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Stem cell stroke treatment trial results 'show promise'
This study looked at the safety and tolerability of a stem cell therapy called ReN001 in the treatment of ischaemic stroke, where the blood supply to the brain is blocked by a blood clot. The findings, which were reported in a press release, suggest that the nine people included in the study experienced no adverse effects and showed a modest improvement in stroke-related symptoms. However, the full findings from the PISCES trial are yet to be published in a peer-reviewed journal. Until this happens, it is worth exercising a little healthy scepticism about the claims being made. This research is still at a very early s...
Source: NHS News Feed - May 28, 2013 Category: Consumer Health News Tags: Neurology Medical practice QA articles Source Type: news

'Safe' stem cell therapy may help stroke recovery
Conclusion This study provides evidence that a new technique using a patient's own stem cells to aid the recovery from severe ischaemic stoke is feasible and appears to be safe. It was not designed to test whether the technique was better than doing nothing or better than other types of care or treatment. The authors are perfectly clear that this "proof-of-concept study was not designed with a control group or powered to be able to detect efficacy". This means we cannot be sure that the improvements seen in the five patients were caused by the stem cell treatment. They could have occurred anyway as part of the na...
Source: NHS News Feed - August 11, 2014 Category: Consumer Health News Tags: Genetics/stem cells Heart/lungs Source Type: news

Calcium supplements linked to post-stroke dementia in women
Conclusion The media paint this as a troubling study for older women who take calcium to strengthen their bones. However the small size of the study (only 98 women took calcium supplements, and only 14 of those got dementia) and its observational nature mean that we cannot rely on the results. As the researchers mention, it is possible that those taking supplements were less healthy than those that didn't in some unmeasured way. Further research may improve our confidence in these results. Broken bones are not a trivial matter for older people – a broken hip can be the difference between being able to live independentl...
Source: NHS News Feed - August 18, 2016 Category: Consumer Health News Tags: Neurology Medication Older people Source Type: news

Study: 'mini strokes should be treated immediately with aspirin'
Conclusion The study supports current recommended practice that people with a TIA or ischaemic stroke caused by a blood clot are treated with aspirin as soon as possible. NHS experts are considering whether to recommend that you take aspirin yourself while waiting for medical help. The reason this isn't recommended at present is that some people will have had a haemorrhagic (bleeding) stroke, and aspirin can make the bleeding worse. For people who've had a full stroke, an urgent brain scan is usually performed to exclude bleeding as a cause and check it's safe to proceed with anti-clotting treatment. The risk of trans...
Source: NHS News Feed - May 19, 2016 Category: Consumer Health News Tags: Neurology Medication Source Type: news

Can a 'microwave helmet' really detect strokes?
Conclusion This study has shown that haemorrhagic strokes could potentially be distinguished from ischaemic strokes by analysing microwave scattering measurements. While the two types of stroke can already be accurately diagnosed by CT or MRI scans in hospital, the “microwave helmet” development is important because it could potentially be used before someone arrives in hospital. This would avoid any time delay and allow people with ischaemic stroke to receive the anti-clotting medication that they need as soon as possible, potentially reducing the extent of damage the stroke causes. The technique isn’t perfect ye...
Source: NHS News Feed - June 17, 2014 Category: Consumer Health News Tags: Heart/lungs Medical practice Source Type: news

'Nine out of 10 strokes preventable,' claims study
Conclusion This valuable research aims to clarify which preventable risk factors are associated with stroke risk – knowledge that could have an effect on addressing this important global health problem. The study's strengths are that it is based on a large sample size of nearly 27,000 people from 32 countries and of different socioeconomic backgrounds. The researchers made careful attempts beforehand to calculate how many participants they would need to include to be able to reliably detect differences in risk factors. There was little missing data across the total sample – for the various different risk factors as...
Source: NHS News Feed - July 18, 2016 Category: Consumer Health News Tags: Neurology Medication Source Type: news

Air pollution linked to silent strokes
Conclusion This cross-sectional study has suggested a link between exposure to small particles in the air (one form of pollution) and the presence of "silent stroke" in older adults – small areas of damage to the brain tissue that are not severe enough to cause obvious symptoms. There are a number of limitations to be aware of when assessing the results of this study: While there was an association between particulate matter in the air and total brain volume, this was no longer statistically significant after taking into account whether people have conditions such as high blood pressure, which can also affec...
Source: NHS News Feed - April 24, 2015 Category: Consumer Health News Tags: Lifestyle/exercise Neurology Source Type: news

A pattern of brain activity may link stress to heart attacks
Conclusion This intriguing study sets out a possible pathway by which the effects of stress on the brain could translate into inflammation in the blood vessels, and so raise the risks of cardiovascular disease. This would help to explain why people living in stressful situations, or with illnesses such as depression and anxiety, are more at risk of heart attacks and strokes. However, there are important limitations to the study which mean we should treat the findings with caution. The main study of 293 people was relatively small for a long-term study looking at cardiovascular disease, and only 22 people had a cardiovascul...
Source: NHS News Feed - January 12, 2017 Category: Consumer Health News Tags: Neurology Mental health Source Type: news

