Archive for May, 2007
This month the FDA approved the first birth-control pill designed to stop women’s menstrual periods indefinitely. Lybrel, expected to be on the market by July, is approved for continuous use to prevent pregnancies.
Lybrel can have troubling side effects for some women, especially in its first year of use. About half the women enrolled in the study of the new low-dose hormone pill did not continue in the study. Many dropped out due to irregular and unscheduled bleeding and spotting that can replace scheduled monthly periods.
In one test of Lybrel, 59% of women who stayed on the pill for a year had no spotting or breakthrough bleeding in the last month of the study. Because many women dropped out, only about one-third of women who originally entered the study experienced this result.
Women with especially difficult periods due to headaches, breast tenderness, cramps and nausea may be willing to put up with initial unscheduled bleeding and spotting that may last for a year. Some do not experience these side effects. In those who have no periods while on Lybrel, it may be difficult to know if they become pregnant.
With a lower-dose pill, its effectiveness can be reduced, although it is still able to prevent pregnancy approximately 96% of the time. Lower-dose pills have been developed to reduce the risk of serious side effects such as blood clots and stroke.
For many women, menstruation is a natural part of their experience. They may not want to treat a normal function as though it were a medical condition. Others may rejoice to be able to skip their menstrual periods indefinitely.
Another method of eliminating monthly periods is by receiving the hormonal contraceptive Depo-Provra by injection.
Other pills already on the market (Seasonale and Seasonique) can reduce the number of periods a woman has to three or four a year. Some nontraditional pills such as Yaz and Loestrin 24 are able to shorten monthly periods to three days or less.
Source:Â CNN.comÂ
May 28th, 2007
Many people take vitamin supplements daily, believing they will be healthier in the process. No studies have ever shown a true benefit from taking multivitamins and minerals. Some studies have indicated that vitamin A and iron are toxic at high levels. And Beta-carotene can increase the risk of lung cancer in those who smoke.
Taking vitamins will not help those most at risk for prostate cancer to keep from getting it. In fact, a recent study shows it can have the opposite effect.
Researchers followed nearly 300,000 men over a five-year period to uncover a potential link between multivitamins and prostate cancer. They found no relationship with slow-growing prostate cancer. However, men who took an excessive amount of multivitamins were found to have developed aggressive prostate cancer that had spread beyond the gland or had proved fatal. This association was strongest in men who had a family history of prostate cancer and men who also took selenium, beta-carotene or zinc supplements.
About a third of the men studied took a daily multivitamin, while 5% were heavy users taking more than the recommended doses. Overall, no link was found between multivitamin use and early stage prostate cancer. The theory is that high-dose vitamins have little effect until a tumor appears, but that their intake then encourages cancer’s rapid growth.
Those who took more than the prescribed dosage on the bottle, one multivitamin a day, increased their risk of aggressive prostate cancer by one-third, and the risk of fatal prostate cancer doubled compared to men who did not take multivitamins.
This year over 250,000 men will be diagnosed and 30,000 will die of prostate cancer.
This study was published in May 2007 and appears in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.
Sources:Â Associated Press; MSNBC
May 17th, 2007
Individuals who are of average height appear to receive more protection from air bags than those who are especially short or tall. In a study of over 52,000 drivers and 14,000 drivers involved in crashes from 1995-2000, most weren’t seriously injured when air bags were involved. However, about 2.5% of drivers and 2.6% of passengers sustained serious injuries to any part of the body.
The physician in charge of the study at Oregon Health & Science University concluded that modest protection is provided for front-seat passengers between 5’3†and 5’11†tall. Air bags seem to increase the risk of injury for adults of large or small stature.
Drivers who measured 6’3†or taller had a 5% greater risk of serious injury, and those shorter than 4’ll†had a 4% higher risk of the same.
Distance from the air bag is considered to be the most important factor in preventing serious injury. No hard and fast guidelines may be used, however, as air bags differ greatly and deploy using various forces.
The National Highway Transportation Safety Administration advises taking these precautions:
• Wear your seatbelt
• Sit as far from the air bag as possible, allowing it to deploy properly
• Short drivers are cautioned to move the driver’s seat back and tilt the seat slightly backward to create more space between the driver’s chest and steering wheel.
• Drivers should not lean forward while driving.
• It is advisable for drivers to held steering wheels from the side when possible in order to not interfere with the air bag deploying.
Source:Â WebMD
May 16th, 2007
A new test for prostate cancer, believed to be much more accurate than the PSA test, is expected to be approved soon. The test, currently undergoing large-scale clinical trials, measures the blood protein EPCA-2. Not only can it detect prostate cancer more effectively than measurement of prostate specific antigens (PSA), it also can determine the aggressiveness of the cancer and whether it has already spread.
In recent studies of 385 men, those with elevated EPCA-2 test results were found to have cancer 94% of the time, compared with 19% of those showing elevated PSA results. Only 3% showed false positive results and about 6% of existing cancers were missed using the new EPCA-2 blood protein markers. These results compare more favorably than the PSA test, which misses about 15% of existing cancers and gives a high level of false positives.
Every year, about 1.6 million men have unnecessary biopsies because of elevated PSA scores, whereas only about 230,000 of them actually are shown to have cancer. The digital rectal exam (DRE) is also not definitive in detecting this common cancer of men.
Prostate cancer is diagnosed in 230,000 new cases annually, and about 27,000 men die of the disease. The current PSA and DRE detection procedures are also deficient in that they cannot distinguish between cancer’s aggressive form, which is frequently fatal, and a slow-growing variety where “watchful waiting†may be the best strategy.
The new test could revolutionize the treatment of prostate cancer. It could save many lives and spare men with the slow-growing form of cancer from having unnecessary treatments in the future. Its manufacturer Onconome Inc., a Seattle Biomedical company, is developing the EPCA-2 test and expects the FDA to approve it by early next year.
Source:Â San Francisco Chronicle; Sunday, April 26, 2007; reporter Susan Brink of the Los Angeles Times
May 10th, 2007
While some women embrace the concept of eliminating their periods entirely, others are reluctant to take the new pill Lybrel that would in essence eliminate monthly menstrual bleeding entirely. Newer birth control pills already on the market (such as Seasonale) can enable women to have periods just once every three or every four months. Lybrel is expected to be FDA approved in May 2007.
Doctors generally express no concern about extra risks with the complete elimination of the menses. About two-thirds of women surveyed showed interest in taking Lybrel, as they believe they are “too busy†to bother with monthly bleeding. At this point, however, there have been no long-term studies. It is yet unknown whether adverse unintended consequences might occur after having no periods for 30 or 40 years of a woman’s life.
Some women express concerns that menstrual cycles may involve complex interactions with the brain, bones and skin. Others are emotionally attached to their symbol of fertility when monthly bleeding does occur, or they may feel relief to have evidence that they are not pregnant.
Women on any type of birth control pill are not having real periods, as the hormones they are taking stop the monthly release of an egg and the buildup of the uterine lining. For that reason, the new pill is not offering a drastically different option, just more convenience for women.
Women who have difficult, painful periods that cause them to miss work and keep a low profile for several days may welcome the addition of Lybrel to choices they can make for contraception.
Source:Â New York Times
May 4th, 2007
