Aspirin disappoints for avoiding first heart attack, stroke

Taking a low-dose aspirin every day has long been known to cut the chances of another heart attack, stroke or other heart problem in people who already have had one, but the risks don’t outweigh the benefits for most other folks, major new research finds.

Although it’s been used for more than a century, aspirin’s value in many situations is still unclear. The latest studies are some of the largest and longest to test this pennies-a-day blood thinner in people who don’t yet have heart disease or a blood vessel-related problem.


One found that aspirin did not help prevent first strokes or heart attacks in people at moderate risk for one because they had several health threats such as smoking, high blood pressure or high cholesterol.

Another tested aspirin in people with diabetes, who are more likely to develop or die from heart problems, and found that the modest benefit it gave was offset by a greater risk of serious bleeding.

Aspirin did not help prevent cancer as had been hoped.


And fish oil supplements, also tested in the study of people with diabetes, failed to help.

“There’s been a lot of uncertainty among doctors around the world about prescribing aspirin” beyond those for whom it’s now recommended, said one study leader, Dr. Jane Armitage of the University of Oxford in England. “If you’re healthy, it’s probably not worth taking it.”

The research was discussed Sunday at the European Society of Cardiology meeting in Munich. The aspirin studies used 100 milligrams a day, more than the 81-milligram pills commonly sold in the United States but still considered low dose. Adult strength is 325 milligrams.

WHO’S REALLY AT RISK?

A Boston-led study gave aspirin or dummy pills to 12,546 people who were thought to have a moderate risk of suffering a heart attack or stroke within a decade because of other health issues.

After five years, 4 percent of each group had suffered a heart problem — far fewer than expected, suggesting these people were actually at low risk, not moderate. Other medicines they were taking to lower blood pressure and cholesterol may have cut their heart risk so much that aspirin had little chance of helping more, said the study leader, Dr. J. Michael Gaziano of Brigham and Women’s Hospital.


One percent of aspirin takers had stomach or intestinal bleeding, mostly mild— twice as many as those on dummy pills. Aspirin users also had more nosebleeds, indigestion, reflux or belly pain.

Bayer sponsored the study, and many researchers consult for the aspirin maker. Results were published by the journal Lancet.

ASPIRIN FOR PEOPLE WITH DIABETES?

People with diabetes have a higher risk of heart problems and strokes from a blood clot, but also a higher risk of bleeding. Guidelines vary on which of them should consider aspirin.

Oxford researchers randomly assigned 15,480 adults with Type 1 or 2 diabetes but otherwise in good health and with no history of heart problems to take either aspirin, 1 gram of fish oil, both substances, or dummy pills every day.


After seven and a half years, there were fewer heart problems among aspirin users but more cases of serious bleeding, so they largely traded one risk for another.

FISH OIL RESULTS

The same study also tested omega-3 fatty acids, the good oils found in salmon, tuna and other fish. Supplement takers fared no better than those given dummy capsules — 9 percent of each group suffered a heart problem.

“We feel very confident that there doesn’t seem to be a role for fish oil supplements for preventing heart disease,” said study leader Dr. Louise Bowman of the University of Oxford.

The British Heart Foundation was the study’s main sponsor.  Bayer and Mylan provided aspirin and fish oil, respectively. Results were published by the New England Journal of Medicine.

Other studies are testing different amounts and prescription versions of fish oil, “but I can’t tell people go spend your money on it; we think it’s probably better to eat fish,” said Dr. Holly Andersen, a heart disease prevention specialist at New York-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell who was not involved in the study.

The new research doesn’t alter guidelines on aspirin or fish oil, said Dr. Nieca Goldberg, a cardiologist at NYU Langone Medical Center and an American Heart Association spokeswoman. They recommend fish oil only for certain heart failure patients and say it’s reasonable to consider for people who have already suffered a heart attack. /cbb

source: technology.inquirer.net

Publicist: Actor Alan Thicke dies at age 69

A publicist says Alan Thicke, who played the likable father on the sitcom “Growing Pains,” has died at age 69.

