NEW YORK — Over 74,000 people enrolled in experiments have been affected by the National Institutes of Health’s funding cuts, according to a new report.

Between the end of February and mid-August, funding ceased for 383 studies that were testing treatments for conditions including cancer, heart disease and brain disease. The cuts disproportionately impacted efforts to tackle infectious diseases like the flu, pneumonia and COVID-19, researchers found.

The funding cuts likely disrupted patients’ lives in different ways.

Some may have signed up for trials that never began or got delayed as institutions scrambled for alternate funding. Others could have lost access to medication or been left with an unmonitored device implant.

More still could have participated in trials only for the results to never get published.

“The disruption to the research enterprise was profound and substantial,” said Heather Pierce, who has followed NIH grant cuts for the Association of American Medical Colleges.

More broadly, the lost research harms patients who could have benefited from a possible new treatment, researchers said in the report published Monday in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine.

“The whole purpose of these clinical trials is to generate evidence on what works and doesn’t work in medicine,” said study co-author Anupam B. Jena with Harvard Medical School.

Researchers counted 11,008 NIH-funded studies during the study period. Of those, 1 in 30 lost funding.

Those clinical trial cuts may also erode trust between people and the medical institutions that support them, said Jeremy Berg, a former director of an NIH institute. Patients could think twice before participating in future research projects, worried that the funding could get pulled abruptly.

“Anybody else who’s ever approached about a clinical trial could easily feel, ‘Why should I be involved in this?’” said Berg.

The NIH has cut billions of dollars in research projects under the Trump administration.

A Supreme Court decision in August paved the way for the NIH to axe hundreds of millions in a push to cut diversity, equity and inclusion efforts. Challenges to NIH’s attempted cuts to the so-called indirect costs of medical research are also making their way through the courts.

Hundreds of NIH scientists signed a letter in June decrying new policies and the grant terminations, saying that they “undermine the NIH mission, waste public resources, and harm the health of Americans and people across the globe.”

Emily G. Hilliard, press secretary with U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, declined to comment.

___

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

Former Vice President Dick Cheney battled heart disease for most of his adult life, a life extended thanks in part to a heart transplant in 2012.

Cheney, who died Monday due to complications of pneumonia and cardiac and vascular disease, had his first heart attack at the unusually young age of 37. He would go on to survive four more before his heart declined enough to qualify for that transplant.

Heart disease is the nation’s No. 1 killer and Cheney’s decades of health problems illustrate how heart trouble can accumulate — as well as the varied treatments.

Over the years, Cheney underwent quadruple bypass surgery to reroute blood flow around clogged heart arteries as well as less invasive artery-clearing angioplasties. He had a pacemaker implanted to monitor his heartbeat. He also experienced blood vessel problems in his legs.

Heart attacks damage the heart’s muscle, eventually making it harder to pump properly. After Cheney’s fifth heart attack in 2010, he acknowledged “increasing congestive heart failure.” He received another implant, a small pump called a “left ventricular assist device” or LVAD. That device took over the job of his heart’s main pumping chamber, powered by batteries worn in a fanny pack.

Then in March 2012, at the age of 71, Cheney received a heart transplant. Like him, more than 70% of heart transplant recipients live at least five years, many longer. Cheney was older than a typical heart transplant recipient; most are 50 to 64 years old. But he was one of 362 people age 65 or older who received a new heart in 2012, according to the U.S. Organ Procurement and Transplant Network, or OPTN.

There’s a huge need for more transplantable hearts. Hundreds of thousands of adults suffer from advanced heart failure yet many are never placed on the transplant list, in part because of the organ shortage. According to the organ network, 4,572 people received a heart transplant last year. That number of has grown gradually since Cheney’s — there were 2,378 transplants in 2012. So have the number of recipients 65 or older — 905 last year.

___

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

WASHINGTON — Don’t lose sleep over headlines linking melatonin to heart failure.

That’s the message after some scary-sounding reports about a preliminary study involving the sleep-related supplement. It raised questions about the safety of long term use of melatonin for insomnia.

Doctors have long known that too little or interrupted sleep raises the risk of heart disease. But heart experts say this kind of so-called observational study can’t prove that melatonin use plays any role — instead of the insomnia patients were trying to treat.

