Heart Disease Blog

Agent Orange Linked to Parkinson's, Heart Disease

Posted 3+ months ago by Drugs.com

FRIDAY, July 24 – Exposure to Agent Orange and other herbicides that were sprayed far and wide by the U.S. military during the Vietnam War might put veterans at increased risk for heart disease and Parkinson's.

An Institute of Medicine report released Friday finds "suggestive but limited" evidence of an elevated risk for these two conditions among soldiers who served in that conflict.

Agent Orange is made up of compounds known to be contaminated with a type of dioxin – tetrachlorodibenzo-para-dioxin (TCDD) – during manufacture. The chemical, named for the color of the barrel it was stored in, was one of the "broad-leaf defoliants" used in Vietnam to destroy vegetation to make enemy activity easier to spot. Read more...

Related support groups: Heart Disease, Parkinson's Disease

Soothing Songs Please the Heart

Posted 3+ months ago by Drugs.com

WEDNESDAY, April 15 – If you have heart problems, you might want to plug in that iPod or pop in a CD of mellow songs.

Hospital patients with coronary heart disease reduced their heart rates, breathing rate and blood pressure just by listening to music, a Temple University review of 23 previous studies found.

The report, published in the latest issue of The Cochrane Library, found that the soothing effects were greatest when these patients chose their own tunes. For example, patients' pulse rates fell by more beats per minute when they made the selections compared with those who listened to music selected by researchers. Read more...

Related support groups: Heart Disease

Heart Disease and Depression Up Heart Failure Risk

Posted 3+ months ago by Drugs.com

MONDAY, April 13 – Depression increases the risk that people with heart disease caused by blockage of coronary arteries will develop heart failure, a new study finds.

That finding was to be expected, said Heidi May, an epidemiologist at the Intermountain Medical Center in Murray, Utah, and lead author of the study, because earlier research had found that depression increases the risk of heart failure in otherwise healthy people. Heart failure is a progressive loss of the ability to pump blood.

What was not expected was the finding that treatment with antidepressant drugs did not reduce the risk of heart failure among people with depression in the group May studied – 13,708 people who were diagnosed with coronary artery disease. Read more...

Related support groups: Heart Disease

Human Heart Can Make New Cells

Posted 3+ months ago by Drugs.com

THURSDAY, April 2 – Solving a longstanding mystery, scientists have found that the human heart continues to generate new cardiac cells throughout the life span, although the rate of new cell production slows with age.

The finding, published in the April 3 issue of Science, could open a new path for the treatment of heart diseases such as heart failure and heart attack, experts say.

"We find that the beating cells in the heart, cardiomyocytes, are renewed," said lead researcher Dr. Jonas Frisen, a professor of stem cell research at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden. "It has previously not been known whether we were limited to the cardiomyocytes we are born with or if they could be renewed," he said. Read more...

Related support groups: Heart Failure, Heart Disease

One Pill Might Prevent Heart Disease

Posted 3+ months ago by Drugs.com

MONDAY, March 30 – Create a single pill that contains a statin, three blood pressure drugs and aspirin, and you have an inexpensive medication that can reduce the risk of heart attack, stroke and other cardiovascular problems.

Or so researchers hope.

A first trial of the polypill (which already has a brand name, Polycap), has been successful, according to a report that was to be presented Monday at the American College of Cardiology annual meeting in Orlando, Fla., and online in The Lancet. Read more...

Related support groups: Heart Disease

B Vitamins Might Lower Stroke Risk

Posted 3+ months ago by Drugs.com

THURSDAY, Feb. 19 – People with heart disease who take high doses of B vitamins are somewhat less likely to suffer from stroke, especially if they're under 70, a new Canadian study suggests.

But other studies have come to opposite conclusions about whether vitamins really protect against cerebrovascular disease, noted Dr. Larry B. Goldstein, director of the Duke Stroke Center at Duke University, in Durham, N.C.

"We will need to carefully review this study in light of these other reports," said Goldstein. "There remains no evidence that general vitamin supplementation lowers risk of stroke or other cardiovascular events, and considerable evidence that it is ineffectual." Read more...

Related support groups: Heart Disease

Being Heart Smart Just Makes Sense

Posted 3+ months ago by Drugs.com

SUNDAY, Feb. 15 – Knowing all the warning signs of a heart attack greatly increases the chances of surviving one, says the American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP).

"Everyone knows that a heart attack can start with severe chest pains. But early signs can also include shortness of breath, unexplained weakness or palpitations," Dr. Nick Jouriles, ACEP president, said in a news release from the organization.

Heart disease is the leading cause of death in the United States, and both men and women are vulnerable. Using February's designation as National Heart Month as a backdrop, the organization issued a reminder of the importance for people to be clear about heart attack symptoms. They can include: Read more...

Related support groups: Heart Disease

Study Brings Value of Echocardiography Into Focus

Posted 3+ months ago by Drugs.com

WEDNESDAY, Feb. 11 – The advanced imaging technique called contrast echocardiography had a significant impact on the diagnosis and treatment of people hospitalized with heart disease, a new study found.

Echocardiography bounces sound waves into the body to get a detailed image of the moving heart. If that image isn't clear enough, it can be improved by injecting a substance, called a contrast agent, that reflects the sound waves better.

"After contrast echocardiography, the percentage of uninterpretable studies decreased from 11.7 percent to 0.3 percent, and technically difficult studies decreased from 86.7 percent to 9.8 percent," said a report published online Feb. 11 in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology. Read more...

Related support groups: Heart Disease

Disease Diagnosis Can Spur Change in Lifestyle

Posted 3+ months ago by Drugs.com

MONDAY, Feb. 9 – Being diagnosed with a serious condition such as heart disease or diabetes can prompt middle-aged and older adults to make health behavior changes, such as quitting smoking or losing weight, a Yale University study shows.

The researchers analyzed data from the Health and Retirement Study, which included middle-aged and older adults who were surveyed at least twice between 1992 and 2000. The surveys included 20,221 overweight or obese people younger than 75, and 7,764 smokers. Read more...

Related support groups: Heart Disease, Obesity, Smoking, Diabetes, Type 2

Genetic Test for Heart Disease Risk in the Works

Posted 3+ months ago by Drugs.com

SUNDAY, Feb. 8 – Perhaps five years from now, you might actually hear your doctor casually say, "While we're at it, let's do a blood test to see if your genetic makeup puts you at high risk of having a heart attack."

So says Dr. Sekar Kathiresan, an assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and director of preventive cardiology at Massachusetts General Hospital. He is the leader of a group that has identified three new genetic variants associated with an increased risk of heart attack.

That finding, which brings the total of such risk-associated variants to nine, is reported in the Feb. 8 online issue of Nature Genetics. The journal highlights a total of five papers from groups around the world looking at the genetics of heart disease. Read more...

Related support groups: Heart Attack, Heart Disease, Prevention of Cardiovascular Disease, Atherosclerosis