The Danger of Daily Aspirin

If you're taking a daily aspirin for your heart, you may want to reconsider.

For years, many middle-aged people have taken the drug in hopes of reducing the chance of a heart attack or stroke. Americans bought more than 44 million packages of low-dose aspirin marketed for heart protection in the year ended September, up about 12% from 2005, according to research firm IMS Health.

Now, medical experts say some people who are taking aspirin on a regular basis should think about stopping. Public-health officials are scaling back official recommendations for the painkiller to target a narrower group of patients who are at risk of a heart attack or stroke. The concern is that aspirin's side effects, which can include bleeding ulcers, might outweigh the potential benefits when taken by many healthy or older people.

"Not everybody needs to take aspirin," says Sidney Smith, a professor at the University of North Carolina who is chairing a new National Institutes of Health effort to compile treatment recommendations on cardiovascular-disease prevention. Physicians are beginning to tailor aspirin recommendations to "groups where the benefits are especially well established," he says.



Doctors generally agree that most patients who have already suffered a heart attack or ischemic stroke, the type caused by a clot or other obstruction blocking an artery to the brain, should take regular low-dose aspirin. But for people without heart disease, the newest guidelines from the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force spell out much more clearly than before when aspirin should be administered.

The guidelines, announced last year, suggest aspirin for certain men 45 to 79 years old with elevated heart-disease risk because of factors like cholesterol levels and smoking. For women, the guidelines don't focus on heart risk. Instead, the task force recommends certain women should take aspirin regularly if they are 55 to 79 and are in danger of having an ischemic stroke, for reasons that could include high blood pressure and diabetes.

The panel urged doctors to factor in conditions that could increase a patient's risk of bleeding from aspirin, which tends to rise with age. The group didn't designate a dose, but suggested that an appropriate amount might be 75 milligrams a day, which is close to the 81mg contained in low-dose, or "baby," aspirin. The task force didn't take a position on aspirin for people who are 80 and older because of a lack of data in this age group.

Aspirin Advice

Doctors have been scaling back their aspirin recommendations for people who don't already have heart disease. Here are the current guidelines from the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force.

Aspirin recommended for:
* Some men 45 and older with risk factors for heart disease, assuming no history of ulcers or other bleeding dangers.
* Some women 55 and older with risk factors for stroke, and no history of bleeding danger.

Aspirin not recommended for:
* Men younger than 45, and women younger than 55.
* Anyone 80 and older.

Other medical researchers dispute the idea that there should be different guidelines for men and women. Still, many experts agree that doctors may have been recommending aspirin to people for whom the risks might outweigh the benefits.

Aspirin acts as a blood thinner, which is believed to account for much of its benefit of protecting against heart attacks and strokes. But that same action, along with a tendency to deplete the stomach's protective lining, can lead to a danger of gastrointestinal bleeding and possibly bleeding in the brain.

The task force issued its latest guidelines after reviewing the evidence from a number of studies on aspirin's benefits and risks. The recommendations update the panel's previous guidelines from 2002, which were more broadly written. Those suggested aspirin use for people of any age who were at elevated risk of heart disease.

"We would like doctors to re-look at their patients who are on aspirin and consider recommending stopping it where the chance of harm outweighs the benefit," says Ned Calonge, a Colorado public-health official who serves as the task force's chairman. He notes, however, that in studies of healthy people taking aspirin, the actual rates of bleeding and of prevented heart attacks were very low.

Not all patients accustomed to taking aspirin will want to stop. Maxine Fischer, 55 years old, recently figured out that under the new U.S. guidelines, she wouldn't be encouraged to continue with the drug. Using an online calculator, which factored such data as her age, blood pressure and medical history, she learned she had just a 1% likelihood of a stroke in the next 10 years. Under the guidelines, only women in her age group with at least a 3% or higher stroke risk should take aspirin.

Ms. Fischer, who works as a manager for seniors' lobby AARP in San Diego, has taken aspirin daily for two years after reading it could reduce the risk of stroke. For the moment, she says she'll keep it up, partly because she's more worried about strokes than ulcers. Strokes are "the big scary thing," she says.