Scan could detect those on brink of heart attack
Conclusion This is a valuable study which shows the promise of using PET-CT with radioactively labelled sodium fluoride (NaF) as a way of identifying fatty deposits in the heart arteries that could be at risk of rupturing and causing a heart attack. The results confirmed that the marker used in this study (NaF) was better than the chemical marker normally used in PET-CT scans (FDG). The technique has the principal value of being a non-invasive technique compared with coronary angiography, which is the standard method used to look at blockages in heart arteries. As it does not involve surgical intervention, this could ha...
Source: NHS News Feed - November 11, 2013 Category: Consumer Health News Tags: Heart/lungs Medical practice Source Type: news

Behind the Headlines 2014 Quiz of the Year
In 2014, Behind the Headlines covered more than 500 health stories that made it into the mainstream media. Test your knowledge of 2014's health news with our month-by-month quiz. If you've been paying attention, you should find this quiz both easy and fun. Answers are at the foot of the page (no peeking!).   In January 2014's health news... What was said to help make bones stronger? 1) Swimming 2) Marriage 3) Listening to classical music Warnings were issued about the possible return of what? 1) Swine flu 2) The Black Death 3) Smallpox   In February 2014's health news... What activity was said to lower your ...
Source: NHS News Feed - December 29, 2014 Category: Consumer Health News Tags: Special reports Medical practice Source Type: news

Can chocolate make you smarter?
ConclusionStudies suggesting that chocolate is good for us always grab the headlines. However, as is so often the case, the reality is less clear than the headlines suggest.The current study adds to information about the links between diet and brain function – the way our brain processes and manages information. It found that people who scored better than average on these tests said they ate chocolate more often than people who scored worse than average on the tests. But we don't know why that is.There are quite a few limitations to the study. It's cross-sectional, which means we don't know which came first: the chocol...
Source: NHS News Feed - March 9, 2016 Category: Consumer Health News Tags: Food/diet Mental health Source Type: news

Can HRT in early menopause cut heart disease risk?
ConclusionThis double-blind RCT found that women taking HRT less than six years after the menopause had slower artery wall thickening than those taking a placebo. This represented the main measure of atherosclerosis progression tested; other measures showed no difference, so the results were not as conclusive as they could have been. Women taking HRT 10 or more years after menopause also showed no difference in atherosclerosis progression compared with a placebo, further complicating the picture.An important limitation of this study is the lack of a patient relevant endpoint, such as cardiovascular events or mortality. Pre...
Source: NHS News Feed - April 1, 2016 Category: Consumer Health News Tags: Heart/lungs Medication Source Type: news

Behind the Headlines 2016 Quiz of the Year
In 2014, Behind the Headlines has covered more than 500 health stories that made it into the mainstream media. If you've been paying attention you should find this quiz easy and fun. Why not test your knowledge of 2014's health news with our month-by-month quiz? Answers are at the foot of the page (no peeking!).   In January 2016's health news... In a controversial study, monkeys were genetically engineered to develop what disorder? 1) Sex addiction 2) Bi-polar disorder 3) Autism In a similarly controversial study, what psychological condition was dismissed as a "myth" 1) Seasonal affective disorder...
Source: NHS News Feed - December 5, 2016 Category: Consumer Health News Tags: Special reports Source Type: news

Statins side effects 'have been overstated,' says study
Conclusion This is a complex study that provides a plausible explanation for the difference in reports of adverse effects of statins in RCTs and observational studies, some of which have suggested as many as 1 in 5 people get side effects from statins. However, we need to be aware of some limitations and unanswered questions: When people knew they were taking statins, they were more likely to report muscle pain than those not taking statins. But they were less likely to report muscle pain than in the first phase of the study, when they didn't know whether they were taking statins or placebo. We don't know why this is. ...
Source: NHS News Feed - May 3, 2017 Category: Consumer Health News Tags: Medication Heart/lungs Source Type: news

Statins side effects 'have been overstated', says study
Conclusion This is a complex study that provides a plausible explanation for the difference in reports of adverse effects of statins in RCTs and observational studies, some of which have suggested as many as 1 in 5 people get side effects from statins. However, we need to be aware of some limitations and unanswered questions: When people knew they were taking statins, they were more likely to report muscle pain than those not taking statins. But they were less likely to report muscle pain than in the first phase of the study, when they didn't know whether they were taking statins or placebo. We don't know why this is. ...
Source: NHS News Feed - May 3, 2017 Category: Consumer Health News Tags: Medication Heart/lungs Source Type: news

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