Tag Archives: heart disease

Exercise better than heart surgery

Posted on July 11, 2009 by | 1 Comment

Studies have shown that exercise is better than heart surgery, or angioplasty.

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(NaturalNews) At the European Association of Cardiovascular Prevention and Rehabilitation meeting recently held in Barcelona, Spain, new heart research was presented that shows one treatment in particular can provide remarkable help for patients with certain forms of serious heart disease. It’s not a new drug or surgical procedure. Instead, it’s a natural therapy — plain old-fashioned regular exercise.

In fact, in several studies just presented at the meeting, exercise reduced the markers of heart disease in patients following coronary artery bypass surgery (CABG). What’s more, it improved indications of disease in people with heart failure, a condition usually thought to be incurable and often just treated with symptom-relieving drugs. But the news that’s perhaps most likely to make some interventional cardiologists’ hearts skip a beat or two was the evidence presented that showed that exercise improved cardiac event-free survival in coronary patients better than angioplasty with stents.

Also called percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI), angioplasty is commonly used to help people with coronary artery disease whose arteries are narrowed and even blocked by a build-up of sticky plaque. By threading a thin tube through a blood vessel in the arm or groin, interventional cardiologists perform angioplasty to restore blood flood through a clogged artery. A tiny balloon at the end of the tube is inflated when it reaches the exact spot of blockage. That pushes the plaque outward against the walls of the artery, restoring blood flow. A small metal device called a stent is also carried by the tube and deployed at the site of the blockage in order to prop open the artery.

This approach to treating heart disease is a huge business. A report in Bloomberg News last fall noted that about 800,000 angioplasties are performed each year in the U.S. at a cost of about $10 billion annually. And, although many cardiologists consider angioplasty to be the “gold standard” of care in most types of acute coronary events such as heart attack, the procedure’s long term benefits have been questioned by many doctors. In addition, the role of angioplasty in treating other kinds of coronary disease, like angina, isn’t clear....read more here…

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Plastic Increases Heart Disease and Caner Risk

Posted on September 16, 2008 by | Leave a comment

Michael Kahn

LONDON (Reuters) – A study has for the first time linked a common chemical used in everyday products such as plastic drink containers and baby bottles to health problems, specifically heart disease and diabetes.

Until now, environmental and consumer activists who have questioned the safety of bisphenol A, or BPA, have relied on studies showing harm from exposure in laboratory animals.

But British researchers, who published their findings on Tuesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association, analyzed urine and blood samples from 1,455 U.S. adults aged 18 to 74 who were representative of the general population.

Using government health data, they found that the 25 percent of people with the highest levels of bisphenol A in their bodies were more than twice as likely to have heart disease and, or diabetes compared to the 25 percent of with the lowest levels.

“Most of these findings are in keeping with what has been found in animal models,” Iain Lang, a researcher at the University of Exeter in Britain who worked on the study, told a news conference.

“This is the first ever study (of this kind) that has been in the general population,” Lang said.

Steven Hentges of the American Chemistry Council, a chemical industry group, said the design of the study did not allow for anyone to conclude BPA causes heart disease and diabetes.

“At least from this study, we cannot draw any conclusion that bisphenol A causes any health effect. As noted by the authors, further research will be needed to understand whether these statistical associations have any relevance at all for human health,” Hentges said in a telephone interview….read more here…

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Erectile dysfunction predicts heart problems: study

Posted on May 31, 2008 by | 7 Comments

Erectile dysfunction predicts heart problems: study

By Amy Norton

Problems with maintaining an erection may foretell heart trouble ahead for men with type 2 diabetes, two new studies show.

A number of past studies have found a connection between erectile dysfunction (ED) and heart disease. But the new findings, published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, confirm that ED often precedes and predicts heart trouble.

This, say researchers, suggests that men with ED should be especially vigilant about controlling heart disease risk factors.

In one study, Italian researchers found that among 291 men with type 2 diabetes, those who also had ED had twice the risk of suffering a heart attack, stroke or other cardiovascular complication over the next four years.