Other patients say they would stick with aspirin because of other benefits attributed to the drug; past research has suggested that regular aspirin may reduce the risk of colon cancer, for instance. Virginia Douglas, 64, a retired trade-association executive, takes aspirin a few times a week. In addition to the possibly reduced risk of stroke, Ms. Douglas hopes to avoid colon cancer, which affected her father and grandfather. "There's always a new study with a new recommendation," says Ms. Douglas, of Sacramento, Calif. "You have to do what's best for you."

In a separate analysis, published in medical journal Lancet last May, an international group of scientists reached a broadly similar conclusion as did the U.S. task force—that doctors may have been recommending aspirin too widely. "You really have to have a clear margin of benefit over hazard before you should be treating healthy people," says Colin Baigent, a professor at Oxford University who coordinated the Lancet analysis.

What Aspirin Does

Aspirin's effects in the body can have good and bad implications.

* Blood thinner: It inhibits clotting, which helps reduce the risk of heart attack and ischemic stroke but increases the danger of bleeding.
* Inflammation reducer: It lessens pain and fever by preventing production of the hormone-like substances called prostaglandins. But this can also deplete a protective layer in the stomach and increase the risk of ulcers.

What You Can Do

If you want to figure out if the newest guidelines recommend aspirin for you, here's where to check:

* At ahrq.gov, type 'aspirin and prevention' into the search box, and the new guidelines will come up in the results. Click on 'clinical summary' for a table that explains what people of different ages should do, and includes links to online calculators to help you figure out your risk of heart attack or stroke. You should also speak to your doctor.
* An analysis published in the British journal the Lancet, which reached somewhat different conclusions.
* A letter from the task force responding to the Lancet authors' findings.

Still, the Lancet authors disagreed with the U.S. panel on some important details, particularly about who should be taking aspirin. The two groups examined evidence largely from the same studies of the drug, although the international team analyzed the data differently. In the end, the international team of scientists, unlike the U.S. officials, concluded that aspirin's effects on men and women were mostly the same.

Another disagreement between the two groups also emerged: The U.S. task force said that age is the biggest factor determining a person's risk of internal bleeding from aspirin. But the international team said other factors, such as diabetes and high blood pressure, also play a significant role. Unfortunately, the scientists noted, the same factors that increase patients' risk of bleeding also increase their risk of developing heart disease. This, in turn, can make it more difficult to calculate whether the benefits of aspirin would outweigh the risks of side effects.

The U.S. task force responded with a letter to the Lancet, defending its finding that men and women's results did appear different. There is a "wealth of evidence that men and women have different cardiovascular disease manifestations and respond differently to aspirin," the letter said. The panel also reiterated its position that bleeding risk is best parsed by age.

Amid the debate, some individual doctors are finding their own position. Rodney Hayward, who codirects a Veterans Affairs research center in Ann Arbor, Mich., says he's not convinced that aspirin's effects on men and women are so different. He says he continues to recommend aspirin for certain patients of both sexes with significant heart risk.

Source: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704511304575075701363436686.html?mod=yhoofront

What Your Face Reveals About Your Health

What do you see when you look in the mirror? According to Chinese medicine, your face is a window to your health. Your forehead, nose, chin, right cheek, left cheek: Each of these five face zones gives you clues to what is going on inside your body--if you know what to look for! Read on to decode what your face reveals about you.

How Traditional Chinese Medicine Reads the Body to Detect Disease

Most people don't realize that their face provides information about what's going on beneath the surface. Your body speaks a unique language to communicate the imbalances within it. Chinese medicine has mastered the art and science of reading the body's language over its five thousand year practice. Each part of your face reflects a different element from the Chinese 5-Element network (fire, earth, water, metal, and wood), which in turn, corresponds to a particular organ grouping. Your reflection offers visual cues to what may be happening within your internal systems--such as your heart, stomach, hormones and even your mind and spirit.