Carleen Donovan, who is a publicist for Thicke’s son, singer Robin Thicke, says the actor died from a heart attack on Tuesday in Los Angeles. She had no further details.

Alan Thicke starred as Dr. Jason Seaver in the ABC series “Growing Pains,” which aired from 1985 until 1992. The Canadian-born actor had a prolific career, including cameos in recent years on the comedy “How I Met Your Mother” and the Netflix series “Fuller House.” He was also a frequent pitchman for ads on Sirius.

Thicke’s “Growing Pains” role is among the most beloved television dads of all time. He played a psychiatrist raising his children along with his wife, played by Joanna Kerns. Seaver’s oldest son, Mike, played by Kirk Cameron, was a constant source of trouble for the family.

Thicke was born in Ontario, Canada, in 1947 and was a popular Canadian talk show host before making his name in the United States. He was nominated for three Emmy Awards for his work in the late 1970s as a writer for Barry Manilow’s talk show, and later for a satirical take on the genre in the variety show “America 2-Night.”

He was also the composer of several popular theme songs, including the original theme to “The Wheel of Fortune,” and shows such as “The Facts of Life” and “Diff’rent Strokes.” TVJ

source: entertainment.inquirer.net

WATCH: Texas prisoners save jail guard from heart attack

When facing a threatening life-and-death situation, sometimes help comes from the people you least expect.

Eight inmates of the Parker County jail in Weatherford, Texas, broke away from their holding cell to help save the life of a guard suffering from a suspected heart attack.

As seen in a CCTV footage, the prisoners immediately rushed toward the fallen guard’s aide, despite having their wrists locked in handcuffs.

One of the men attempted to radio for help when they realized he was not breathing, while the others shouted and banged on doors to try and get the attention of officers upstairs.

“He just fell over. Looked like an act,” one of the rescuers, Nick Kelton, said, according to a Telegraph report.  “[He] could have died right there. We were worried they [were] going to come with guns drawn on us.”

The good samaritan added,  “I watched him die twice. It never crossed my mind not to help whether he’s got a gun or a badge. If he falls down, I’m gonna help him. He’s a good man.”

Another inmate, Floyd Smith, said they feared the police, who might think they were trying to cause a ruckus and escape.

“They thought it was a fight. They thought we were taking over,” he said.

Captain Mark Arnett of the Parker County Sheriff’s Office, meanwhile, praised the inmates’ heroism, which saved the prison guard’s life.

“They grabbed his radio and tried to radio for help,” Arnett narrated in the report.“He was just talking to them, and he just kind of collapsed. As soon as the jailer went down, they started to yell.”

According to the report, the watchman had been joking with the inmates—who were locked in a small room in the basement of the District Courts Building—when he suddenly slumped over.

“All the inmates, they’re in handcuffs. We just stick them in there so they’re not wandering around and so they don’t grab somebody’s gun,” Arnett said. “They definitely saved his life. There’s no doubt about it.”

After being alerted, deputies performed CPR and used a defibrillator to shock his heart.

The guard, who was not identified, regained a pulse after receiving medical aid from the deputies and additional care from paramedics.

As expected, the entire Parker County jail expressed gratitude for the inmates’ valiant efforts.  Khristian Ibarrola

source: newsinfo.inquirer.net

Fixing depression, boosting vitamin D aid the heart — studies

MIAMI, United States — Taking steps to recover from depression and boost vitamin D levels may improve heart health, according to new research out Saturday.

The findings were contained in two studies presented at the American College of Cardiology conference in Chicago.

The first focused on depression, a known risk factor for heart attack, stroke and even death.

Researchers at the Intermountain Medical Center Heart Institute in Salt Lake City studied a registry of more than 7,500 people, and found when depressed patients get effective treatment, they can lower their risk of heart damage to the same level as a person who never suffered from depression.

