Salon.com > Marilynn Marchione

Study: Fish oil doesn’t help prevent heart attacks

Wed, 08 May 2013 22:00:00 +0000

Eating fish is good for your heart but taking fish oil capsules does not help people at high risk of heart problems who are already taking medicines to prevent them, a large study in Italy found.

The work makes clearer who does and does not benefit from taking supplements of omega-3 fatty acids, the good oils found in fish such as salmon, tuna and sardines.

Previous studies have suggested that fish oil capsules could lower heart risks in people with heart failure or who have already suffered a heart attack. The American Heart Association recommends them only for people who have high levels of fats called triglycerides in their blood, says the group's president, Dr. Donna Arnett of the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

Fish oil capsules failed to prevent flare-ups of atrial fibrillation, a common heart rhythm problem, in a large study in 2010.

The new study was led by the Mario Negri Institute for Pharmacological Research in Milan. It tested 1 gram a day of fish oil versus dummy capsules in 12,513 people throughout Italy. They had not suffered a heart attack but were at high risk of having one because of diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, smoking, obesity or other conditions. Most already were taking cholesterol-lowering statins, aspirin and other medicines to lower their chances of heart problems.

Doctors: All bomb patients likely to survive

Mon, 22 Apr 2013 17:19:00 +0000

BOSTON (AP) — In a rebuttal to the terrorists and a tribute to stellar medical care, all of the more than 180 people injured in the Boston Marathon blasts one week ago who made it to a hospital alive now seem likely to survive.

That includes several people who arrived with legs attached by just a little skin, a 3-year-old boy with a head wound and bleeding on the brain, and a little girl riddled with nails. Even a transit system police officer whose heart had stopped and was close to bleeding to death after a shootout with the suspects now appears headed for recovery.

"All I feel is joy," said Dr. George Velmahos, chief of trauma surgery at Massachusetts General Hospital, referring to his hospital's 31 blast patients. "Whoever came in alive, stayed alive."

Three people did die in the blasts, but at the scene, before hospitals even had a chance to try to save them. A Massachusetts Institute of Technology police officer who police say was fatally shot Thursday by the suspects was pronounced dead when he arrived at Massachusetts General.

The only person to reach a hospital alive and then die was one of the suspected bombers — 26-year-old Tamerlan Tsarnaev.

How to avoid deadly diseases

Wed, 05 Sep 2012 19:46:00 +0000

The "bugs" of late summer are biting. The nation is having its worst West Nile virus season in a decade, and up to 10,000 people who stayed in California cabins are at risk of hantavirus. A second case of bubonic plague in the West has been confirmed — in a girl in Colorado — and scientists fear that a bumper crop of ticks could spread Lyme disease, the nation's most common bug-borne malady.

Yet the risk of getting these scary-sounding diseases is small. With the right precautions, you can still enjoy spending time outdoors. And that helps fight much more common threats to your health — obesity and too little exercise.

HANTAVIRUS

How it's spread: Touching or breathing air particles of urine or droppings from certain types of mice or rats, especially deer mice.

Symptoms: Develop one to six weeks later and can include flulike symptoms that progress into a dry cough, headache, nausea and vomiting, then shortness of breath.

Where it occurs: Anywhere in the U.S.; recent cases were in Yosemite National Park in California.

Prevention: Keep rodents out of your home; carefully clean any nests with disinfectant or bleach and water.

WEST NILE

How it's spread: Mosquitoes

Nation’s first full face transplant performed in Boston

Mon, 21 Mar 2011 18:12:00 +0000

A Texas construction worker badly disfigured in a power line accident two years ago has received the nation's first full face transplant at a Boston hospital.

More than 30 doctors, nurses and other staff at Brigham and Women's Hospital led by plastic surgeon Dr. Bohdan Pomahac performed the 15-hour operation last week on 25-year-old Dallas Wiens of Fort Worth, Texas. He was listed in good condition at the hospital on Monday.

The electrical accident in November 2008 left Wiens (WEENS), blind and without lips, a nose or eyebrows. In Boston, doctors transplanted an entire new face, including a nose, lips, skin and muscles and nerves that animate the skin and give sensation. The donor's identity was not disclosed nor would the hospital say exactly when the surgery was done for privacy reasons.

Wiens will not resemble "either what he used to be or the donor," but something in between, said Pomahac (POE'-ma-hawk). "The tissues are really molded on a new person."

Gabrielle Giffords arrives at Houston hospital for rehabilitation

Fri, 21 Jan 2011 20:30:00 +0000

Rep. Gabrielle Giffords has arrived at a Houston hospital where she'll begin physical therapy after being gravely wounded in an assassination attempt.

Giffords still hasn't spoken since a gunman shot her and 18 other people Jan. 8 as she met with constituents outside a grocery store in Tucson. Six died. All survivors other than Giffords have been released from hospitals.

Giffords will be evaluated at the ICU at Texas Medical Center, then be taken to the rehab hospital in the same complex.

Giffords husband ‘extremely hopeful’ for recovery

Thu, 20 Jan 2011 18:59:00 +0000

Rep. Gabrielle Giffords can stand with assistance, the latest milestone in her recovery as her family prepares to move her to Houston for extensive mental and physical rehabilitation from a bullet wound to the brain.

Her swift transition from an intensive care unit to a rehab center is based on the latest research, which shows the sooner rehab starts, the better patients recover.

Giffords' family hopes to move the Arizona congresswoman on Friday to TIRR Memorial Hermann hospital in Houston, where her husband lives and works as an astronaut.

"I'm extremely hopeful that Gabrielle is going to make a full recovery," Mark Kelly said at a news conference at University Medical Center. "She is a fighter like nobody else that I know."

"In two months, you'll see her walking through the front door of this building," he said.

Giffords' progress was evident Wednesday as she stood on her feet with assistance from medical staff, the hospital said.

During rehabilitation she will have to relearn how to think and plan. It's unclear if she is able to speak or how well she can see. And while she is moving both arms and legs, it's uncertain how much strength she has on her right side. The extent of her injuries and long-term prognosis still won't be known for some time.

School cafeterias to try psychology in lunch line

Tue, 12 Oct 2010 16:40:00 +0000

Federal officials are turning to psychology in a new approach to get kids to choose healthier foods in the school lunch line.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture is giving $2 million to food behavior scientists to use marketing tricks to encourage kids to pick fruits and veggies over cookies and french fries.

Some of the ideas include hiding chocolate milk behind plain milk, putting the salad bar near checkout, placing fruit in pretty baskets and accepting only cash as payment for desserts.

Studies by Cornell University researchers have found these tactics work, and Cornell will start a new child nutrition center to test more of these methods.

Study: Anti-AIDS gel helps prevent infection

Mon, 19 Jul 2010 18:06:00 +0000

Researchers are reporting a breakthrough against AIDS. A vaginal gel containing an AIDS drug cut in half a woman's chances of getting HIV from an infected partner.

The results need to be confirmed, and scientists disagree about whether this amount of protection is enough to justify using the gel now. But it is the first hope of protection for women if their partners refuse to use condoms.

Results of the South African study are being presented at the International AIDS Conference in Vienna and were published online Monday by the journal Science.

"It's the first time we've ever seen any microbicide give a positive result that you could say was statistically significant," said Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

The gel, spiked with the AIDS drug tenofovir, cut the risk of HIV infection by 50 percent after one year of use and 39 percent after 2 1/2 years, compared to a gel that contained no medicine.

In the study, women used the gel only 60 percent of the time; those who used it more often had higher rates of protection, and researchers said this is the key to improving effectiveness, not changing the gel.