February 29th, 2012
Podcast 148: Smoking cessation during pregnancy is probably more effective with behavioral approaches than with relying on nicotine replacement
In the largest study of its kind, UK researchers find that helping pregnant women to quit smoking until at least delivery isn’t helped much by nicotine replacement therapy. The primary outcome, self-reported cessation lasting between the start of therapy and delivery, differed little between the active treatment group and those randomized to placebo (9% versus 8%). In […]
February 3rd, 2012
Podcast 144: Hip fractures, PPIs, and smoking history in postmenopausal women — increased risks
PPIs are back on our radar, and this time it’s their regular use among postmenopausal women. A BMJ article examines data from the Nurses’ Health Study to show a significantly increased risk for hip fracture among postmenopausal women with any smoking history. Never-smokers showed no statistically significant increase. Now that proton pump inhibitors have been available over-the-counter […]
July 8th, 2011
Podcast 125: The smoking-cessation drug varenicline poses some difficult tradeoffs.
There is a new meta-analysis from the Canadian Medical Association Journal that finds increased risks among smokers trying to quit and taking varenicline (Chantix). Among smokers with stable cardiovascular disease, the number needed to treat to cause an adverse cardiovascular event is about 30, yet the number needed to treat to achieve smoking cessation is 10. […]
November 9th, 2010
Podcast 108: CT screening for lung cancer
We talk with Dr. Denise Aberle, a principal investigator on the CT-for-lung-cancer-screening trial that the National Cancer Institute stopped last week. NCI stopped the trial when the trial’s monitoring committee found a 20% decrease in lung cancer deaths among those randomized to CT screening. Listen in for a fascinating look at what happens when trials stop […]
August 20th, 2010
Podcast 98: Leafy green vegetables apparently lower one’s risks for type 2 diabetes
Our interview this week is with a research nutritionist whose BMJ meta-analysis found a 14% reduction in risk for type 2 diabetes among those with the highest intake (versus those with the lowest) of leafy green vegetables. It’s a meta-analysis, and not a randomized controlled trial, and it’s interesting. Listen in. We’re off next week, so […]
February 19th, 2010
Podcast 75: Which regimen for hypertension?
Patients with hypertension at risk for cardiovascular events have done better with an ACE inhibitor-calcium channel blocker combination than with the ACE inhibitor plus hydrochlorothiazide. The ACCOMPLISH investigators have now reported on their analysis of progression-of-nephropathy outcomes in their trial. We interview the first author of the analysis, Dr. George Bakris of the University of […]