A World Turned Upside-Down

In this season of infection, the stock market little more than a twitching corpse, in an atmosphere of alarm and despondency, I am reminded of the enlightenments of the strict curfew Uganda endured in 1966. It was, for all its miseries, an episode of life lessons, as well as monotonous moralizing (because most crises enliven…

Details

Alcohol consumption by fathers before conception could negatively impact child development

RIVERSIDE, Calif. — Scientists at the University of California, Riverside, have explored the relationship between parental alcohol consumption — before conception in the case of fathers and during pregnancy in the case of mothers — and offspring development. In a paper published in Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research, the researchers report that when alcohol-exposed male…

Details

Boosts in serum EPA levels from prescription fish oil drive heart benefits

Higher levels of the omega-3 fatty acid eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) found in the blood–and not a decrease in triglyceride levels as originally thought–appear to explain the striking reductions in cardiovascular events and deaths seen among people taking 4 grams daily of the prescription fish oil, icosapent ethyl, according to findings from a REDUCE-IT substudy presented…

Details

E-cigarettes more effective than counseling alone for smoking cessation

Smokers who received smoking cessation counseling and used electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes) containing nicotine were more than twice as likely to successfully quit smoking compared to those who received counseling but did not use e-cigarettes, in a clinical trial presented at the American College of Cardiology’s Annual Scientific Session Together with World Congress of Cardiology (ACC.20/WCC).…

Details

Alirocumab substantially reduces cholesterol in adult patients with HoFH

The cholesterol drug alirocumab reduced low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol by 35.6% compared to placebo in adult patients with homozygous familial hypercholesterolemia (HoFH), according to a phase three clinical trial presented at the American College of Cardiology’s Annual Scientific Session Together with World Congress of Cardiology (ACC.20/WCC). HoFH is a genetic condition that causes dangerously high…

Details

Evinacumab cuts cholesterol levels by half in patients with HoFH

The investigational drug evinacumab reduced low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol to near-normal levels among patients with a rare cholesterol disorder, meeting the primary endpoint in the first randomized placebo-controlled trial of the drug, which is being presented at the American College of Cardiology’s Annual Scientific Session Together with World Congress of Cardiology (ACC.20/WCC). Homozygous familial hypercholesterolemia…

Details