High dose statins could be made available directly from high street pharmacies as part of the NHS Long Term Plan to cut heart disease and stroke, NHS chief executive Simon Stevens has announced.
Headlines suggesting that a supplement can "slash" your risk of heart disease or stroke are attractive, but the study does not back up the headlines.
This type of study cannot prove that one factor (glucosamine) is the cause of the results they found.
While the researchers tried to take account of other possible causes of the results, they could not account for everything.
The study highlights the need for doctors to review the cholesterol response in people who take statins. Notably, those who did not respond were on lower doses, but the study cannot tell us that specific statins or particular doses "do not work" because we do not know enough about why doctors prescribed as they did.
Importantly, the results of this study do not apply to people who have been prescribed statins after a previous heart attack or stroke: they will nearly always be prescribed higher dose statins.
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This study adds evidence to confirm what doctors in the UK already knew – that aspirin increases the risk of bleeding and reduces the risk of heart attacks and strokes. The study adds useful information to make clear that people without cardiovascular disease benefit from only a small reduction in risk of heart attack or stroke, while increasing their risk of bleeding.
Because heart attacks are more common than major bleeding, the change to the absolute risk of either event with aspirin is about the same.
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The study adds to evidence that exercise is a good way to keep blood pressure under control. However, the researchers found no studies that directly compared medicines with exercise programmes, meaning the results rely on indirect comparisons between groups of people that may have been quite different. This makes it harder to rely on the results.
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The trial finding that hypnotherapy works better than educational support adds evidence to previous studies showing that hypnotherapy may have a helpful effect. The finding that group hypnotherapy works about as well as individual hypnotherapy is interesting, as this means many people could be treated by the same therapist at the same time, which could reduce waiting times and the cost of treatment.
However, there are unanswered questions in the study, including why a large number of people dropped out of treatment. This could have affected the results, especially if people dropped out of group hypnotherapy because they didn't like group treatment. As said, it can't be assumed that hypnotherapy is better than other psychological therapies that may be considered at the same stage of treatment, such as CBT.
It's very important that these findings aren't taken out of context. Many people across the UK are prescribed statins and the reports may cause undue alarm that everyone should be on a higher dose. People who have risk factors for heart disease and a raised cholesterol, but who have no history of heart attack or stroke, are recommended to start on a low-dose statin (usually 20mg atorvastatin).
The people in this study were specifically high-risk patients, most of whom had already had a heart attack or stroke. Current UK guidelines already recommend that these people are given a high-dose statin (usually 80mg atorvastatin).
Wednesday November 21 is World COPD day – and people are being urged to know the signs of this serious condition, how to avoid it and how to manage it if they have been diagnosed.
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a serious lung condition that makes breathing more difficult.
Self Care Week 2018, which began yesterday and runs until November 18, is urging people to ‘Choose Self Care for Life’ by making health-savvy decisions.
Whether it is about self-treatable conditions, long term conditions, or lifestyle choices to ensure better physical health and mental wellbeing, this week raises awareness of the huge benefits of people looking after themselves better. For some people, and at some times, this is easier than for others.
The study shows the big impact that factors like smoking, high blood pressure and diabetes can have on the chances of having a heart attack.
While the risk increases for women are bigger than for men, the risk increases for men are still substantial. The study underlines the importance of not smoking and of keeping blood pressure and diabetes under control, for both women and men.
However, this increase in risk for individuals is extremely small and is massively outweighed by known risk factors for lung cancer such as smoking. For example, smoking 15 to 24 cigarettes a day increases the risk of lung cancer in men by around 2,600% (making their risk around 26 times higher).
This study supports current understanding that for older adults with no previous history of cardiovascular disease, the benefits of taking aspirin are small and do not outweigh the risks.
But if you have been advised to take aspirin due to a history of cardiovascular disease you should not stop taking it without first talking to your GP.
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The takeaway message for anyone reading this article is that oily fish remains an important part of a healthy diet. Current recommendations are to have at least 2 portions of fish a week, including 1 of oily fish.
This study adds to evidence that the anticoagulant drug apixaban may cause fewer major bleeding episodes and prevent more DVT than warfarin. The study suggests this is true for people taking anticoagulants for reasons other than atrial fibrillation.
However, the study had many limitations that we must consider.
Headlines about an increased risk of heart problems if you have eczema might be worrying, but these results only apply to the small minority of people with very severe eczema – not to people with mild eczema.
The results may help doctors better target cardiovascular disease prevention strategies at people with severe eczema to reduce future risk. The results also add to our growing understanding of how diseases that cause inflammation in the body may also contribute to cardiovascular disease risk.