A new study to be published this week in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology has found that light to moderate consumption of alcohol is associated with lower rates of cardiovascular disease when compared to teetotaling. It was a large study involving  245,000 American adults.

Light alcohol intake has long thought to be heart protective mainly through increasing HDL. As with all other similar studies, there are many confounding factors and no one claims to know the ideal amount of alcohol intake. While light alcohol intake was associated with lower rates of cardiovascular disease, moderate alcohol intake showed even better results. Heavy drinking was not associated with higher or lower rates of CV disease.

When I was in active practice I had several ministers I took care of that loved the results of these types of studies.  bjmdjd

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Journal of the American College of Cardiology

I said that I wasn’t going to comment anymore on healthcare reform but some numbers just out are fairly telling and I thought you might want to hear them.

According to Kaiser Health News a USA Today/Gallop Poll due out tomorrow says that the President and congressional Democrats have their work cut out for them in trying to convince their constituents that the healthcare reform bill will help them and their families. The poll of a little over 1,000 adults revealed that 50% of those polled said that the bill was a bad thing and 47% said it was a good thing.

The Miami Herald reported that a Mason – Dixon Polling and Research poll concluded that only 34% of Florida voters support the bill while 54% are against it.

It will be interesting to see how the Democrats try to sell the new healthcare reform bill when they get home. I think they realize that there could be some tough times in the voting booths this coming November.  bjmdjd

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Gallop Poll · Healthcare Reform · Mason-Dixon Polling and Research · Miami Herald · USA Today

A report published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition on the Women’s Health Initiative stated something that many doctors know but few will admit. Low fat diets have little or no affect on cholesterol levels.

Unlike most regular patients the women in this trial were given intensive training and education on eating a low fat diet. The trial found that even though the cholesterol levels were not affected the women who decreased their intake of saturated fats and trans fatty acids did have a lower rate of heart disease. It was also concluded that the low fat diet was effective for weight loss.

The study authors did admit that self reporting of food intake is highly inaccurate and for that reason the results of the study must be interpreted with that in mind. My clinical experience with newly diagnosed patients is that while we always give them a diet trial it rarely if ever works. Even if there is some improvement the patients admit that they could never stay on such as diet long term and actually prefer to be on medication. It may be in the future that drug therapy might  be started earlier and there is some belief among lipid specialists that this may be the best course of treatment.  bjmdjd

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elevated cholesterol · Journal of Clinical Nutrition · low fat diet · Women's Health Initiative

A study published online in the Journal of Pediatrics reports that children who are morbidly obese will live 10 to 20 years less and develop illnesses in their 20′s that are associated with people 40 to 60 years old.

Keep in mind that these children are MORBIDLY obese, not just over weight. The study involved 710,949 children ages 2 to 19 and found that 7.3% of boys and 5.5% of girls were morbidly obese. Black teenage girls and Hispanic teenage boys were the most affected.  bjmdjd

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Journal of Pediatrics · morbid obesity · morbid obesity in children · obesity

The Food and Drug Administration has issued a recommendation that doctors stop using GlaxoSmithKline’s rotavirus vaccine called Rotarix until more studies can be done.

While the FDA says that they don’t believe that there is any clinical risk to patients a pig related virus has been discovered in the vaccine. The virus is not known to cause illness in either humans or animals.

This alert DOES NOT include Merck’s vaccine called Rota Teq which most infants vaccinated in the U.S. receive anyway.

Rotavirus is an illness that can affect infants causing diarrhea and dehydration.  bjmdjd

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Food and Drug Administration · Rota Teq · Rotarix · rotavirus

When I started this blog I didn’t promise that I would never get political or that occasionally there wouldn’t be a personal rant of some sort published. But I simply refuse to lower myself to the level of those who try to make everything partisan and resort to name calling. I’m afraid that I would need to do both of those things to adequately discuss my feelings about the passage of the healthcare reform bill. Not about healthcare reform which I support but about passage of the healthcare reform bill. Therefore, I won’t do it. It’s been talked to death anyway.  bjmdjd

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Healthcare Reform

Frankly I’m so disgusted that I just don’t have anything to say  right now! I had plenty to say (not about reform) but I’ll have to wait until tomorrow.  bjmdjd

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Healthcare Reform

Results of the ACCORD study were reported at the American College of Cardiology 2010 Scientific Sessions and in the online version of the New England Journal of Medicine this week.

The report concluded that there is no benefit in aggressively treating high blood pressure in diabetics to numbers below 120 mm Hg diastolic. There was no difference in fatal and non fatal cardiovascular events in this group of patients and a group who had their diastolic blood pressure treated to less than 140 mm Hg.

Blood pressure in diabetics definitely needs to be successfully treated but there is no advantage to being over treated.  bjmdjd

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American College of Cardiology · diabetics · high blood pressure · hypertension

Anyone who keeps up with health news is aware that there has been a bru hah hah over vitamin D deficiency and its relationship to cardiovascular disease.

A study was reported this week at the American College of Cardiology 2010 Scientific Sessions that found that folks with low levels of vitamin D who were able to normalize them were less likely to suffer a cardiovascular event in up to six years of followup. The ways the people used to normalize their vitamin D levels were not listed.

I guess maybe it is worth it to have your vitamin D levels checked and if they’re low to grab some supplements or a prescription and put on the bikini or Speedo and head out into the sun. Don’t forget the sunscreen or you’ll have another problem to deal with!  bjmdjd

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American College of Cardiology · cardiovascular disease · vitamin D deficiency

On March 9th ABC news ran a story about the long term use of Fosamax or its generic forms causing sudden femur fractures just below the hip joint. The next day the Food and Drug Administration reported that it had no evidence to support this belief.

While the ABC report only mentioned the drug Fosamax and the generic forms called alendronate there are several other drugs marketed in this class of medications called biphosphonates for the prevention and treatment of osteoporosis. The FDA recommended that patients not quit taking these drugs unless told to by their medical provider.  bjmdjd

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ABC News · alendronate · biphosphonates · Food and Drug Administration · Fosamax · health · wellness