“We should not raise the alarm and tell patients to stop taking all their melatonin,” said Dr. Pratik Sandesara, an interventional cardiologist at Emory Healthcare who wasn’t involved with the research.

Our bodies naturally produce melatonin, a hormone that regulates our sleep cycles. Levels normally increase as it gets darker in the evening, triggering drowsiness.

People may take lab-produced melatonin to help them fall asleep or to adjust for jet lag or time changes.

The new study used international electronic health records, tracking adults diagnosed with insomnia who had a melatonin prescription that suggested they used the supplement for at least a year.

Over five years, 4.6% of the chronic melatonin users developed heart failure compared to 2.7% of insomnia patients whose charts showed no melatonin use, the researchers found. The study is being presented at an American Heart Association meeting but hasn’t undergone peer review.

But only certain countries require a melatonin prescription. It’s over-the-counter in the U.S., meaning Americans in the study might have used the supplements without it being recorded, said Northwestern University cardiology chief Dr. Clyde Yancy, who wasn’t involved in the study. The study also did not show dosages.

Also, U.S. supplements don’t require government approval, meaning brands can vary in their ingredients. The researchers, from SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University, characterized the findings as a call for more research.

Meanwhile, patients wondering about melatonin should talk it over with their doctors, said Emory’s Sandesara. Generally doctors recommend it for short-term use, like for jet lag.

Yancy noted that while the study doesn’t prove there’s a danger from long term melatonin use, there’s also no evidence that people should use melatonin indefinitely.

And one key to better shut-eye is to practice better sleep hygiene, like making sure your room is dark.

“When we expose ourselves to blue light in particular at night, we are diminishing our melatonin levels. That’s science,” he said. Sleep problems aren’t about “just being sleepy and tired — they’re putting yourself at risk.”

___

This story has been corrected to show that the Northwestern University cardiology chief is Dr. Clyde Yancy, not Yancey.

___

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

BRISBANE, Australia — Cricketer Shane Warne’s legacy lives on more than three years after the death of the great spin bowler from a heart attack at the age of 52.

Warne died in March 2022 after suffering cardiac arrest while on holiday on the Thai island of Koh Samui.

The cause of his sudden death led his business team and family to unite to honor his life and create Shane Warne Legacy. The charity set up free heart health checkup machines at the Melbourne Cricket Ground during the past two Boxing Day tests.

The results of the stadium checks along with 311 community pharmacy stations across Australia were analyzed as part of a Monash University-led study. A total of 76,085 people were screened across seven weeks from mid-December 2023 to the end of January 2024, including 7,740 at the MCG.

The research published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology on Friday showed almost seven out of 10 (68.9%) had at least one uncontrolled risk factor for heart disease. Factors were elevated blood pressure readings (37.2%), elevated body mass index (60.5%) and being a smoker (12.1%).

Cricket spectators who did the free checks, mostly men aged 35 to 64, had higher rates of elevated blood pressure and body mass index than those screened at pharmacies.

Warne revived and elevated the art of leg-spin bowling when he emerged on the international scene in the 1990s and was a central character in one of Australia’s most successful eras in the sport. He also was one of cricket’s larger-than-life showmen.

Warne held the record for the most test wickets with 708 when he retired in 2007 after his 145th match. Only Sri Lanka off-spinner Muttiah Muralitharan has passed him, with 800.

“Meeting people where they are, whether that’s at their local pharmacy or the MCG, can make all the difference to health outcomes,” said Dr. Sean Tan, a cardiologist and researcher at the Victorian Heart Institute.

Warne’s long-time personal assistant Helen Nolan said the findings reinforced Shane Warne Legacy’s mission to turn his death into a catalyst for change. The charity’s chief executive described the results as “bittersweet.”

“We’re proud to have helped thousands take their heart health seriously but we know there’s still work to do,” Nolan said. “Shane would have wanted this to make a massive difference.”

___

AP cricket: https://apnews.com/hub/cricket

SANTA FE, N.M. — SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — Actor Gene Hackman died of heart disease a full week after his wife died from hantavirus in their New Mexico hillside home, likely unaware that she was dead because he was in the advanced stages of Alzheimer’s disease, authorities revealed Friday.

