Trans fats ban tied with fewer NY heart attacks & strokes

Apple hires secret team for treating diabetes

CHICAGO, April 13, (Agencies): Local bans on artery-clogging trans fats in restaurant foods led to fewer heart attacks and strokes in several New York counties, a new study suggests.

The study hints at the potential for widespread health benefits from an upcoming nationwide ban, the authors and other experts say. The US Food and Drug Administration in 2015 gave the food industry until next year to eliminate artificial trans fats from American products.

New York City enacted a restaurant ban on the fats in 2007 and several counties in the state did the same. Hospital admissions for heart attacks and strokes in those areas declined 6 percent starting three years after the bans, compared with counties without bans. The results translate to 43 fewer heart attacks and strokes per 100,000 people, said lead author Dr Eric Brandt, a Yale University cardiology fellow.

His study was published Wednesday in JAMA Cardiology.

Trans fats, also called partially hydrogenated oils, enhance food texture and structure. They were once commonly used to make restaurant fried chicken, French fries, doughnuts and other foods and found in grocery items including cookies, crackers and margarine.

These fats can boost blood levels of unhealthy cholesterol, increasing risks for heart problems. The FDA in 2006 required them to be listed on food labels and the food industry has been switching to healthier oils.

The researchers examined hospital admissions data from 2002 to 2013 in 11 New York counties that adopted bans and in 25 counties that did not. Admissions for heart attacks and strokes declined in all counties, going from more than 800 to less than 700 per 100,000 people, but the drop was steeper in counties that enacted bans.

Alice Lichtenstein, a heart and nutrition specialist at Tufts University’s Boston campus, said the results are encouraging but that other changes could have contributed, such as smoking bans and mandatory calories on menus.

Dr Mark Creager, former American Heart Association president, said the results echo previous studies “and are consistent with the thinking of most scientists” on potential benefits of these bans.

“Policies such as these when adapted on a nationwide level will be good for our entire population,” said Creager, director of Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center’s heart center

in Lebanon, New Hampshire.

LOS ANGELES:

Also:

Apple Inc has hired a team of biomedical engineers as part of a secret initiative, initially envisioned by late Apple cofounder Steve Jobs, to develop sensors to treat diabetes, CNBC reported citing three people familiar with the matter.

An Apple spokeswoman declined to comment.

The engineers are expected to work at a nondescript office in Palo Alto, California, close to the corporate headquarters, CNBC said.

The news comes at the time when the line between pharmaceuticals and technology is blurring as companies are joining forces to tackle chronic diseases using high-tech devices that combine biology, software and hardware, thereby jump-starting a novel field of medicine called bioelectronics.

Last year, GlaxoSmithKline Plc and Google parent Alphabet Inc unveiled a joint company aimed at marketing bioelectronic devices to fight illness by attaching to individual nerves.

US biotech firms Setpoint Medical and EnteroMedics Inc have already shown early benefits of bioelectronics in treating rheumatoid arthritis and suppressing appetite in the obese.

Other companies playing around the idea of bioelectronics include Medtronic Plc, Proteus Digital Technology, Sanofi SA and Biogen Inc.

The company’s shares were marginally up after the bell on Wednesday.

WASHINGTON:

Marathons may delay medical care for others

Marathons can be risky for hearts, but not necessarily those of the runners. It takes longer for nearby residents to get to a hospital for emergency heart care on the day of a race and they’re less likely to survive, a US study finds.

Marathons can be risky for hearts, but not necessarily those of the runners. It takes longer for nearby residents to get to a hospital for emergency heart care on the day of a race and they’re less likely to survive, a US study finds.

Any event that draws a crowd and causes traffic detours — parades, ball games, concerts, fairs — may cause similar problems, researchers warn.

It’s more than inconvenience: For every 100 people suffering a heart attack or cardiac arrest, three to four more died within a month if they had sought care on a marathon day versus another time, the study found.

It was published Wednesday by the New England Journal of Medicine, just before Boston’s annual 26.2-mile (42-kilometer) race, set for Monday.

The publication timing was by chance, but “hopefully it will raise some attention around the issue,” said the study leader, Dr. Anupam Jena of Harvard Medical School.

The study included marathons in Boston, Chicago, Honolulu, Houston, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, New York City, Orlando, Philadelphia, Seattle and Washington between 2002 and 2012. It did not include 2013, when bombs at the Boston Marathon might have caused unusual delays.

Jena conceived the study after his wife entered a race last year and he couldn’t get through traffic to watch her run.

“She made the offhand remark, ‘Gee, I wonder what happens to people who need to get to the hospital during one of these large races,’” he said.

Researchers used records on Medicare patients, figuring they were likely to be area residents, not race participants. They looked at heart attacks or cardiac arrest, when the heart suddenly stops beating.