HEALTH "TRUTHS" OVERTURNED

  Medical advice is often subject to change.  For instance, a new trial that’s more thorough than previous studies might cast doubt on a current practice.  Recent studies found that:

·        Raising HDL (good) cholesterol with drugs does nothing to protect people against heart attacks, strokes and early death.

·        Routine prostate-cancer screening is less likely to save lives and more likely to lead to substantial harm from subsequent treatment.

·        People who receive a brain stent to prevent a second stroke are actually more likely to have another stroke or die sooner compared with those who take medication AND also make fairly rigorous lifestyle changes.

·        A medical “reversal” occurs when an existing practice is found to be wrong.  “It happens when devices, pills, and procedures come to market before they have been shown to make people live longer or better in well-designed studies,” says Vinay Prasad, M.D., a physician in Chicago.  He is the lead author of a 2011 study published in the Archives of Internal Medicine, which found that 13 percent of the research articles published in The New England Journal of Medicine in 2009 reported reversals in research findings involving drugs, screening tests, and invasive procedures.

·        Another review published in the Journal of the American Medical Association looked at studies that found a medical practice was effective.  One-third of them were followed by trials that either contradicted the initial findings or found fewer benefits.  It is not uncommon for early research to provide an overoptimistic view of new treatments,” says David Tovey, M.D., editor-in-chief of the Cochrane Library, and international research network that evaluates treatment effectiveness.  In other cases, popular health beliefs ultimately prove to be baseless.  Below are familiar practices and assumptions that have recently been revised because of additional research.  Feed a cold, starve a fever:  “There is no scientific basis” says Yul D, Ejnes, M.D. Rhode of Island chairman of the Board of Regents of the American College of Physicians.  “With a fever, one should be well-hydrated because there’s often excessive sweating or gastrointestinal illness that can result in fluid loss.  Starving would also cause stress when bodies are already under stress. }MORE TOMORROW ON THIS SUBJECT{.