Motherhood Raises Risk of Heart Disease
Motherhood doubles a young woman’s risk of developing heart disease, an increase in risk comparable to that caused by high cholesterol levels, according to researchers from the University of Minnesota. The increased risk arises from a decrease in the women’s leisure-time physical activities, epidemiologist Kathryn Schmitz told an American Heart Assn. meeting in Orlando, Fla., on Friday. The heart association estimates that as many as 250,000 deaths each year--12% of all deaths--can be attributed to lack of regular physical activity.
The results were derived from the Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults study, which monitored 3,274 young men and women for 10 years. The big increase in risk came with the first pregnancy. Little change was seen in going from one child to two. Men showed no significant change in risk associated with fatherhood.
Gene Provides Clue to Hypertension Danger
The higher risk of high blood pressure among African Americans may come, at least in part, from a gene variant that makes them more susceptible to the hypertensive effects of salt, researchers from Wayne State University told the heart meeting Wednesday. Among these individuals, as little as 1 extra gram of salt--about half a teaspoon--can raise blood pressure by as much as 5 millimeters of mercury.
The gene is the blueprint for a particular variant of a protein called angiotensin converting enzyme, or ACE. If the ACE gene is flawed, it can cause blood vessels to constrict too much, raising blood pressure. The team does not yet know how many black people carry the ACE variant, and they do not yet advise screening for its presence. Ultimately, however, such screening might identify individuals who should restrict salt intake more rigorously and who should be treated with drugs more aggressively.
Alzheimer’s Drug May Help Down Patients
A drug that is now used to treat Alzheimer’s disease patients may also provide some benefit for patients with Down syndrome, according to results from a very small clinical study conducted at Duke University. Dr. Priya Sunil Kishnani and his colleagues gave the drug, donepezil, to four adults suffering from the syndrome.
They reported in Saturday’s Lancet that all four patients reported benefits in the first three months of treatment. Those results included improvements in communication, expressive language, attention and mood stability. Kishnani called for a larger study of the drug’s effects and cautioned that it should not be used to treat Down patients until its effects have been more thoroughly studied.
Breast Cancer Tied to Ovarian Cancer Risk
Women who develop breast cancer before the age of 50 have an overall 30% increase in risk of developing ovarian cancer, researchers from UC Irvine reported Tuesday at a San Francisco meeting of the Society of Gynecological Oncologists.
The risk is much higher in certain subgroups, said Dr. Wendy Brewster, who conducted the study of more than 120,000 women. Women of all races who develop breast cancer between the ages of 15 and 39 have three times the normal risk of ovarian cancer, as do Asian women under the age of 50. African American women under the age of 50 have twice the normal risk.
New Drug Being Tested Against Colon Cancer
UCLA researchers have begun testing a new angiogenesis inhibitor against colon cancer, the second-leading cause of cancer deaths in the United States. An estimated 140,000 new cases are expected to be detected this year, with about 40% of them fatal.
Angiogenesis inhibitors block the recruitment of blood vessels to a tumor, starving it of nutrients needed to grow. Dr. Lee Rosen and his colleagues at UCLA’s Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center are testing a drug called SU5416, developed by Sugen Inc. of south San Francisco. The drug is being used in conjunction with standard chemotherapy, which includes the drugs 5-FU and leucovorin.
State’s TB Cases Drop for Sixth Year
The incidence of tuberculosis in California has declined for the sixth straight year, dropping from 4,059 cases in 1997 to 3,855 in 1998, the California Department of Health Services said Wednesday. That represents a 28.4% decline since 1992, when TB cases hit a peak. California has the highest incidence of TB in the United States, with more than two-thirds of its cases reported in foreign-born individuals.
About 3.4 million Californians are infected with the bacterium that causes TB. On average, each infected individual has about a 5% lifetime chance of progression to active TB. The emergence of antibiotic-resistant bacteria is making it more difficult to control the disease. About 13% of TB cases are resistant to one commonly used TB drug and 1% to 2% are resistant to many drugs.
