Healthy Living Newsletter

Take High Blood Pressure Seriously

High blood pressure is called the silent killer because it can wreak damage throughout your body before you develop any signs or symptoms. Uncontrolled high blood pressure can lead to various life-threatening conditions. New recent study showed that, people who are overweight and also have high blood pressure were at significantly greater risk of dying of heart-related problems than normal people. This new study was led by Dr. Frederique Thomas at the Medical School of Nancy and involved nearly 250,000 people in France. This study shows that hypertension is very common among people who are overweight and obese. Overweight people with high blood pressure had twice the risk of dying of a heart attack or stroke than overweight people with normal blood pressure. Those who had high blood pressure plus other problems like diabetes had even greater risk. More on this research

Good thing is that high blood pressure is easily detected and be controlled by working with your doctor. Controlling the disease reduces the likelihood that you'll develop complications. Several dietary supplements have also been indicated to help controlling blood pressure. These include Omega-3 fatty acids, fish oil, alpha-linolenic acid, L-carnitine, alpha lipoic acid.

Read more on high blood pressure

Smoking Causes Blindness

Need more incentives to quite smoking? A link between smoking and blindness has been confirmed in several new studies published this month in the journal, Eye. Mr. Simon Kelly and colleagues reviewed 17 studies of the association between smoking and Age-related Macular Degeneration (AMD) and found that in 13 of these smokers were significantly more likely to develop AMD than non-smokers. They also suggest that heavier smokers are at higher risk, but that the risk is lower for ex-smokers. The strength of evidence presented in Kelly's review, and the conclusions of the subsequent clinical study, leave little doubt that more should be done to raise awareness of the link between smoking and sight loss. Details

Make matters worse, Boonman and colleagues present evidence that the response to treatment for the sight-threatening conditions episcleritis and scleritis is likely to be delayed by at least 4 weeks if patients are smokers. Furthermore, the authors suggest these findings may also be relevant to the treatment of Rheumatoid Arthritis and related disorders.

Quit smoking now!

New Drugs For Diabetes

September 2005, an FDA advisory committee recommended for final approval of 2 new drugs, Exubera and Pargluva, for treating type 1 and/or type 2 diabetes.

Exubera is a form of insulin that is inhaled through the mouth into the lungs prior to eating, using a proprietary inhalation device and powdered insulin formulation. Exubera closely mimics the normal physiological insulin response to meals by quickly being absorbed into the bloodstream to reduce meal-related spikes in glucose levels in people with diabetes. It is co-developed by Pfizer, Sanofi-Aventis, and Nektar Therapeutics. Pending FDA approval, Exubera would represent a major advance in insulin delivery and would be the first non-injectable insulin available in the US since the discovery of insulin in the 1920s. The recommendation by a Food and Drug Administration advisory panel came despite questions about use of the drug in people who have lung disease or were exposed to secondhand smoke. FDA officials said smokers probably would not be able to use the drug. Their blood sugar could fall dangerously low with Exubera. The advisers also questioned about the long-term effects of distributing insulin to the body through the lungs, rather than directly into the blood stream. The companies, which are promoting Exubera as an easier-to-take alternative, proposed to conduct studies on the long-term effects of the drug until 2019. In addition, the drug would not replace longer-acting insulin injections people with Type 1 diabetes need to take in the morning or before bed, according to FDA documents.

An Eli Lilly/Alkermes formulation for inhaled insulin, concentrating on type 1 diabetes, has also produced positive results and a high level of patient satisfaction in a phase II study, however it is still some way from reaching the market place.

Pargluva, Bristol Myers-Squibb and Merck & Co.'s investigational oral medication, lowers blood sugar and also increases levels of high-density lipoprotein, or "good cholesterol" in the blood. If approved, it would become the first marketed agent in a new class of compounds called glitazars. It is a dual alpha/gamma PPAR (peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor) activator.

For detailed FDA discussion on these drugs, please visit FDA's Endocrinologicic and Metabolic Drugs Advisory Committee briefs.