“Our study shows that prompt, effective treatment of depression appears to improve the risk of poor heart health,” said Heidi May, a cardiovascular epidemiologist with the Intermountain Medical Center Heart Institute.

However, those who remained depressed had higher rates of heart problems — at a rate of about six percent, compared to around four percent of people without depression.

“The key conclusion of our study is: If depression isn’t treated, the risk of cardiovascular complications increases significantly,” May said.

A second study, also led by May, focused on two measures of vitamin D, which when too low can predict the likelihood of heart attack, stroke, heart failure or death.

Some 4,200 people aged 52 to 76 were studied. Most already had coronary artery disease (70 percent) and one quarter were diabetic.

For doctors who treat these patients, the most important measures of vitamin D are known as total vitamin D and bioavailable vitamin D, since both were “the most accurate in predicting harmful cardiovascular events,” said the findings.

“Our study found that low levels of both total vitamin D and bioavailable vitamin D appear to be associated with poor cardiovascular outcomes,” said May.

“And evaluating usable vitamin D could mean the difference on the amount of vitamin D prescribed, if it’s prescribed at all.”

May added that more research was needed to examine Caucasian and African-American patients, since these groups are known to be affected differently by vitamin D.

source: technology.inquirer.net

Garry Shandling, comic, ‘Larry Sanders Show’ creator, dies

LOS ANGELES — Garry Shandling, who as an actor and comedian masterminded a brand of self-inflicted phony docudrama with “The Larry Sanders Show,” has died of an apparent heart attack.

Shandling’s spokesman Alan Nierob said doctors at a hospital where the comedian was pronounced dead said it appeared he died of a heart attack. Nierob said Shandling had no history of heart trouble.

Coroner’s Lt. David Smith said it appeared Shandling died of natural causes, but an official cause of death determination had not yet been made. Smith said no autopsy was planned, but officials would determine Shandling’s cause of death based on medical records and his medical history.

Shandling was taken to a hospital after paramedics were dispatched to his Brentwood home around 10:40 a.m. Thursday, police and fire officials said.

His death stunned the comedy community, who praised Shandling’s humor, kindness and efforts to support and promote them and their craft.

An innovative and eccentric humorist with pillowy lips and a voice that always seemed on the verge of a whine, Shandling claimed to disdain too much logic cluttering his life.

“The answer isn’t gonna be in the facts,” he told The Associated Press in 2009. “It’s gonna be in intuition. That’s how I work creatively. I’m always teaching people that the answer to that creative question is right here, in the room, between us here.”

More to the point, it was dealing with the questions he confronted in himself.

Born on Nov. 29, 1949 in Chicago, Shandling was raised in Tucson, Arizona. On arriving in Los Angeles as a young adult, it was a short hop from a brief stint in the advertising business to comedy writing and stand-up.

Then in the 1980s, he began to experiment with TV comedy, and to toy with the sitcom form, with his first series, “It’s Garry Shandling’s Show,” a Showtime project that made no bones about its inherently artificial nature: The actors in this otherwise standard domestic comedy routinely broke the fourth wall to comment on what they were up to. Even the theme song began with the explanatory lyrics, “The theme to Garry’s show….”

Then, in August 1992, Shandling created for HBO his comic masterpiece with “The Larry Sanders Show,” which starred him as an egomaniacal late-night TV host with an angst-ridden show-biz life behind the scenes.

It was just three months after Johnny Carson had retired from “The Tonight Show,” whereShandling had appeared as a stand-up and occasional Carson stand-in. It seemed a wry but deeply felt homage to the King of Late Night.

But it was more. “Larry Sanders” proved to be an act of courage, a brave effort led by someone portraying a character dangerously close to himself. As Larry, Garry dug deep to confront his own demons, and did it brilliantly as the series teetered between dual realities: public and private; make-believe and painfully true.

Real-life celebrities appeared as guests on Larry’s show-within-the-show, and also interacted with him “off the air.”

