The man with an 'unrelenting' 22-hour erection caused by an illegal TANNING INJECTION

A 41-year-old man needed hospital treatment for an erection that had lasted 22 hours after he injected a tanning supplement.

• The unidentified man bought the drug melanotan from a bodybuilding shop
• It had given the man two-hour long erections before but his tan was 'very good' 
• After hospital treatment he was suffering with erectile dysfunction a month later 

By VANESSA CHALMERS HEALTH REPORTER FOR MAILONLINE

PUBLISHED: 14:25 GMT, 25 February 2019 | UPDATED: 18:41 GMT, 25 February 2019

The man, who lives in Scotland, bought melanotan, which is illegal to sell in the UK, at a bodybuilding shop. He injected it into his abdomen.

The synthetic hormone, also known as the 'Barbie drug', triggered the unidentified man's case of priapism, the medical term for a prolonged erection, which usually lasts four to six hours. 

The patient had to endure a barrage of injections into his sore penis to relieve the erection, narrowly avoiding surgery.

But four weeks later, the man was suffering with erectile dysfunction - a permanent side effect in severe cases of priapism. 

Doctors said they had never seen a case like it, and said it served as a warning about dodgy tanning products on the market. 

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A 41-year-old man needed hospital treatment for an erection that had lasted 22 hours after he injected an illegal tanning supplement that he bought in a bodybuilding shop

The team at Queen Elizabeth University Hospital, Glasgow, led by Dr Barend Albert Dreyer reported the story in BMJ Case Reports.

Melanotan is a synthetic hormone used for tanning that works by increasing the levels of melanin, a natural dark pigment in the skin. 

The doctors revealed the man had been purchasing the melanotan solution over the counter for several months and he usually had a very good tan response. 

Products such as melanotan, steroids and image enhancing drugs such as clenbuterol to lose weight, are common among the bodybuilding scene and increasingly in the general population, too. 

But melanotan is not legal in the UK because no-one is sure of its dangers.

WHAT IS MELANOTAN?

Melanotan is a synthetic hormone used for tanning that works by increasing the levels of melanin, a natural dark pigment in the skin.  

This pigment is part of the body’s natural response to the sun, and increasing levels of melanin results in skin darkening or tanning. 

There are 2 types of Melanotan – Melanotan I and Melanotan II.

It is currently illegal to sell tan injections such as Melanotan, as this product is unlicensed. 

Melanotan is illegal in the UK because it has not been tested for safety, quality or effectiveness and no one knows what the possible side effects are or how serious they could be.

The MHRA (Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency) tests medical products in the UK. They are warning people not to use Melanotan and they say that the product is being 'advertised and sold illegally'.

The drug is sold online or under the counter at gyms and beauty salons and because the drug is self-injected, there are fears that users are putting themselves at risk of infections such as hepatitis or HIV. 

Source: Cancer Research UK and NHS.

The man said that the label or seller didn't give any indications of major side effects, and dosage was in 'number of phials', so it was unclear how much medication was in each injection. 

He had suffered with two-hour erections after using it previously. But this time, after injecting a phial into his stomach, his penis was painful and 'unable to be used' within an hour.

He arrived at A&E after 22 hours, after attempting to soothe the pain with ice at his home. 

Tests confirmed that the man had low-flow priapism, which is the result of blood being trapped in the erection chambers. 

It can occur without a known reason in men who are otherwise healthy, but it also affects men with sickle-cell disease.

After injections every five minutes by doctors for around half an hour, the man finally saw his erection subside. 

The International Society of Sexual Medicine recommends that penile shunting procedures be considered when first line treatment has not worked or as a first option for priapism episodes lasting more than 72 hours.

The doctors said the man avoided a surgical shunt, which is a passageway that is surgically inserted into the penis to divert the blood flow and allow circulation to return to normal. 

The report said: 'Although this patient claimed he did not take any other drugs, concomitant substance misuse was not definitively ruled out as he self-discharged before a toxicology screen could be performed.

'It may be possible that he also misused other drugs from the body-building store and these may have contributed to his erectile dysfunction.'  

The patient had approximately two weeks of swelling after returning home and initially no erections whatsoever. 

'In the last week, however, he had started to have some spontaneous erections though they were shortlived and unable to be sustained for use,' the report said.

Dr Dreyer added: 'Priapism is an uncommon presentation to the accident and emergency department, and in my one year of urology in Glasgow this is the only case that I have seen. 

