On the hot spot: Avandia

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AVANDIA MAKER AWARE OF CARDIAC RISKS: US SENATE REPORT

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NEW YORK - A United States Senate report has found that drug maker GlaxoSmithKline knew of possible heart attack risks tied to Avandia, its diabetes medication, years before such evidence became public.

Senator Max Baucus, chairman of the Senate Finance committee, and Senator Chuck Grassley, the committee's ranking Republican, released the report on Saturday after a two-year inquiry.

The report said the company tried to play down findings that the drug could increase cardiovascular risks, while also working to downplay findings that a rival medication might reduce such risks.

The senators asked the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) why it allowed a clinical trial of Avandia to continue even after the agency estimated that the drug caused 83,000 heart attacks between 1999 and 2007.

The agency did order a warning to be included on Avandia's label in 2007, saying that it might increase the risk of heart attacks, though the data on the risk was not conclusive. The Senate report suggests sharp disagreements remain at the FDA over how to handle Avandia's risks.

The senators said the committee's report was based on researchers' studies of Avandia, internal GlaxoSmithKline documents and FDA documents. They said committee investigators had interviewed GlaxoSmithKline and agency employees as well as what it called anonymous whistleblowers.

In a statement, GlaxoSmithKline insisted the drug is safe and said the committee report took data out of context from analyses of Avandia.

The drug is intended to control blood sugar by increasing the body's sensitivity to insulin, a protein critical to digesting sugars. AP

From TODAY, Monday, 22-Feb-2010

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Words and Music, Together in the Brain

English: music therapy (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

BRAIN LINKS WORDS, MUSIC ABILITY
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SAN DIEGO - Words and music are such natural partners that it seems obvious they go together. Now science is confirming that those abilities are linked in the brain, a finding that might even lead to better stroke treatments.

Studies have found overlap in the brain's processing of language and instrumental music, and new research suggests that intensive musical therapy may help improve speech in stroke patients, researchers said on Saturday at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

In addition, researchers said, music education can help children with developmental dyslexia or autism more accurately use speech.

People who have suffered a severe stroke on the left side of the brain and cannot speak can sometimes learn to communicate through singing, Mr Gottfried Schlaug, associate professor of neurology at Harvard Medical School told the meeting. He showed a video of a patient who could only make meaningless sounds learning to say "I am thirsty," by singing the words. Another was able to sing "happy birthday".

As long as a century ago there were reports of stroke victims who couldn't talk but who could sing, he said. Now, they are doing trials to see if music can be used as a therapy. But, he cautioned, the work is geared toward people who have had a severe stroke on the left side of the brain and the therapy can take a long time.

Dr Nina Kraus, director of the Auditory Neuroscience Laboratory at Northwestern University, reported that new studies show that musical training enhances the brain's ability to do other things.

For example, she said, the trained brain gets better at detecting patterns in sounds, so that musicians are better at picking out the voice of a friend in a noisy restaurant.

Dr Aniruddh D Patel of The Neurosciences Institute in San Diego said new studies show that music doesn't involve just hot spots in the brain, but large swaths on both sides of the brain. AP

From TODAY, Monday, 22-Feb-2010
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Tomato to fight heart disease

Tomato (Tamatar) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I think these are the kind of news that would be welcome to everyone… good news, health enhancing, health alleviating news…
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LONDON — Scientists have modified a natural compound found in tomatoes to produce a treatment which could be used to help stave off heart disease and stroke. 

The compound Lycopene is known to be a powerful antioxidant, blocking the breakdown of fats in the blood, which lead to bad cholesterol and the build-up of fatal atherosclerotic deposits in arteries. So far, no formula has been created to allow lycopene to be reliably absorbed by the human body. 

Now a team at Cambridge Theranostics have refined a lycopene complex to produce Ateronon. Trials involving around 150 people with heart disease indicate Ateronon can reduce the oxidation of harmful fats in the blood to almost zero within eight weeks. Since Ateronon is made entirely from natural food elements, it has circumvented the drug regulatory process, and is sold as a dietary supplement. 

Two major hospital research projects on Ateronon will begin in the United Kingdom and America. The Daily Telegraph

From TODAYOnline.com; see the source article here.

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