From the monthly archives:
We can apparently never have too many studies that chocolate is good for us. Do a Nexis database search on the subject and your computer might explode, that’s how many news stories there’ve been over the years about the salutary effects of chocolate on the cardiovascular system. Researchers think it has to do with the [...]
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With the government’s blessing, a drug giant is about to expand the market for its blockbuster cholesterol medication Crestor to a new category of customers: as a preventive measure for millions of people who do not have cholesterol problems. Some medical experts question whether this is a healthy move. They point to mounting concern that [...]
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TUESDAY, March 30 (HealthDay News) — Chinese red yeast rice, a dietary supplement made by fermenting the yeast Monascus purpureus over rice, modestly lowers cholesterol in patients intolerant to statins, according to research published in the March 1 issue of the American Journal of Cardiology. Carmelo V. Venero, M.D., from the University of Tennessee Medical [...]
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University of Washington (UW) researchers have gathered evidence that dangerous plaques in blood vessels can rupture by overproducing protein-digesting enzymes. Plaques are fat-laden rough spots in the otherwise smooth walls of arteries. When a plaque ruptures, blood accumulates inside of it, a process known as plaque hemorrhage. The plaque enlarges and artery-blocking clots can form. [...]
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Science Daily Well organized website, breaking news and sections on health conditions eScience News Popular science articles about health and medicine Medpage Today Aimed at physicians, but very readable articles. The Heart.Org Directed at physicians, breaking news in cardiology Medscape Continuing ed for physicians, well written-articles MedicineNet “Health news of the week” section, lots of [...]
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These are some of the best sources of medical information on the Web: www.mayoclinic.com Reliable, evidence based medical information. Well-presented, well-written. www.clevelandclinic.org Good collection of resources for heart issues. www.askapatient.com A tremendous resource on medication; consumers writing about their experience and side effects of medication. Information that you will not see on a pharmaceutical website. [...]
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Even under high magnification, new drug benefits are vanishing By the end of the 20th century, modern medicine was fending off 190,000 deaths a year from otherwise fatal heart conditions. Funding poured into cardiovascular research, more than doubling from $3.8b in 1995 to $8.4b in 2005. Now from this richly oxygenated drug pipeline, two new [...]
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A new study from Iowa State University’s Nutrition and Wellness Research Center (NWRC) may give men a way to combat high cholesterol without drugs — if they don’t mind sprinkling some flaxseed into their daily diet. Suzanne Hendrich, an ISU professor in food science and human nutrition, led a study that examined the effects of [...]
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— Bony fish like the tiny zebrafish have a remarkable ability that mammals can only dream of: if you lop off a chunk of their heart they swim sluggishly for a few days but within a month appear perfectly normal. How they accomplish this — or, more importantly, why we can’t — is one of [...]
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Strongly consider calling 911 Do not drive or have yourself driven to the hospital Call for an ambulance: they have equipment to help you CHEST DISCOMFORT OR PAIN This discomfort or pain can feel like a tight ache, pressure, fullness or squeezing in the center of your chest lasting more than a few minutes. This [...]
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Dorothy Lee and her husband of 40 years were driving home from a Bible study group one wintry night when their car suddenly hit the curb. Mrs. Lee looked at her husband, who was driving, and saw his head bob a couple of times and fall on his chest. In the ensuing minutes, Mrs. Lee [...]
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Health care reform means a lot of things to different people – from expanding care to the uninsured to increasing premiums, from impacting our deficit to eliminating the ramifications of pre-existing conditions. But there is another side of pre-existing conditions that deserves a little more focus, especially as we debate the various other aspects of [...]
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FRIDAY, Feb. 26, 2010 (HealthDay News) — Cutting off the flow of blood to the arm by repeatedly inflating a blood pressure cuff appears to reduce the amount of tissue damaged during a heart attack, a new Danish study shows. This procedure somehow has a protective effect on heart muscle, by mechanisms that are not [...]
