Low daily aspirin dose better
A daily aspirin dose of 75 to 81 milligrams is best for long-term prevention of cardiovascular disease and stroke without causing serious side effects, a new study found.
Higher doses of aspirin, which are commonly prescribed, don’t offer better protection and are associated with increased risks of gastrointestinal bleeding, said the study authors at the University of Kentucky.
“We could find no evidence that a higher dose of aspirin provided more efficacy than lower doses of aspirin,” said Dr. Charles L. Campbell, lead author. “On the contrary, every trend is to see more bleeding on higher doses.”
The researchers found that doses as low as 30 milligrams a day are effective in inhibiting clot-causing platelets.
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Green light for older dieters
Older, overweight women who diet do not experience reduced physical function and should feel free to try to lose weight by reducing their caloric intake, U.S. research shows.
“Our results suggest that losing weight through calorie cutting won’t lead to increased disability in older women,” lead researcher Dr. Jamehl Demons of Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center, said in a prepared statement.
When older, overweight women diet, they often may gain back some of the weight. But they are still better off than before, noted Dr. Mary F. Lyles, also at Wake Forest and the lead investigator of a second project that examined how dieting affects body composition.
Weight loss results in a reduction of both fat and muscle, and people naturally lose muscle mass and physical function as they age. This has led to questions about the safety of older adults dieting in order to lose weight.
Demons’ project looked at 23 obese, postmenopausal women, average age 58, who were put on a calorie-reduced diet for five months. They lost an average of 25 pounds, with muscle representing about 35 percent of that weight loss.
“Despite the large amount of muscle loss, their aerobic fitness and their ability to rise from a chair showed a trend toward improvement,” Demons said. “Their strength and walking speed did not change. This suggests that their weight loss through dieting wouldn’t be expected to lead to increased disability.”
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TV tunes out the teen brain
Teens who are glued to the TV for three or more hours a day are at higher risk for developing attention and learning problems, a new study suggests.
The research, led by Jeffrey G. Johnson of Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons and the New York State Psychiatric Institute, also found that it was TV watching that contributed to learning problems, not the other way around.
“Our findings suggest that teenagers who spent a lot of time watching TV tend to be more likely to have attention and learning problems that persist and interfere with their long-term educational achievement,” Johnson said. He advised parents to limit the amount of time they let their children watch TV to “about one to two hours a day — and they should be watching quality programming.”
Video games can have the same effect as TV, Johnson added.
