February 15, 2008 - In this Issue
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A Word from Dr. Grossman
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Exercise Capacity Shown to be a Major Predictor of Death in Men
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Class-Action Lawsuit Proposed Against Manufacturers of Zetia and Vytorin
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Coronary Calcium Found to be Strong Predictor of Heart Attacks In “Low Risk” Women
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Mama, Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up to be Heavy
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Statins Not Shown to Protect Against Alzheimer’s
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One Bad Meal Could Damage Your Arteries
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Executive Health Evaluations at the Grossman Wellness Center
Since Valentine's Day occurs this month, February is traditionally known as heart month.
Unfortunately, 2008 has seen a lot of evidence that some of the hallowed treatments used by conventional physicians and cardiologists to treat heart disease – statins and other drugs – may not offer as much benefit as once thought.
To keep your heart healthy, follow the advice from the articles in this newsletter ... get more exercise, consider getting a coronary calcium score, and try to use more vinegar and cinnamon.
Best wishes for a healthy and happy 2008 to you and your family, and Happy Anti-Aging!
Terry Grossman, M.D.
Exercise Capacity Shown to be a Major Predictor of Death in Men
Exercise appears to be even more important as a risk factor for early mortality than traditional cardiovascular risk factors such as cholesterol, HDL, and LDL.
Exercise capacity is typically measured on a graded exercise test such as a treadmill. The amount of exercise an individual can do is measured in MET's with one MET being the amount of exercise done sitting at rest.
Most healthy adult men can do between nine and 12 MET's of exercise. When compared with unfit and sedentary men who could do less than five MET's, men who could do 7.1 to 10 MET's decreased their risk of death by 50%, while men who could do more than 10 MET's decreased their risk by 70%.
This study followed 16,000 male veterans for 7.5 years. The authors concluded that “exercise capacity should be given us much attention … as other major risk factors.”
Read more... Exercise Capacity and Mortality in Black and White Men
Class-Action Lawsuit Proposed Against Manufacturers of Zetia and Vytorin
You have undoubtedly seen some of the very cute and creative ads on the television for the cholesterol-lowering drug, Vytorin, which shows how it lowers cholesterol in two ways – your hereditary predisposition to high cholesterol ( Uncle Guido) and dietary cholesterol (Chicken Alfredo).
Vytorin is a combination of the two cholesterol-lowering drugs, Zocor, and Zetia. On January 14, 2008, Merck released results of a study, which showed that Vytorin lowers LDL cholesterol levels better than Zocor. Unfortunately, the study also showed that cholesterol-filled arterial plaques grew faster in patients taking the combination drug than in those taking Zocor alone.
The reason for this lawsuit is that the information contained in this study has been available since April 2006, but wasn’t announced until almost 2 years later. Zetia and Vytorin had combined sales of over $1 billion in just the fourth quarter of 2007 alone.
The lawsuit is seeking the return of money to purchasers of these two drugs since the study shows that - despite the cute ads - they are no more effective than the generic form of Zocor, which is available at a much lower price.
Read more... Zetia and Vytorin Lawsuit
Coronary Calcium Found to be Strong Predictor of Heart Attacks In “Low Risk” Women
Only a very small percentage of the population has had an ultrafast CAT scan to determine their coronary calcium score.
In a study of over 2,500 women classified as "low-risk" for cardiovascular disease, an ultrafast CAT scan was performed. One in three women was found to have some coronary calcium. These women were found to have a 600% increase in their risk of having a coronary event such as a heart attack than women with no detectable calcium. The greater the amount of coronary calcium, the greater the risk.
Coronary calcium score testing is now widely available and inexpensive. It should be done in men at low risk of heart disease at age 45 and in women at age 55 and is included as part of our comprehensive health evaluations at Grossman Wellness Center.
Individuals at high risk because of high blood pressure, strong family history of heart disease, or elevated cholesterol -- should consider having the testing done five years earlier.
Read more... Coronary Artery Calcium May Raise Women's Heart Risk
Mama, Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up to be Heavy
A group of researchers at the Medical College of Georgia in Augusta has found that virtually every measurement of cardiovascular risk was increased in children who were overweight or obese, compared with normal weight youths.
This study looked at 972 twins, averaging 17 years old. 17% of all children were overweight, while 12.1% of white children and 22.6% of black children were obese. The overweight teens had worse scores than healthy weight teens, while obese children were even worse.
Read more... Being Overweight. Increases Cardiovascular Risk Factors in Adolescents
Statins Not Shown to Protect Against Alzheimer’s
Researchers from Rush University Medical Center in Chicago followed 929 Catholic nuns and priests, averaging 75 years of age with no evidence of dementia at the onset of the study. They were followed for up to 12 years, and consented to having a brain autopsy after they died.
When the study began, 119 individuals were taking a statin drug and over the course of the 12 years of the study, 191 developed Alzheimer’s disease.
Brain autopsies were done on 250 participants who died while the study was being conducted to see the effect statins had on brain structures associated with Alzheimer’s disease.No changes were found among the individuals who had taken statins. Additionally, the study found that statin use did not protect against memory loss.Read more... Statins for Dementia? Big Trial Finds No Benefit
One Bad Meal Could Damage Your Arteries
An article published last month in the prestigious Journal of the American College of Cardiology suggests that just one bad meal can cause some damage to your arteries. This bad meal could be a typical fast food order -- fried foods, fatty meat, sugar, etc.
On the other hand, one healthy meal can begin repairing the damage of the damaging fast food order. The article lists healthy foods and practices to include when at all possible...
- Vegetables and fruits
- Whole grains
- Legumes
- Nuts
- Lean protein
- Vinegar
- Fish oil
- Tea
- Cinnamon
- Calorie restriction
- Weight loss
- Exercise
- And a low to moderate-dose of alcohol
The Japanese diet, which we recommend in our book, Fantastic Voyage, includes vegetables pickled in vinegar and you might consider using olive oil and vinegar as your salad dressing.
Cinnamon lowers cholesterol, LDL, triglycerides and blood sugar. A 40-day study, of 60 people in Pakistan with Type 2 diabetes, found that one gram a day of cinnamon -- one-fourth of a teaspoon twice daily -- significantly lowered the subjects' blood sugar, triglycerides (fatty acids in the blood), LDL (or "bad") cholesterol, and total cholesterol.
Read more... Dietary Strategies for Improving Cardio Health
Executive Health Evaluations at the Grossman Wellness Center
Exciting things are happening at Frontier Medical Institute. Our preventive health and wellness program has become so successful that we've created a separate division of our clinic specifically devoted to wellness.
If you haven't yet experienced a comprehensive health evaluation, please take a moment to visit our new Grossman Wellness Center website. We hope to see you in Denver soon...