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From Dr. James Black, Nobel laureate and inventor of beta-blockers Rather than looking at the heart as if it were a simple pump, Sir James suggests we look at it as something infinitely complex, like a river. “A river,” he said, “is a chaotic nonlinear dynamical system that nevertheless regularly, reliably, and adaptably fulfills its function of [...]
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This is as very comprehensive and well-designed search engine for health related issues. Nothing I have seen on the Web compares to this. I find it strange that I never came across this before in several years of searching for health information on the Web. This is a jewel that has been hidden. Medstory Home
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Three new studies lend credence to the idea that light to moderate alcohol intake appears to be good for the heart. However, there is little to gain and lots to lose from heavy drinking. Researchers in Italy analyzed eight studies encompassing 16,351 people with a history of heart disease. They found that those consuming five [...]
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A new approach to analyzing electrocardiograms–a ubiquitous test of the heart’s electrical function–could predict who is most likely to die after a heart attack. Researchers at MIT found that measuring how much the shape of the electrical waveform varies from beat to beat identifies high-risk patients better than existing risk factors. If the findings hold [...]
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Men who have sex at least twice a week can almost halve their risk of heart disease, according to new research. It shows men who indulge in regular lovemaking are up to 45 per cent less likely to develop life-threatening heart conditions than men who have sex once a month or less. The study, of [...]
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Study Suggests Link Between Stock Market Turmoil and an Increase in Heart Attacks By Charlene Laino WebMD Health News March 17, 2010 (Atlanta) — When the stock market dips, your heart health may, too. New research hints at a link between market volatility and rising heart attack rates. Duke University researchers found that as the [...]
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A team of Mayo Clinic researchers have found that cardiac rehabilitation is associated with significantly reduced mortality rates for patients who have had stents placed to treat blockages in their coronary arteries. The findings, presented today at the annual meeting of the American College of Cardiology in Atlanta, found that patients who had coronary angioplasty [...]
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New evidence was presented this week at the American College of Cardiology Scientific Sessions in Atlanta strongly suggesting that even patients with the less severe forms of Acute Coronary Syndrome (ACS) do better with immediate invasive therapy. Those “less severe” forms of ACS include unstable angina and Non-ST Segment Elevation Myocardial infarction (NSTEMI). All forms [...]
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Newswise — A new national study has shown that nearly 75 percent of patients hospitalized for a heart attack had cholesterol levels that would indicate they were not at high risk for a cardiovascular event, according to current national cholesterol guidelines. Specifically, these patients had low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol levels that met current guidelines, and [...]
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Click Here: Emedicine Comment: Very well done and un-biased slideshow. Someone spent a lot of time organizing and getting the right photographs.
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Cardiovascular Outcomes and Erectile Dysfunction ScienceDaily (Mar. 16, 2010) — Erectile dysfunction (ED) is a strong predictor of death from all causes and of heart attack, stroke and heart failure in men with cardiovascular disease (CVD), German researchers reported in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association. In the first study to show that ED [...]
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Click to View: Emedicine Health Comment: EMedicine spent some time making sure this slideshow was done right. Kudos.
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Click to View: Emedicine Health Comment: EMedicine makes the best health slideshows that I have seen on the web.
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Click to view: Emedicine Health Salmon Flaxseed Oatmeal Black or Kidney Beans Almonds Walnuts Red Wine Tuna [Not necessarily a good choice because of mercury] Tofu Brown Rice Soy Milk Blueberries Carrots Spinach Broccoli Sweat Potatoes Red Bell Peppers Asparagus Oranges Tomatoes Acorn Squash Cantelope Papaya Dark Chocolate Tea Comment: Another excellent slideshow from Emedicine. [...]
