Your Health by John Denniston

Older blood pressure drugs are as effective
 
ACE inhibitors are as effective as the newer and more expensive ARB drugs for treating people at high risk of heart attacks and stroke, according to a Canadian study of more than 17,000 people.
 
Both drugs are used to treat high blood pressure, with ARB drugs costing about 20 percent more. The study found that after five years, the patients, all of whom had coronary artery disease or diabetes during the study period, had virtually the same rate—around 16.5 percent—of adverse effects or death.
  
The study reported in the New England Journal of Medicine concluded that switching to ACE inhibitors (such as Altace) from ARB drugs (such as Micardis) would decrease a patient’s costs while giving the same results. However, ARB drugs should be used if the patient has side effects, such as coughing, with ACE inhibitors.
 
 
Age shouldn’t inhibit blood pressure treatment
 
Aggressive treatment of high blood pressure in people 80 and older is effective, according to a study in the New England Journal of Medicine.
 
During a two-year international study of almost 4,000 people 80 and older, researchers found that those patients treated with a diuretic to lower blood pressure were 30 percent less likely to have a stroke, and the death rate from stroke was 39 percent lower.
 
Additionally, those treated with a diuretic were 23 percent less likely to die from cardiovascular disease and had a 64 percent lower chance of having heart failure. Overall, there was a 21 percent decrease in the rate of death from all causes.
 
Many doctors are reluctant to treat high blood pressure aggressively in people over 80, feeling the treatment will do more harm than good. The study called for physicians to reevaluate this, especially in light of the growing elderly population.
 
 
Drinking even a little alcohol may increase blood pressure
 
Drinking alcohol even moderately may increase blood pressure more than previously thought, according to a British study published in the Public Library of Science journal PLoS Medicine.
 
The study found that “quite modest” drinkers had a 70 percent increased risk for high blood pressure compared to people who did not drink at all. People who drank about three drinks a day had more than a two-fold risk of high blood pressure than those who did not drink alcohol.

 
Brain lesions in older people more common than previously thought
 
More people over 60 have brain lesions than commonly thought, according to a study from the Netherlands published in the journal Neurology.
 
A study of more than 1,000 healthy people, with an average age of 70, found that up to four times more people than previously thought have cerebral microbleeds, brain lesions that are deposits of iron from red blood cells that have leaked out of small blood vessels.
 
MRIs of the study group also found that the number of people with lesions increased with age, from 18 percent in people 60 to 69, to 28 percent in people over 80.
 
Living longer, Paying more
 
The good news is that older Americans are living longer and better than ever before. The bad news is that the United States continues to lag other industrial nations such as Japan, France and Sweden in life expectancy, according to a new report.
 
“Older Americans 2008: Key Indicators of Well-Being” found that Americans who are 65 today can expect to live an average of 18.7 more years, almost seven years longer than people age 65 in 1900, but women over 65 in Japan, for example, can expect to live 3.2 years longer than women in the United States and men in Japan can expect to live 1.2 years longer than Americans.
 
The study by the Federal Interagency Forum on Aging-Related Statistics also found:

-obesity in the United States has increased since 1994 in people over 65 (from 22 percent to 31 percent),
-health-care costs for older Americans increased from $8,644 in 1992 to $13,052 in 2004, when prescription drugs made up 61 percent of expenses.

 
Women worldwide have higher incidence of chest pains
 
Women are 20 percent more likely to suffer from angina, chronic heart-related chest pain, than are men, researchers report in the American Heart Association’s journal Circulation.
 
Men have higher rates of fatal heart attacks, but the new analysis of more than 400,000 people worldwide found that the increased incidence of women having angina in every country pointed to a biological basis rather than a cultural or other artificial basis. The study was led by the University College London Medical School.
 
 
Memory loss not classified as dementia affects many
 
More than 20 percent of Americans over 70 may have a memory impairment that isn’t classified as dementia, a study by Duke University School of Medicine reports.
 
An estimated 3.5 million Americans suffer from dementia, but 5.4 million over 70 have some memory loss that affects their lifestyle but not their ability to function, according to the four-year study of almost 1,000 people.
 
Researchers found that 22 percent of the people had memory loss not classified as dementia and 24 percent of that group had chronic health problems, such as diabetes, that may have led to the cognitive impairment.
 
The results were published in the Annals of Internal Medicine.
 

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