Category: HeartDisease

MEwens
Lipitor Benefit Changes: Pharmacy-benefit manager Express Scripts will move brand-name Lipitor to the third tier of its national drug formulary from the second tier as of Feb. 1, increasing co-pays for some patients and emphasizing Pfizer’s challenge of holding on to sales of the drug, the WSJ reports. The generic versions of Lipitor […]

MEwens
If you were a smoker, would seeing an image of plaque building up in your neck artery help you quit?
That was the central question posed by a study of 536 smokers recently published online by the Archives of Internal Medicine. Researchers wanted to know whether using ultrasound images of the carotid artery could […]

MEwens
Heart patients may be nervous or anxious about having sex, but most of them can do so safely — and they shouldn’t be afraid to bring up the topic with their doctor.
So says the American Heart Association in its first scientific statement on sexual activity and cardiovascular disease, published online by Circulation.
“It’s reasonably […]

MEwens
The Health Blog’s chief safety worry about running has always been evading the cellphone-wielding drivers making right turns with no regard to who might be in the crosswalk.
But anecdotal reports of deaths during marathons and half-marathons over the past few years have raised public concern over whether running — or at least racing […]

Louise Radnofsky
$1,000 Genome in Sight?: Life Technologies will announce today a machine that — by the end of the year, the company says — will be able to map an individual’s complete genome for $1,000, and within a day, the WSJ reports. Right now the genome can be mapped for about $3,000 over […]

MEwens
One of the saddest times in someone’s life also appears be a period of increased vulnerability to a heart attack, new research shows.
A study of 1,985 adult heart attack survivors finds that heart-attack risk rises to 21 times higher than normal within the very first day after a loved one has died.
That sharp […]

MEwens
Weight-Loss Research: Want to lose body fat? A study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association suggests that focusing on calories — not the balance of protein, fat and carbohydrate — is the key, the WSJ reports. Those on a low-protein diet did gain less weight than those on regimens with […]

MEwens
Double Duty?: Research published in the journal Cancer finds that among a group of middle-aged men, statin use was associated with a lower risk of dying from prostate cancer, Reuters Health reports. The study, which covered 760 men, most of them white, can’t prove that statin use caused the lower risk of death, […]

MEwens
New Yorkers are living longer than ever — babies born in the city in 2009 can expect to live to 80.6, higher than the national average of 78.2 years, the WSJ reports today. But why?
Some city officials are pointing to the city’s anti-tobacco efforts — bans on smoking in bars, restaurants, parks and […]

MEwens
Questioning the Use of a Genetic Test: A review of previously published research appearing in the Journal of the American Medical Association suggests that a genetic test for patients taking the anti-clotting drug Plavix doesn’t identify people at greater risk for a heart attack or other cardiac event, the WSJ reports. The FDA, […]