Word: heart
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...cholesterol, but it turned out that they not only lowered LDL, but raised levels of HDL, or good cholesterol, in the blood as well. In the early 2000s, researchers reported that statins also reduced inflammation, a process that appears to contribute to the rupture of unstable plaques in the heart vessels, which triggers heart attack...
...drugs have not been without problems, however. Statins have been linked to a rare but serious muscle weakening, and no studies have fully explored the effects of statins in patients who take them long term, perhaps for decades - today, the first generation of American heart patients to be prescribed statins have been taking the drugs for some 15 years...
Still, the new study offers further evidence that statins may help prevent heart attack in a much broader population than previously thought. Last fall, a large trial of middle-aged people who had not had a heart attack but showed signs of inflammation suggested that statins could reduce their risk of having a first heart attack by 45% to 47%. If more studies like these confirm the drugs' beneficial role in reducing cholesterol, inflammation and heart disease, doctors may someday consider advising otherwise healthy people to lower their levels of cholesterol and inflammatory protein markers below currently accepted limits - whether...
...health risks of being obese are certainly well known by now - diabetes, heart disease, stroke and hypertension, to name a few. But the dangers are even greater for pregnant women and particularly for their developing babies. A new analysis, published Feb. 11 in the Journal of the American Medical Association, documents a wider than expected range of birth defects that are more likely to plague babies born to obese women...
...were obese - defined as having a BMI of 29 or greater - before pregnancy were more than twice as likely to have an infant with spina bifida, nearly twice as likely to have a baby with other neural-tube defects, and more vulnerable to giving birth to babies with heart problems, cleft palate or cleft lip, abnormal rectum or anus development, and hydrocephaly, a condition in which excess spinal fluid builds up in the brain. While the risk of birth defects in obese women has been known, "I wouldn't have predicted the range of birth defects found to be increased...