wellness weekly

Heart Attack: A study from Norway looked into age differences between men and women with regard to heart attacks and smoking. What struck me most was that there is an average age for heart attacks for both genders. That implies that most people will have a heart attack if they reach that age and I for one do not want that to be true. I imagine that genetics and lifestyle can increase and decrease the odds of any one person reaching that typical heart attack age and then having one. As it is, the age for men is 72 and women 81. However the age of first heart attack is much earlier for smokers and drastically earlier for female smokers. The study results found women smokers to have their first heart attack some fifteen years earlier at 66. Men also have them earlier if they smoke, making things more even, at 64. This does explain why more smokers die from heart attacks than lung cancer.

Parental Oblivion: A study from the UK addressed the consequences if any, of measuring young children’s weights and notifying their parents of the result. There is concern among health professionals that if we note a child as being over weight or obese that it will traumatize the child. Of course, I think that the trauma associated with being obese and having to take medications for disease management when one is 12, is pretty damn consequential. Either way, harm was not found because of this project. What did catch my attention was that some of the parents opted out of the study saying that they did not want to know their children’s weights. Disturbing.

Vytorin: Some time ago I shared that several studies have not found combination cholesterol lowering drug Vytorin to be any more effective if at all effective, than the generic cholesterol lowering medications that are now available. I have always disliked the drug, because the marketing of it implies that one can blame their genetics for the fact that their high fat diet is causing them harm and that is not how it is. Even Dr. Oz will tell you that genetics are only a small part of the equation and what you eat and what you do is the bigger piece. Anyway, now reports are surfacing to show that this medication is also increasing the risk for some cancers in people who take it. This is good news for pharmacy benefit programs as they can keep their enrollees on the cheaper medications.

Lipitor: Speaking of cholesterol lowering medications, Pfizer has the best selling one, if not the best selling drug, period. They took some flack for having a spokes man in their ads who implied he was a practicing physician. This same ad had a body double for the physical activity piece. The ads are being replaced with the real person story. So I guess Pfizer has done its homework on effective marketing campaigns. The same is true for anti smoking messages. A real person discussing a serious health issue followed by a means to address the issue. Well done guys.

Physical Activity: Two late stories which I wasn’t able to vet applaud exercise as being health promoting in cutting risks of many cancers and heart disease. So why are you sitting here reading this? Get Moving!