Health news briefs

[Guest guest]

[wddty.com]

 

Heart Health:  A bottle of red wine is better than a statin

A bottle of red wine every week is better at protecting you from heart

disease than cholesterol-lowering statin drugs. And if you're moderately

well off, you're far less likely to develop heart disease than someone

from a poorer family.

 

'Bad' Cholesterol:  It may protect against cancer

People who try to reduce the risk of heart disease by lowering their

levels of the 'bad' LDL (low-density lipoprotein) cholesterol may

develop cancer instead. Even 'bad' cholesterol seems to have some useful

purpose, and reducing it to too low a level – usually by taking statin

drugs – could make us candidates for cancer.

 

No Cure, No Charge:  How to make a drug company bankrupt

Now here's an interesting idea that is being tested in the UK.  A drug

company has agreed to charge the country's National Health Service for

its multiple myeloma drug Velcade (bortezomib) only if it cures the

patient.

 

Breast Cancer Survival: It may have nothing to do with your genes

Breast cancer survival may not have as much to do with your genes as

scientists like to tell us.  Women with mutations in genes known as

BRCA 1 and 2 were thought to have the more deadly version of breast

cancer – but new research suggests this is not so.

 

Hardening of the Arteries:  Double drug therapy is more dangerous

Doctors regularly prescribe aspirin with an anti-coagulant such as

warfarin in order to control hardening of the arteries

(atherosclerosis), where plaque builds up around the main artery walls.

In fact it's the 'gold standard' therapy approved by eminent bodies such

as the American College of Cardiology and the American Heart Association

– and it's an approach that is putting the patient's life at risk.

 

Vioxx:  More evidence of heart damage

Yet more evidence has just come to light about the dangers of the

painkiller Vioxx (rofecoxib), which was withdrawn from the market in

2004 after it was found to cause heart failure. Apparently it was doing

the very same thing to cancer patients, who were being given the drug

after surgery.