"Health & Medical News"

Washington — Interim findings released Feb. 13 regarding a large international type 2 diabetes study contradict those released a week earlier showing that patients receiving intensive treatment to lower their blood glucose levels were more likely to die.

Data from the 11,140-patient Action in Diabetes and Vascular Disease: Preterax and Diamicron MR Controlled Evaluation (ADVANCE) trial did not show any evidence of increased deaths among participants who received aggressive treatment to lower their blood glucose levels to an A1c of 6.5% or less, which is below recommendations in some clinical guidelines.

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Washington — The halting on Feb. 6 of an arm of the large type 2 diabetes trial, ACCORD, sent shock waves through the medical community. The lower-the-better conventional wisdom for blood glucose levels was questioned when it was found that those getting the most intensive glucose-lowering treatments were more likely to die.

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Washington — The Jan. 14 announcement of findings from the Enhance trial, which compared patients on the cholesterol-lowering drug Vytorin — a combination of ezetimibe and simvastatin — with a statin alone, sent shockwaves through the medical community. After all, many physicians viewed this as a promising approach in reducing heart disease risk because the drugs it combined work differently to reduce LDL cholesterol.

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The decline of the steel industry and the former U.S. industrial heartland — now known as the Rust Belt — has left behind poverty, unemployment, hopelessness and drug abuse, the Associated Press reported Jan. 16.

In towns like Aliquippa, Pa., violent drug gangs inhabit a landscape dotted with decaying brick factories. In 10 of 14 Rust Belt cities studied, drug arrests have more than doubled in the past 15 to 20 years.

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Researchers from the Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California say that women who have more than two alcoholic drinks daily face twice the risk of endometrial cancer as those who drink moderately or not at all, the New York Times reported Sept. 18.

Endometrial cancer affects the tissue linking the uterus. It kills about 7,400 women in the U.S. annually.

Popularity: 6% [?]