Monday, June 30, 2008

Is coffee bad for health?

Researchers analysed data from two cohort studies, one included 41,736 male health professionals and the other 86,214 female nurses and found that regular coffee consumption was not associated with increased death rate in men or women.

In the female cohort, coffee consumption ( including decaffeinated coffee) were associated with significantly lower risk of death compared with no coffee. The reductions ranged from 7% among nurses drinking 5 to 7 cups a week, to 26% among nurses drinking 4 or 5 cups a day.

According to the findings, coffee seemed to protect both men and women against cardiovascular death but not death from cancer. However, critics said that recent studies have offered a mixed picture on the health benefit of coffee consumption.

Source : "The Relationship of Coffee Consumption with Mortality." Annals of Internal Medicine 17 June 2008:148(12); 904-914 (full text via Athens)

Friday, June 27, 2008

Electronic interference with hospital tracking chips

According to a study published in JAMA, radio frequency identification tags (RFID) used in critical care units in hospitals such as syringe staplers and blood bags, can interfere with life-saving equipment and machines.

Dutch researchers conducted 123 tests of 2 types of RFID tags on 41 medical devices in an unused room at a university medical centre intensive care unit not involving patients and found 34 cases of electromagnetic interferences, 22 of which would have been life-threatening.

An accompanying editorial said the study will need to be conducted with patients present in order to get a true understanding of the problem. However, the co-author of the study argued that these tests could endanger the patients.

Source: "Electromagnetic Interference From Radio Frequency Identification Inducing Potentially Hazardous Incidents in Critical Care Medical Equipment" JAMA. 2008;299(24):2884-2890. (Full text via Athens)

Anaesthetics may enhance pain

According to a newspaper, scientists carried out a laboratory study in mice and discovered that although general anaesthetics suppress the central nervous system and make people unaware of pain during surgery, some general anaesthetics can cause inflammation in other parts of the body causing some patients high levels of pain when they wake up.

The study has identified one protein that is associated with the activation of pain pathways by some general anaesthetics and this knowledge may be helpful to develop better general anaesthetics in the long term.

Source: "General anesthetics activate a nociceptive ion channel to enhance pain and inflammation". Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 2008; Jun 23 [Epub ahead of print]

Friday, June 20, 2008

A new technique offers new hope to patients with small malignant lung tumours

A newspaper reported that a new technique called radiofrequency ablation has given hope to patients with small malignant lung tumours that could not be treated with sugery, radiotherapy or chemotherapy.

Researchers said it has produced good response rates and is safe to warrant further study after they recruited 106 patients for the study and found that the new technique successfully treated 88% of tumours and about 50% of patients who had primary lung cancer were alive after two years. The study was funded by Angiodynamics which made the radiofrequency ablation device.


Source: "Response to radiofrequency ablation of pulmonary tumours: a prospective, intention-to-treat, multicentre clinical trial (the RAPTURE study)." Lancet Oncology 2008; Jun 18 [Epub ahead of print]

Thursday, June 19, 2008

Lifestyle changes may slow prostate cancer

Newspapers reported a small pilot study of 31 men with very low risk prostate cancer that looked at the effects of lifestyle changes on the activity of different genes in prostate tissue.

The participants did not want immediate surgery, hormone therapy, or radiotherapy but agreed to change comprehensive lifestyle including good diet and exercise. By the end of the study, they had reduced BMI, blood pressure, waist size and blood lipids. 48 genes were found more active and 453 genes less active after the intervention. Some of them are related to tumour formation.

Researchers concluded that intensive nutritional and lifestyle changes may change gene activity in the prostate and suggest larger studies to confirm their findings.

Source : "Changes in prostate gene expression in men undergoing an intensive nutrition and lifestyle intervention." Proc Natl Acad Sci 2008; [Published online June 16]

Friday, June 13, 2008

4 cups of tea a day cuts heart disease risk

Newspapers reported a review of several studies on tea consumption and its effects that found drinking more than three cups of tea a day cuts the risk of heart attack due to the natural plant antioxidants, polyphenols, in tea. The researcher also found that adding milk to tea made no difference to the effect of tea. The study was funded by the Tea Advisory Panel and the Tea Council.

Although the evidence indicates a positive role for tea in human health, critics say that there are many risk factors that contribute to the development of heart disease, people should not rely on drinking tea for protection from heart attacks.

Source: "Black tea and health." Nutrition Bulletin 2008; 33 91-101

Higher heart attack risk in men with vitamin D deficiency

News source reported that researchers at Harvard analyzed medical records and blood samples from 454 men who had a heart attack or disease and compared them to 900 men who had no history of cardiovascular disease.

They found that men with a vitamin D deficiency (15 nanograms or less per ml of blood) had a higher risk of heart attack than those with a sufficient amount of vitamin D (30 nanograms per ml of blood or more). They concluded "the results further support an important role for vitamin D in myocardial infarction risk"

Source :"25-Hydroxyvitamin D and Risk of Myocardial Infarction in Men - A Prospective Study"
Archieve of Internal Medicine. 2008;168(11):1174-1180.

Red yeast rice extract may be good for the heart

Newspapers reported that a large randomised placebo-controlled trial of 5000 patients showed that the extract of Chinese red yeast rice, XZK, that gives Peking duck its red colour, reduces bad cholesterol that subsequently lowers cardiovascular events in Chinese people who have already experienced a heart attack.

Critics say that although the study provides good evidence of the beneficial effect of the extract, the finding is not surprising because one of the cholesterol-lowering drugs, lovastatin, was originally extracted from yeast rice. They also say that people who are concerned about their risk of heart attack or their cholesterol levels should talk to their GP, who may prescribe them a statin.

Source: "Effect of Xuezhikang, an Extract From Red Yeast Chinese Rice, on Coronary Events in a Chinese Population With Previous Myocardial Infarction." American J of Cardiology 2008; Apr 11 [Epub ahead of print]