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Half of all patients discharged from hospital after a heart attack are treated with beta-blockers unnecessarily. This is according to a new study. Today, when patients are discharged from hospitals after an acute heart attack, they are regularly treated with beta-blocker drugs such as metoprolol and bisoprolol. Now new research shows that about half of them do not benefit from the treatment and should not receive it at all. These are the patients who have suffered a small heart attack and have retained heart function afterward. The study began in September 2017 and patients were followed up until November 2023....

Among patients with knee pain, those who take a widely used class of blood pressure-lowering medications called beta-blockers appear to have a lower risk of total knee arthroplasty (TKA) for the treatment of advanced osteoarthritis (OA), suggests a study. "Our results indicate that the use of β-blockers, especially nonselective blockers, was associated with a lower likelihood of TKA," according to the case-control study by Iskandar Tamimi, MD, Ph.D. and colleagues. Beta-blockers may slow the progression of OA by reducing inflammatory mediators involved in cartilage degeneration—which may provide clues to the development of new treatment approaches for OA. Researchers identified 300...

Beta-blockers are a group of drugs that slow down our heart rate. They work by blocking the action of stress hormones—adrenaline, noradrenaline—stopping them from binding to receptors on heart cells. Because they reduce the rate at which the heart contracts, beta-blockers are a common prescription for treating numerous heart conditions, such as angina, high blood pressure and heart failure. A new study led by Dr. Javier Barallobre-Barreiro has discovered another way that beta-blockers may benefit patients with heart failure. Specifically, they help to reduce the levels of a type of proteoglycans (a hybrid molecule made of protein and carbohydrates) called...

Stress hormones and immune cells called neutrophils may awaken dormant cancer cells and cause tumors to regrow -- even after treatment -- according to a study published Wednesday by Science Translational Medicine. The findings may explain why cancers can return long after seemingly being cured with chemotherapy or surgery, the researchers said. In addition, targeting stress hormones with U.S. Food and Drug Administration-approved beta-blockers, typically used to treat irregular heartbeats, potentially could help prevent tumors from returning, they said. "Tumor recurrence may be facilitated by common stress," study co-author Dr. Dmitry Gabrilovich told UPI.

Beta blockers may offer little against heart attack, stroke Commonly prescribed drugs called beta blockers fail to protect against heart attacks and strokes even while helping to control heart rate and blood pressure, researchers report in the Oct. 3 Journal of the American Medical Association. Beta blockers also didn’t lessen the odds of a heart-related death, in heart attack patients or others at risk, over a median follow-up of 44 months. The American Heart Association had previously discouraged the long-term use of beta blockers as a post–heart attack treatment beyond three years. The new findings further dim the prospects for...

Scientists have discovered a genetic mutation that might extend the lives of many African Americans after heart failure by mimicking a common class of drugs called beta blockers. The findings could explain why clinical trials of the drugs have shown little benefit to African-American patients. The heart doesn't stop beating during heart failure. Instead, it stops pumping blood efficiently. The condition can be caused by a number of diseases--including diabetes and hypertension--that keep the heart from filling with blood or decrease blood flow from the heart to the rest of the body. As the heart falters, the body releases adrenaline...

Beta blockers, the most commonly used drugs for treating high blood pressure unaccompanied by other cardiovascular disease, are probably less effective than other drugs used for the same purpose, new research says. The work examines the results of 13 randomized trials and concludes that the drugs, which have been the first-line treatment for hypertension for at least 25 years, produce a higher risk for stroke when compared with other drugs used for the same purpose. Dr. Lars H. Lindholm, the lead author on the study, which was published in Lancet online on Oct. 18 and in print on Saturday, emphasized...

A "FIRST-line" anti-high blood pressure drug is leaving patients at far greater risk of suffering strokes than if they take other medication for the condition, according to a major study. People taking the commonly prescribed beta-blockers had a 16 per cent higher chance of stroke than if they took other drugs to treat high blood pressure, according to the findings by Swedish researchers. One particular beta-blocker, atenolol, was found to be associated with a 26 per cent higher stroke risk. Medical experts warned yesterday that patients should not stop taking beta-blockers, which are beneficial for a range of other conditions....