Health News - Tuesday, January 9, 2007
The rate of bleeding in the brain associated with use of the anticoagulant drug warfarin quintupled during the 1990s, University of Cincinnati researchers reported Monday. Moreover, in people over 80, the rate of brain hemorrhages associated with warfarin, best known as Coumadin and used to thin the blood and prevent strokes, increased more than tenfold, according to the study, published in the Jan. 9 issue of Neurology.
"Warfarin use increased during the 1990s, because it was proven to be effective in preventing ischemic strokes among people who have an abnormal heart rhythm called atrial fibrillation," said the study's lead author, Dr. Matthew L. Flaherty, a neurologist. Continue reading
Scientific research on soft drinks, juices, and milk was four to eight times more likely to yield health results favorable to companies if it was sponsored by the food industry than research with no corporate ties, a study released last night found. The report suggests that nutrition research, like drug research, may be tainted by special-interest dollars.
Scientists from Children's Hospital Boston evaluated 111 beverage studies published between Jan. 1, 1999, and Dec. 31, 2003, and found that industry paid for some or all of a majority of the research, a finding that surprised even Dr. David Ludwig, a veteran nutrition researcher who presided over the Children's study. The Boston scientists, whose findings appear in the online journal PLoS Medicine, emphasized that they're not accusing individual researchers of scientific skullduggery, but also acknowledged that they don't have a definitive explanation for their results. Continue reading
The British way of drinking tea with milk may block the cardiovascular benefits of the catechins, according to a small study that highlights the need for nutrition studies to consider confounding factors from the surrounding food matrix.
A strong body of research has connected black tea to heart health benefits thanks to its antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and vasodilating effects. But researchers from the Charite Hospital in Berlin compared the endothelial function in the brachial artery of 16 postmenopausal women, after drinking black tea with no milk, black tea with milk, or hot water. They found that while tea increased the artery's ability to relax and expand to accommodate increased blood flow compared to water, this effect was blocked when milk was added to the beverage. Continue reading
An inexpensive blood test may identify which heart disease patients are at the highest risk of a stroke or heart attack, allowing doctors to move more aggressively to help them, a study said on Tuesday.
"We are very good in this country at diagnosing heart disease," said Kirsten Bibbins-Domingo, of the University of California-San Francisco, lead author of the study. "But we're not very good at distinguishing who's at high risk for future problems and starting them on preventive therapies. This test could make all the difference," she added. Continue reading