'We chose to write this case up as it presented a rare/unheard of cause of an uncommon disease.'

Forms of melanotan has been suggested as a possible therapeutic for the treatment of erectile dysfunction, but the doctor's said cases such as this unfortunate man's needed to be taken into account. 

Dr Dreyer said: 'Our patient said that if he had known about priapism as a potential side-effect he would never have considered using Melanotan. 

'More widespread knowledge around this side effect may help decrease Melanotan misuse.  He will avoid melanotan use in future and stick to sun-beds.'

WHAT IS PRIAPISM? 

Priapism is a long-lasting painful erection which can cause permanent damage to your penis if not treated quickly, including scarring and permanent erectile dysfunction. 

Priapism can occur in all age groups, including newborns. However, it usually affects men in two different age groups: between the ages of 5 and 10, and 20 and 50. 

The condition develops when blood in the penis becomes trapped and is unable to drain. 

There are two types of priapism: low-flow and high-flow.

Low-flow priapism: This is the result of blood being trapped in the erection chambers. It often occurs without a known cause in men who are otherwise healthy, but it also affects men with sickle-cell disease, leukemia (cancer of the blood), or malaria.

High-flow priapism: This is more rare and is usually not painful. It is the result of a ruptured artery from an injury to the penis or the perineum (the area between the scrotum and anus), which prevents blood in the penis from circulating normally.

Do:

• try to urinate
• have a warm bath or shower
• drink lots of water
• go for a gentle walk
• try exercises such as squats or running on the spot
• take painkillers like paracetemol if you need to  

Don't

• do not apply ice packs or cold water to your penis – this can make things worse
• do not have sex or masturbate – it won't make your erection go away
• do not drink alcohol
• do not smoke 

The goal of all treatment is to make the erection go away and preserve the ability to have erections in the future, and may include surgical ligation, intravenous injection and surgical shunt. 

Source: NHS and Cleveland Clinic 

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-6742745/Man-41-needs-hospital-treatment-end-22-HOUR-erection-caused-illegal-tanning-supplement.html

Sex, Drugs and That Little Blue Pill

Viagra History From Sex Icon to Generic Drug

On Monday, a generic drug company is going to begin selling sildenafil in the U.S., and to tell you the truth, I’m surprised the news hasn’t gotten more attention.

By 

Joe Nocera

18

December 6, 2017, 6:00 PM GMT+8

Marketing pitch.

 Source: Bloomberg

You see,  is the compound that goes by the brand name Viagra. Introduced by Pfizer Inc. in March 1998, Viagra has generated over $17 billion in the U.S. alone. Although the Viagra patent doesn’t expire until 2020, Pfizer agreed about four years ago to allow Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. to sell a generic version starting in December 2017, settling a legal battle between the two companies. 1

But Viagra’s patent history is hardly the point, is it?

Viagra was the first drug to allow impotent men to maintain erections. That made it the first true “lifestyle” drug and showed the pharmaceutical industry that there was money to be made developing drugs that improved people's lives without curing disease or alleviating pain. Its advertising — happy couples enjoying life thanks to Viagra (with the drug’s side effects read hastily as music swells) — was a precursor to the direct-to-consumer pharma advertising that now assaults us daily.

Although its critics have often decried Viagra as representing a degradation of American life — a descent into “a quick-fix pill culture," as one author put it 2 — there's no denying that it has allowed millions of men to reclaim their sex lives. And thanks in part to the way Viagra and its eventual competitors, Cialis and Levitra, have been marketed, it’s also been used by millions of men with little or no need for it at all.

The 1990s, when Viagra was first brought to market, was the era of the pharmaceutical blockbuster, defined as drugs that generated $1 billion or more a year in revenue. At the time, Pfizer had Lipitor, Celebrex and Zoloft in its portfolio. Sildenafil was expected to join them — as an angina medication. Alas, trials showed that the compound didn’t do much for angina, 3 but it had a remarkable side effect: With very little arousal, men got sustained erections.

This did not cause Pfizer’s top executives to jump for joy. In that more sedate age, they worried about being accused of selling a recreational drug. They feared that the company’s reputation would be besmirched by manufacturing a sex aid. They even toyed with the idea of spinning Viagra off into a separate company, as a way to keep its new drug at arm’s length.

But after conducting marketing surveys and focus groups, Pfizer became convinced that Viagra was destined to become another blockbuster. (Indeed it was: It hit the $1 billion mark in its first full year 4 on the market.) So instead of distancing itself from its new drug, Pfizer went all in, cooperating with stories it knew would be more salacious than not.

