Tag: "heart disease"

EPA Experiments on People

Which do you find more shocking: that the Environmental Protection Agency conducts experiments on humans that its own risk assessments would deem potentially lethal, or that it hides the results of those experiments from Congress and the public because they debunk those very same risk assessments?

JunkScience.com recently obtained through the Freedom of Information Act the results of tests conducted on 41 people who were exposed by EPA researchers to high levels of airborne fine particulate matter – soot and dust known as PM2.5.

If we are to believe the congressional testimony of EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson, these experiments risked the lives of these 41 people, at least one of whom was already suffering from heart problems.

Steve Milloy editorial in the Washington Times.

Apr 27, 2012 | 4 comments | by

Fatty Foods and Marijuanalike Chemicals, Rural Life Expectancy, and Other News Items

After the rats ate fatty foods, their bodies immediately began to release natural marijuanalike chemicals in the gut that kept them craving more.

Rural areas have 25% of the people but only 15% of the doctors. Life expectancy is one year shorter.

A chilling discovery: after cardiac arrest the body is quickly cooled after the heartbeat restored, and survived to be discharged from the hospital—92% of them with most or all of their cognitive function intact.

I hope they didn’t spend very much money on this study. Conclusion: Low health literacy is associated with poorer health outcomes and poorer use of health care services. (HT: Morning Consult)

Jul 21, 2011 | 4 comments | by

Making Cigarette Smoking Uncool

Pause to consider the logic here. We decide it is not a good idea to let the government ban this product, or to require a doctor’s prescription to consume it. We think everyone should be allowed to consume it if they choose. But, we also decide it is a good idea to let government to decide if this product can seem “cool.”

Actually, I see a fundamental contradiction in the idea of government regulating “cool.” While we have many social processes which tell us about what others might approve or disapprove, the “cool” process seems inherently decentralized, and not to be mediated by authorities. We the masses are supposed to each decide what we think is “cool,” and we are not supposed to accept declarations by teachers, employers, etc. on the subject. Whatever authorities recommend as a good idea, it can only accidentally be “cool.”

“Cool” just doesn’t seem the sort of thing government can actually regulate.

This is from Robin Hanson. See also Megan McArdle, plus gruesome pictures.

Jun 27, 2011 | 8 comments | by

Good News: Smokers Pay Their Own Way

It is likely that cigarette taxes are near the external cost level at current rates of taxation. If the goal is for tobacco taxes to simply account for the purely external costs of smoking, then that policy goal has roughly been achieved.

Smokers cross subsidize Social Security, as well as Medicare, meaning smokers receive less in benefits paid out, even after accounting for the fact that they pay in slightly less as compared to nonsmokers…. around 13% more 24 year old smokers than 24 year old never smokers will pay into Social Security and Medicare, albeit at slightly reduced rates, but die before they reach the age of typical eligibility for benefits.

[M]ale smokers receive $5,264 less than nonsmokers from Social Security, and $2,763 less in lifetime Medicare benefits than nonsmokers. In Social Security, smokers just get benefits for a shorter period, on average. In Medicare, they get benefits for a shorter period, but are more expensive than average while doing so.

Full Austin Frakt article on the costs of smoking.

Jun 16, 2011 | 7 comments | by

Your Fitness Today Predicts Heart Disease 40 Years from Now

In two separate studies, researchers from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School and the Cooper Institute in Dallas analyzed fitness levels for more than 66,000 people. Over all, the research showed that a person’s fitness level at midlife is a strong predictor of long-term heart health, proving just as reliable as traditional risk factors like cholesterol level or high blood pressure.

Full article on heart health predictions based on fitness levels.

