Gender: Female
Women’s mortality rates for cardiovascular disease differ widely among hospitals
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Women treated for cardiovascular disease at the nation’s best- performing hospitals have a 39 percent lower risk-adjusted mortality rate when compared with women at the nation’s poorest-performing hospitals, according to the fourth annual HealthGrades Women’s Health Outcomes in U.S. Hospitals study, released today.
The study also found that, for women, the largest quality gaps between the best-performing and poorest-performing hospitals were in heart failure and interventional cardiology procedures. Compared to poorly performing hospitals, the best-performing hospitals had a 46 percent lower risk-adjusted mortality for heart failure and a 44 percent lower risk-adjusted mortality for interventional cardiology procedures.
Women Aged 50-59 Taking Oral Estrogen Therapy Had Reduced Levels of Coronary Artery Calcification
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Newswise — Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, a division of Wyeth (NYSE:WYE), provides comment on the Women’s Health Initiative (WHI) Coronary Artery Calcium Study published today in The New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM). The study found that younger menopausal women (aged 50-59) who received a standard dose of oral conjugated estrogens had significantly less coronary artery calcification at the end of the study period compared with those taking placebo. Coronary artery calcification is a marker of plaque in the arteries and a predictor of future cardiovascular events.
“In the five years since the WHI study ended, new data have emerged that help put the initial findings into perspective. These results showed that in these younger menopausal women, estrogen therapy reduced calcified plaque buildup in the arteries,” says Howard Hodis, M.D., Professor of Medicine and Preventive Medicine; Director, Artherosclerosis Research Unit, University of Southern California. “These data support initiation of estrogen therapy, where indicated when a woman first enters menopause and begins experiencing symptoms and bone loss.”
For women, getting drunk boosts heart attack risk
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A new study provides yet more evidence that when it comes to alcohol and health, moderation is key.
While women who drank were at lower risk of having a non-fatal heart attack than their peers who abstained from alcohol, getting drunk once a month or more sharply increased their risk, Dr. Joan M. Dorn of the University at Buffalo, New York and colleagues found.
Antidepressant Use May Boost Fracture Risk
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Evidence is accumulating that depression is a risk factor for osteoporosis, reports the June 2007 issue of Harvard Women’s Health Watch. A recent study found that people ages 50 and over who regularly took antidepressants called selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) had double the rate of fractures as people not using such medications. Other research points to depression itself as a source of endocrine changes that can damage bone.
Whether the danger comes from depression, the drugs used to treat it, or something else, doctors are paying more attention to this association. During the 1990s, depression began to emerge as a possible cause of bone loss, rather than a result.
Coffee consumption may lower blood uric acid levels—the precursor of gout
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High uric acid levels in the blood are a precursor of gout, the most common inflammatory arthritis in adult men. It is believed that coffee and tea consumption may affect uric acid levels but only one study has been conducted to date. A new large-scale study published in the June 2007 issue of Arthritis Care & Research examined the relationship between coffee, tea, caffeine intake, and uric acid levels and found that coffee consumption is associated with lower uric acid levels but that this appears to be due to components other than caffeine.
Coffee is one of the most widely consumed beverages in the world; more than 50 percent of Americans drink it at the average rate of 2 cups per day. Because of this widespread consumption, its potential effects have important implications for public and individual health.
Most Women Check Medication Labels for Sex Differences, Few Discuss it with Care Providers
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A majority of American women always or frequently read the labels of their prescribed or over the counter medications to see if they might work differently in women, but few discuss this issue with their doctor or pharmacist, according to a new survey released today by the Society for Women’s Health Research, a Washington, D.C., based advocacy organization.
“Women are increasingly aware that medications can work differently or cause more side effects depending on whether you are a man or woman, but few women talk to their health care providers about this important issue,” said Phyllis Greenberger, MSW, president and CEO of the Society, which released the survey during National Women’s Health Week on Sex Differences in Health Awareness Day.
Plan to urge breast feeding scrapped in Japan
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Plans to urge Japanese mothers to breast-feed and sing lullabies to their babies and for families to turn off the TV during meals have been scrapped, Kyodo news agency reported.
