Melatonin Ads Mislead Seniors, Study Says
Advertisements that promote the use of melatonin supplements for the elderly are misleading to consumers, according to a new study by Boston researchers. The ads, often seen on TV or in magazines, claim that levels of melatonin--a hormone that helps control the sleep cycle--naturally decline with aging and that the elderly need to replace it with supplements to get a good night’s sleep.
“Our data do not support this claim,” said Dr. Charles A. Czeisler of the Harvard Medical School.
Czeisler, a leading U.S. authority on sleep, and his colleagues studied 34 healthy men and women, ranging in age from 65 to 81, and compared them to a group of 101 healthy younger men.
They made sure that the members of the older study group were not taking common drugs that suppress melatonin production, such as aspirin, ibuprofen and beta-blockers.
That precaution was not taken in earlier studies by other researchers. The older subjects spent three nights sleeping in the lab so that researchers could take blood samples and measure melatonin levels.
The researchers report in the November issue of the American Journal of Medicine that melatonin levels in the elderly were the same as those in the younger men.
“It is simply not true that the pineal gland acts as an aging clock, winding down its production of melatonin with age,” said endocrinologist Jamie M. Zeitzer, one of the researchers.
Researchers Laud Pneumonia Vaccines
Vaccination against pneumonia significantly reduces hospitalization and death rates among seniors with chronic lung disease, according to researchers from the Minneapolis Veterans Affairs Medical Center. Previous studies have yielded conflicting results about the value of pneumonia vaccination, but the new results provide strong evidence in its favor.
Dr. Kristin L. Nichol and her colleagues studied 1,280 people age 65 or older with chronic lung disease who received the vaccination and another 618 who did not, following them for two years.
The team reports in today’s Archives of Internal Medicine that the vaccinated group had 43% fewer hospitalizations for pneumonia and influenza and a 29% reduction in deaths from all causes.
Participants who received both the pneumonia vaccine and the influenza vaccine had a 72% reduction in hospitalizations for the two diseases and an 82% reduction in deaths from all causes.
Prostate Cancer Therapies Examined
Surgery and radiation are equally effective in treating prostate cancer, according to researchers from the Cleveland Clinic Foundation.
Dr. Patrick Kupelian and his colleagues studied 627 patients who underwent surgery for the disease and 565 who were treated with radiation.
Kupelian reported Nov. 1 at a San Antonio meeting of the American Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology that, after eight years, 85% of patients with early stage prostate cancer were still alive, regardless of whether they had surgery or radiation.
Those with more advanced cancer had a 60% survival rate regardless of which therapy was used.
Back Pain Treatments May Work Equally Well
Spinal manipulation by osteopaths appears to work about as well as conventional medicine at curing lingering back pain. About 5% of U.S. physicians are osteopaths. Unlike MDs, they frequently use spinal manipulation, especially for lower back pain.
In Thursday’s New England Journal of Medicine, osteopaths and MDs from Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke’s Medical Center in Chicago and the Chicago College of Osteopathic Medicine reported the results of a study intended to see which approach worked better.
Many studies have shown that most backaches go away within a month, no matter what kind of treatment sufferers get. So the new study was conducted on those who had been in pain for at least three weeks but less than six months.
The doctors randomly assigned 83 patients to osteopathic manipulation and 72 to conventional treatment, which consisted of painkillers, muscle relaxants and anti-inflammatory drugs. Three months later, there was no difference in how the two groups felt. Pain decreased by half in both.
FDA OKs Prozac for Premenstrual Disorder
Federal advisors on Wednesday unanimously endorsed Prozac as a treatment for a severe type of premenstrual syndrome that afflicts about 7 million U.S. women and has no government-approved treatments. The Food and Drug Administration advisory committee recommended that the agency allow Eli Lilly and Co. to market Prozac for the condition, known as premenstrual dysphoric disorder, or PMDD.
Usually striking seven or more days before menstruation, the disorder causes severe mood changes, irritability and anxiety that impairs normal activity. PMDD also can spur physical symptoms such as bloating and breast tenderness. Symptoms disappear before the menstrual period ends.
PMDD is more disabling than PMS, which causes lesser mood swings and physical symptoms in about 75% of menstruating women. By contrast, PMDD affects about 3% to 5% of menstruating women, experts said.
Taking Prozac daily can relieve mood changes quickly in 60% to 70% of patients, said Dr. Meir Steiner, the lead researcher on one of three studies Lilly presented. Prozac also provides some relief for physical symptoms, Steiner said.
Dutch Study Endorses Angioplasty Over Drugs
Angioplasty, in which doctors open a clogged blood vessel with a tiny inflatable balloon, dramatically lowers the risk of death or heart attack, and costs less than treatment with clot-dissolving drugs, according to Dutch researchers. They said the death rate with angioplasty is 46% lower than when patients are given the intravenous drug streptokinase. Writing in Thursday’s New England Journal of Medicine, Dr. Felix Zijlstra and his colleagues at Weezenlander Hospital in the Netherlands said the risk of subsequent heart attack is 73% lower and treatment costs 4% less when angioplasty is used.
But the new study is not expected to be the final word on whether angioplasty or clotting drugs are the best treatment. Other studies have suggested that there is little difference between the two therapies. There is also a suggestion, based on a study published in Circulation in 1998, that a combination of both treatments may produce the best results.
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This column includes reports from Times wire services.
* Medical writer Thomas H. Maugh II can be reached at thomas.maugh@latimes.com.