If creating a lifestyle drug was the first innovation, selling one was the second. Traditionally, companies sold drugs by having salespeople persuade doctors to prescribe them. But that wouldn’t work for Viagra; doctors were as reluctant to ask patients about their sex lives as anyone else. The only way doctors were going to prescribe Viagra in large quantities was if patients asked for it.

Luckily for Pfizer, the year before Viagra was launched, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration agreed to allow drug companies to advertise on television. No company used this new form of advertising as shrewdly as Pfizer. Its first ads featured Bob Dole, then a 75-year-old former Kansas senator and war hero who had run for president in 1996. Dole’s task was to show that he wasn’t embarrassed to discuss his own impotence, the result of prostate cancer, and that others shouldn’t be either.

He also popularized the phrase “erectile dysfunction,” a term that suggests that with the right medication, what is dysfunctional can become functional. And he encouraged men to talk to their doctors about the condition. 5 Many doctors who remember those days say that men would bring up Viagra sheepishly, just as the visit was wrapping up. Still, they asked. According to one survey, 33 percent of the men who saw a Viagra ad in those early years brought it up with their doctor.

It wasn’t long before Dole’s work was done, and he was replaced by a series of sports stars like Pele, the soccer great, and the baseball slugger Rafael Palmeiro. They sent the message that your masculinity would not be besmirched if you needed a drug to get an erection — and, just as important, that you didn't have to be part of Dole’s World War II generation to benefit.

In 2003, Eli Lilly & Co. introduced its own erectile-dysfunction drug, Cialis, and Bayer Pharmaceuticals came out with Levitra. That year, Viagra hit $1.9 billion in revenue. Then sales dropped the next three years, as Cialis and Levitra stole away market share. For all three companies, but especially for Pfizer, the game became expanding the market by getting the drug to men for whom impotence wasn't a major problem.

And so, little by little, certain self-imposed cautions were swept away. Doctors talking about erectile dysfunction gave way to happy couples and swelling music, which gave way to, well, “mastery.”

At least that’s how Jennifer Zimmerman, the chief global strategy officer at McGarryBowen, described her advertising agency’s approach when it had the Viagra account between 2009 and 2013.

“When we took a look at the business,” she told me, “we saw that there was a fundamental issue with people looking at this as dysfunction. We thought you should look at it through the lens of mastery. Either talk about the one thing that isn’t working so well, or acknowledge all the things that are working well as a point of contrast.”

When the agency pitched the business to Pfizer it used the tagline: “This is the age of man. This is the age of Viagra.”

Today, the market has indeed expanded; taken together, Viagra, Cialis and Levitra generate more than $5 billion a year. The market will expand even more once generic Viagra is available. Cialis, too, is going off patent soon, and Lilly is expected to try to get it approved as an over-the-counter drug.

Men with medical problems take erectile dysfunction drugs, 6 but so do college students on spring break who want to make sure their alcohol intake doesn’t impair their ability to have sex. No one tries to disguise the fact that expanding the market has turned Viagra into a recreational drug, the very thing Pfizer once feared.

A few years ago, when I was thinking of writing a book about Viagra, I interviewed a few old Pfizer hands, people who had been present at the creation. They exhibited great pride in having helped birth Viagra, but they were also touchy whenever I said anything that suggested that sildenafil was anything other than a medical breakthrough. But they seem to be the only ones who still care.

That includes Pfizer itself. In recent years, its ads have thrown caution to the wind. One shows a young woman laying stomach-down on a bed, her bare feet swinging in the air as she gives a come-hither look. Another shows a woman in a football jersey sitting on a hotel bed tossing a football in the air. The ad ends with her walking to a big window, and opening the shade in a manner so suggestive you can’t possibly miss its meaning.

Over the years, sex has gone from being a largely private matter to something that is constantly in our faces. There are many reasons for the transformation, from the social upheavals of the 1960s to the introduction of the birth-control pill to the changing conception of aging. Somewhere in the march of progress, if that's what it is, Viagra and its marketers played a role.

Then again, maybe I’m overthinking the whole thing. I once asked a psychiatrist of my acquaintance why he prescribed Viagra and why he thought the drug was so popular.

“Because it works,” he said.

This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.

