Eating healthy can lower the risk of heart disease in breast cancer survivors, a new study has found. Heart disease is a top cause of death in women who’ve survived breast cancer, likely due to the toxic effects of chemo, radiation and targeted cancer therapy on the heart, researchers said. Breast cancer and heart disease also share some common risk factors, including aging, lack of exercise and smoking. But following a heart-healthy DASH (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension) diet appears to blunt this risk, according to findings published April 17 in the journal JNCI Cancer Spectrum. “Our findings suggest that we need to begin talking to breast cancer survivors about the potential heart benefits of the DASH diet,” lead researcher Isaac Ergas, a staff scientist at the Kaiser Permanente Division of Research, said in a journal news release. For the study, researchers analyzed data for more than 3,400 women diagnosed with invasive breast cancer at Kaiser Permanente Northern California between 2005 and 2013. The women were monitored through 2021. Women whose diets were most similar to DASH at the time of their breast cancer diagnosis had a 47% lower risk of heart failure, a 23% lower risk of irregular heart rhythm or cardiac arrest, a 21% lower risk of valve heart disease, and a 25% lower risk of deep vein thrombosis, results show. A DASH…  read on >  read on >

Changes in gut bacteria have been linked to a variety of different diseases, including type 2 diabetes, obesity and inflammatory bowel disease. Now, a new study indicates that gut bacteria also might play a role in a person’s risk of developing heart disease. Certain species of bacteria actively consume cholesterol in the gut, which might help lower cholesterol levels and heart disease risk in people, researchers reported recently in the journal Cell. In particular, people with higher levels of Oscillibacter bacteria in their gut have lower levels of cholesterol, because those bacteria drink in and process cholesterol from their surroundings, results show. These findings could serve as “starting points to improve cardiovascular health” by tweaking a person’s gut bacteria, also known as the microbiome, said senior researcher Ramnik Xavier, co-director of the Broad Institute Infectious Disease and Microbiome Program in Boston. Prior studies have linked the gut microbiome to heart disease risk factors like triglyceride or blood sugar levels, but they have failed to completely explain the means by which these bacteria affect heart health. For the study, researchers analyzed the gut bacteria of more than 1,400 participants in the Framingham Heart Study, a decades-long effort to investigate risk factors for heart disease. They found that people with several Oscillibacter species tended to have lower cholesterol than those who didn’t. They also found that Oscillibacter…  read on >  read on >

Keeping blood pressure under control could be crucial for women in preventing uterine fibroids, new research shows. Middle-aged women tracked for up to 17 years in a new study were 37% less likely to develop these painful growths if they treated their high blood pressure with medication. On the other hand, “patients with new-onset hypertension had a 45% increased risk of newly reported fibroids,” said a team led by Susannah Mitro, a research scientist at Kaiser Permanente in Oakland, Calif. The findings were published April 16 in JAMA Network Open. As outlined in the study, uterine fibroids are benign but painful tumors that arise in the uterus and affect up to 80% of women by the age of 50. Fibroids can trigger pain and bleeding, but right now there are no known means of preventing them. In the new study, Mitro’s group analyzed 1996-2013 data for 2,570 U.S. women who enrolled in the Study of Women’s Health Across the Nation, beginning at the age of 45. All of these women had no prior history of fibroids when they joined the study, but over the following 17 years, 20% did receive such a diagnosis. The women’s blood pressure was tracked over time, as well. The researchers found strong correlations been blood pressure and a woman’s odds for uterine growths. For example, those who were found to…  read on >  read on >

Women who experience common complications during a pregnancy could face heightened odds for early death for decades to come, new research shows. In the largest such study to date, “women who experienced any of five major adverse pregnancy outcomes had increased mortality risks that remained elevated more than 40 years later,” said a team led by Dr. Casey Crump, of the University of Texas Health Sciences Center in Houston. The team published its findings April 15 in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine. According to Crump’s group, “pregnancy has been considered a ‘natural stress test’ that may yield valuable information for understanding [women’s] future health risks.” Indeed, conditions that raise the odds for complications in a pregnancy — smoking, obesity, diabetes and heart disease — can raise overall health risks. In the new study, the Texas team analyzed data on over 2 million Swedish women who delivered single babies between 1973 and 2015. They then tracked the women’s health through 2023, when these women averaged 52 years of age. The team found that a diagnosis of gestational diabetes (diabetes arising while pregnant) raised a woman’s odds of dying over the study period by 52%, compared to women without a history of this complication. Similarly, premature delivery was linked to a 41% higher odds for early death, the study found, and delivering an underweight baby was tied…  read on >  read on >

Cancer-linked ‘forever chemicals’ made news this week, with the Biden Administration vowing to cut levels in the nation’s tap water. New research finds that the chemicals, known as PFAS, can also contaminate the seafood Americans eat. No one is advising that consumers avoid fish and shellfish, the study’s authors stressed. However, their findings point to a need for federal guidelines on PFAS levels in seafood, similar to what happens with mercury. “People who eat a balanced diet with more typical, moderate amounts of seafood should be able to enjoy the health benefits of seafood without excessive risk of PFAS exposure,” said study first author Kathryn Crawford, now an assistant professor of environmental studies at Middlebury College in Vermont. She worked on the study as a postdoctoral researcher at Dartmouth College in Hanover, N.H. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, exposure to PFAS chemicals leaked from industrial sites and other sources has long been linked to various cancers, liver and heart issues, and immune and developmental damage to infants and children. “PFAS are not limited to manufacturing, fire-fighting foams or municipal waste streams — they are a decades-long global challenge,” study co-author Jonathan Petali, a toxicologist with the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services, noted in a Dartmouth news release. In the research, Petali, Crawford and colleagues analyzed levels of 26 different forms of PFAS in…  read on >  read on >