In some situations visual cues will immediately alert you of an issue, and you can take measures immediately. But the real value of self-inspection is in detecting subtle imbalances and dealing with them preventively through diet, herbal supplementation, and lifestyle practices. By reading your body, you can take care of small problems before they become big health issues.


The Forehead

According to Chinese medicine, the forehead corresponds to the fire element. This is associated with the heart and small intestine organ network, as well as the mind and spirit.

Forehead: Fire Element - Heart/Small Intestine

When examining your forehead, look for redness or small blood vessels that appear as discoloration, which could indicate a heart problem. Skin discoloration could also be caused by a recent emotionally-charged experience, such as a breakup or loss. It is common for people whose emotions are regularly in turmoil to have a constant furrow between their eyebrows.

A heart attack can often be foretold by a subtle bluish-green hue on the forehead. If you have discoloration on your forehead accompanied by heart palpitations, dizziness, shortness of breath, and tingling or pain in your left arm, schedule an appointment with a cardiologist or visit an emergency room, if necessary.


Your Nose

Your nose corresponds to the earth element, indicating a connection to the stomach, spleen and pancreas network.

Nose: Earth Element - Spleen/Pancreas/Stomach

Symptoms of internal discord typically show up as a pimple on the tip or side of your nose. Think back to your meals from the previous day. Did you eat a lot of spicy, deep-fried, fatty, or rich foods? How about chocolate? If the answer is "yes," your choice of cuisine could be the problem. As a result, you may suffer from indigestion, constipation, or diarrhea.

Broken capillaries or redness across the bridge of the nose could reveal alcohol abuse, or it may simply mean excessive worry and stress, which taxes your earth element network. I had a patient who would de-stress from her taxing executive job with alcohol and sweets, and her nose always gave these indiscretions away. I recommended she calm her nerves in healthier ways, like meditation and other stress-releasing techniques.


Your Chin

The chin area is related to the water element, which is internally associated to your kidney and bladder organ network, including the hormonal system and glands.

Chin: Water Element - Kidney/Bladder

Blemishes, discoloration and dark patches of skin around the chin and mouth could indicate problems within the kidneys or bladder. Recurrent acne breakouts around your chin may signify a hormonal imbalance. The problem is most often due to the body producing excess estrogen or testosterone and tends to be coupled with irregular menstruation in women and prostate symptoms in men.

Be sure to also look at your philtrum, the indentation just above your lips. This small area relates to the uterus and ovaries in women and the prostate and genitals in men. Horizontal lines, blemishes or discoloration across the philtrum may indicate infertility issues due to problems such as endometriosis or uterine fibroid cysts.

According to Chinese medicine, people who have a small chin are genetically predispositioned to weakness in their kidney and bladder network. However, this doesn't mean that small-chinned people will develop kidney disease. The information is simply an alert that a tendency may exist, and patients can choose to make lifestyle changes to prevent the development of a condition.


Your Right Cheek

Your right cheek corresponds to the metal element, meaning this area of your face is connected to the lung and large intestine network.

Right Cheek: Metal Element - Lung/Large Intenstine

Problems in the lung and large intestine network present themselves as discoloration, blemishes and skin problems on your right cheek. A mild acne breakout, eczema patch or slight redness may mean a cold is coming on. Lung illness or upper respiratory ailments also trigger visual symptoms on the right cheek.

People who are prone to respiratory allergies or asthma have a tendency to have a reddish, scaly eczema, a slight rash or slight bluish-green hue along the right cheek--showing too much heat or inflammation in the respiratory system, or a lack of oxygen from bronchial constriction. One of my many pediatric patients who suffered from allergic asthma always displayed an eczema-like patch right before a flare up of her allergy attack, a very useful tip off. I instructed her mother to treat her right away with herbs for allergies to avert an asthma attack.


Your Left Cheek

The left cheek corresponds to your wood element, or the liver-gallbladder network.