1. 1.Teva will pay Pfizer a royalty on its Viagra sales until April 2020, when other generic manufacturers will also be able to sell the compound.
2. 2. “The Rise of Viagra: How the Little Blue Pill Changed Sex in America,” by Meika Loe
3. 3. Years later, sildenafil was approved for heart problems as well. It is especially useful for lowering elevated pulmonary pressures that prevent blood from getting to the lungs of newborn babies.
4. 4. It also surpassed Lipitor for the highest number of prescriptions in its first week in pharmacies.
5. 5. Dole once told me that he agreed to do the ads on the condition that he didn’t have to mention Viagra by name. “I don’t know why I insisted on that,” he said. “Seems kind of silly now.”
6. 6. One man who could have really used Viagra was Frank Sinatra. By the early 1980s, he was impotent, which he tried to fix with the only available remedy at the time, penile implant surgery. But as James Kaplan recounts in “Sinatra: The Chairman,” the second volume of his magisterial biography, the implant failed “because Frank tried to use it too soon.” When Kitty Kelly published her salacious biography of Sinatra in 1986, suggesting he had had an affair with Nancy Reagan, his wife Barbara was unworried, knowing that her husband was physically incapable of having an affair.

https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2017-12-06/viagra-history-from-sex-icon-to-generic-drug?cmpid=socialflow-twitter-business&utm_content=business&utm_campaign=socialflow-organic&utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social

Life Extension - What's Hot articles

What's Hot

News flashes are posted here frequently to keep you up-to-date with the latest advances in health and longevity. We have an unparalleled track record of breaking stories about life extension advances.

Lifestyle improvement may be as influential as drug therapy for ED

Need for choline higher in some individuals

Increased vitamin K intake associated with lower risk of dying over 4.8 year median

Nutritious meals reduce health care expenditures in chronically ill population

Greater vitamin C intake linked with reduced risk of breast cancer mortality

Genes reflecting increased vitamin E status associated with lower prostate cancer risk

Greater lycopene intake associated with lower prostate cancer risk

“Prehypertension” associated with greater stroke risk

DHA improves children’s sleep

Calcium, vitamin D supplementation associated with improved lipid levels

High fiber diet associated with lower risk of prostate cancer

Lifestyle improvement may be as influential as drug therapy for ED

March 31 2014. An article published online in The Journal of Sexual Medicinereveals that lifestyle changes may be as good as prescription medication for treating erectile dysfunction (ED) in older men.

In an investigation of 810 men aged 30 to 80 years at the beginning of the study, Gary A. Wittert, MD, and his associates at the University of Adelaide in Australia documented the presence of erectile dysfunction in 23.2% of the subjects. During the following five year period, 31.7% developed ED, yet the condition went into remission among 29%.

Predictors of the development of ED included having a lower income, the presence of significant abdominal fat, depression, diabetes, obstructive sleep apnea, voiding lower urinary tract symptoms and other factors. Predictors of its remission included employment and the absence of lower urinary tract symptoms, angina, diabetes and disordered lipids.

"Sexual relations are not only an important part of people's wellbeing,” noted Dr Wittert, who heads the Discipline of Medicine at the University of Adelaide and is Director of the University's Freemasons Foundation Centre for Men's Health. “From a clinical point of view, the inability of some men to perform sexually can also be linked to a range of other health problems, many of which can be debilitating or potentially fatal. Our study saw a large proportion of men suffering from some form of erectile dysfunction, which is a concern. The major risk factors for this are typically physical conditions.”

"The good news is, our study also found that a large proportion of men were naturally overcoming erectile dysfunction issues,” he concluded. “The remission rate of those with erectile dysfunction was 29%, which is very high. This shows that many of these factors affecting men are modifiable, offering them an opportunity to do something about their condition."

Need for choline higher in some individuals

March 28 2014. An article published in The FASEB Journal on March 27, 2014 presents the finding of University of North Carolina researchers of a variance in the requirement for choline among people of different genders and ethnic backgrounds.

Kerry-Ann da Costa, PhD, and colleagues gave 79 men and women a ten-day diet that provided 550 milligrams (mg) choline per day, which is the Institute of Medicine’s adequate intake level. This was followed by a diet containing only 50 mg choline daily for up to six weeks, during which changes associated with the development of liver or muscle dysfunction were monitored. DNA samples were evaluated for 200 variations in ten genes related to choline metabolism in order to determine their relationship with deficiency symptoms.

