Peer-Reviewed Journals continue to cite invalidated studies

Yes, the question remains--as Groucho Marx used to ask--Who do you trust? Seems some medical experts support continue to support their conclusions with data from studies that have long been invalidated in clinical trials. This report says they've proven this so far for at least Vitamin E, estrogen, and beta carotene. Here are the facts on estrogen:

"For estrogen, 61.7% of 47 articles published in 2006 indicated the hormone may protect against Alzheimer's disease on the basis of a 1996 observational study, even though a clinical trial in 2004 found a trend for increased risk of dementia in postmenopausal women taking estrogen. Of the remaining articles, 29.8% were equivocal, and 8.5% were unfavorable. "

Reminds me of the joke about the elephant--each person describes the creature according to how much of which parts he can feel. That's how it is the world of Internet marketing these days, too. What constitutes "truth" can change so rapidly that most people can never catch up to it all.

And we want better from everyone--but especially our medical professionals.

A safer way to replace a pulmonary heart valve--the sky's the limit now

Of course, with the evolution of stem cell science, we've all just been waiting with bated breath to hear about using them for replacing pieces of the heart (well, I have anyway). And now, here's the first piece of research that's not just "dreaming big" but is actually approved by the FDA.

Scientists have found a way to strip a human heart valve (from a cadaver) of the cells and debris a heart normally contains. Then after cleaning and decontaminating it, what remains of the "heart valve" to be transplanted is a web of connective tissue that has a lower chance of triggering the body's immune response/rejection mechanisms. Two big benefits of this approach: eliminates the need for lifelong blood-thinning medications, and the replacement has less chance of calcifying than a pig or cow heart valve. So far, they've done this for the heart's pulmonary valve (check out the illustration).

This is a huge step forward in our ability to combat heart and other organ diseases. Congratulations to CryoLife Inc. on its CryoValve SynerGraft Pulmonary Valve and Valved-Conduit Allograft.

Supressing herpes doesn't lessen HIV susceptibility

One of those cases of a great theory gone sour. Stats indicate that those with herpes simplex II (genital herpes) run a doubly higher risk of acquiring HIV (the AIDS virus). Scientists ran a study in both Peru and Africa wherein they used acyclovir to suppress the occurrences of HSV-2 in sexually active adults in the hope of finding a concurrent reduction in the number of those who developed HIV. Sadly, although acyclovir did reduce occurrence of genital disease outbreaks, it had no relationship whatever to who did or didn't get HIV.

Researchers had hoped they'd found an important key to HIV-prevention and were very disappointed. But perhaps the most surprising statement came from Connie Celium, MD when she reported on the study at the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections:

"...one in four people in the U.S. has genital herpes and 99% don't know it. Had the acyclovir worked, she said, 'we had hoped this would be something we could apply today to drive down the susceptibility to HIV infection.'"

If 99% of people with serious gential disease are unaware of it, the chances of stemming the spread are pretty thin.

So I checked for more stats. Found that number confirmed and this information on the occurrence in the US and internationally of several types of herpes--all of which can be transmitted without any symptoms present. "More than one-third of the world's population has recurrent clinical HSV infections." That's a lot of people potentially transmitting an STD. And there's a lot of ignorance about an incurable disease.