Beta Blockers

Beta blockers, a venerable class of blood pressure drugs that has fallen from favor in recent years, may help protect the aging brain against changes linked to Alzheimer's disease and other forms of dementia that rob memory and mental function, new research indicates. In autopsies on the brains of 774 men after their deaths, scientists found that those who took beta blockers to help control hypertension had fewer of the brain lesions and less of the brain shrinkage seen in Alzheimer's than men who took other types of blood pressure medications and those who left the condition untreated.

Beta blockers, a venerable class of blood pressure drugs that has fallen from favor in recent years, may help protect the aging brain against changes linked to Alzheimer's disease and other forms of dementia that rob memory and mental function, new research indicates. In autopsies on the brains of 774 men after their deaths, scientists found that those who took beta blockers to help control hypertension had fewer of the brain lesions and less of the brain shrinkage seen in Alzheimer's than men who took other types of blood pressure medications and those who left the condition untreated.

A new study questions the long-standing practice of prescribing beta blocker pills to patients with heart disease. Analyzing an international registry of 44,708 patients with heart disease or at risk of developing it, a team of researchers compared patients who took the drugs with those who did not and found no difference in their rates of heart attack, stroke or death related to cardiovascular problems. “This confirms my intrinsic suspicion,” said Dr. P.K. Shah, director of cardiology at Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute, who was not involved in the study.

A new study questions the long-standing practice of prescribing beta blocker pills to patients with heart disease. Analyzing an international registry of 44,708 patients with heart disease or at risk of developing it, a team of researchers compared patients who took the drugs with those who did not and found no difference in their rates of heart attack, stroke or death related to cardiovascular problems. “This confirms my intrinsic suspicion,” said Dr. P.K. Shah, director of cardiology at Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute, who was not involved in the study.

Contrary to popular belief among physicians and patients, the family of hypertension drugs known as beta-blockers does not prevent development of colon and rectal cancer, German researchers reported Monday. In fact, long-term use of the drugs might even be associated with an increased risk of developing an advanced form of the disease, they said. Beta-blockers are a family of drugs that reduce blood pressure and improve heart function by reducing the body's response to stress hormones such as epinephrine and norepinephrine.

Mac O'Grady, golf's abstract philosopher, grabbed some attention this week when he suggested that many of the top players were using beta-blockers to help with their putting. "Of the 30 top players worldwide, I would be surprised if less than seven (are using beta-blockers)," O'Grady told the Augusta Chronicle. Beta-blockers, available only through prescription, are given to people with high-blood pressure or anxiety. It also is used to treat some heart problems by slowing the heart rate.

A class of highly effective heart drugs called beta-blockers have developed a reputation for causing depression, impotence and fatigue. But a new study has found that the drugs' reputed side effects have been overblown.

Administering the beta blocker atenolol to patients with heart disease who were undergoing non-cardiac surgery reduced subsequent heart attacks 50%, UC San Francisco researchers report in the Dec. 5 New England Journal of Medicine. Atenolol slows the heart rate, lowers blood pressure and reduces the work done by the heart muscle. The group gave either atenolol or a placebo to 200 patients who underwent non-cardiac surgery at the San Francisco VA Medical Center.

Thousands of lives are being lost each year because doctors fail to prescribe an inexpensive, highly effective family of drugs called beta blockers to patients who have suffered heart attacks, researchers said Tuesday. In some cases, heart attack victims are not receiving the drugs because the patients have other problems, such as lung disease or diabetes, that doctors had previously thought would be exacerbated by beta blockers.

Dr. James Black, a Scottish Nobel laureate who pioneered the rational design of drugs and, in the process, developed the first widely used drugs for treating heart disease and blocking stomach acid production, died Monday. He was 85. His death was confirmed by the University of Dundee, which did not release details about the cause or place of death. Black developed propanolol (brand-named Inderal), the first member of the class of drugs known as beta blockers, which revolutionized the care of heart disease.

Contrary to popular belief among physicians and patients, the family of hypertension drugs known as beta-blockers does not prevent development of colon and rectal cancer, German researchers reported Monday. In fact, long-term use of the drugs might even be associated with an increased risk of developing an advanced form of the disease, they said. Beta-blockers are a family of drugs that reduce blood pressure and improve heart function by reducing the body's response to stress hormones such as epinephrine and norepinephrine.

A type of blood pressure-lowering medication known as angiotensin receptor blockers won’t increase a patient’s risk for cancer, the Food and Drug Administration said this week. So those taking the drugs for high blood pressure can just…relax.  Concern about the drugs' possible link to cancer risk arose last year after an analysis of several studies suggested that angiotensin receptor blockers, or ARBs, might be associated with a slightly increased risk of cancer. But the FDA’s own research found no such connection, the agency said in an announcement Thursday: “This analysis included 31 trials and approximately 156,000 patients, far more than the approximately 62,000 in the published analysis.

This post has been corrected. See the note at the bottom for details. Americans consume a lot of prescription drugs. And they seem especially fond of those to lower their cholesterol, relieve their heartburn, cheer them up and take away pain. Overall, however, their rate of spending on such drugs is slowing, a trend of the past decade. A new report from consulting firm IMS Health offers a quick, but thorough, look at Americans' consumption of, and spending on, prescription drugs.

Stress is bad. Breast cancer is bad. Put them together and things get even worse. That's what UCLA researchers discovered as they watched breast cancer tumors spread through the bodies of mice. Those tumors spread faster inside the mice that were stressed -- because they had to spend part of each day confined to a small space -- than in the mice that were not. Stress did not appear to affect the original cancer. But once a malignancy was established, stress helped it to metastasize.

Dr. James Black, a Scottish Nobel laureate who pioneered the rational design of drugs and, in the process, developed the first widely used drugs for treating heart disease and blocking stomach acid production, died Monday. He was 85. His death was confirmed by the University of Dundee, which did not release details about the cause or place of death. Black developed propanolol (brand-named Inderal), the first member of the class of drugs known as beta blockers, which revolutionized the care of heart disease.

Heart disease is the bane of diabetics. Fully 80% of diabetics die of cardiovascular disease, and efforts to lower the risk by reducing blood pressure, lowering cholesterol and eliminating other risk factors have had minimal success. Only about 7% of diabetics are able to bring cardiac risk factors to desired levels. One big problem is that drugs that lower blood pressure can be counterproductive, exacerbating diabetes as they reduce hypertension.

A Harvard study has found drugs known as "beta blockers" are a "cost-effective" way of reducing the risk of subsequent heart attacks among heart attack survivors. Based on the findings, the researchers who conducted the study recommended doctors routinely prescribe beta blockers for all heart attacks survivors who can tolerate the drugs, even those at low risk for the later attacks.

In the first study of its kind on human subjects, scientists from UC Irvine and a Long Beach veterans hospital have determined that people tend to remember emotional events best because of stress hormones such as adrenaline activated during and after the experiences. The research, to be published today in the scientific journal Nature, showed that drugs known as beta blockers, which block the adrenaline system's response, impaired people's long-term memories of emotional stories.

Many cases of heart failure are the product of our successes, attributable to medications and procedures such as angioplasty that have allowed more people to survive heart attacks and heart disease. The problem is, they must live with weakened hearts. Without sufficient blood pumping to other organs, they become fatigued and short of breath.

A class of highly effective heart drugs called beta-blockers have developed a reputation for causing depression, impotence and fatigue. But a new study has found that the drugs' reputed side effects have been overblown.