David Duchovny, agreeing to come on the show, also came on to Larry romantically once he got the chance.

Jim Carrey delivered a rip-roaring comic tribute to his host on the final broadcast, then, during a commercial break, turned on him in rage over a long-ago slight.

“Are you doing a bit, now?” asked Larry, perplexed.

“We’re OFF the air,” Carrey hissed. “This is real life now.”

The show explored the fuzzy distinction between TV life and real life, and the loneliness of someone at its crossing. The closest thing Larry had to friends were his chronically needy announcer Hank (Jeffrey Tambor) and his Napoleonic producer, Artie (Rip Torn). Together the three actors were among TV’s best-ever trios.

“Garry was my dear friend and was and always will be my teacher,” Tambor wrote in a statement. “Garry redesigned the wheel of comedy and he was the kindest and funniest of Geniuses. I will miss him so much.”

Torn also expressed deep sadness about Shandling’s death. “Working with him was one of the great privileges of my career,” he wrote. “He was a comic talent of immense originality who enthusiastically encouraged and responded to the originality of others.”

After “Sanders” ended in 1998, Shandling’s public appearances were few.

He was mentioned as a candidate to follow David Letterman as a bona fide late-night host for CBS’ 12:30 a.m. slot, but no deal was made.

“I would not do a show where you just sit and talk to somebody,” Shandling had said back in 1993 when he was courted by NBC to take over for Letterman on “Late Night.”

His films included “Hurlyburly” in 1998, “What Planet Are You From?” in 2000 and “Zoolander” in 2001.

He hosted the Emmy Awards in 2000 and 2004.

On the latter occasion, he spotted Donald Trump in the audience and congratulated the billionaire developer for hosting the Emmy-nominated “The Apprentice.”

“Nice to see a man who’s paid his dues, worked hard,” Shandling said. “We all know what it feels like to have to build 80-story condos and gambling casinos just to get our foot in the door in show business.”

Jamie Masada, owner of comedy club the Laugh Factory, said he met with Shandling a few weeks ago and the comedian didn’t appear to have any health problems.

“He looked healthy as could be,” Masada said.

“Garry Shandling, besides being a comedian, I always said he was a doctor of soul. He had a lot of kindness in him. He was a very generous person,” Masada said.

In his own business dealings, Shandling became one of the rich and famous targeted by private eye Anthony Pellicano, who was sentenced to prison in 2008 on convictions of racketeering and more than six dozen other counts, including conspiracy, wire fraud and wiretapping in the Hollywood wiretaps case.

Pellicano was accused of wiretapping stars such as Sylvester Stallone and bribing police officers to run names of people, including Shandling, through law enforcement databases.

While Shandling never married, his most public romance was with “Sanders” co-star and fiancee Linda Doucett, who played Hank’s comely assistant in the series’ early seasons.

Doucett sued Shandling after he fired her following their breakup in the mid-1990s, receiving a reported $1 million settlement, The New York Times reported in 2006.

The news of Shandling’s death brought an outpouring of reactions from performers who spoke of his impact.

“Garry was a guiding voice of comedy,” said actor-comedian Bob Odenkirk. “He set the standard and we’re all still trying to meet it.”

source: entertainment.inquirer.net

Women and African Americans lose more years of life after heart attack

Heart attacks seem to have a bigger effect on life expectancy for women and African Americans than for white men, a new study shows.

Women and men live equally long after heart attack—but because women in general tend to live longer than men, the women should be living longer after a heart attack, too, according to lead author Dr. Emily M. Bucholz of the Yale School of Medicine and Yale School of Public Health in New Haven, Connecticut.

Much of the differences between blacks and whites in the study could be due to differences in the way the disease first appears, and the treatments used, “but for women that was not the case,” Bucholz said.

“The thing that’s completely different from prior studies is (those studies) have not factored in what is the mean life expectancy for women in the general population,” Bucholz told Reuters Health by phone.