Left Cheek: Wood Element - Liver/Gallbladder

Broken capillaries and redness, especially up next to the bridge of your nose, indicate heat, inflammation or congestion of toxins in the liver. Bulging veins, redness, and rash sometimes signal high blood pressure and pent-up anger. A yellowish hue under the left eye may indicate gallstones or high triglycerides or cholesterol, which are processed by the liver-gall bladder network.

Problems in this part of the face can also reveal emotional issues, such as anger and depression, since the liver and gallbladder network includes the nervous system.
Please keep in mind that there are many ways that your body alerts you to imbalances. As you learn this visual method, you'll want to be able to confirm your findings from one body part with observations from others, such as the eyes, tongue, and nails. Want to learn more? Get your own copy of Secrets of Self-Healing, where you can find in-depth information.

Keep all five elements healthy and get a whole body tune-up with a balanced combination of 44 traditional Chinese herbs that support healthy function of the bodily systems.

Source: http://health.yahoo.com/experts/drmao/24009/what-your-face-reveals-about-your-health/

Urgent: Tell the USDA What YOU Think about GMOs in Organics

The U.S. Department of Agriculture is currently considering whether or not to approve the use of genetically engineered (GE) Roundup-Ready alfalfa. Their report says you don’t care about GMOs in organics. Comments are due to them by February 16th, so read on to hear how you can help. (Or go directly to the True Food Project’s Take Action website.)

As part of the approval process, they are required to prepare an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS), a detailed analysis of how the crop will affect the environment, organic and conventional farmers, farm animals, and the public. They’ve released their EIS on GE alfalfa, and here’s how the True Food Network at The Center for Food Safety summarized the issue in a recent Action Alert:

In 2006, the Center for Food Safety (CFS) sued the Department of Agriculture (USDA) for its illegal approval of Monsanto’s genetically engineered (GE) Roundup Ready alfalfa. The federal courts sided with CFS and banned GE alfalfa until the USDA fully analyzed the impacts of the plant on the environment, farmers, and the public in a rigorous analysis known as an environmental impact statement (or EIS). USDA released its draft EIS on December 14, 2009. A 60-day comment period is now open until February 16, 2010. This is the first time the USDA has done this type of analysis for any GE crop. Therefore, the final decision will have broad implications for all GE crops.

That Environmental Impact Statement, unfortunately, contains a number of questionable statements and conclusions. The part of the EIS that worries us the most is the claim that buyers of organic foods don’t care if those products are contaminated with GMOs (genetically modified, or genetically engineered, organisms). We know that nothing could be further from the truth, and that a huge number of our shoppers care deeply about avoiding GMOs in the foods they buy. We’ve gone to great lengths to keep GMOs out of organic foods and, through our work with The Non-GMO Project, have helped advance North America’s first standards and verification program for Non-GMO foods. We are intent on preserving our ability to provide non-GMO options for our shoppers. Every newly-approved GMO crop erodes our ability to provide non-GMO food, and leads to contamination of organic and non-GMO crops, due to pollen drift and other forms of contamination.

What can YOU do?

The True Food Project has set up a Take Action website to help you easily submit your comments to the USDA. These are due by February 16th so take the time to do it now. Please use the CFS’s form letter as a guide and personalize it as you see fit – let the USDA know exactly why you’re concerned about this issue, what you think about GMOs in your food, and what you think they should do with the approval of GE alfalfa.

In our own comments to the USDA, we emphasized a few key facts:

* Organic and natural foods consumers do care about the presence of GMOs in their food. In fact, avoiding genetically engineered ingredients is one of the key reasons that shoppers seek out organic foods.
* The contamination of organic and non-GE crops by GE material has presented a huge burden for our company and our industry.
* The unchecked proliferation of GE crops will directly harm organic producers and the integrity of the organic label.
* The approval of GE alfalfa would do more harm than previously approved GE crops, since alfalfa is a wind-pollinated perennial crop.

Everyone has their own opinion about GMOs; please tell your story to the USDA via the True Food Project action campaign by February 16th. We’d love to read what you think in the comment section below, but make sure you send your comments to the USDA first!