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Yoga Boosts Heart Health, New Research Finds ScienceDaily (Nov. 25, 2009) — Heart rate variability, a sign of a healthy heart, has been shown to be higher in yoga practitioners than in non-practitioners, according to research to be published in a forthcoming issue of the International Journal of Medical Engineering and Informatics. The autonomic nervous [...]
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Prescribing information for clopidogrel (Plavix) will now include a boxed warning that the drug can be less effective in poor metabolizers, the FDA indicated. The new warning suggests that many if not all patients on clopidogrel should undergo genetic testing to determine whether they have variants of the CYP2C19 gene associated with poor metabolism of [...]
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New methods needed to ID cardiac catheterization candidates Published: Wednesday, March 10, 2010 – 18:25 in Health & Medicine It’s time to re-think how patients are selected for cardiac catheterization, say doctors at Duke University Medical Center, after reporting in a new study that the invasive procedure found no significant coronary artery disease in nearly 60 [...]
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Experimental Drug That Mimics Thryoid Hormone Safely Lowers ‘Bad’ Cholesterol ScienceDaily (Mar. 11, 2010) — People whose “bad” cholesterol and risk of future heart disease stay too high despite cholesterol-lowering statin therapy can safely lower it by adding a drug that mimics the action of thyroid hormone. In a report published in the Mar. 11, [...]
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Coffee Associated With Reduced Risk of Hospitalization for Heart Rhythm Disturbances ScienceDaily (Mar. 3, 2010) — Coffee drinkers may be less likely to be hospitalized for heart rhythm disturbances, according to a new study by the Kaiser Permanente Division of Research in Oakland, Calif. The researchers, who note the findings may be surprising because patients [...]
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Transcendental Meditation has been around for many years and is perhaps the most scientifically tested of all forms of meditation. Two studies presented this week add to the evidence that this form of stress reduction benefits people with heart disease and those at high risk for it. One study, presented on Monday at the American [...]
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New Method to Grow Arteries Could Lead to ‘Biological Bypass’ for Heart Disease ScienceDaily (Mar. 9, 2010) — A new method of growing arteries could lead to a “biological bypass” — or a non-invasive way to treat coronary artery disease, Yale School of Medicine researchers report with their colleagues in the April issue of Journal [...]
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Oatmeal and Oat bran Walnuts and Almonds Fish and Omega-3 Fatty Acids Olive Oil Foods fortified with plant sterols or stanols Mayo Clinic
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Calgary, AB – Flavonoid-rich cranberry juice may help increase high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol, according to the findings of a study presented here at the Canadian Cardiovascular Congress 2004. Lead author Guillaume Ruel (Université Laval, Quebec City, QC) and colleagues observed a 7.6% increase in HDL cholesterol with daily cranberry-juice consumption. Ruel points out that this [...]
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Aerobic exercise Lose weight Stop smoking Cut out the trans fatty acids Alcohol. With apologies to the American Heart Association, which discourages doctors from telling their patients about the advantages of alcohol: one or two drinks per day can significantly increase HDL levels. Increase the monounsaturated fats in your diet Add soluble fiber to your [...]
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. Volunteers were shown funny and disturbing movies to test the effect of emotions on blood vessels Using laughter-provoking movies to gauge the effect of emotions on cardiovascular health, researchers at the University of Maryland School of Medicine in Baltimore have shown for the first time that laughter is linked to healthy function of blood [...]
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. The Bee Gees’ disco smash hit ‘Stayin’ Alive’ is more appropriately titled than anyone could have realized. Did you know that this 1977 song’s beat is the ideal speed at which to perform chest compressions in cardiac arrest victims? Having practised cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) with the song, research study participants could maintain the ideal rhythm weeks later [...]
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(note loss of head) . . Cognitive Impairment After Bypass Surgery Difficulty thinking clearly is one sign of the cognitive impairment some bypass surgery patients experience after surgery. This is called post-perfusion syndrome, referring to the heart-lung machine used to support blood flow during surgery. “The term that we used to use is ‘pump head, [...]
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