Cardiovascular Health News

Physicians may be drawing conclusions too soon about survival outcomes of patients who suffered a cardiac arrest outside the hospital. A study led by Bentley Bobrow, MD, professor at the University of Arizona Colleges of Medicine in Tucson and Phoenix and co-director of the Arizona Emergency Medicine Research Center -- Phoenix, and his fellow UA emergency medicine … [Read more...]

Coronary heart disease (CHD) is one of the major causes of death in the United States. A new study evaluating recent trends in the prevalence of CHD in the U.S. population aged 40 years and older showed that CHD rates have decreased significantly, from 10.3% in 2001-2002 to 8.0% in 2011-2012. Much of the morbidity and mortality of CHD, encompassing angina, myocardial … [Read more...]

There are more well-founded therapy options for the treatment of strokes than ever before. Care has to be reorganised before these innovations are actually used on patients. At the Congress of the European Academy of Neurology in Copenhagen, experts are discussing just how to do that successfully - from guidelines for the use of thrombectomy procedures all the way to the … [Read more...]

About one in every 100 babies born today comes into the world with a heart defect. Just a generation ago, many of these babies would never make it to adulthood, but today, over 85 percent do, and currently there are over 1.2 million American adults who are living and thriving with congenital heart disease, leading to a whole new medical specialty. Every day, her scar reminds … [Read more...]

Five million Americans have heart failure, which can lead to heart attacks. It is also the cause of death for one out of nine people. Now, a one-of-a-kind program is motivating people to engage in heart-healthy activities and helping them cherish a second chance at life. Kenneth Arnentrout could never run on a treadmill before his heart transplant in 2015. And he could never … [Read more...]

All transplant patients are exceptional, but Stan Larkin's successful heart transplant comes after living more than a year without a human heart and relying on a heart device he carried in a backpack. The first patient in Michigan ever discharged with a SynCardia temporary total artificial heart in 2014, Larkin was back at the University of Michigan Frankel Cardiovascular … [Read more...]

Jersey Shore University Medical Center, part of Meridian CardioVascular Network, is the first hospital in New Jersey to implant the Micra® Transcatheter Pacing System (TPS) - the world's smallest pacemaker - since the device gained U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval in April 2016. Micra TPS is a new type of heart device that treats patients with bradycardia, a … [Read more...]

Female atrial fibrillation patients are less likely than their male counterparts to receive blood thinning therapies to prevent stroke, say University of Cincinnati College of Medicine researchers. Researchers noted the sex differences as they reviewed medical therapies for 1,585 patients whose doctors were testing a computerized decision support tool that uses patient … [Read more...]

A large worldwide study has found that, contrary to popular thought, low-salt diets may not be beneficial and may actually increase the risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) and death compared to average salt consumption. In fact, the study suggests that the only people who need to worry about reducing sodium in their diet are those with hypertension (high blood pressure) … [Read more...]

Diets low in saturated fat don't curb heart disease risk or help you live longer, says a leading US cardiovascular research scientist and doctor of pharmacy in an editorial in the open access journal Open Heart. And current dietary advice to replace saturated fats with carbohydrates or omega 6-rich polyunsaturated fats is based on flawed and incomplete data from the 1950s, … [Read more...]

Atrial fibrillation, or AFib, is one of the most common heart rhythm disorders. But treatment only works about half the time. Now, that may be about to change, thanks to a new way to diagnose the condition. This is what the human heart looks like when it is out of sync. “It felt like my heart was going to explode. Everything was just racing,” said Bret Story. A … [Read more...]

In the continuing debate over how much vitamin E is enough, a new study has found that high levels of blood lipids such as cholesterol and triglycerides can keep this essential micronutrient tied up in the blood stream, and prevent vitamin E from reaching the tissues that need it. The research, just published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, also suggested that … [Read more...]

A group of researchers led by Mayo Clinic has discovered that disclosing genetic risk for coronary heart disease (CHD) results in lower low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL), also known as bad cholesterol. The findings of the Myocardial Infarction Genes (MI-GENES) Study were presented today at the annual American Heart Association Scientific Sessions 2015 as a late-breaking … [Read more...]

For the first time, scientists at the UNC School of Medicine have shown that eliminating the enzyme factor XIII reduces the number of red blood cells trapped in a clot, resulting in a 50 percent reduction in the size of the clot. The finding, featured in the Journal of Clinical Investigation, has major implications for people at high risk of deep vein thrombosis (DVT), a … [Read more...]

A widely recommended risk calculator for predicting a person's chance of experiencing a cardiovascular disease event -- such as heart attack, ischemic stroke or dying from coronary artery disease -- has been found to substantially overestimate the actual five-year risk in adults overall and across all sociodemographic subgroups. The study by Kaiser Permanente was published in … [Read more...]

Eating foods that contain vitamin C may reduce your risk of the most common type of hemorrhagic stroke, according to a study released today that will be presented at the American Academy of Neurology's 66th Annual Meeting in Philadelphia, April 26 to May 3, 2014. Vitamin C is found in fruits and vegetables such as oranges, papaya, peppers, broccoli and strawberries. … [Read more...]

Too much dietary fat is bad for the heart, but the right kind of fat keeps the heart healthy, according to a paper published in The Journal of Experimental Medicine. Unsaturated dietary fatty acids, such as eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA), are known to protect against cardiovascular diseases. However, the mechanism and the specific fat metabolites responsible for this protection … [Read more...]

People with Type 2 diabetes who eat a diet high in salt face twice the risk of developing cardiovascular disease as those who consume less sodium, according to a new study published in the Endocrine Society's Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism. Diabetes occurs when there is too much sugar in the bloodstream. People develop Type 2 diabetes when their bodies … [Read more...]

A new study published in the British Journal of Nutrition appears to back up the adage that a little of what you fancy does you good. Including a small amount of chocolate each day could help prevent diabetes and insulin resistance. That's one of the research findings from the Luxembourg Institute of Health (LIH), the University of Warwick Medical School, the University of … [Read more...]

Vitamin A is involved in many bodily processes, including vision and skin health, but its role in the heart is unclear. While vitamin A is critical for heart development of embryos -- vitamin A deficiency during pregnancy leads to an abnormal heart and prenatal death -- studies on vitamin A's role in heart health have drawn opposite conclusions. A new study published in … [Read more...]

A "Mediterranean" diet, high in fruit, vegetables, fish and unrefined foods, is linked to a lower risk of heart attack and stroke in people who already have heart disease, according to a study of over 15,000 people in 39 countries around the world. The research also showed that eating greater amounts of healthy food was more important for these people than avoiding unhealthy … [Read more...]

Combining marine fish oil, cocoa extract and phytosterols into a dietary supplement could offer new hope in the fight against heart disease, a new study suggests. A collaborative study between Cardiff University scientists and South Wales-based nutritional supplement manufacturer, Cultech Ltd, examined the potential of combining the three ingredients as a means of preventing … [Read more...]

Obesity is common among U.S. Hispanics and is severe particularly among young Hispanics, according to research in the Journal of the American Heart Association (JAHA). The first large-scale data on body mass index (BMI) and cardiovascular disease risk factors among U.S. Hispanic/Latino adult populations suggests that severe obesity may be associated with considerable excess … [Read more...]

No one is telling you what time to go to bed with this, but researchers are making a strong case that the duration and timing of your sleep are closely associated with whether your behavior is heart-healthy. Night owls should take special note of a new study by University of Delaware researcher Freda Patterson and collaborators at the University of Pennsylvania, Drexel … [Read more...]