"I feel like I’m in jail": Hospital alarms torment patients - Tens of thousands of alarms shriek, beep & buzz every day in every U.S. hospital

"I feel like I’m in jail": Hospital alarms torment patients - Tens of thousands of alarms shriek, beep & buzz every day in every U.S. hospital

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https://ift.tt/2rcZCG4 December 04, 2019 at 06:36PM https://ift.tt/1R552o9

"I feel like I’m in jail": Hospital alarms torment patients - Tens of thousands of alarms shriek, beep & buzz every day in every U.S. hospital

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The Ohio abortion bill is a terrifying sign of things to come: This dystopian bill would punish abortion with prison, and even death – and it’s where the United States is heading

The Ohio abortion bill is a terrifying sign of things to come: This dystopian bill would punish abortion with prison, and even death – and it’s where the United States is heading

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https://ift.tt/2r484rh December 04, 2019 at 06:15PM https://ift.tt/1R552o9

The Ohio abortion bill is a terrifying sign of things to come: This dystopian bill would punish abortion with prison, and even death – and it’s where the United States is heading

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Why You Should Start Thinking About Your Cholesterol Earlier

High cholesterol is known to be one of the primary risk factors for heart disease, since it can contribute to plaque buildup in the arteries. But even though the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends regular cholesterol testing starting around age 20, many Americans don’t give cholesterol—or heart disease, for that matter—much thought until later in life.

A new modeling study published in the Lancet gives extra reason not to put off cholesterol screening and treatment. It confirms that high blood levels of “bad” (or non-HDL) cholesterol are associated with a greater risk of developing cardiovascular issues including stroke and heart disease.

The researchers collected data from 38 studies conducted in North America, Europe and Australia, comprising about 400,000 people without cardiovascular disease, a third of whom were younger than 45. At the start of each study, participants’ cholesterol levels were measured, and they answered questions about their medical histories, lifestyle and demographics. During a follow-up period of up to 43 years, almost 55,000 of the study participants developed heart disease or stroke.

The researchers used that information both to find connections between baseline cholesterol levels and later heart issues, and to create a model for predicting a person’s risk of heart problems based on their sex, age and common risk factors, including smoking status, blood pressure, body mass index, diabetes diagnosis and medication regimens.

Based on that model, the authors estimated that a man younger than 45 with non-HDL cholesterol between 145-185 mg/dL—levels below 130 mg/dL are considered healthy—and at least two other heart disease-risk factors has a 29% chance of having a heart problem by age 75. Meanwhile, a man older than 60 with exactly the same characteristics has a 21% probability of having a heart problem by age 75. For women, those numbers were 16% and 12%, respectively.

One explanation, the authors say in a statement, is that younger adults who already have high cholesterol can expect damage to accumulate over a longer period of time, whereas older adults may have developed the issue later on, and so have had less time for the progression to reach critical levels.

It’s also possible that older adults who met the study’s initial criteria of not having cardiovascular disease were in better health than their peers overall.

While any modeling estimate leaves room for error, the study emphasizes the importance of lowering high cholesterol early and, ideally, preventing it in the first place. The study authors estimate that a man younger than 45 who halves his non-HDL cholesterol levels could slash his chance of later heart problems from 29% to 6%, while a younger woman’s probability could drop from 16% to 4%.

Doctors can prescribe medications—often statins—to lower cholesterol, but lifestyle choices can also make a big difference. Diet is among the most important interventions. There’s some debate about whether foods that contain dietary cholesterol, such as eggs, actually raise blood cholesterol; U.S. federal dietary guidelines no longer explicitly cap daily cholesterol intake. But they do still recommend limiting high-cholesterol foods, such as fatty meats and high-fat dairy, for a variety of health reasons.

Instead, people should eat plenty of produce, whole grains and healthy fats, like those from fish and avocados. Exercising regularly, relieving stress, getting plenty of sleep and avoiding smoking can also help keep cholesterol in check.

India asks states to halt online drug sales

India asks states to halt online drug sales
Reuters: Health
India's drugs regulator has asked all states to enforce a court directive prohibiting online medicine sales, a senior government official said on Wednesday, raising industry concerns it could disrupt some online businesses.

