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Anti-inflammatory drug may help prevent heart attacks
Conclusion This well-conducted study shows promising signs that canakinumab may reduce the risk of future heart attacks and other cardiovascular events in people who've had them in the past. But before any changes are made to the current licensing of this drug, further research is needed to confirm the beneficial effects and the optimal dose. Most importantly, researchers will need to focus on the observation that the drug lowered white blood cell counts and increased the risk of fatal infection. They estimated around 1 in every 300 people taking canakinumab would die of a fatal infection. This number, while low, is sti...
Source: NHS News Feed - August 30, 2017 Category: Consumer Health News Tags: Heart/lungs Source Type: news

New recommendations aim to improve safety of pain-relieving spinal steroid injections
More and more people are seeking injections of anti-inflammatory steroid medications for back and neck pain. In 2011, the last year for which complete information is available, doctors pushed the plunger on 2.3 million steroid injections into the spine — and that’s just among people covered by Medicare. These injections deliver drugs that mimic the effects of two hormones, cortisone and hydrocortisone, to reduce inflammation and help relieve pain. When they work — they don’t always — such injections can bring profound relief. “If you are in severe pain with a ruptured spinal disc and you get a stero...
Source: New Harvard Health Information - May 7, 2015 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Daniel Pendick Tags: Back Pain Drugs and Supplements anti-inflammatory steroid medications spinal injections spine steroid injections Source Type: news