Health Buzz: Drug May Save Trauma Victims

June 15, 2010 RSS Feed Print

Drug May Save Trauma Victims

A low-cost drug that helps prevent hemorrhage may save the lives of as many as 100,000 trauma victims each year, according to a new report in the Lancet. British researchers who studied more than 20,000 trauma patients found that the drug tranexamic acid, or TXA, reduced patients' risk of bleeding to death by 15 percent, HealthDay reports. Patients who received TXA were also 10 percent less likely to die of any cause than those taking a placebo. TXA is often used during surgery to prevent excessive blood loss, but using the drug for trauma is not common practice, HealthDay reports.

Preventing Alzheimer's Disease: 7 Risks to Consider

Ask most folks to name their biggest fear about growing old and chances are they won't say gray hair and wrinkles, but the devastating loss of their mental capacity, U.S. News's Deborah Kotz writes. Alzheimer's disease accounts for 60 to 80 percent of all dementias, striking as many as 5 million Americans. While the disease has genetic underpinnings, it's also associated with certain lifestyle factors including diet, exercise, and level of education. So what steps can you take to help prevent it?

Some recent studies suggest that eating more fruits and vegetables and less saturated fat may be the ticket. Others point to folic acid or fish oil supplements as beneficial. Still others have found that drinking moderate amounts of alcohol confers some protection. But an expert panel recently convened by the National Institutes of Health says there's not enough evidence from any of these studies to warrant making lifestyle changes to lower your risk of Alzheimer's, Kotz reports.

"The primary limitation with most of these studies is the distinction between association and causality," write the NIH experts in their "state of the science" paper published in the Annals of Internal Medicine. For instance, people with a higher level of education have a lower risk of Alzheimer's, but that doesn't mean going to grad school will protect you. It could be that those individuals read more books and play more chess in their lifetime than other folks, which continually challenges their brains and has a disease-preventing effect. [Read more: Preventing Alzheimer's Disease: 7 Risks to Consider.]

Physicians May Give Too Many Pap Tests

After three normal Pap smears, women older than 30 can get the screening test for cervical cancer once every three years, according to guidelines set by the American Cancer Society and other groups. But less than one third of 1,200 physicians surveyed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention follow that recommendation, and instead advise patients be screened annually, leading some women to get more Pap tests than needed, HealthDay reports. Lead author Mona Saraiya, of the CDC, told HealthDay that over-screening leads to additional costs and unnecessary follow-up tests.

In February, Deborah Armstrong, U.S. News's Health Advice expert in medical oncology, wrote that cervical cancer screening recommendations are changing because of progress in combating the disease. "As we've developed a better understanding of the role of the human papillomavirus in cervical cancer, the Pap test has evolved. We can now test not only for abnormal cells that develop in response to HPV infection but also for the virus that causes the disease."

"The ongoing development of vaccines against HPV means that future generations are less likely to develop HPV-related diseases, and we need to adjust screening recommendations to reflect lower risk. We also recognize that the disease develops slowly, so low-risk women don't need a Pap test every year; testing every two to three years is sufficient," Armstrong wrote. [Read more: Is It Safe to Get Pap Smears Less Often?]

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