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Thursday, February 28, 2002
SCI|H
THE BATTAL
Study predicts heart risks
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CHICAGO (AP) — Middle-
age Americans have a 90 per
cent chance of eventually devel
oping high blood pressure, a
new study estimates. But experts
say many can still beat the odds
with diet and exercise.
The study, published in
Wednesday’s Journal of the
American Medical Association,
prompted warnings from the
nation’s top health authorities,
including Health and Human
Services Secretary Tommy
Thompson and Dr. Claude
Lenfant, director of the National
Heart, Lung and Blood Institute.
“Ninety percent is a stagger
ing statistic and cause for con
cern,’’ Thompson said. “This
finding should energize
Americans to take steps to pro
tect themselves against high
blood pressure.”
Lenfant, whose agency
helped fund the study, said
Americans “cannot adopt a
wait-and-see approach. If they
do, chances are they will find
themselves with high blood
pressure, and that puts them at
increased risk for heart disease
and stroke.”
High blood pressure is esti
mated to affect 50 million
Americans.
The study, among the first to
calculate the lifetime risk of
developing the condition,
involved mostly whites.
Lifetime risks may be even
higher for blacks, who are dis
proportionately affected by high
blood pressure.
The findings are based on an
analysis of 1,298 men and
women taking part in the con
tinuing Framingham Heart
Study, which began in 1948 and
has examined participants every
two years.
The JAMA study involved
participants who had not
developed high blood pressure
by 1975.
The authors estimated the
lifetime risk of developing high
blood pressure among 55-year-
olds and 65-year-olds over a fol
low-up period of 20 to 25 years.
Nearly 85 percent of the par
ticipants eventually developed
at least mildly high blood pres
sure — readings of 140 over 90
or more.
Heart risk higher at middle a
Middle-age Americans face a 90 percent lifetime risk of deve
hypertension, defined as abnormalfy high blood pressure, acct
to a study. The risk generally increases between the ages
and 65.
■ Age 55 ■ Age 65
Hypertension (Over 140/90)
Women ■■■■!■■■■ 91 %
>89
Men
Mild high blood pressure
(Over 140/90)
Women 86%
i63
Men
188
84
Moderate or severe his*
blood pressure (Over 16C
Women ■■■■■139%
■■■■■■44
Men ■■■■■35
Optimal adult blood pressure is less than 120/80.
Ways to help your heart
1 A Maintain
yTx a healthy
Follow a
healthy
/'•A If you
V-Ly drink
('2y , p.
'O'haw
weight.
eating plan,
alcoholic
blood pres
/XX Be physi-
cally active.
which includes
beverages.
and are
foods lower in
do so in
prescribe:
salt and
moderation
medcatK'
sodium.
it as direc?
NOTE: Fm&nps art bmsad on an armfya/a of IJt
vno
rtw ongoing Framingham Heart Study, wtoch bag*
participants ovary two years Tho JAhtA study mvc
d&vatopod high btood prossura by 1975.
on and vomer ss
i 194& and Nutx
•d participants who hie i
SOURCES Journal o> the Amencan Medea! Association. National Heart Ux
and Blood Institute
NEWS IN BRIEF
Drug triggers negative
reaction in HIV patients
SEATTLE (AP) — Genetic testing can reveal
whether a widely used AIDS drug is likely to
trigger a life-threatening reaction that occurs
in about 5 percent of all people who take it.
The drug, known generically as abacavir,
was approved in 1998 and is a mainstay
of AIDS treatment, typically used in com
bination with other medicines to hold HIV
in check.
Doctors have long suspected that some
genetic factor was involved in the adverse
reaction, which often occurs after patients
have taken it for about two weeks. %
est finding should help doctors awe
problem by screening patients in w.r
for the telltale gene.
The discovery that particular genes *
seem to be involved is the latest
an emerging field of medical stuifc
pharmacogenetics.
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Space mission faces
last minute probler
CAPE CANAVERAL. Fla.
(AP) — With just one day left
before launch, NASA scrambled
Wednesday to investigate a
potential problem with the land
ing gear on space shuttle
Columbia, poised to take off for
a service call to the Hubble
Space Telescope.
The space agency also braced
for unusually cold weather that
could force a flight delay.
Temperatures were expected to
drop to 38 degrees at the time of
Columbia's planned 6:48 a.m.
launch on Thursday.
The landing gear issue arose
during a high-level meeting of
mission managers on Tuesday
afternoon. By Wednesday morn
ing, three engineering teams
were working on the problem in
hopes of getting “comfortable”
with it in time for Thursday’s
launch, said NASA spokesper
son George Diller.
Eight wheel bearings in
Columbia’s main landing gear
evidently were treated with 300-
degree heat before installation,
rather than the 500 degrees
intended to keep them from
breaking during touchdown,
Diller said. Engineers were try
ing to determine if the tempera
ture difference may have weak
ened the bearings.
“They’re starting to get com
fortable with it, but there's still a
lot more data analysis to do,”
Diller said.
Shuttle program manager
Ron Dittemore said a wheel
bearing failure during landing
could be disastrous.
“If you lose the bearing, its
ability to take the load in the
bearing, then your wheel isn’t
going to turn very well and it
could lock up under heat or fric
tion and then you’ve
problem going down tfiffl
at landing at 2 (l
Dittemore said.
“The wheel doesi
stalls to skid. That wcv.w| :
real bad day.”
Replacing the bear:®
necessary, would require l"*
back in the
of work
hangar.
Forecasters said there
40 percent chance
Thursday’s cold couldde
launch. Warmer weafc'
expected Friday.
Extreme cold could c:
some shuttle systems, ine
the extensive fuel plumbir;
could increase the I
on the external fuel lanl
concern is that chunks f
could fall off during lifte%
strike Columbia.
NASA has been wan.''
weather ever since the
Challenger disaster. Thete'
ature was 36 degrees
January morning
Challenger lifted ^A/ficc 1
been well below freezing ^
the night. The cold cai)-0rit0l'
ring seals to fail in the.
solid-fuel booster rockq Xv
allowed blazing hot gas tov
Redesigned booster h Deutsch
now have heaters to prevef ■ .
rubbery O-rings fromdtr^ ^
mg in cold weather. ,,
Once they arrive at Hs ; . , '
Columbia’s astronaUts /ead^ ^
install an advanced cafliL <!
refrigerator system to ^ pot>es
tate a disabled infrared X. ' 1 15
new steering mechanis®]/! 5 Cs _
power-control unit, and^ ^ ,r P ra
solar wings for genera®^ 6 , hei
more electricity. The flifV, s ' 1
last 11 days. ,ake
J mistakes
Attention All Members of
NSCS
National Society of Collegiate Scholars
“Mor
has n
yersi
When: February 28, 2002
Where: Rudder 308
Time: 5130 p.m. '
In res pot
for/ves'
feb 27 r
Last meeting before Spring Brea
j While t
ally lyins
'The
For more information, contact us at:
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rtainly
resent