television spots for Celebrex last week, after a more than two-year hiatus. Pfizer had stopped advertising for the arthritis drug after Merck & Co. Inc.’s rival drug Vioxx was withdrawn from the market. Vioxx was linked to an elevated risk of heart attack and stroke in long-term users.
Prenatal smoke exposure tied to attention problems
Teens whose mothers smoked while pregnant with them and are themselves smokers have a harder time paying attention and focusing than their non-smoking peers who were not exposed to smoke in the womb, a new study shows.
The researchers also found gender differences in the effect of nicotine exposure, with exposed girls showing both visual and auditory attention deficits, while the boys only had difficulties in listening.
Stress may help cancer cells resist treatment, research shows
Scientists from Wake Forest University School of Medicine are the first to report that the stress hormone epinephrine causes changes in prostate and breast cancer cells that may make them resistant to cell death.
“These data imply that emotional stress may contribute to the development of cancer and may also reduce the effectiveness of cancer treatments,” said George Kulik, D.V.M., Ph.D., an assistant professor of cancer biology and senior researcher on the project.
Malaria in pregnancy: What can the social sciences contribute?
Most malaria deaths worldwide are in children under 5 years old and pregnant women. While there has been a large amount of social science research on children and malaria, malaria in pregnancy has received little attention from social scientists, say researchers in a policy paper in PLoS Medicine.
Building on existing knowledge from social science research on malaria, Professor Umberto D’Alessandro (Institute of Tropical Medicine, Antwerp, Belgium) and colleagues propose two models for studying the social science aspects of malaria in pregnancy. One model considers social factors in malaria prevention, and the other in malaria treatment.
Cannabis is wrecking lives, says public school head
A leading public school head yesterday warned that the casual acceptance of cannabis would result in an epidemic of children having problems at school. Anthony Seldon, head of Wellington College, said the drug was “wrecking lives”.
The decision to reclassify cannabis from a class B to a class C drug was a mistake and should be reviewed, Dr Seldon, author of a biography of Tony Blair, said. He added: “The reclassification was unhelpful because it sent the signal that it is OK.”
Study suggests use of stem cell transplantation is beneficial treatment of type 1 diabetes
A therapy that includes stem cell transplantation induced extended insulin independence in patients with type 1 diabetes mellitus, according to a preliminary study in the April 11 issue of JAMA.
Type 1 diabetes mellitus (DM) results from a cell-mediated autoimmune attack against pancreatic beta cells. At the time of clinical diagnosis, approximately 60 percent to 80 percent of the beta-cell mass has been destroyed, according to background information in the article. Beta-cell preservation has been shown to be an important target in the management of type 1 DM and in the prevention of its related complications.
Your health questions answered
SHOPPING TRIPS FOR TYLENOL AND MELATONIN
Q. Many of my friends and colleagues, when on holiday, buy “over the counter” medicines not available in the UK - mainly Tylenol and melatonin. Why are these not available in the UK? Is it legal to bring back large quantities for distribution to friends and family?
