Diabetes & Viagra

[Guest guest]

Researchers at Georgia Health Sciences University are studying whether

inhibiting an enzyme that reduces levels of a protective metabolite could halt

the progression of diabetic nephropathy, or kidney disease resulting from

diabetes.

EETs are metabolites that guard against inflammation and high blood pressure,

very useful assets considering that oxidative stress and inflammatory cytokines

play a role in diabetic nephropathy. Elmarakby hypothesizes that EETs protect

kidneys by inhibiting nuclear factor kappa B from signaling inflammation and by

activating hemeoxygenase-1 to counteract oxidative damage.

" Diabetic nephropathy is a leading cause of end-stage renal disease, for which

the only treatment now is dialysis and kidney transplant, " Elmarakby said. " We

hope the inhibitors could potentially be used to halt the progression of renal

injury during diabetes. " About 170 million people worldwide have diabetes, and

that number is expected to double within the next 25 years. Diabetic nephropathy

affects about 35 percent of diabetic patients. Read more.....,,,

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/219059.php

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I hate to ask, but did anyone get a supply of Viagra by mistake?????? LOL

Some seniors got lucky over the past few years and on the U.S. Government's

Health Care dime. A new report released by the Office of the Inspector General

states that the U.S. Medicare program improperly spent more than $3 million in

2007 and 2008 to buy Viagra and other erectile dysfunction drugs for senior

citizens. Medicare administrators blamed the spending on a software error and

said they would try to recover payments to private insurers who administer the

program's drug plans.

Although the purchases were a fraction of Medicare's drug spending in 2007 and

2008, which totaled $133 billion, Medicare paid a total of $3.1 million for

erectile dysfunction drugs in the period examined. Almost all of those funds

went to the purchase of the Pfizer product which had 2010 sales of $1.9 billion

based on data compiled by Bloomberg.

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/219211.php

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MACULAR DEGENERATION:

Regular consumption of fish and omega-3 fatty acids found in fish is associated

with a significantly reduced risk of developing age-related macular degeneration

in women, according to a report posted online today that will appear in the June

issue of Archives of Ophthalmology, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

" An estimated nine million U.S. adults aged 40 years and older show signs of

age-related macular degeneration (AMD), " the authors write as background

information in the article. " An additional 7.3 million persons have early

age-related macular degeneration, which is usually associated with moderate or

no vision loss but does increase the risk of progression to advanced age-related

macular degeneration. "

Using the Women's Health Study, G. Christen, Sc.D., of Brigham and

Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, and colleagues collected

data on 38,022 women who had not been diagnosed with age-related macular

degeneration. Information on women's eating habits was obtained via

questionnaire at the beginning of the study and included information on intake

of docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) and eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) [Omega-3 fatty

acids found in fish], and arachidonic acid and linoleic acid (omega-6 fatty

acids). During ten years of follow-up, additional questionnaires tracked the

women's eye health, with specific focus on diagnosis of age-related macular

degeneration.

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/218979.php

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PRICE OF DRUGS NOT COMING DOWN:

The price of drugs is going up. Prescription drug costs rose at a faster rate

than costs for other medical goods and services over the last four years by an

annual average of 6.6% from 2006 through the first quarter of 2010, compared

with a 3.8% average annual increase in the consumer price index for medical

goods and services. Prices for the brand-name drugs increased by an annual

average of 8.3%, while prices for the generics fell by 2.6% each year.

Americans spent $250 billion on prescription drugs in 2009, of which $78 billion

or about 31% of it was paid for by the federal government.

Democrats in Washington D.C. used these findings to praise the provisions

included in the reform law. Representative Pete Stark, a ranking member of the

House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Health comments on this new information:

Some media reports have suggested that prescription drug prices may have

increased more during the debate leading up to passage of the Patient Protection

and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) in March 2010 compared to other recent years.

Congress commissioned the Government Accountability Office to provide

information on the extent to which prices for individual brand name drugs

changed over the years.

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/219096.php

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ABNORMAL BLOOD PRESSURE:

As many as 100 million Americans may currently be misclassified as having

abnormal blood pressure, according to Dr. Brent from the Veterans Affairs

Health Care System in Minneapolis and the University of Minnesota and his

colleagues. Their findings1 show that these people are not actually more likely

to die prematurely than those with 'normal' blood pressure, i.e. below 120/80.

and colleagues' article in the Journal of General Internal Medicine²,

published by Springer, also shows that in those under 50, diastolic blood

pressure* is the more important predictor of mortality, whereas in those over

50, systolic blood pressure* is the stronger predictor. The authors argue it is

time to consider a new definition of 'normal' blood pressure.

and colleagues examined the independent contribution of diastolic blood

pressure (DBP) and systolic blood pressure (SBP) on mortality, as well as how

these relationships might affect the number of Americans currently labelled as

having abnormal blood pressure.

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/218710.php

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FYI,

Lottie Duthu

FYI,

Lottie Duthu