Mothers were urged to look into their baby’s eyes while breast-feeding in a draft of a report by a government panel that was due out this week. It had also warned that the Internet and mobile phones give children a “direct connection with the evils of the world.”
Mammography rates declining in the United States
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Since 2000 mammography rates have declined significantly in the United States, according to a new study. Published in the June 15, 2007 issue of CANCER, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society, the study by Dr. Nancy Breen from the National Cancer Institute and co-authors confirms that screening mammography rates to detect breast cancer fell by as much as four percent nationwide between 2000 and 2005. This is the first study to show that the trend is nationwide among women for whom the test is intended to reduce mortality risk.
Regular mammography is the most efficacious screening test for the early detection of breast cancer available to women today.
Planned weight loss won’t weaken older women
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Obese, postmenopausal age women who decide to trim down don’t need to worry that they will put themselves in danger of disability by doing so, even if they don’t exercise as recommended, a new study shows.
After losing a substantial amount of weight through diet, but without exercising, 23 obese women in their 50s showed no reduction in muscle strength or fitness, even though they had lost muscle mass, Dr. Jamehl Demons of the Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center, Winston-Salem, North Carolina.
Aspirin doesn’t preserve older women’s memory
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Among healthy older women, low-dose aspirin does little to prevent or delay mental decline over the following decade, according to analysis of data from the Women’s Health Study.
“Because aspirin protects cardiovascular health, we thought it would also protect against cognitive decline,” Dr. Jae Hee Kang from Boston’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital told Reuters Health. But trials to establish this association have yielded inconsistent results.
Women undergoing HRT face increased risk of getting cancer
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It was once described as the last frontier in the emancipation of women, a pill that would ease the transition through the menopause and allow those who took it to slip into a contented middle age. Now the world’s largest study of hormone replacement therapy (HRT) has shown that it may have caused 1,000 deaths from ovarian cancer between 1991 and 2005.
The new finding strengthens the evidence that HRT poses a serious danger to women. Previous results from the same study have shown that the risk of breast cancer and endometrial cancer (of the lining of the womb) is also increased by the treatment.
Mammograms for women in their 40s should be based on individual
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Should all women in their 40s be routinely screened for breast cancer? Not necessarily, according to the American College of Physicians. In a new set of guidelines for clinicians of 40-something patients, the group recommends that mammography screening decisions be made on a case-by-case basis. It advises clinicians to discuss the benefits and harms of screening with the patient, as well as each woman’s individual cancer risk and preference about screening.
The organization based its recommendations, which will be published in the April 3 issue of Annals of Internal Medicine, on a rigorous review of evidence showing there is variation in the benefits and harms associated with mammography among women in their 40s. The American College of Physicians is the leading professional organization for internal medicine specialists, with a membership of 120,000.
Rare Double Transplant Saves 23-Year-Old Woman
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A new heart, a new liver, a new life. These are the poignant words Robert Jaunsen penned in an email sent to family and friends announcing that his daughter, Kelli, 23, would finally be heading home after a double organ transplant at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center—quite literally, her last hope. After nearly seven weeks of hospitalization, Kelli was discharged Wednesday, to begin a new chapter in a life nearly cut short.
In a 16-hour procedure that spanned Feb. 1-2, two organ transplant teams performed Cedars-Sinai’s second heart/liver transplant—the fifth in the Western U.S. Though many of the nation’s top transplant centers had been contacted by Kelli’s family, only Cedars-Sinai was willing to take on such a complex case with so many inherent risks.
Treating low iron boosts women’s mental abilities
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Iron deficiency, even to a moderate degree, can hinder women’s memory and learning—but iron supplements can turn those problems around, a study has found.
Iron is essential for delivering oxygen to cells throughout the body, and iron deficiency is known to impair brain development and learning in babies and children. But women of childbearing age are also at elevated risk of low iron stores, and less is known about the possible cognitive effects in them.
Could Viagra cure chronic pelvic pain?
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The impotence drug Viagra could help men suffering from pelvic pain. As many as one in ten men in the UK have pelvic pain syndrome, with symptoms including lower back and groin pain, and bladder problems.
A trial has been looking at the use of the drug - originally developed to help angina patients, but now widely used to treat impotence - to see if it can help to open the constricted blood vessels that may be the source of the discomfort.