At the start of the study, all of the men had had evidence of “silent” heart disease — meaning they had plaque buildup in their arteries on imaging tests, but no heart disease symptoms, such as chest pain. Having ED seemed to pinpoint those men who were at particular risk of a complication.

There was some good news as well, however: Taking cholesterol-lowering statins appeared to reduce the risks associated with ED, according to the researchers, led by Dr. Carmine Gazzaruso of the Clinical Institute “Beato Matteo” in Vigevano, Italy.

In the second study, Hong Kong researchers found that among diabetic men with no indications of heart disease at the outset, those with ED were 58 percent more likely to die of heart disease, or have a heart attack or other non-fatal cardiac “event.”

“Erectile dysfunction is an important warning sign of future adverse heart events or even death,” study chief Dr. Peter Chun-Yip Tong, of the Chinese University of Hong Kong, told Reuters Health.

The main reason, he explained, is that ED is an early manifestation of the blood vessel damage caused by diabetes and other risk factors for heart disease, such as high blood pressure.

Tong recommended that all men with diabetes tell their doctor if they begin to have problems getting or maintaining an erection. They can then have a comprehensive assessment of their cardiovascular risk factors — such as measurements of their blood pressure, cholesterol, waist size and kidney function — and work on getting those under control.

Indeed, the Italian study suggests that diabetic men with ED can cut some of their heart risks by using a statin. Gazzaruso’s team found that among patients with ED, those who were on a statin had a one-third lower chance of suffering a heart attack or other complication during the study.

There was also evidence that men taking a class of ED drugs called PDE-5 inhibitors, which includes Viagra, had lower heart risks. According to the researchers, this may reflect the fact that the drugs improve the function of the inner lining of artery walls.

The bottom line, according to Tong, is that men with diabetes and ED should have all of their modifiable heart risk factors “identified early and treated aggressively.”

SOURCE: Journal of the American College of Cardiology, May 27, 2008.

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Taser may have regulated man’s heart rhythm

Posted on May 27, 2008 by | 2 Comments

Incident suggests the device may indeed affect the heart, as critics argue
Reuters

WASHINGTON – A quick shock from a Taser may have zapped a man’s fluttering heart back into a healthy rhythm, doctors reported on Tuesday.

They cited the incident as evidence that the devices, which are used by police who want to use less-than-deadly force to incapacitate people but are condemned by some civil rights groups as dangerous, may affect the heart as critics allege.

In this case, the outcome was a happy one, the doctors reported in the Annals of Emergency Medicine. Several lawsuits in the United States and Canada contend the devices, which use an electric charge to subdue an attacker, can stop the heart.

The 28-year-old patient was fleeing police and jumped into a lake in April, when the water was still very cold.

“I don’t know exactly what he had done but he fled capture from them and he hid in a lake,” said Dr. Kyle Richards, a cardiologist at Hartford Hospital in Connecticut, who treated the man when he was taken to an emergency room.

Richards said the patient was experiencing an irregular heart rhythm known as atrial fibrillation, possibly as a result of the cold and shock.

After treatment, the patient was eager to leave. “He got very combative and started yelling in my face and that’s when I left the room and got security,” Richards said.

Police and security used a Taser stun gun, which shoots out a lead connected to two barbs that can deliver up to 50,000 volts. They used a low-voltage charge meant to cause pain rather than a longer, higher-voltage jolt meant to incapacitate.

The patient calmed down and another electrocardiogram showed his heart rhythm was normal.

“This is the first report of a patient receiving a shock of this kind and having a positive outcome,” Richards said.

Amnesty International says that since 2001 more than 290 people have died in North America in incidents involving the weapon. Taser International says there is no evidence the gun directly caused the deaths.

Richards said studies done in pigs show the weapon can affect the heart muscle.

This case provided a controlled situation, with almost continuous monitoring of the patient’s heart.

 

Richards noted that the patient was not hooked up to the electrocardiogram at the precise moment of being shocked.

“People can spontaneously go from atrial fibrillation into a normal rhythm without any intervention at all. You cannot conclusively say that the Taser did it,” he said. But he said he believed it did.

“It’s just one more thing that says, hey, Tasers can actually affect the heart.”

