Women More Likely To Die After Heart Attack

March 17, 2010

WebMD

By: Charlene Laino

Better heart treatment of women could help close the gender gap in heart deaths. Women would be more likely to survive a heart attack if they were treated more like men, French researchers say.

In a study of more than 3,500 people admitted to the hospital for a heart attack, women were far less likely than men to get angiography to visualize heart artery blockages or angioplasty to open up blocked arteries.

Women were about twice as likely to die within a month of having the heart attack, according to the study, presented at the American College of Cardiology’s annual meeting.

The higher death rate in women “is related to the fact that they don’t get the same treatments as men,” says Maria Rosa Costanzo, MD, an American Heart Association spokeswoman who was not involved with the study.

“If women had the same access to procedures and medication as men, they would derive the same benefit,” says Costanzo, of Midwest Heart Specialists in Naperville, Ill.

Study researcher Francois Schiele, MD, chief cardiologist at the University Hospital of Besancon in France, says that when possible, “women should be treated with all recommended strategies, including invasive ones.”

Closing the Gender Gap

Costanzo tells WebMD that it’s been known for some time that women fare worse after a heart attack than men, but it’s been unclear why. Some studies point to biological differences such as women’s smaller blood vessels that raise the risk of complications during angioplasty, she says.

Also, women tend to be older and have poorer overall health when they have heart attacks, and wait longer to seek medical care than men, research suggests.

But other studies suggest that women are undertreated, Costanzo says.

The new study attempted to level the playing ground by using statistical techniques that took into account women’s and men’s different characteristics and treatments when they had heart attacks.

The researchers analyzed data from a regional registry that included more than 3,500 patients, about a third of whom were women, treated for a heart attack between January 2006 and December 2007.
Women were, on average, nine years older than men, had more health problems, and received fewer effective treatments for heart attack. They were nearly twice as likely to die, both during the initial hospital stay and over the following month.

When the analysis was adjusted to take into account the differences in the women’s ages, blood pressure, kidney function, and other characteristics as well as the treatments they received, there was no difference in death rates, either in the hospital or at 30 days.

“Once they compared apples to apples, it shows women get the same benefit from [procedures to open blocked arteries] and medication as men,” Costanzo says.

Drugmakers GlaxoSmithKline, Novartis, and Sanofi-Aventis helped fund the registry.

Click here for the full report.

A Drink A Day May Keep the Pounds Away

March 10, 2010

ABC News

By Kristina Fiore

Cheers, ladies! Researchers now say light to moderate drinking may keep women from gaining too much weight.

Normal-weight women who drank 5 to 30 grams of alcohol daily gained less weight and had a lower risk of becoming overweight or obese than either teetotalers or those who drank too much, according to a report in the March 8 Archives of Internal Medicine.

How much is that? A 12-ounce light beer contains about 11 grams of alcohol, while 5 ounces of red wine contains 15 to 16 grams and a 1.5 ounce shot of 80-proof whiskey contains about 14 grams of alcohol.

Despite their findings, Dr. Lu Wang of Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston and colleagues cautioned against recommendations for drinking alcohol as a weight control measure.

“Taking into account the potential medical and psychosocial problems related to drinking alcohol,” they wrote, “any recommendation on alcohol use should be made for the individual after carefully evaluating both adverse and beneficial effects of the drinking behavior in broad context.”

Alcohol has a relatively high caloric value and may, in the long run, result in weight gain, some researchers have said. But epidemiological studies haven’t provided consistent evidence of that relationship.

So the researchers conducted an analysis of data from the prospective cohort Women’s Health Study of 19,220 women over age 38 who were disease-free and had a normal body mass index (BMI) at the outset.

They reported their weight and alcohol consumption on a questionnaire at that time, and reported their weight again on eight annual follow-up questionnaires.

The women were followed for an average of 12.9 years. During that time, 41.3 percent of the women became overweight or obese, while 3.8 percent became obese.

Average weight gain was 3.63 kg — about 8 pounds — for those who didn’t drink, compared with 1.55 kg — about 3.5 pounds — for moderate drinkers.

The researchers found an inverse relationship between alcohol consumption and subsequent weight gain. “Weight gain was largest for women who did not consume alcohol and then monotonously decreased with increasing total alcohol intake,” they wrote.

After taking into account many other variables, including nonalcohol caloric intake, physical activity, and other lifestyle factors, the relationship strengthened, with the risk of becoming overweight or obese diminishing as women drank more moderately.

But the risk of weight gain did not decline further once women drank 40 grams of alcohol per day or more.

This is not great news for men, however, the researchers say. That’s because mean and women drink differently: men add alcohol to their daily dietary intake, while female drinkers substitute alcohol for other foods without increasing total calories.