The researchers observed several single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) associated with choline deficiency-related organ dysfunction in women, as well as variants that affect choline requirements. Other SNPs were identified with muscle damage. Variation in SNPs that affect choline requirement was observed among Europeans, Mexicans, Asian Americans and people of African descent.

"Our study shows that gender, life stage and genetic makeup influence the requirement for choline in humans," stated Dr da Costa. "We hope that it will focus attention on setting the dietary recommendations at a level that is high enough to meet the needs of those with the greatest requirements for choline."

"Getting the right amount of choline is important, and also important is this study which shows that each person has unique nutritional needs," commented Gerald Weissmann, MD, who is The FASEB Journal’sEditor-in-Chief. "Today's dietary guidelines are approximations at best, and one size does not fit all. As we move toward an age of personalized medicine, studies like this should make it possible for health care professionals to judge how much of each nutrient your particular body needs."

Increased vitamin K intake associated with lower risk of dying over 4.8 year median

March 26 2014. A study reported online on March 19, 2014 in the Journal of Nutrition links higher intake of vitamin K with a lower risk of dying from any cause over a median follow-up of 4.8 years.

The study included 7,216 participants in the PREDIMED study, which sought to evaluate the protective effect of a Mediterranean diet against the risk ofcardiovascular disease in older men and women. Annual dietary questionnaire responses completed by the participants were analyzed for the intake of phylloquinone (vitamin K1) and menaquinone (vitamin K2). Over a 4.8 year median, there were 323 deaths, including 81 deaths from cardiovascular disease and 130 cancer deaths.

Adjusted analysis uncovered a 36% lower risk of dying from any cause and a 46% lower risk of dying from cancer over follow-up among those whose vitamin K1 intake was among the top 25% of participants in comparison with the lowest 25%. For those who increased their intake of vitamin K1 over follow-up, the risk of death was 43% lower and for vitamin K2, the risk was 45% less than subjects whose intake was reduced or unchanged. Improvement of vitamin K1 and K2 intake was also associated with a 36% and 59% lower risk of dying from cancer during the follow-up period.

"To our knowledge, this is the first study to evaluate the specific association of both active forms of vitamin K (vitamins K-1 and K-2), and their changes during the follow-up, with cancer mortality, cardiovascular mortality, or all-cause mortality in a prospective longitudinal study of Mediterranean individuals at high cardiovascular disease risk and using repeated measurements of dietary intake," the authors announce. "The results of the present study show, for the first time, an inverse association between an increased intake of both dietary phylloquinone and menaquinone, and cancer mortality or all-cause mortality."

Nutritious meals reduce health care expenditures in chronically ill population

March 24 2014. The October 4, 2013 issue of the Journal of Primary Care & Community Health published an article by researchers affiliated with Philadelphia’s Metropolitan Area Neighborhood Nutrition Alliance (MANNA) and Drexel University School of Public Health which reports a health savings benefit for nutritious meal delivery to men and women with chronic ailments.

The study compared 65 MANNA clients with 633 Medicaid patients with chronic illnesses who did not receive the services. Chronic conditions included AIDS/HIV, cancer, diabetes, congestive heart failure, dementia and more. Subjects in the MANNA group received three nutritionally balanced meals per day that employed Medical Nutrition Therapy (MNT) to improve nutritional status, disease-fighting ability and quality of life. Health care costs for all participants were assessed for the six months prior to and twelve months following the beginning of the meal deliveries.

Average monthly health care costs and other factors including inpatient costs and hospital admissions decreased among the MANNA clients during the three months after the meal service was initiated.  In the months after receiving the meals, the group’s monthly healthcare costs were an average of 31% lower than costs incurred by participants who did not receive the meals. In addition, inpatient stays among the meal recipients were half as frequent and averaged six days fewer than those of the comparison group.

“The findings of this study are consistent with prior research showing that nutrition is an integral part of disease management,” authors Jill Gurvey and colleagues write. “Chronically ill patients with several comorbid conditions have complicated nutritional needs that may be challenging for patients or their caretakers to adhere to without additional support.”

“We believe that investigating the importance of programs that address optimizing nutrient needs for chronically ill patients should be acknowledged as an essential cost-effective intervention for improving health,” they conclude.

Greater vitamin C intake linked with reduced risk of breast cancer mortality

March 21 2014. The results of a meta-analysis conducted by researchers at Sweden’s Karolinska Institutet indicate improved survival among women with breast cancer who had a higher intake of vitamin C from supplements or food sources. The findings were reported online on March 7, 2014 in the European Journal of Cancer.

