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A major new study on the effects of lowering cholesterol in people with established heart disease was just published in the New England Journal of Medicine. It showed that, in people with previous heart attacks, a group whose cholesterol was lowered to 70 had fewer new heart attacks than the group who were at the previous goal level of 100mg/dl. (on the other hand: How low should your choleterol go? If you had a previous heart attack, the answer may be as low a possible. Maybe at a cholesterol of 60 mg/dl the heart disease risk may drop again - or not. That remains to be seen. If you haven't had a heart attack, what does this mean for you? Again, we just don't know yet how. This study doesn't really answer that question. As for now, in people withoug heart disease, the established NCEP adult treatment guidelines are still the ones to follow - jmb) |
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While studying sleep disorders among women with fibromyalgia, researchers were astonished to find that 26 of 28 women had partial airway blockage and one had outright sleep apnea. Most of these women reported occasional or no snoring at all and most were only mildly overweight. In the 14 women who tried CPAP, there were dramatic improvements in their fibromyalgia symptoms. (on the other hand: we've known for a long time that disordered sleep can cause fibromylgia like symptoms. The striking thing about this study is that the women did not fit the usual criteria for sleep apnea but they had disordered sleep and, most importantly, improved with CPAP treatment. This may dramatically alter our approach to fibromyalgia in the future! - jmb) |
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Researchers in Finland followed 10,000 women for 17 years to assess the risk of breast cancer in women who take antiobiotics for 500 plus days over that period of time. Even women who took a smaller amount had a higher risk. The researchers emphasized that this doesn't prove that taking antibiotics causes breast cancer because there could be other explantions. (on the other hand: Physicians overprescribe antibiotics for many illnesses that antibiotics could not possibly help with the idea that it won't hurt and could help. Maybe they could be harmful.. You can read a good balanced view in a BBC article. - jmb) | ||
There is a new drug in testing that selectively raises HDL 50% to 100%. The side effects have been minimal. (drugs often have much better side effect profile in testing - the true side effect profile usally emerges after it released for use. jmb) This potentially could be a major advance in the prevention of Heart Disease. Low HDL levels appear to be a major risk factor by themselves. (on the other hand: Exercise, Exercise, Exercise! - the natural way to get that HDL up and there are very few side effects- jmb) |