In this study, for instance, women who drank alcohol had lower caloric intake from nonalcohol sources, particularly carbohydrates.

The investigators said there may be gender differences regarding the metabolism of alcohol.

But they cautioned that “complex interrelationships” exist between drinking habits and various lifestyle, clinical, and physiological factors, which may help explain inconsistent findings in studies past.

Click here for the full report.

The Kevin Trudeau Show: 2-9-10

Today, Kevin explains how the mainstream media is out of touch with the real world and why Big Pharma believes it’s ‘not about a cure, it’s about repeat business.’

Sodas with High Fructose Corn Syrup Cause Cancer Not Sugar
The New Definition of Child Abuse
The Most Evil Corporation
McDonalds Closing Hundreds of Locations in Japan
17,000 Harmful Chemicals Kept Secret Under Obscure Law
Chemicals Passed Through Breast Milk May Cause Cancer

Plus, Sharry Edwards, the creator of Human BioAcoustic Vocal Profiling Techniques & Technologies, gives you the inside story behind what your voice can really say about you and your health. Click here for your free personality vocal reading and click here for your free nutritional reading or call them at (740) 698-9119. Remember to mention Kevin Trudeau to get each report FREE!

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Household Chemicals Linked to Reduced Fertility

January 27, 2010

LA Times

By Shari Roan

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France To Criminalize Yelling At Your Wife

January 6, 2010

Telegraph.co.uk

The proposed legislation would punish partners who ‘overstep the mark’ during verbal spats in the home.

The law would apply to husbands and wives, as well as cohabiting couples.

It is expected to cover every kind of slur from repeated rude remarks about a partner’s appearance, false allegations of infidelity and threats of physical violence.

Police are being urged to issue a caution in the first instance of a reported crime, but repeat offenders could face a fine, electronic tagging or jail.

The law, being put forward by the prime minister, Francois Fillon, is aimed at protecting women who are the main victims of abuse in the home.

But men would also have the right to report their wives for verbal abuse.

Mr Fillon said: “It’s an important move forward as the creation of this offence will let us tackle the most insidious situations, the ones that leave no physical scars but which still injure the victims inside.”

But some experts have called the law a gimmick that will be impossible to enforce, and that the government should not be interfere in non-violent domestic squabbles.

Anne Giraud, a psychologist, said: “Squabbling couples will allege all kinds of things about each other, but they won’t necessarily be true.

“The police are likely to be called out more and more when this law comes into force this year, but often it will be a case of one person’s word against the other.

“Psychological violence is a very serious matter, but punishing it through the courts is a very different matter altogether.”

Pierre Bonnet, a sociologist, added: “Next they will be making rudeness a crime, and the police and courts will be overrun with work.”

In 2008, 157 French women and seven French men were killed by their spouses or partners, with hundreds more injured in outbursts of domestic violence. Mr Fillon said the new law had the support of the majority of the government and could come into force within six months.

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The Kevin Trudeau Show: 1-5-10

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Antidepressants May Raise Women’s Stroke Risk

December 15, 2009

WebMD Health News

By Salynn Boyles

Dec. 14, 2009 — Older women who take antidepressants may have a slightly higher risk for stroke and death.

In a new finding from the large study known as the Women’s Health Initiative (WHI), postmenopausal women who took tricyclic or selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) antidepressants had a small increased risk of dying from all causes, compared to women who did not take antidepressants.

SSRI users also had a greater risk for strokes, especially strokes caused by bleeding, but their overall risk was still quite small.

It was not clear if the increase was caused by the medications or by the depression itself.

“Depression is an often serious and debilitating illness, with its own heart risks including heart disease and death,” study researcher Jordan W. Smoller, MD, of Massachusetts General Hospital tells WebMD. “It is difficult to confidently tease apart the contribution of depression and the drugs used to treat it.”

The Women’s Health Initiative (WHI), which began in 1991, followed more than 160,000 postmenopausal women in the U.S. for up to 15 years. The newly published analysis included more than 136,000 WHI participants who were not taking antidepressants at enrollment.

Antidepressants and Stroke

At their first follow-up visit, either one or three years after enrolling in the study, 5,500 women reported taking either tricyclic or SSRI antidepressants.

Compared to women who did not take antidepressants, women who did had no greater risk for heart disease around six years later. But SSRI use was associated with a 32% greater risk of dying from all causes in one analysis and a 45% increased risk for stroke.

Smoller points out that the overall increase in stroke risk among SSRI users was small — less than 2% per year.

“The vast majority of women taking antidepressants did not have one of these bad outcomes,” he says.

He adds that more research is needed to fully understand the impact, if any, of different classes of antidepressants on cardiovascular risk.