Jun 10, 2011 | 5 comments | by

Squandering Medicare’s Money

Medicare spends a fortune each year on procedures that have no proven benefit and should not be covered. According to Rita F. Redberg, writing in The New York Times, examples abound:

  • Medicare pays for routine screening colonoscopies in patients over 75 even though the United States Preventive Services Task Force … advises against them (and against any colonoscopies for patients over 85). In 2009, Medicare paid doctors more than $100 million for nearly 550,000 screening colonoscopies; around 40 percent were for patients over 75.
  • The task force recommends against screening for prostate cancer in men 75 and older, and screening for cervical cancer in women 65 and older who have had a previous normal Pap smear, but Medicare spent more than $50 million in 2008 on such screenings.
  • Two recent randomized trials found that patients receiving two popular procedures for vertebral fractures, kyphoplasty and vertebroplasty, experienced no more relief than those receiving a sham procedure … Nevertheless, Medicare pays for 100,000 of these procedures a year, at a cost of around $1 billion.
  • Multiple clinical trials have shown that cardiac stents are no more effective than drugs or lifestyle changes in preventing heart attacks or death. Yet one study estimated that Medicare spends $1.6 billion on drug-coated stents … annually.
  • A recent study found that one-fifth of all implantable cardiac defibrillators were placed in patients who, according to clinical guidelines, will not benefit from them. But Medicare pays for them anyway, at a cost of $50,000 to $100,000 per device implantation.

Jun 09, 2011 | 4 comments | by

David Friedman on Salt and Fish Oil

There is a longstanding argument for reducing the amount of salt modern Americans consume, based on evidence that a high salt diet tends to produce high blood pressure. A recent European statistical study, however, reported just the opposite of what that argument suggests — evidence that lower salt intake was correlated with an increased risk of death from heart disease. Similarly, there is evidence that an increased consumption of omega 3 oils reduces the risk of heart attacks. But it has recently been reported that it also increases the risk of the more serious form of prostate cancer.

Friedman argues that we shouldn’t be surprised by these results. We are the product of evolution that has optimized us for our environment and in any optimization equilibrium a change that improves along one dimension is likely to produce a worsening in other dimensions. He then writes:

The fact that some change produces a gain in one measurable dimension that matters to us is very poor evidence that it produces an overall gain. Before altering behavior or diet, one ought to look for evidence of net effects on life expectancy or other reasonably final goals, not merely for desirable effects on one input thereto.

The entire post is worth reading.

May 24, 2011 | 3 comments | by

Salt Wars

A new JAMA study finds a strong correlation: the third of folks who eat the least salt die over three times as often as the third of folks who eat the most salt. Yet other studies almost as big find contrary effects. I find it quite disturbing that such big studies can show such different results; something is very wrong in big diet correlation study land.

Full post by Robin Hanson here.

May 13, 2011 | 5 comments | by

Fight on Fat

How Portland, Maine, took a stand against childhood obesity. It spent $3.7 million to rally schools and other sites in the state. More families adopted 5-2-1-0 a day: At least 5 servings of fruits and vegetables, 2 hours or less of screen time, at least 1 hour of exercise, and 0 sugary drinks. After all that, the childhood overweight-and-obesity rate for southern Maine dipped 1.5 percentage points to 31.3%.

Full article on Maine’s resistance against obesity.

May 06, 2011 | 6 comments | by

Could Bypass Surgery Become a Thing of the Past?

Researchers at the University of Western Ontario, led by Dr. Geoffrey Pickering …  have found a solution: …. successfully regenerating the blood vessels, but doing so in a way that prevents them from “shriveling up.”

The strategy has been successful so far. Employing it in adult mice not only led to blood vessels that have lasted so far for over a year, but the blood vessels themselves are now surrounded with muscle tissue — meaning that the body is able to use those vessels to properly regulate blood flow.

If this or a similar strategy is effective in humans, it could mean fewer heart attacks and could also make bypass surgeries a thing of the past. Moreover, ischemia doesn’t only affect the heart — it can also lead to strokes, when blood flow to the brain is restricted. Ischemia is also a problem for diabetes patients, which can sometimes lead to disability or even amputation when blood flow to the limbs is cut off. This type of treatment may be effective for those situations as well.

Alex Knapp in Forbes.

Apr 21, 2011 | 2 comments | by
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