Antidepressant Paxil Tied to DNA damage and Sexual Disfunction in Healthy Men

Antidepressant Paxil appears to put healthy men at increased risk of DNA damage that may result in adverse reproductive outcomes.
" Healthy volunteers demonstrated a dramatic increase in DNA fragmentation within just a few weeks of paroxetine treatment, wihtout an apparrent impact on standard semen parameters. "
Certainly one should query male patients about SSRI use.
However it would be premature to suggest a patient come off SSRI's altogether or change to alternate therapy given the lack of data regarding other newer antidepressants"
Paxil was given for 5 weeks and semen analysis were performed at week 2 and 4.
One month after cessation of therapy final semen analysis was performed.
The unadjusted odds ratio of having abnormal DNA fragmentation on Paxil was 9.33
In addition up to 35% of men noted significant changes in erectile function and up to 47% reported ejaculatory difficulties while on Paxil.
At least partial recovery of sexual function was noted within 1 month of stopping treatment.
The study was supported by the Frederick J. and Theresa Dow Wallace Fund of the New York Community Trust and Brady Urology Foundation.

Too Much or Too Little Sleep Raises Death Risk

Change in sleep duration during midlife is associated in a U - shaped fashion with risk for death more than a decade later.
The major cause for 2.4 -fold increased death rate for people who usually slept 6 to 8 hours, but due to life circumstances were forced to limit their sleep to 5 hours or less a night, was cardiovacular .
In subjects who increased their sleep duration from 6-8 hours to 9 hours or more there was adjusted 2.1 fold increase in non-cardiovascular mortality.
Sleep deprivation is associated with hypertension, diabetes and weight gain, all of which increase cardiovascular risk.
But the mechanism for the relationship between long sleepand increased mortality is unclear.
Depression and cancer related fatigue are hypothesis worthy of investigation.

Study Challenges Hypertension Treatment Guidelines

For decades doctors were treating high blood pressure with water pills as first medicine to start with .
The new landmark study ( Accomplish Study) will make this approach the thing of the past.
Accomplish Study was conducted on high risk hypertensive patients who were divided into 2 groups.
One group was given traditional pill consisting of Ace Inhibitor and Water pill combination, the other Combination of Ace inhibitor and Calcium Channel Blocker.
Study was stopped early for ethical reasons after reported 20% lower cardiovascular event rate in the second group.
The water pill should be the third and not the first drug to treat hypertension said Dr. Bakris, professor of medicineand director of the hypertensive disease unit at the University of Chicago.

Proton Pump Inhibitors May be tied to respiratory infections

There is dramatic increase in risk of severe respiratory infections during first 2 weeks of starting therapy with Proton Pump Inhibitors ( Protonix, Nexium, Prilosec etc. )
While the mechanism for this association is unknown, the most common hypothesis is that reduction of gastric acid allows certain gastric pathogen to flourish and infect gastrointestinal tract or the lungs. This findings were reported by Dr. Tagownik at Canadian Digestive Diseases Week.

Moderate drinking cut heart event risk by 38%

Former non-drinkers who initiated moderate alcohol consumption in middle age experienced 38% drop in cardiovascular events after 4 years compared with continued non-drinkers.
The current Amercan Heart Association guidelines state that moderate alcohol consumption ( 2 drinks a day for men and 1 drink for women) can be a part of a healthy life style.
"THIS IS A BIGGER EFFECT THAN YOU'D EXPECT WITH INITIATION OF STATIN THERAPY" said Dr. Dana King professor of Family Medicine at the Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston.
7697 enrolees who were non-drinkers at the beginning started moderate consumtion of alcohol.
During next 4 years of follow-up the combined rate of fatal and non-fatal cardiovascular events was 6.9% among new drinkers and 10.7% for non-drinkers.
After adjustment for age, race, sex, diabetes, high blood pressure, cholesteron and physical activity protective factor agains cardiovascular events was 38% relative risk reduction
Am. J. Med 2008;121;201-6
Moreover there was significant reduction of deaths in physicians who previously had heart attack and consumed 10-29.9 grams of alcohol a day. In this group relative risk reduction was 40%.

Herb Works for Common Cold

Pelargonium Sidoides a species of South African geranium shows a promise as herbal remedy for common cold.
In two randomized trials extract of Pelargonium Sidoides improve symptoms of acute bronchitis usually associated with viral infection.
In vitro studies show that Pelargonium extract induces the interferon system and up- regulates cytokines important in protecting host cells from viral infection.

What level of Alcohol consumption is hazardous in elderly

Lang et. al reports in Journal of American Geriatric Society.
Moderate elderly alcohol drinkers ( more than 1-2 drinks a day ) report better ability to perform activities of daily living .
Non drinkers had significantly higher relative risks of negative outcomes than moderate drinkers in all measures except cognitive function. Various sensitivity analyses did not change any of these findings.
The benefits of moderate alcohol consumption on disability and mortality probably occur through cardio-vascular risk reduction.
Although these findings should not lead to recommendations of increased alcohol intake, they do suggest that guidelinesfor older adults need not to be overly restrictive relative to recommendations for younger adults

Biphosponates such as Boniva, Fosamax, Actonel, etc, as a class has new alert issued by FDA.
This class of drugs have possibility of causing severe musculo-skeletal pain starting within days, month or even years after initiation of treatment.
It is different from acute state response.
Symptoms are fever, chills, bone pain, muscle pain, joint pain.
In some cases patients reported complete relief of symptoms, in others slow and incomplete resolution.


Vitamin D deficiency may increase the risk of cardiovascular disease especially in people with high blood pressure ( Framingham offspring study). Forthermore the higher risk appear to increase as VItamin D levels decline.

Alcohol dependent persons with cirrhosis of the liver, who were treated with Baclophen , a GABA receptor agonist, were more than 6 times likely to stop alcohol use then placebo group.
This is particularly important finding, because patients with cirrhosis are usually excluded from studies of anticraving drugs because of concern of further liver damage.

Fighting Toxins in the Home

Researchers are continually finding new evidence that common items in our kitchens, bathrooms and toy chests can be toxic.

One of the most insidious substances is bisphenol A, a component of the light plastics used in baby bottles and many other consumer products. Over the past several years, scientists have reported that low levels of bisphenol A can disrupt cell division, leading to spontaneous miscarriages and birth defects such as Down syndrome.
In 2007 a team led by Patricia A. Hunt of Washington Stare University found that small amounts of bisphenol A interfered with the growth of egg cells in developing female mouse embryos. As many as 40 percent of the eggs from fetuses exposed ro bisphenol A had an abnormal number of chromo Thi stunning finding showed that the chemical’s effects can run through three generations: the pregnant mother’s exposure damages the daughter’s reproductive cells, which in turn disrupts the development of the daughter’s own children.
The National Toxicology Program, which is part of the National Institutes of Health, is currentlyreviewing the safety of bisphenol A. in the meantime, some physicians advise pregnant women to avoid drinking water from plastic bottles, especially
once the containers become visibly scratched or scuffed, which may indicate that they are leaching the hazardous chemical.