Our weekly roundup of the latest news in the world of health. This week we learn that brisk walking could help slow age-related mental decline, that fish oil may work better than cholesterol medications at treating chronic heart failure, and that smoking may be more dangerous for women's hearts than for men's. We also look at an imaging test that could detect tumors in women with dense breast tissue, and at the latest evidence that the measles vaccine does not cause autism.
Stay well.
This Issue:
Physical Activity and Brain Function Fish Oil for Heart Failure Women, Smoking and Heart Disease New Imaging Test for Breast Cancer? No Vaccine-Autism Link In the News:
Physical Activity and Brain Function Brisk walking could help mental function in older adults. An Australian study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association found slight improvements in cognitive function in older people who regularly engaged in brisk walking or other physical activity per week. The study involved 85 people aged 50 and older who were experiencing memory problems. The participants were assigned to do at least 2 1/2 hours of physical activity per week, mainly brisk walking, for six months. They were compared with 85 people who were not asked to exercise. After six months, the people who exercised performed 1.3 points better on a 70-point scale of brain function than those who did not exercise. The effects remained 18 months later, although the scores were lower. The results are as good as those seen with drugs prescribed to help Alzheimer's disease, the Associated Press reports. The researchers could not say why exercise affects brain function. They also note that their results do not prove that exercise reduces the risk of dementia or Alzheimer's, the AP says.
Fish Oil for Heart Failure
Fish oil supplements could be as effective as the drug Crestor for people with chronic heart failure. An Italian study published in The Lancet, gave a daily omega-3 pill to nearly 3,500 patients. About the same number of patients got a placebo. During some four years of follow-up, 1,981 of the patients taking the fish oil died or were admitted to the hospital, while 2,053 of those who took the placebo. In a second study, the researchers gave either Crestor (rosuvastatin) to 2,285 patients, while roughly the same amount got a placebo. The heart failure rates were about the same between the two groups. The researchers note that the fish oil performed better than the statin, the Associated Press reports.
Women, Smoking and Heart Disease
Women who smoke have heart attacks some 14 years sooner than women who don't. That's the finding of a Norwegian study presented at the European Society of Cardiology meeting in Munich this week. The study found that men who smoked had heart attacks about six years earlier than non-smokers. The study looked at some 1,780 patients who'd had their first heart attack. The men, on average, had their first heart attack at age 72 if they didn't smoke, and at 64 if they did. Women had their first heart attack at 81 if they didn't smoke, and at 66 if they did. Some doctors suggest that smoking may neutralize some factor, such as estrogen, that usually offers protection against heart attack prior to menopause, the Associated Press reports.
New Imaging Test for Breast Cancer?
An experimental imaging method may make it easier to spot cancer in women with dense breast tissue. A study to be presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology conference in Washington, D.C. finds that molecular breast imaging could detect more tumors with fewer false positives than standard mammograms. MBI could be used to complement, not replace, mammography, the researchers say. In the study, they used both methods on 940 women with dense breast tissue and a high risk of cancer. The MBI test found 10 out of 13 tumors and missed the rest while mammograms detected three out of 13 tumors and missed the rest. If used together, the tests detected 11 out of 13. The rate of false-positives was about 7% with MBI and 9% with mammogram. A drawback of MBI testing is that it used some 8 to 10 times the radiation that mammograms do, the Associated Press reports.
No Vaccine-Autism Link
Yet another study has found no link between the childhood measles vaccine and autism. The study, published in PLoS One, the online journal of the Public Library of Science, was a reevaluation of an earlier British study that found measles virus in the bowels of some autistic children who also had serious gastrointestinal problems. The researchers looked at 25 children with both autism and GI disorders and 13 children with the same GI disorders but no autism. All had been vaccinated at a younger age. The children, age 5 on average, were all undergoing colonoscopies for their GI conditions, so the researchers were able to take tissue samples to be tested for genetic traces of measles virus. They found no evidence that the MMR (measles, mumps and rubella) vaccine played any role in autism; they detected traces of measles genetic material in the bowels of one boy with autism and one boy without autism, contradicting the results of the earlier study. The Associated Press quotes other researchers who say they have concluded that the MMR vaccine is very safe.
Used with the permission of the copyright owner. All rights reserved. The above summaries are not intended to provide advice on personal medical matters, nor are they intended to be a substitute for consultation with a physician.
