Women more likely to have stroke: what to do about it
Billie Jean King, Serena Williams and Maria Sharapova have unique strokes that propelled them to 12, 23 and 5 Grand Slam singles victories, respectively. Unfortunately, ischemic strokes are not that unique and slam a lot more women than men. Every year in the U.S. 55,000 more women than men experience those cranial vascular events.
That discrepancy caught the attention of researchers at Boston’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Their research, published in Stroke, uncovered women’s unique risk factors and highlighted their need to take aggressive steps to avoid a stroke.
After looking at hormone levels, hormone therapy, hormonal birth control, pregnancy and time of menarche and menopause, they found that the following were all associated with an increased risk of stroke:
■ Getting your period before age 10.
■ Experiencing menopause before age 45.
■ Having low levels of the hormone dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate (DHEAS).
■ Taking oral estrogen (without aspirin), or a combined oral contraceptive (again, without aspirin).
True, only a fraction of women who have one or more of those risk factors will have a stroke. But, if any of them apply to you, you should embrace healthy behaviors that will reduce your risk of high blood pressure and stroke. That means seven to eight hours of sleep nightly; 10,000 steps daily; seven to nine servings of fruits and veggies daily; no red or processed meat or highly processed foods, and only 100 percent whole grains. And always ask your doc about taking an 81-mg aspirin twice daily if you take hormone therapy. Even men taking hormones should do this.
OTC pain relievers affect your mood, attitude
When Grace Slick sang White Rabbit’s opening lines, “One pill makes your larger, and one pill makes you small. And the ones that mother gives you don’t do anything at all,” she couldn’t have known that acetaminophen (Tylenol) or ibuprofen (Advil) that mother gave you for a headache or sore muscles actually did affect your mood and outlook.
That’s the new findings from a review published in Policy Insights from the Behavioral and Brain Sciences. Researchers found that ibuprofen made women experience less hurt feelings when being excluded or recalling a painful memory. Men had the opposite reaction and felt more hurt after taking the nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drug.
Acetaminophen, a pain reliever that’s not an antiinflammatory, also triggered dulled emotional responses: Study participants who took the drug reported feeling less emotional upset when reading about someone experiencing physical or emotional pain, while positively evocative images triggered less happiness.
According to researchers, “In many ways, the reviewed findings are alarming. Consumers assume that when they take an over-the-counter pain medication, it will relieve their physical symptoms, but they do not anticipate broader psychological effects.”
We say, pay attention to how you feel after taking them, and remember that these drugs are not intended for long-term use. If your doc says it’s OK: Limit acetaminophen to no more than 3,000 mg daily for 10 days for pain; for NSAIDs, find out if their possible gastrointestinal, kidney and cardiac side effects make them risky for you. And always take these meds with lots of warm water. The Japanese are fasttracking a drug that KOs the influenza virus in one day. Since so many people here in the U.S. have died from the flu this season, why can’t we have it available here? — Anderson C., Ypsilanti, Michigan
Good question, and we want people to know why the Food and Drug Administration takes a wait-andsee approach. First, the drug called Xofluza won’t be available to consumers in Japan until their national insurer sets a price in May. (We wager it’ll sell for more in America.)
As for making it available to use in emergency situations here? Although a single dose of Xofluza eradicates the flu three times faster (in 24 hours) than the FDA-approved anti-viral called Tamiflu (five-day, two-doses-perday regimen), if an elderly person is in the hospital with influenza, pneumonia and a compromised immune system (the typical profile of those who succumb to the flu), a dose at that late stage might not help.
Also, Xofluza works by denying the influenza virus an enzyme that it needs to replicate. Do we know what else happens to your immune system or your overall health when that enzyme is affected? No, and neither does the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry of Japan, which fast-tracked Xofluza. They approved it in just four months.
We’ll know more about the drug by next year’s flu season, and if it doesn’t present risky side effects, it could be available in the U.S. in 2019. Switzerland-based Roche (they sell Tamiflu) already has acquired the license to sell Xofluza in the U.S. It also could turn out to be a valuable advance against many viral diseases.
The flu season isn’t over yet, so your best bet is to practice good hygiene, wash your hands frequently, cover your mouth when you cough and stay up on your vaccinations. Anyone over 6 months of age who’s eligible for a flu vaccine should get it even now — and then again in October for the 2018-2019 season.