Permanent Hair Dyes and Chemical Straighteners May Be Linked to Breast Cancer, Study Says

Two common beauty products—permanent hair dyes and chemical straighteners—may be associated with an elevated risk for breast cancer, according to a new study published in the International Journal of Cancer.

Hair dyes have been linked to other cancers before, though the research is inconclusive. Bladder and blood cancers have been examined most closely, according to the American Cancer Society, with the most consistent results pointing to a small increase in bladder cancer risk for salon employees. Meanwhile, most studies to date looking specifically at dye and breast cancer have not found a connection.

The picture is similarly unclear for hair straighteners. While a major study using data from the mid-1990s did not find a link between straighteners and breast cancer, other, more recent studies have—and the researchers behind the new paper note that some straightening formulas popularized since the 1990s, namely keratin treatments, have been found to either contain the carcinogen formaldehyde, or release it during the application process.

The new study, which was funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, tracked 46,700 U.S. women enrolled in the Sister Study, which recruited breast-cancer-free women whose sisters had been diagnosed with the disease. At enrollment, the women ranged in age from 35 to 74. They answered questions about their health, lifestyle (including hair product use) and demographics at the beginning of the study, and provided researchers with updates over a follow-up period of, on average, eight years.

More than half of the women reported use of permanent hair dyes in the year before they joined the study, and about 10% said they had used chemical straighteners. These women, the researchers found, had a greater chance of being among the nearly 2,800 study participants who ended up developing breast cancer—especially if they identified as black.

Overall, using permanent dye was associated with a 9% higher risk of developing breast cancer, compared to non-use. But black women who used permanent dye had a 45% higher risk of breast cancer, compared to non-users, and those who used these products every eight weeks or more often had a 60% higher risk.

Black women were also far more likely to report using chemical straighteners—74% had, compared to 3% of white women—which were associated with an 18% higher risk of breast cancer in the study population as a whole.

Alexandra White, an National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences epidemiologist and one of the study authors, notes that this may be due to differences in the formulations of the dyes and straighteners used by women identifying as black compared to those identifying as white. Her co-author Dale Sandler adds that coarser, thicker hair may also absorb more dye. More research is required to confirm those hypotheses, but Sandler says it’s important for doctors to know about the differences, especially since black women are more likely to die from breast cancer than white women, and since most previous research on the health effects of hair dye have been on white women.

Dr. Nisha Unni, an assistant professor of hematology and oncology at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, calls the finding “striking,” but notes that black women are known to be more likely than white women to develop the subtype of breast cancer that appeared most related to hair dye and straighteners. (The authors did not have the statistical power to fully tease out that relationship.) She also notes that, while the study was generally well-designed, it couldn’t isolate every factor that influences cancer risk. For example, people tend to get cancer as they age—and age-related graying may also boost hair dye use.

Unfortunately, White says there’s no quick fix or specific ingredient to avoid at this point. “Hair dye contains more than 5,000 different compounds…and formulas are constantly changing,” White says. “Some compounds have had more evidence to support their possible carcinogenicity than others.”

For breast cancer, she says some of the strongest evidence points to aromatic amines, colorless chemicals in hair dye that have been shown to bind to DNA in breast tissue, and potentially lead to DNA damage linked to cancer. Temporary and semi-permanent dyes, which were not strongly linked to an elevated breast cancer risk in the study, contain fewer aromatic amines, possibly making them safer than permanent dyes.

Findings aside, the study is a reminder that beauty and self-care products in the U.S. are not well-regulated. The vast majority of cosmetic products and ingredients do not need Food and Drug Administration approval or safety testing before they go to market, and the agency does not have the authority to recall tainted products. (One exception is color additives, which the FDA does regulate. In 2018, it ordered companies to reformulate products that contained lead acetate for this purpose, citing potential health risks.)

While it’s worth being conscious of the risks associated with cosmetics, White says it’s too soon to swear off hair dye. The study tracked a relatively small group of women who actually developed cancer, and the disease is almost never caused by one thing alone. “We know that a lot of different factors influence breast cancer risk,” White says.