Is the ‘polypill’ really a panacea for cardiovascular disease and should it be routinely prescribed to patients aged over 55 years? Erica Mills examines the issues and asks some experts for their opinions With the recent spate of media attention, one might be forgiven for thinking that the ‘polypill’ will soon be a fact of [...]
Dr Neville Wilson writes that a shift to a new treatment paradigm that embraces HDL cholesterol enhancement is necessary in the management of coronary heart disease Coronary heart disease (CHD) remains the leading cause of death in the western world. Despite the documented decrease in cardiac-related mortality since the late 1960s, the incidence of CHD [...]
Dr Jim Crowley, Dr Susan Connolly, Irene Gibson and Neil Johnson outline the thinking behind Croi MyAction — a community-based preventive cardiology programme Despite the decline in cardiovascular disease (CVD) mortality rates over the past two decades, it is the single most common cause of death in Ireland, accounting for 36 per cent of all [...]
Repeated encouragement and verbal instruction do not motivate older stroke survivors to be physically active, and other more intensive strategies need to be found, a new study has concluded. According to background information cited in the study, counselling on physical activity can motivate some elderly sedentary people to improve their level of physical activity, and [...]
Men and women who walk or ride a bike to work appear more fit, and men are less likely to be overweight or obese and have healthier triglyceride levels, blood pressure and insulin levels, according to a new report. The report followed a study in which researchers followed 2,364 adults in the Coronary Artery Risk [...]
Several cerebrospinal fluid biomarkers have shown good accuracy in identifying patients with mild cognitive impairment who progressed to Alzheimer’s disease in old age, according to a new study. Biochemical changes in the brain are reflected in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), and intense research efforts have been made to develop biomarkers for the central pathogenic processes [...]
Mr Javaid Butt describes the causes of anal fissure and looks at both the medical therapies and the surgical options that are available in the management of the condition Benign anorectal diseases — including fissures, abscesses, fistulas and haemorrhoids — are common. The prevalence of anal fissure is difficult to estimate, since almost any anorectal [...]
A new study has found that elderly persons who lived alone in middle-age had twice the risk of developing dementia and Alzheimer’s disease compared with people who were married or cohabited in middle-age. The study also found that elderly persons who were widowed or divorced in mid-life had a three-time risk of dementia. While there [...]
The amino acid N-acetyl-cysteine appears to reduce symptoms of compulsive hair-pulling in patients with a condition of trichotillomania. Study authors undertook their study of the basis of previous studies that found that N-acetylcysteine had shown promise in treating repetitive and compulsive disorders. The researchers conducted a 12-week, double-blind controlled trial of the medication among 50 [...]
A study comparing surgical treatments for sciatica has found that the minimally invasive procedure known as tubular diskectomy does not provide a significant difference in improvement of functional disability compared to the more common surgery, conventional microdiskectomy. In the multicentre trial, surgeons investigated the outcomes and time to recovery in patients with lumbar disk herniation [...]
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