Congestive Heart Failure (CHF) and Magnesium

Written by ColleenO,
http://www.foundhealth.com/congestive-heart-failure-chf/congestive-heartfailure-chf-and-magnesium

There is some evidence that supplementing with magnesium may be helpful for individuals taking both digoxin anddiuretics; diuretics can deplete the body of magnesium and this in turn may increase risk of digoxin side effects. Other studies suggest that supplementing with magnesium may offer an array of other benefits for patients with congestive heart failure (CHF). Effect of Magnesium on Congestive Heart Failure (CHF) Magnesium may have many beneficial effects on the heart. Our bodies need mangesium for healthy functioning, including muscle relaxation, blood clotting, and the manufacture of ATP (adenosine triphosphate, the body's main energy molecule). People with congestive heart failure often take drugs (loop diuretics) that deplete magnesium. The combination of magnesium deficiency with digoxin (another drug given for CHF) may cause arrhythmias. Thus, it is possible that some patients benefit from magnesium supplementation because it corrects this depletion. It has been called "nature's calcium channel blocker." The idea refers to magnesium's ability to block calcium from entering muscle and heart cells. A group of prescription heart medications work in a similar way, although much more powerfully. This may be the basis for some of magnesium's effects when it is taken as a supplement in fairly high doses. Research Evidence on Magnesium One study found that use of magnesium (as magnesium orotate) may improve exercise capacity and reduce heartarrhythmias in people with CHF who have just undergone bypass graft surgery. Additionally, in a well-designed trial involving 79 patients with severe congestive heart failure, magnesium orotate significantly improved survival and clinical symptoms after one year compared to a placebo. How to Use Magnesium A typical supplemental dosage of magnesium goes up to 600 mg daily. One study that demonstrated the benefits of magnesium for coronary artery disease involved daily doses of 730 mg.

Evidence of Increased Lung Cancer Risk Among Tuberculosis Patients

ScienceDaily (Jan. 1, 2011) Although a clear association of tuberculosis with lung cancer remains to be established, a new study published in the January issue of the Journal of Thoracic Oncologyprovides compelling evidence of increased lung cancer risk among people with tuberculosis. Researchers at China Medical University and Hospital in Taiwan randomly selected 1 million patients covered under the country's National Health Insurance (NHI) program. All patients aged 20 years and older with a new diagnosis of tuberculosis between 1998 and 2000 were identified as the exposed cohort and all people without tuberculosis history were the nonexposed cohort. Patients with any cancer diagnosis were excluded to ensure that all participants were cancer-free at the start of both cohorts. Overall, 716,872 adults were eligible for the analysis -- 4,480 in the tuberculosis cohort and 712,392 in the non-tuberculosis cohort. Both groups were followed from 2001 through 2007. Results showed that patients with tuberculosis were 10.9 times more likely than non-tuberculosis patients to develop lung cancer (26.3 versus 2.41 per 10,000 personyears). Mortality was also much higher in the patients with tuberculosis than in the non-tuberculosis patients (51.1 versus 8.2 per 10,000 personyears). "Tuberculosis is a very common chronic disease worldwide; people in the developing and undeveloped areas suffer with it mostly," said Dr. Chih-Yi Chen, one of the researchers. "It is well known that lung cancer is causally associated with smoking. Less attention has been focused on whether people with tuberculosis are also at higher risk of developing lung cancer. With the universal health insurance claims data of Taiwan, we identified 4,480 patients with tuberculosis from a group of 716,872 people and followed them for eight years or longer. The incidence of lung cancer in these tuberculosis patients was 11 times greater than people without tuberculosis. The risk of lung cancer may increase further to almost 16 times greater if patients with tuberculosis also suffer from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. This study suggests that it is also important to watch out for lung cancer prevention in the campaign against tuberculosis." The research was supported by the National Science Council, Executive Yuan, Taiwan; the Department of Health Clinical Trial and Research Center of Excellence; China Medical University Hospital; and Taiwan Department of Health, China Medical University Hospital Cancer Research of Excellence

Inhaled Corticosteroid Therapy Reduces Pneumonia Mortality, Large Study Finds

ScienceDaily (Apr. 15, 2011) Patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) who are hospitalized for pneumonia and treated with inhaled corticosteroids (ICS) have decreased mortality when compared to those who are not treated with ICS, according to a retrospective analysis of almost 16,000 COPD patients admitted to VA hospitals. The results were published online ahead of the print edition of the American Thoracic Society'sAmerican Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine. The use of ICS in COPD patients reduces exacerbations, but increases the rate pneumonia. "It was therefore believed that it also increased mortality," said Eric Mortensen, MD, investigator at VERDICT (Veterans Evidencebased Research, Dissemination, and Implementation Center, a VA Health Services Research and Development program) and principal investigator on the study. "This was the first large rigorous study to examine whether this was in fact the case." "This result is the opposite of what many experts have believed," said Dr. Mortensen. "We do, however, believe that this represents the reality because ours is one the largest studies, and employed a rigorous definition of pneumonia that previous studies did not." Dr. Mortensen and colleagues examined the medical records of 15,768 COPD patients over the age of 65 who had been admitted to the VA hospitals for pneumonia between 2002 and 2007. About half of those patients had been treated with ICS (52.5 percent) and half were not (47.5 percent). When they analyzed all-cause mortality of the two groups for both 30- and 90-day intervals, there were significant differences between the groups: for 30-day mortality, 10.2 percent of ICS users died, compared to 13.6 percent of those who were not treated with ICS. For 90-day mortality, the difference was even more striking: 17.3 percent among the ICS users died, and 22.8 percent of those who didn't receive ICS. Overall, those who were not treated with ICS had about a 25 percent greater mortality risk than those who were treated with ICS. "These results have clear implications for current clinical practice, which has been informed in the past by a series of studies that found an increased risk of pneumonia with ICS use," said Dr. Mortensen. "In contrast, our study would suggest that ICS use may confer a survival benefit to these patients and may be employed when there are not contraindications. These results should reassure clinicians that they can

give their COPD patients ICS without fearing that the increased risk of pneumonia will translate into higher risk of mortality." The next "really big question," according to Dr. Mortensen is whether ICS might be useful to initiate in certain sub-populations hospitalized with pneumonia. "There is currently a large randomized, controlled trial getting started that is looking at using oral versus intravenous steroids for all pneumonia patients," Dr. Mortensen explained. "The potential question is if this is successful would it be as useful to start these patients on inhaled (rather than oral or intravenous) steroids."