People who’ve survived a heart attack and have been given a stent may be better off quitting low-dose aspirin a month after the procedure, a new study finds. The strategy is “beneficial by reducing major and minor bleeding through one year by more than 50 percent,” said study lead author Dr. Gregg Stone, a professor of medicine (cardiology) and population health science and policy at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, in New York City. “Moreover, there was no increase in adverse ischemic [artery-blocking] events” when folks stopped using aspirin early, “meaning continuing aspirin was causing harm without providing any benefit,” Stone added. His team presented its findings Sunday at the American College of Cardiology (ACC) annual meeting in Atlanta. The study was published simultaneously in The Lancet. For folks who’ve had a heart attack or are at very high risk of experiencing one, low-dose daily aspirin is often given to cut their odds for blocked arteries. However, long-term use of aspirin is also tied to another health danger: Bleeding. So, the duration of aspirin use has long been up for debate. In the new trial, outcomes were tracked for up to a year in over 3,400 heart patients treated at 58 centers in four countries. All the patients had undergone non-surgical, catheter-guided placement of a heart stent to open up a blocked…  read on >  read on >

Ahead of a total solar eclipse arriving April 8, new research finds there was a temporary rise in U.S. traffic accidents around the time of a solar eclipse back in 2017. The area in the United States covered by the total eclipse seven years ago was relatively small (about 70 miles wide), but it was still tied to a 31% national rise in fatal traffic accidents.  “In absolute terms, this averaged to 1 extra crash-involved person every 25 minutes and 1 extra crash fatality every 95 minutes,” said a Canadian team led by Dr. Donald Redelmeier of Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, in Toronto.  His team suspects the rise in accidents didn’t owe to any temporary change in visibility due to the eclipse. Instead, it more likely stemmed from a surge in people traveling to view the rare phenomenon.  In 2017, the total eclipse had an estimated 20 million people traveling to another city to view it, the Toronto team said. More traffic danger might loom on April 8, however, since this time the eclipse “is within driving range for more than 200 million individuals within the US,” the study authors said. The new study relied on U.S. data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration Fatality Analysis Reporting System.   Redelmeier’s team looked at the three days before, during and immediately after the Aug. 17,…  read on >  read on >

Following a cyberattack on the largest health insurer in the United States last month, health care providers continue to scramble as insurance payments and prescription orders continue to be disrupted and physicians lose an estimated $100 million a day. That estimate was generated by First Health Advisory, a cybersecurity firm that specializes in the health industry, according to the American Medical Association (AMA). “This massive breach and its wide-ranging repercussions have hit physician practices across the country, risking patients’ access to their doctors and straining viability of medical practices themselves,” AMA President Dr. Jesse Ehrenfeld said in a news release. “Against the backdrop of persistent Medicare cuts, rising practice costs and spiraling regulatory burdens, this unparalleled cyberattack and disruption threatens the viability of many practices, particularly small practices and those in rural and underserved areas,” he added. “This is an immense crisis demanding immediate attention.” How did the crisis begin? The security breach was first detected on Feb. 21 at Change Healthcare, part of Optum Inc., which is in turn owned by UnitedHealth Group. In a report filed that day with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, UnitedHealth Group told government officials that it had been forced to sever some of Change Healthcare’s vast digital network from its clients. It hasn’t yet been able to restore all of those services. In its latest update on…  read on >  read on >

Lots of seniors are regularly taking low-dose aspirin in hopes of preventing heart attacks and strokes, even though updated guidelines often advise against it. About one in four older adults take aspirin at least three times a week, according to results from the University of Michigan’s National Poll on Health Aging. However, many seniors who take low-dose aspirin may not need to do this, researchers said. Nearly three in five (57%) of people ages 50 to 80 who take aspirin regularly don’t have a history of heart disease, poll results show. Those folks should talk with a doctor before starting or stopping aspirin use, because current guidelines mostly call for daily aspirin in people who already have heart disease or have survived a stroke or heart attack, experts said. “Aspirin is no longer a one-size-fits-all preventive tool for older adults, which for decades it was touted as,” said Dr. Jordan Schaefer, a hematologist at the University of Michigan School of Medicine. “This poll shows we have a long way to go to make sure aspirin use is consistent with current knowledge.” National guidelines for aspirin use have evolved in recent years because the over-the-counter drug can increase a person’s risk of dangerous bleeding. Experts now weigh the risk of bleeding against the benefits of preventing blood clots that can cause heart attacks and strokes. Because…  read on >  read on >

For nearly a week, prescription drug orders have been disrupted at thousands of pharmacies as the largest health insurer in the United States tries to fully restore services following a cyberattack. The security breach was first detected last Wednesday at Change Healthcare, a division of UnitedHealth Group, and two senior federal law enforcement officials told the New York Times that the hackers appear to be from another country. In a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, UnitedHealth Group said it had been forced to disconnect some of Change Healthcare’s vast digital network from its clients, and it hasn’t yet been able to restore all of those services. Change Healthcare handles roughly 15 billion transactions a year, representing nearly one in three U.S. patient records, the Times reported. This latest cyberattack underscores the vulnerability of health care data, particularly the privacy of patients’ personal information. Change Healthcare helps pharmacies verify a patient’s insurance coverage for their prescriptions, and some reports indicate that some people have been forced to pay for their prescriptions in cash, the Times reported. Shortly after UnitedHealth discovered the security breach, the company shut down several services, including those allowing pharmacies to quickly check what a patient owes for a medication, the Times reported While national drug store chains like Walgreens report limited effects, smaller pharmacies tell a different story. “For…  read on >  read on >

People who’ve suffered a moderate to severe traumatic brain injury have a greatly increased risk of brain cancer, a new study of military service members finds. Brain cancer is relatively uncommon, occurring in fewer than 1% of people in the United States, researchers said. But service members who had a moderate or severe brain injury were at 90% increased risk for developing malignant brain cancer, according to analysis of health data for more than 1.9 million veterans. And penetrating traumatic brain injury — where an object punctures the skull and enters the brain — was associated with a tripled risk of brain cancer, results show. While this was observed only in the military, civilians might be expected to run similar risks from brain injuries, researchers said. “Traumatic brain injury is not only common in the military, but also in the general population as well,” said lead researcher Dr. Ian Stewart, an Air Force colonel and professor of medicine at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences. “While these results may not be generalizable to the population at large, given that military cohorts are different from the general population in many ways, it is possible that more severe TBI increases risk in the civilian population as well,” Stewart added in a university news release. However, the study also found that mild traumatic brain injury —…  read on >  read on >

Many studies have found that getting high on weed and then getting behind the wheel is dangerous for young drivers, and now new research finds it’s no different for seniors. In a driving-simulator experiment, seniors who were long-term marijuana smokers were weaving in and out of their lanes 30 minutes after getting high, Canadian researchers report. The effect was not seen when the same drivers were tested again three hours after smoking weed. However, the seniors themselves still rated their ability to drive as “impaired.” There was one silver lining: Senior tokers tended to slow their driving speed once high, perhaps because they knew they were intoxicated, said a team led by Patricia Di Ciano, a scientist at the Center for Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto. Di Ciano’s team noted that the percentage of aging Boomers who regularly use marijuana continues to rise. They believe that “older adults may be particularly affected by cannabis, given age-related changes in cognition,” they added. Many seniors are also prescribed medications, and the combination of those meds with marijuana could also be problematic. While there’s been lots of study on the effect of marijuana on younger drivers, the effects of cannabis on driving among seniors “remain unknown,” according to the Toronto team. To help answer the question, they recruited 31 seniors, averaging about 69 years of age, to…  read on >  read on >