Copyright 2008 Reuters. Click for restrictions.

URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24845072/

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Latest Chantix Safety Concerns Add To Pfizer’s Aches, Pains

Posted on May 22, 2008 by | 3 Comments

NEW YORK -(Dow Jones)- New safety concerns for Pfizer Inc.’s (PFE) smoking- cessation drug could hurt the already stumbling sales acceleration of Chantix and lead to legal trouble for the New York pharmaceutical giant.

A report Wednesday from a watchdog group suggested Chantix may be linked to problems such as heart trouble, seizures and diabetes, adding to the already- known connection to psychiatric problems including suicide and depression. The news adds to the pile of misery in recent years resulting from research and development frustration, a relatively thin pipeline and looming generic competition for its top seller.

“It has been a litany of bad news for Pfizer,” said Les Funtleyder, an analyst with Miller Tabak. “This is worse news than we would have supposed, but we weren’t exactly positive on (Chantix) anyway.”

Pfizer has twice updated the Chantix label for potential side effects since its May 2006 approval. The Food and Drug Administration said in February that it is “increasingly likely” Chantix may be tied to serious psychiatric symptoms.

In late 2006, Pfizer halted development of its highly anticipated cholesterol drug, torcetrapib, and a year later stopped marketing its inhaled insulin product Exubera because of poor demand. Furthermore, its biggest seller, cholesterol drug Lipitor, which brought in more than a quarter of its $11.85 billion in first-quarter revenue, could see generic competition as early as 2010.

All of which has resulted in a stock price that is at 11-year lows and has lost more than a quarter of its value over the past year. Shares recently traded at a 52-week low of $19.65, down 1.7%. Supporting Pfizer’s stock price is the company’s lofty 6.5% dividend yield.

Though Chantix added just $277 million to Pfizer’s first-quarter revenue, Wall Street analysts note that the drug was one of the bright spots for the troubled company.

The recent news is likely to hurt the already slipping sales growth of the drug, especially if the safety concerns grab the attention of the mainstream media, rather than draw more attention from regulators.

“We don’t see an imminent regulatory risk for Chantix from this news, given that the data used in the report above has already been reviewed by the FDA,” UBS analyst Roopesh Patel said in a research report.

But sales of Chantix, typically taken for 12 weeks, are suffering. New prescriptions in April are down 23% to 392,233 from a year ago, according to Verispan, a drug-data research firm. Since January, new prescriptions are down 32%.

Indeed, Sanford Bernstein cut its sales estimates on Chantix by more than 20% this year, 42% next year and at least 50% thereafter to bring them in line with current prescription trends. It now sees 2009 sales of Chantix of $758 million, below 2007 sales of $883 million.

Legal Issues

Aside from the sales impact, the Chantix news could cause another headache for Pfizer: lawsuits.

“These kinds of announcements tend to draw lawyer attention,” Funtleyder said. “Some sort of lawsuit is almost inevitable. Whether or not there is any merit is another question.”

Pfizer declined to comment on any possible legal issues surrounding Chantix or any possible sales declines.

The motivation for patients to file liability suits is clear following some huge payouts in recent years. For example, Merck & Co. (MRK) is trying to finalize a $4.85 billion settlement of thousands of suits filed over its painkiller Vioxx, pulled from the market in 2004 because of elevated risk of cardiovascular events.

“It’s clear that Chantix is dangerous,” said Kristian Rasmussen, a partner with the law firm Cory Watson Crowder & DeGaris in Birmingham, Ala.

Notably, Rasmussen said his firm has received 1,300 inquiries from concerned Chantix users since the release of the report late Wednesday.

But Funtleyder is quick to point out that the Chantix situation is much different than that of Vioxx, and sales are much lower than those of Vioxx, which had $2.5 billion in its last full year.

He doesn’t believe the litigation issues will become material, but that the potential legal situation is dynamic and “impossible to handicap.”

-By Thomas Gryta, Dow Jones Newswires; 201-938-2053; thomas.gryta@dowjones.com

  (END) Dow Jones Newswires
  05-22-08 1332ET
  Copyright (c) 2008 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.

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