Pet Food Safety

I’m Dr. Cindy Haines of HealthDay TV… making news this week: Fewer kids on medicines for things like ADHD Why women may not benefit from hormone replacement therapy.And news that statins could be worth smiling about.First this week new findings that show the use of psychotrophic drugs to treat ADHD and other medical conditions in kids is trending downward. Psychotropic drugs alter chemical levels in the brain and are commonly prescribed to treat depression and anxiety in adults. They’re also prescribed for young children with ADHD and other issues.Using data from more than 43-thousand kids under the age of five….a new study shows use of these drugs peaked about a decade ago, and then leveled out in the late 2000’s.Even more interesting, the data shows more and more kids are being diagnosed with behavioral issues now…but the increase has not been accompanied by an increase in psychotropic prescriptions written.Ladies, this next one is for you.A large new study tells us something we’ve heard a lot about. Hormone replacement therapy for menopause can do more harm than good.HRT was commonly used for hot flashes…and other menopause related issues before it came under fire. It was also believed to ward off heart disease and cognitive decline.Using data from two studies, researchers in Boston analyzed more than 27-thousand postmenopausal women, ages 50 through 79.Overall…women using HRT were at higher risk for heart disease, breast cancer, stroke, pulmonary embolism, dementia, gallbladder disease, and urinary incontinence. Benefits included decreased hip fractures, less diabetes, and fewer vasomotor symptoms, like hot flashes. The researchers believe hormone therapy is still a reasonable option for healthy women in early menopause with moderate to severe menopausal symptoms…but fell short of recommending it.Finally this week more good news about statins. These popular cholesterol lowering medications are also good for your gums!Statins work by decreasing inflammation in our arteries and lowering cholesterol. So, using a small group of 59 study volunteers with heart disease or at risk for it … all were assigned to take a statin each day for 12 weeks-some taking a higher dose, others taking a lower dose.Special scans were used to measure inflammation before, after a month and again at 3 months.At the end, the high dose patients showed a improvement in their cholesterol numbers