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)…
TACT Substudy Suggests Possible Strong Benefit for Chelation in Diabetics
November 19, 2013 by Leave a Comment
One year ago the results of the TACT trial were published in JAMA, sparking an enormous controversy over the propriety of publishing a trial suggesting that chelation therapy might be beneficial in people with cardiovascular disease. Chelation therapy has long been a staple of alternative medicine, but until the publication of TACT it had received no credit whatsoever in…
Large NIH Trial Finds No Cardiovascular Benefits For Weight Loss And Exercise In Type 2 Diabetics
June 24, 2013 by 1 Comment
A large NIH-sponsored trial has found that an intensive lifestyle intervention was no better than standard care in reducing cardiovascular events in people with type 2 diabetes. The results of the Look AHEAD trial were presented today at the American Diabetes Association meeting and published simultaneously in the New England Journal of Medicine. 5,145 people with type 2 diabetes were randomized…
A Guide To The Raging Debate Over The NIH’s TACT Chelation Trial
April 2, 2013 by 7 Comments
(Updated) The publication in JAMA of the NIH’s Trial To Assess Chelation Therapy (TACT) trial has provoked a fascinating debate in the blogosphere. The vast majority of responsible physicians and healthcare professionals have little interest in chelation therapy per se, but the TACT trial has raised many important questions about the nature of medical evidence. Here’s a brief…
Controversial NIH Chelation Trial Published In JAMA
March 26, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Final results of the troubled NIH-sponsored TACT trial testing chelation therapy for coronary disease have now been published in JAMA. Last November, when the preliminary results were presented at the American Heart Association meeting, the positive finding in favor of chelation therapy surprised many observers, though the investigators and senior AHA representatives expressed considerable caution about the proper…
Amid Rising Tide Of Diabetes More Patients Reach Treatment Goals
February 15, 2013 by Leave a Comment
There’s a glimmer of good news amidst all the recent bad news about diabetes. Although the prevalence of diabetes has doubled over the last generation, more people today are reaching their treatment goals than in the past. New data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys (NHANES), published online today in Diabetes Care, show that…
American Heart Association Lists Top 10 Research Advances
December 17, 2012 by Leave a Comment
The AHA has published its annual list of the top 10 advances in heart disease and stroke research. It’s probably worth remarking that not a single item on the list is related to drug therapy. I haven’t gone back and checked past lists, but I would bet this hasn’t happened before. Here’s the list: Extended…
NIH Trial Of Lifestyle Intervention For Type 2 Diabetes Stopped For Futility After 11 Years
October 19, 2012 by 2 Comments
The NIH today announced the early termination of a large randomized trial testing a lifestyle intervention approach to weight loss in type 2 diabetics. More than 5,000 patients with type 2 diabetes were randomized to participate in an intensive lifestyle intervention program or a traditional program of diabetes support and education in Look AHEAD (Action…
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