Every year about 735,000 Americans have a heart attack, and 15 percent die from it, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

For the new study, researchers used data on more than 140,000 Medicare beneficiaries hospitalized for a heart attack between 1994 and 1995. Almost half were women. Less than 10 percent were black. The average age was 76.

White men and women hospitalized for heart attack at age 70 lived an average of about nine years afterward, compared to about seven years for black men and women hospitalized at the same age, the authors reported in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

Men lost about 3.5 years of potential life, whereas women lost 5.5 years. Whites lost an average of 4.5 years of life, and blacks lost about 5.5 years.

Black patients tended to have more severe heart attacks and more heart failure afterward. They also had more diabetes to start with, indicating that they were a sicker population than the white patients, Bucholz said.

Not only did blacks have more cardiac risk factors at the time of the heart attack, but they “also were less likely to get acute treatments,” like clot-busting drugs or cardiac procedures like angioplasty, said Dr. Jack V. Tu of Sunnybrook Health Sciences Center in Toronto.

Whether this is because black patients visit hospitals that provide poorer care, or they get a lower standard of care in hospitals that also treat white patients, is still unclear, Bucholz said.

This explains some of the racial disparity, she said.

Both women and blacks are less likely to receive certain types of cardiac care, but these gaps may be narrowing over time, Tu told Reuters Health by email. He wrote an editorial comment published with the new results.

“It’s not that every patient loses three years of life or one year of life, some live for 30 days, some live for years and years,” since heart attack severity is on a continuum, Bucholz said.

There is not much individuals can do to address these gender and race disparities, but overall national policy can address them, Bucholz said.

“This study reiterates that these disparities still exist, and we can do better,” she said. —Reuters

Heart attacks often misdiagnosed as anxiety in women: study

OTTAWA - Women are more likely to die of heart attacks because their symptoms are often misdiagnosed as anxiety so they do not get vital swift treatment, said a study Monday.

Researchers at McGill University in Montreal set out to understand sex differences in mortality rates for men and women with acute coronary syndrome.

They asked 1,123 patients aged 18 to 55 to fill out a survey after being admitted to one of 24 hospitals in Canada, one in the United States and one in Switzerland.

The women in the study, the researchers found, generally came from lower income brackets, were more likely to have diabetes, high blood pressure and a family history of heart disease.

They also had substantially higher levels of anxiety and depression than the men.

The researchers noted that the men received faster access to electrocardiograms (ECGs) to check heart rhythms and fibrinolysis to prevent blood clots than the women.

Early treatment for a heart attack can prevent or limit damage to the heart muscle, while saving the person's life.

On average it took 15 minutes and 28 minutes, respectively, for men to be given ECGs or fibrinolysis from the time they arrived at an emergency room.

In contrast, it took 21 minutes and 36 minutes for women.

The researchers pointed to the women's higher levels of anxiety as the primary reason for the discrepancy.

"Patients with anxiety who present to the emergency department with non-cardiac chest pain tend to be women, and the prevalence of acute coronary syndrome is lower among young women than among young men," said lead researcher Louise Pilote.

"These findings suggest that triage personnel might initially dismiss a cardiac event among young women with anxiety, which would result in a longer door-to-ECG interval."

The findings were published in the current issue of the Canadian Medical Association Journal. — Agence France-Presse

source: gmanetwork.com

‘Jeopardy!’ host Alex Trebek suffers mild heart attack

LOS ANGELES – US television game show host Alex Trebek is recovering from a mild heart attack he suffered on Saturday, but is expected to recover in time to begin filming the next season of “Jeopardy!” in July, his studio said on Sunday.

Trebek, 71, was admitted into Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles on Saturday, Sony Television said in a statement.

“Trebek is in good spirits and is currently under observation and undergoing further testing,” the statement said.

“Jeopardy!,” a general knowledge quiz, is one of the longest-running game shows on U.S. television, entering its 29th season in July. Trebek was hospitalized for an earlier heart attack in 2007.

source: interaksyon.com