Vitamin D May Boost Heart Failure Survival
A study has found that heart failure patients with reduced levels of vitamin D have lower rates of survival than patients with normal vitamin D levels.
As a result, researchers suggest that a low intake of vitamin D may be a factor in the development, and outcome, of heart failure. Vitamin D is produced by the skin when it is exposed to the natural ultra violet-B, or UV-B, radiation from the sun. Most tissues and cells have a vitamin D receptor; and evidence suggests vitamin D reduces the risks of several chronic illnesses such as common cancers, autoimmune diseases, kidney diseases, chronic infectious diseases, high blood pressure – and apparently, heart failure.
The study team described the evidence of a protective effect from vitamin D as “compelling,” and recommended that heart failure patients should be advised to take vitamin D supplements and eat oily fish or eggs. The study was presented August 31, 2010 at the annual congress of the European Society Cardiology. It has not yet been published in a peer-reviewed journal.
Drug Resistant Gene Now Emerging
POSSIBLE END FOR ANTIBIOTICS?
New research concludes a rapidly emerging gene – found in a large and growing number of bacterial samples – makes bacteria immune to all drugs. Bacteria that acquire and reproduce this gene could spread so quickly that they could make all antibiotics redundant and signal the end of modern antibiotics.
The gene, known as New Delhi metallo-beta-lactamase (NDM-1), was first found in pneumonia and E. coli bacteria taken from a single Swedish patient in 2009. But NDM-1 was found in 73 samples of Enterobacteriaceae (bacteria) taken from patients in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, as well as 37 from the UK, who had traveled to these countries for elective surgery.
Importantly, the NDM-1 gene was found on plasmids, DNA structures that can be easily copied and transferred between evolving bacteria, suggesting, wrote the researchers, “an alarming potential to spread and diversify among bacterial populations.” Worse, the infections were community acquired, meaning they exist in the general environment.
No drugs, including those in development, are effective against NDM-1.
This study was released August 11, but will not be published in print until the September 2010 issue of The Lancet Infectious Diseases. Meantime, the full-text version of the study can be accessed online at http://bit.ly/bEGfvg.