Case Closed: Multivitamins Should Not Be Used

The editorialists are fed up: “Enough is enough.” Writing about three new papers in the Annals of Internal Medicine that find no benefits for the use of multivitamins — only the latest in a long line of negative findings — Eliseo Guallar and colleagues write: …we believe that the case is closed— supplementing the diet of well-nourished adults with (most)…

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New Guideline Recommends Conservative Treatment for Heart Patients with Anemia

The American College of Physicians (ACP) is recommending more conservative use of transfusions and erythropoiesis-stimulating agents (ESAs) in anemia patients with heart disease. But the authors of the new clinical practice guidelines, published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, acknowledge that the evidence base is too flimsy to support firm conclusions. “Overall,” wrote the authors, “despite the epidemiologic and…

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No Evidence That Statins Impact Cognitive Function

In 2012 the FDA revised the label of statins to include a warning about reports that the drugs had been linked to memory loss or confusion. The FDA action appeared to be based largely on case reports. Despite concerns about this topic that have appeared sporadically in recent years, no high-quality review of the topic has appeared until now….

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No Evidence That Statins Impact Cognitive Function

In 2012 the FDA revised the label of statins to include a warning about reports that the drugs had been linked to memory loss or confusion. The FDA action appeared to be based largely on case reports. Despite concerns about this topic that have appeared sporadically in recent years, no high-quality review of the topic has appeared until now….

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No Support For Broad Screening Of Chronic Kidney Disease

Although taught in  medical school and widely used in clinical practice, broad screening of otherwise healthy people for chronic kidney disease (CKD) is unwarranted, according to new recommendations from the American College of Physicians published in the Annals of Internal Medicine. People with early kidney disease, who are classified as having stages 1 to 3 CKD, usually…

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Lifelong Statin Sentence Now Includes Furloughs

Although the benefits of statins are among the best documented in all of medicine, continuous lifelong statin therapy is not always easy to achieve in clinical practice. Now a new retrospective study suggests that although clinical events causing temporary cessation of statin therapy occur often, most of these patients are later able to resume statin…

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