For their analysis, Holly R. Harris and her colleagues selected nine reports describing ten observational studies that included a total of 17,696 women diagnosed with breast cancer, among whom there were 1,558 deaths attributable to the disease and 2,791 total deaths. Studies examined the effect of supplementing with vitamin C following breast cancer diagnosis and/or the effect of vitamin C obtained in the diet.

When the studies that reported the effects of vitamin C supplements were evaluated, their use was associated with a 19% lower risk of total mortality and a 15% lower risk of dying from breast cancer in comparison with no use. Analysis of vitamin C from food sources uncovered a 27% lower risk of mortality and a 22% lower risk of breast cancer death in association with each 100 milligram per day increase. Comparison of high versus low dietary intake resulted in a 20% lower risk of dying and a 23% reduction in the risk of breast cancer mortality among women whose intake was categorized as high.

“To our knowledge this is the first meta-analysis to combine the limited number of published studies available on vitamin C supplement intake and dietary vitamin C intake and survival following breast cancer diagnosis,” the authors announce. “More studies of post-diagnosis supplement use, including vitamin C, are warranted to further our understanding of how their intake during chemotherapy or radiation therapy may influence breast cancer outcomes.”

Genes reflecting increased vitamin E status associated with lower prostate cancer risk

March 17 2014. An article appearing ahead of print on March 12, 2014 in theJournal of Nutrition reveals a lower risk of prostate cancer in men with genetic variants indicative of higher vitamin E status. “Genetic variants in genes involved in vitamin E transport or metabolism may be important determinants of potential beneficial effects of vitamin E supplementation on prostate cancer risk,” Jacqueline M. Major and her associates at the National Cancer Institute note in their introduction to the report.

The study included participants in the Prostate, Lung, Colorectal, and Ovarian Cancer Screening Trial, which enrolled over 155,000 men and women between 1993 and 2001. The current investigation compared 483 men diagnosed with prostate cancer and 542 matched control subjects who had genotype data on three vitamin E-related variants available.

The researchers found that the presence a specific single nucleotide polymorphism was associated with a 25% lower risk of prostate cancer in comparison with the more common genotype, and that another variant conferred a reduction in risk that approached statistical significance. As potential mechanisms for vitamin E against prostate cancer, the authors emphasize its antioxidant properties that can protect against oxidative damage or inhibit lipid peroxidation within the cells. They also discuss the vitamin’s modifying effect on inflammation.

“To our knowledge, no previous study has examined the association between these genome-wide association study (GWAS) identified vitamin E–associated genetic variants and prostate cancer risk,” Dr Major and her colleagues announce. “These findings support the hypothesis that the variant allele may enhance antioxidant enzyme activity or other functions; however, more research is needed to substantiate this finding.”

“Prehypertension” associated with greater stroke risk

March 12 2014. The results of a meta-analysis published online on March 12, 2014 in the journal Neurology® reveal that any blood pressure reading above what is currently considered normal is associated with an increased risk of stroke. Blood pressure is classified as normal if the systolic reading is 120 and the diastolic is 80 mmHg, however, many authorities believe that a blood pressure that is lower than 120/80 is optimal.

Dingli Xu, MD, of Southern Medical University in Guangzhou, China and colleagues selected 19 cohort studies including a total of over 760,000 men and women for their analysis. They compared individuals who had normal blood pressure with those considered to have prehypertension, defined as a reading between 120/80 and 140/90 mmHg. The prehypertension group, who comprised up to 54% of the studies’ participants, was subdivided into those with blood pressure higher and lower than 130/85 mmHg.

The team found that subjects in the high range of prehypertension had a 95% greater risk of developing a stroke over follow-up periods ranging from four to 36 years in comparison with those who had normal blood pressure, and that those in the low prehypertension group had a 44% greater risk. "These findings, if confirmed, have important takeaways for the public," Dr Xu stated. "Considering the high proportion of the population who have higher than normal blood pressure, successful treatment of this condition could prevent many strokes and make a major difference in public health."

"Prehypertension should be managed with changes in diet and exercise to help reduce the risk of stroke," he recommended. "More research should be done on using blood pressure drugs for people with prehypertension."

DHA improves children’s sleep

March 10 2014. The results of a study described in an article published in theJournal of Sleep Research reveal an association between higher levels of the omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acid docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) and bettersleep in children.