Source: http://blog.wholefoodsmarket.com/2010/02/urgent-tell-the-usda-what-you-think-about-gmos-in-organics/

Natural Pain Relief for Back Pain

Eight out of 10 adults in America have—or will soon experience—back pain brought on by the wear and tear of living. It seems simple to pop a pill for the pain, but why not avoid the side effects by trying natural possibilities first? You can turn to natural healing practices and herbs to alleviate back pain.

The Chinese medical perspective

According to Chinese medicine, the skeletal structure, bones, and lower back are part of the kidney network. Kidney energy tends to diminish as we age, more rapidly with unhealthy diet, excessive strain, and youthful indiscretions such as drug and alcohol use. Weakness in the kidney network results in symptoms of lower back pain, as well as general weakness, fatigue, and other signs of premature aging. Replenishing kidney energy is a slow and difficult process; that is why it is essential to preserve kidney energy. Fortunately, through qigong exercises, herbs, proper diet and lifestyle, you can slow down its depletion and even regenerate certain aspects of kidney energy, and in the process, ease some of your back pain. Try these tips!


1. Eucommia for your aching back

Eucommia is a traditional ingredient in herbal formulas for back and joint pain and helps to strengthen your bones, tendons, and ligaments. Western studies with rats have discovered that both the leaves and the bark of eucommia contain a compound that encourages the development of collagen, an important part of connective tissues like skin, tendons, and ligaments. A typical dosage is 350 mg twice a day. You can also try the traditional Chinese Arthritis/Joint formula, which includes eucommia and other herbs that support a strong back.


2. Press here for relief

Lower back pain is one of the most common problems that we treat at the Tao of Wellness. We use acupuncture and bodywork to reduce pain, which has proven quite effective. Like acupuncture, acupressure is the art of acupuncture without needles, where you use your own fingers to stimulate a specific acupoint. The combination of the following two acupoints is good for strengthening the kidneys and alleviating back pain:

• Find the acupoint: Forceful Torrent (Ki-3), which is in the depression between the inner anklebone and the Achilles tendon of the right foot. Apply steady pressure with your right thumb until you feel soreness. Hold for 3 minutes. Repeat on the left foot.


• Find the acupoint: Supporting the Core. It's in the middle of the popliteal crease behind the knee of the right leg. Apply pressure with your right middle finger until you feel soreness. Hold for 3 minutes. Repeat on your left leg.


You can also massage the parts or your back that are in pain. Tonic oil, which consists of oils of camphor, peppermint, eucalyptus, fennel, and wintergreen, can be massaged into your back for relief from minor aches and pains. For a traditional blend of tonic oil in a pure sesame oil base, click here.


3. Tasty treats for back pain

Make a delicious anti-inflammatory cocktail by mixing equal parts of unsweetened black cherry juice with dark grape juice and drink 3 to 6 glasses a day until the pain has eased. Also, feature more pineapple in your diet. Pineapple contains an enzyme called bromelain, which is a natural anti-inflammatory that helps with back pain, as well as muscle and joint pain.


4. Exercise can ease your back

Most back pain is caused by the wear and tear of living, which over time weakens our skeletal structure, in the form of bone loss or a displaced disk. Research conclusively shows that exercise early in life builds bone mass and strengthens the skeletal structure, helping to prevent injury down the road. The good news is that if you are advancing in age, regular exercise can slow the progress of degenerative bone disorders. Generally for a healthy back, I recommend a combination of exercises: a 30-minute daily walk, moderate weight training to strengthen muscles and bones, and tai chi or qigong to build endurance and flexibility. A good form to choose is Dao-In qigong, which is gentle on the body and great for loosening up the back. You can look for a local tai chi practitioner to teach you or learn from an instructional DVD. During acute back pain, exercise may be difficult or too painful. Until you are mobile, bed rest is the best.

Source: http://health.yahoo.com/experts/drmao/23499/natural-pain-relief-for-back-pain/