It is also not clear if a similar association would be seen in men and younger women.

The researchers note that tricyclic antidepressants have potential to be toxic to the heart. Studies examining SSRIs and the heart have been mixed, with some finding the drugs to be protective against clot-related strokes and others finding them to increase the risk for bleeding.

SSRIs include the drugs Prozac, Paxil, Zoloft, Lexapro, and Celexa.

Some widely prescribed newer antidepressants, including the serotonin norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors (SNRIs) Cymbalta, Pristiq, and Effexor and the unique antidepressant Wellbutrin, entered the market after the study was completed.

Huntsville, Ala., neurologist and American Heart Association spokesman Jeff Harris, MD, says even if antidepressant use is associated with a slight increase in stroke risk, the risks associated with untreated depression are much greater.

“No one should stop taking a needed antidepressant based on the results of this study,” he tells WebMD. “We know that depression is a risk factor for stroke and heart attack, just like high blood pressure and diabetes. And just like these risk factors, it is treatable.”

Harris warns that certain combinations of antidepressants, such as SSRIs and SNRIs, should never be taken together.

“It is important that patients tell all their doctors about the medications they are taking for depression to avoid interactions,” he says. “But I wouldn’t worry about the risk associated with an individual SSRI or tricyclic antidepressant.”

WebMD contacted manufacturers of antidepressants for comment but did not receive replies in time for publication.

Click here for the full report

Loneliness May Increase Risk of Breast Cancer

December 8, 2009

ABC News

By Julie Steenhuysen

CHICAGO (Reuters) – Lonely, stressed-out rats were far more likely to develop breast tumors than rats living in a social group, a finding that suggests loneliness can have a profound effect on health, researchers said on Monday.

They said rats that were separated from a social group shortly after birth had a three times higher risk of developing breast tumors than did rats living in a social group, and the tumors in the isolated rats were more deadly.

“The leading suspect is poorly regulated stress,” Gretchen Hermes, a researcher at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, who led the study, said in a telephone interview.

Hermes said many studies have suggested loneliness has a negative impact on human health.

“The effects are equal to or greater than the effects of cigarette smoking — that includes a significantly shortened life span,” said Hermes, whose study appears in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Stress has been shown to trigger cancer-causing genes in humans. Prior studies by the research team showed that fearful, anxious rats were more prone to tumors and death.

The latest findings suggest the stress of social isolation may be the trigger for ill health.

The study, done in conjunction with Martha McClintock of the University of Chicago, found rats in both groups developed breast tumors but many more and larger tumors were found in the isolated rats.

The team also found the isolated rats produced more of a stress hormone, corticosterone, and they found receptors for stress hormones in breast tissue.

Hermes believes the stress hormones may directly feed breast tumors.

McClintock, who studies the impact of social isolation on breast cancer, said the findings could help explain why many women living in high-crime neighborhoods, and especially black women in these settings, develop breast cancer earlier than other women.

Click here for the full report

The Kevin Trudeau Show: 11-25-09

Today, Kevin gives you the latest headline news you won’t hear in the main stream media!

Big Pharma Scandal
Vaccines Proven Useless
Female Viagra Joke

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Viagra for Women?

November 25, 2009

Breitbart

A drug that failed to fight the blues could be the female answer to the little blue pill Viagra, the lead North American investigator analysing tests of the drug said Tuesday.

Women who took the drug flibanserin when it was being tested as an anti-depressant said it didn’t help them beat the glums, but did give them “an increase in libido that they liked,” John Thorp, one of the investigators analyzing data from three clinical trials of the drug, told AFP.

Lack of desire is the most common sexual problem in women aged 30 to 60, just as erectile dysfunction, for which Viagra is one of a choice of treatments, is the most common sexual disorder among men in the same age bracket, Thorp said.

“Men remain interested but can’t act or perform properly and women lose interest,” said Thorp.

“So where Viagra and other erectile dysfunction medications work in the blood supply, flibanserin works in the brain,” he said.

In the light of the women’s reactions to flibanserin, the German drug company that had first tested the drug as a treatment for depression, Boehringer Ingelheim, several years ago began exploring the possibilities of it being the active ingredient in the female answer to Viagra.

Clinical trials were held in Canada, Europe and the United States to test the drug’s efficacy in raising the level of sexual desire in women.

Nearly 2,000 pre-menopausal women were given flibanserin or a placebo for 24 weeks and asked to report back to researchers or make diary entries on six variables, including the number of satisfactory sexual encounters they had and their level of sexual desire.

The studies found that 100 milligrams a day of flibanserin resulted in “significant improvements” in the two variables.

Flibanserin is currently an investigational drug and is only available to women taking part in clinical trials.

Click here for the full report

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