Phillips Respironics, the company responsible for the recall of millions of defective sleep apnea machines since 2021, must overhaul its production of the machines before it can resume making them in the United States, federal officials announced Tuesday. Under a settlement reached with the company, Phillips must revamp its manufacturing and quality control systems and hire independent experts to vet the changes. Phillips must also continue to replace, repair or provide refunds to all U.S. customers who got defective devices, the court order stated. The action helps resolve one of the biggest medical device recalls in history, which has dragged on for nearly three years and involved 15 million devices worldwide, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said. “The finalization of this decree is a significant milestone. Throughout this recall, we have provided patients with important health information by issuing numerous safety communications and have taken actions rarely used by the agency to help protect those impacted by this recall,” Dr. Jeff Shuren, director of the FDA’s Center for Devices and Radiological Health, said in an agency news release. “Today’s action is a culmination of those efforts and includes novel provisions aimed at helping ensure that patients receive the relief they have long deserved.” Most of the devices that have been recalled are continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) machines. These devices force air through a…  read on >  read on >

A new drug can slash triglyceride levels nearly in half by targeting a genetic driver of high fat levels in the bloodstream, researchers said. The injectable drug, olezarsen, lowered triglyceride levels by 49% at the 50 milligram (mg) dose and by 53% at the 80 mg dose compared to a placebo, researchers reported April 7 in the New England Journal of Medicine. The findings were presented simultaneously at the American College of Cardiology’s annual meeting in Atlanta. The drug also reduced blood levels of two other contributors to clogged arteries, apolopoprotein B and “bad” cholesterol, results show. Olezarsen inhibits the activity of APOC3, a gene that typically restrains the liver’s ability to filter triglycerides out of the bloodstream, the researchers said. “These findings indicate that targeting APOC3 is a promising new pathway for lowering triglycerides and potentially reducing the risk of heart attack and stroke,” said researcher Dr. Brian Bergmark, of the Brigham and Women’s Hospital Division of Cardiovascular Medicine. Triglycerides are fatty particles in the bloodstream that contribute to the risk of heart disease, both on their own and in combination with “bad” LDL cholesterol, according to Harvard Medical School. For the study, researchers recruited 154 adults already on cholesterol-lowering therapy. They were split into three groups and assigned to either take a placebo or a low or high dose of olezarsen, through injections…  read on >  read on >

New research questions the effectiveness of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s accelerated drug approval program after finding that many cancer drugs remain unproven five years later. The study, published Sunday in the Journal of the American Medical Association and presented simultaneously at the American Association of Cancer Research’s annual meeting in San Diego, found that 46 cancer drugs were granted accelerated approval between 2013 and 2017. Of those, 41% showed no benefit after five years of follow-up. And of the 63% that were converted to regular approval, less than half (43%) demonstrated any clinical benefit in confirmatory trials. “Five years after the initial accelerated approval, you should have a definitive answer,” Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, a cancer specialist and bioethicist at the University of Pennsylvania who was not involved in the study, told the Associated Press. “Thousands of people are getting those drugs. That seems a mistake if we don’t know whether they work or not.” First created in 1992 to get new HIV drugs to desperate patients as quickly as possible, more than 80% of the program’s accelerated approvals now go to cancer drugs, researchers found. The program allows the FDA to grant early approval to drugs that show promising results for treating debilitating or fatal diseases. In exchange, drug companies are expected to do rigorous testing and produce better evidence before gaining full…  read on >  read on >

A test to gauge if it’s safe to prescribe a patient an addictive opioid may have been approved too soon by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, claims a letter sent to the agency by a group of experts. The test, called AvertD, is meant to screen for genetic markers suggesting that a person has a higher likelihood of developing an opioid use disorder (OUD). If the test result is positive, doctors could try alternative medications. However, the FDA approved the test in December against the advice of its own advisory panel, the experts noted in their letter. They claim that AvertD is inaccurate and could actually lead to more opioid dependencies, not less. “This test will make the opioid crisis worse,” said Dr. Andrew Kolodny, medical director of opioid policy research at Brandeis University in Massachusetts and one of the those who signed the letter. “It will contribute to overprescribing, it will contribute to an increased incidence of opioid use disorder,” he told NBC News. “In other words, more people becoming newly addicted to opioids.” He and the letter co-authors asked FDA Commissioner Robert Califf  to revoke the agency’s approval. Neither the FDA nor the test’s maker, California-based SOLVD Health, responded to NBC News for comment. According to data from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, over 6.1 million Americans were reported…  read on >  read on >

(HealthDayNews) — Following disappointing trial results, the maker of a controversial ALS drug said it is pulling the medication off the market. In a statement issued Thursday, Amylyx Pharmaceuticals said that Relyvrio failed to help patients in a large follow-up study, and the drug “will no longer be available for new patients as of today.” The medication is sold as Albrioza in Canada. “The decision to remove RELYVRIO/ALBRIOZA from the market and provide therapy free of charge for those who wish to continue was informed by the PHOENIX trial results, engagement with regulatory authorities and discussions with the ALS community,” Joshua Cohen and Justin Klee, co-CEOs of Amylyx, said in the statement. “Thank you to each and every person who shared feedback with us and continues to support our commitment to the ALS community.” The company added that, as of Thursday, “patients currently on therapy in the U.S. and Canada who, in consultation with their physician, wish to continue can be transitioned to a free drug program.” Relyvrio combines two older drugs: a prescription medication for liver disorders and a dietary supplement associated with traditional Chinese medicine. According to the New York Times, about 4,000 patients battling ALS are currently using Relyvrio, which has a list price of $154,000 per year. Relyvrio was first approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in September 2022,…  read on >  read on >