In a pilot study of 362 primary school students aged seven to nine years, Professor Paul Montgomery of Oxford University and his colleagues found that supplementation with 600 milligrams DHA per day for 16 weeks improved sleep in a sampling of participants who were rated by their parents as sleeping poorly. Those who received DHA experienced seven fewer waking episodes and nearly an hour more sleep than those who received placebos.

When blood fatty acid levels were evaluated, the researchers found an association with higher levels of DHA and less bedtime resistance, parasomnias and total sleep disturbances. Having a higher ratio of DHA to arachidonic acid was also associated with better sleep.

“Various substances made within the body from omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids have long been known to play key roles in the regulation of sleep,” Dr Montgomery explained. “For example, lower ratios of DHA have been linked with lower levels of melatonin, and that would fit with our finding that sleep problems are greater in children with lower levels of DHA in their blood.”

“Previous studies we have published showed that blood levels of omega-3 DHA in this general population sample of 7-9 year olds were alarmingly low overall, and this could be directly related to the children's behavior and learning,” noted study coauthor Dr Alex Richardson. “Poor sleep could well help to explain some of those associations.”

“This randomized controlled trial does suggest that children's sleep can be improved by DHA supplements and indicates yet another benefit of higher levels of omega-3 in the diet,” he concluded.

Calcium, vitamin D supplementation associated with improved lipid levels

March 7 2014. An article scheduled to be published in the August 2014 issue ofMenopause, the journal of The North American Menopause Society, will report findings gleaned from the Women’s Health Initiative CaD trial of improved lipid levels among participants supplemented with calcium and vitamin D.

North American Menopause Society Board of Trustees member Peter F. Schnatz, DO, NCMP, and his colleagues compared serum lipid levels of over 600 participants who received a placebo or 1,000 milligrams calcium plus 400 international units (IU) vitamin D3 over the course of the trial. In addition to being twice as likely to have vitamin D levels of 30 nanograms per milliliter (ng/mL) or more, women who received calcium and vitamin D had levels of low-density lipoprotein (LDL) that averaged 4 to 5 milligrams per deciliter (mg/dL) lower than those who received a placebo. Subjects who received calcium plus vitamin D also had greater levels of beneficial high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol levels  than the placebo group. Older age, having a low intake of the nutrients prior to the study, not smoking and consuming less alcohol in comparison with the remainder of the participants were associated with a greater increase in serum vitamin D.

Furthermore, among those whose vitamin D levels were 15 ng/mL or higher, calcium and vitamin D supplementation was associated with lower levels of triglycerides. 

“The results of this study should inspire even more women to be conscientious about their calcium and vitamin D intake—a simple and safe way to improve health," noted North American Menopause Society Executive Director Margery Gass, MD. "One action can lead to multiple benefits!”

High fiber diet associated with lower risk of prostate cancer

March 3 2014. An article published online on February 19, 2014 in the Journal of Nutrition reveals the finding of French researchers of a reduction in the risk ofprostate cancer over a 12.6 year median among men with a high intake of insoluble fiber. 

The analysis included 3,313 men who enrolled in the Supplémentation en Vitamines et Minéraux Antioxydants (SU.VI.MAX) study in 1994. Dietary records completed on at least three occasions from 1994 to 2002 were analyzed for the quantity, source and type of fiber consumed. The subjects were followed until 2007, during which 139 men developed a first primary prostate cancer.

Among participants whose intake of fiber was among the top 25% of participants, there was a 53% lower risk of developing prostate cancer in comparison with those in the lowest 25%.  When fiber was analyzed by type, insoluble fiber emerged as protective, and when analyzed by source, fiber from legumes had a significant protective effect.  The associations tended to be slightly stronger in men with alcohol intake greater than the median of the population.

Authors Mélanie Deschasaux and colleagues list reductions in inflammation, insulin resistance and hyperinsulinemia, and androgenic or estrogenic hormones as potential protective mechanisms for increased dietary fiber against prostate carcinogenesis. “Dietary fiber may reduce concentrations of circulating estrogens and androgens, notably through increased serum hormone binding globulin concentration, modified enterohepatic circulation of steroid hormones, and increased fecal excretion of these hormones, resulting from binding to insoluble fibers,” they write.

“These results suggest a potentially protective involvement of dietary fiber intake in prostate carcinogenesis,” they conclude. “This must be confirmed by additional mechanistic and prospective epidemiologic studies, especially taking into account the grade of prostate cancers.”

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