Calcium Scan Can Predict Premature Death Risk

A scan of calcium deposits inside your arteries can help doctors deduce how long you’re likely to live, a new study has found.

The test, called a coronary calcium scan, uses a regular CT scan to look for calcium deposits in the three major arteries that carry blood away from the heart, said lead author Leslee Shaw, a professor of cardiology at Emory University in Atlanta.

People with the largest amounts of calcium in their arteries carry an early death risk that’s six times greater than those with no calcium deposits, researchers found in a 15-year study of nearly 10,000 patients.

“If you had no calcium or very small amounts, we were able to track over a very long time that you actually had a very outstanding survival,” Shaw said.

Calcium deposits develop as a response to plaque formation along the artery walls, Shaw said.
These plaques, which are caused by blood cholesterol, build up over time and cause arteries to narrow, leading to heart disease as the heart works harder to pump blood through the body.

If a plaque bursts, a blood clot can form on its surface, blocking blood flow and causing a heart attack, according to the U.S. National Institutes of Health. If the clot breaks free, it can flow into the brain and cause a stroke.

To prevent plaques from bursting, the body tries to harden them by depositing calcium salts over and around them, Shaw said.

In this new study, doctors referred 9,715 healthy patients in the Nashville area between 1996 and 1999 to a cardiology outreach screening program provided by the military’s Tricare Healthcare System. The patients underwent a calcium scan, and also provided a detailed history of their heart risk factors.

Wisdom Wednesday: Chasing Chemistry

Quintessential Applications (QA) is the format I use to evaluate all patients. It is a form of manual muscle testing based on excitation and inhibition of neural pathways. It uses the nervous system as a window to view the status of the human body.

However, the majority of the testing involves “chasing the chemistry” of the body.

The first pathways that are evaluated are all associated with inflammation. I frequently tell new patients, “If you can eliminate inflammation, 80% of your symptoms will resolve, regardless of the cause.” However, if you cannot reduce inflammation, you cannot properly evaluate or treat the underlying causes that are the ultimate goal of nutritional therapy.

Prostaglandins are the most common inflammatory pathway I find, accounting for 60% of my patient population. PG2 (prostaglandin 2) is released by damaged tissues and is magnified by the liver. While PG2 can be reduced by NSAIDS, like Advil, aspirin, or Aleve, I prefer to use omega 3 fatty acids, like fish oil or flax seed oil that form PG3 in the body. PG1 precursors (omega 6 fatty acids) like black current seed oil, borage oil, or evening primrose oil can also reduce PG2. The beauty of QA is that I can actually determine which one(s) will be most effective in reducing inflammation.

Fish oil is the most common anti-inflammatory supplement that will reduce PG2 inflammation. However, the better the patient’s diet (think fresh fruits and vegetables) the more likely that flax seed oil will work better than fish oil. Virtually all Americans are deficient in omega 3 fatty acids, unless they are supplementing their diet.

Low-Risk Prostate Cancers

A wide majority of U.S. men with low-risk prostate cancer are being treated for the disease even though “active surveillance” is an option, a new report finds.

The study data was collected in 2010 and 2011, and a lot has changed since that time in regard to the popularity of active surveillance, experts noted.

Active surveillance is “gaining acceptance among urologists and patients,” said study co-author Dr. Hui Zhu, chief of urology at the Louis Stokes Cleveland VA Medical Center in Ohio.

“Age-appropriate men should discuss the risks and benefits of screening with their physicians, and men with newly diagnosed localized prostate cancer should ask their physicians whether active surveillance is a good option for them”, he added

There’s been controversy for years about diagnosing and treating prostate cancer.  Tumors considered to be low-risk may never spread, but men have often been treated anyway.  But those treatments aren’t without risk.  Prostate cancer treatments can cause serious and lasting side effects, such as incontinence and erectile dysfunction, according to the American Cancer Society.

In 2011, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force discouraged the use of routine prostate cancer testing.  One reason why was because of the odds that low-risk tumors would be treated.  But, despite that recommendation, many doctors continue ordering the prostate-specific antigen (PSA) tests.  Supporters of the test suggest that if the PSA leads to an over diagnosis of low-risk prostate cancers, that problem can be countered with active surveillance, the study authors noted.

Many Hospital Patients Not Asked About Supplements

Most hospitalized Americans aren’t asked if they take dietary supplements, such as multivitamins, a new study suggests. Photo by ClipArtLord

“If clinicians are unaware of possible drug-[dietary supplement] reactions, they may unknowingly provide a treatment plan or prescribe medications that could have an adverse reaction or interactions with the dietary supplement,” said study author Dr. Paula Gardiner.