Both deaths were ruled to be from natural causes, chief medical examiner Dr. Heather Jarrell said alongside state fire and health officials at a news conference.

“Mr. Hackman showed evidence of advanced Alzheimer’s disease,” Jarrell said. “He was in a very poor state of health. He had significant heart disease, and I think ultimately that’s what resulted in his death.”

Authorities didn’t suspect foul play after the bodies of Hackman, 95, and Betsy Arakawa, 65, were discovered Feb 26. Immediate tests for carbon monoxide poisoning were negative.

Investigators found that the last known communication and activity from Arakawa was Feb. 11 when she visited a pharmacy, pet store and grocery before returning to their gated neighborhood that afternoon, Santa Fe County Sheriff Adan Mendoza said Friday.

Hackman’s pacemaker last showed signs of activity a week later and that he had an abnormal heart rhythm Feb. 18, the day he likely died, Jarrell said.

Although there was no reliable way to determine the date and time when both died, all signs point to their deaths coming a week apart, Jarrell said.

“It’s quite possible he was not aware she was deceased,” Jarrell said.

Dr. Michael Baden, a former New York City medical examiner, said he believes Hackman was severely impaired due to Alzheimer’s disease and unable to deal with his wife’s death in the last week of his life.

Most older Americans with dementia live at home, and many receive care from family or friends.

Their bodies were found a little over a week later. Hackman was found in the home’s entryway. His death was tied to heart disease with Alzheimer’s disease contributing.

Arakawa was found in a bathroom. Authorities linked her death to hantavirus pulmonary syndrome, a rare but potentially fatal disease spread by infected rodent droppings. Thyroid medication pills prescribed to Arakawa were found nearby and weren’t listed as contributing to her death, Jarrell said.

Hantavirus typically is reported in spring and summer, often due to exposures that occur when people are near mouse droppings in homes, sheds or poorly ventilated areas. This is the first confirmed case of hantavirus in New Mexico this year.

While hantavirus is found throughout the world, most cases in the U.S. have been found in western states. The virus can cause a severe and sometimes deadly lung infection.

Jarrell said it was not known how quickly Arakawa died.

One of the couple’s three dogs also was found dead in a crate in a bathroom closet near Arakawa, while two other dogs survived. Authorities initially misidentified the breed.

Dogs do not get sick from hantavirus, said Erin Phipps, a veterinarian with the New Mexico Health Department. The sheriff considers this an open investigation until they receive results of the dog’s necropsy and finish checking into data from personal cellphones retrieved from the home.

When Hackman and Arakawa were found, the bodies were decomposing with some mummification, a consequence of body type and climate in Santa Fe’s especially dry air at an elevation of nearly 7,200 feet (2,200 meters).

“All of us that knew him should have been checking on him,” said Stuart Ashman, co-owner of Artes de Cuba gallery who cherished his encounters with Hackman at a local Pilates exercise studio, where they used to swap stories. “I had no idea. … It’s just really sad. And that she died a week before him. My God.”

Dr. Victor Weedn, a forensic pathologist in Virginia, said when two bodies are found at the same time, the usual assumption would be that they died at the same time. But Hackman’s Alzheimer’s disease added a complicating factor: He apparently was unable to seek help after his wife died.

“They died several days apart: One dying of a viral infection, the hantavirus, which can kill quite quickly. And the other death occurring from heart disease. And that too can be a relatively sudden death,” Weedn said. “Their (the authorities’) explanation, I thought, was quite clear and plausible. I believe they really discovered what truly happened in this case.”

Hackman, a Hollywood icon, won two Oscars during a storied career in films including “The French Connection,” “Hoosiers” and “Superman” from the 1960s until his retirement in the early 2000s.

Arakawa, born in Hawaii, studied as a concert pianist, attended the University of Southern California and met Hackman in the mid-1980s while working at a California gym.

Hackman dedicated much of his time in retirement to painting and writing novels far from Hollywood’s social circuit. He served for several years on the board of trustees at the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum in Santa Fe, and he and his wife were investors in local businesses.

___

Baumann reported from Bellingham, Washington. Associated Press reporters Jacques Billeaud in Phoenix, John Seewer in Toledo, Ohio, and Carla Johnson in Seattle contributed.