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German scientists found out that people given cholesterol-fighting statin drugs before heart surgery are far less likely to suffer complications afterwards or die. This can be a relief to those who will have to go through this trial as well as to their near and dear ones.

The inspection of more than 31,000 patients gave to the researchers some of the strongest evidence of the benefits of statins before heart surgery. However their work also showed that too few doctors are prescribing cholesterol-fighting statin drugs.

"This is the first big summary of all the existing studies about people undergoing cardiac surgery," said Oliver Liakopoulos, a researcher at the University of Cologne. It was he, who led the study. "What our study underscores is the need to increase statin therapy," he also mentioned.

It’s worth mentioning that statins are the world's top-selling drugs and are believed to be highly effective at cutting the risk of heart attack and stroke. Consequently the medicines have also made fortunes for drug companies like Pfizer, which makes the market leader Lipitor, and AstraZeneca with its Crestor. However cheaper generic versions are now increasingly available.

The fact is that the odds of dying after heart surgery were 43 percent lower for people who had been on statins. It’s also evident that the drugs lowered the post-operative risk of irregular heartbeats by 33 percent and stroke by 26 percent. All this was confirmed by review of 19 studies made in recent time. Nevertheless only a little more than half of the 31,000 people in the studies got statins before surgery. Thus we can only conclude that more patients should receive cholesterol-fighting statin drugs.

But at present the researchers could not say what the right dose should be or how long patients should take statins, because people they studied were on the drugs from a few days to a few months which can make difference. "We can't say how much or how long is optimal but these are things that need to be looked at in further studies," Liakopoulos said.

It seems surprising but using Chinese herbs either alone or in conjunction with chemotherapy may help protect a breast cancer patient's bone marrow and immune system. Moreover it can also improve the woman's quality of life in general.

It’s worth mentioning tat 60 % of women undergoing chemotherapy for breast cancer experience a range of significant although not lasting side effects. These include nausea, vomiting and fatigue, and which is more - inflammation of the gut lining, decreased numbers of red and white blood cells, as well as decreased numbers of blood platelets.

It was found out that Chinese medicinal herbs that include mixtures of herbal compounds or draws from herbs, can minimalize or even neutralize the side effects of chemotherapy. That’s exactly why they are prescribed to women undergoing chemotherapy for breast cancer. However certain studies were established to see if there is conventional evidence indicating that these medicines are safe and whether there is evidence that the medicines are effective.

With this purpose seven randomised studies involving 542 patients with breast cancer were made. On their bases the researchers concluded that there was no evidence that the Chinese medicinal herbal treatment caused harm, and found some evidence that it might reduce side effects.

Nevertheless as Assistant Professor Jing Li, who works at the Chinese Cochrane Centre in Chengdu, China, says: "Further trials are needed before the effects of traditional Chinese medicines for people with breast cancer can be evaluated with any real confidence".