She is assistant director of Boston Medical Center;s program for integrative medicine and health care disparities.

“Dietary supplements also affect physiological processes in the body and could have an impact on medical procedures like surgery, chemotherapy, blood work and many other treatments or procedures,” she added in a medical center news release.

Nearly 18% percent of American adults (more than 40 million) take dietary supplements, according to the 2012 National Health Interview Survey.

The most commonly used dietary supplements are vitamins and minerals, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports.  But other supplements may include herbs, amino acids or other substances, the study authors pointed out.

The study, published recently in the journal Patient Education and Counseling, looked at 558 hospital patients, more than half of whom (60%) used dietary supplements.

Of those 333 patients, only 36% had use of supplements documented at admission to the hospital.  Only 18% told a health care provider about their dietary supplements use, and only one in five were asked about dietary supplement use by a health care provider, the study found.

Wisdom Wednesday: Magnetic Resonance Imaging

Magnetic resonance imaging or MRI was developed from nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) in the 1970’s by Dr. Raymond Damadian. NMR had industrial uses for evaluating structural components. Dr. Damadian used NMR to study potassium ions in the human body and proposed that tumors could be visualized with the images he was able to generate.

In simple terms, an MRI is a giant electromagnet is which the patient is placed. The entire room is shielded in copper to block out external FM radio waves. When the magnet is turned on, all the water molecules in the body line up with the magnetic field. The water molecules also absorb FM radio waves generated by the MRI.

When the magnet is turned off the water molecules resume their normal orientation. This has two measurable effects: First, the molecules emit the same FM radio waves they absorbed. Second, the molecules “wobble” slightly as they reorient, creating their own magnetic field.

This data is stored in the computer showing where all the water molecules are located throughout the human body. The computer then can generate holographic images depicting the location of the water.
There are also two sets of images. The T1 views are created from the FM signal from the water molecules. The T2 images are built from the data from the magnetic “wobble”. Comparing the T1 to T2 images yields additional insight as the images highlight tissues quite differently.

Bone, being virtually devoid of water, is imaged as an absence of any signal. So MRI is quite limited in its’ ability to “see” bone. However, tumors, infection, and even fracture involve the inclusion of water so these pathologies actually light up very well on MRI.

St. John’s Wort vs Prozac

Researchers at Adelaide University compared the reported adverse drug reactions to St. John’s wort, an herbal treatment for depression, with fluoxetine, a prescription antidepressant which includes Prozac.

It found both can cause serious side effects such as dangerous increases in body temperature and blood pressure. Both treatments also caused side effects such as anxiety, panic attacks, dizziness, vomiting, amnesia and aggression.

“There is a common belief that because something is natural and can be purchased from a health food shop without a prescription, it’s safe,” says researcher Claire Hoban.

“People need to start thinking of St. John’s wort, and other herbal medicines, as a drug and seek advice from a qualified healthcare practitioner to be sure they use it safely,” she says.

Between 2000 and 2013, there were 84 reports of adverse reactions to St. John’s wort and 447 to fluoxetine, [notes] the study published in Clinical and Experimental Pharmacology and Physiology.

Fewer people use St. John’s wort and adverse reactions for herbal medicines largely go unreported because they are not considered drugs, say Hoban.

There were more severe reactions to St. John’s wort, 11.9% of reports compared to 6.7% for Prozac.
The big concern is using St. John’s wort and prescription antidepressants together because this can lead to serotonin syndrome inducing gastrointestinal upsets, hemorrhage, confusion, inattention and even death, she said.

Severe Burns May Trigger Dangerous Shifts in Gut Germs

People who suffer severe burns may experience potentially dangerous changes in the 100 trillion bacteria inside their gastrointestinal (GI) tract, a small study suggests.

At issue is the breakdown of good and bad bacteria typically found inside a healthy person’s GI tract.

Researchers from the health sciences division of Loyola University Chicago observed that after a severe burn, four patients experienced a big increase in the number of potentially harmful bacteria and a corresponding drop in relatively beneficial bacteria.

The potentially harmful bacteria are part of a family that includes E. coli and salmonella.

Such an imbalance, known as “dysbiosis” has been linked to many conditions, including inflammatory bowel disease, obesity, rheumatoid arthritis and diabetes, study lead author Dr. Mashkoor Choudhry, a professor of surgical research, microbiology and immunology, said in a Loyola news release. He added that the imbalances might lead to complications responsible for most deaths in severe burn patients.

The findings, published in the July 8 issue of PLOS ONE, suggest that treating patients with live beneficial bacteria known as probiotics may help restore their microbiotic health. The findings might also apply to other trauma patients, including those with traumatic brain injuries, Choudhry said.