How to Keep Your Heart Efficient

Swedish researchers studying 40,000 people found regular exercise can reduce your risk of heart failure by up to 46%. Heart failure refers to inefficient heart pumping not a failure to pump. Risk of death is 30-50% within 5 years of diagnosis. Researchers found that a daily dose of either 1 hour of moderate exercise (brisk…

Alcohol Not So Heart Healthy

It's been reported that light to moderate alcohol drinking may improve heart health. A massive multi-center study involving 155 researchers and 260,000 people may overturn that thinking. People who drank 17% less enjoyed an average 10% less risk of coronary heart disease and had lower blood pressure and BMI. Light drinkers who reduced their drinking…

Almonds Boost Heart Health

Some researchers are calling almonds a "super-food" with specific heart benefits. They gave 50 grams (2 handfuls) of almonds to an assorted group of healthy middle aged men, healthy young men and young men with heart disease risks. A similar control group ate as they normally would. After 1 month, the experimental group had lower…

Adult Lifestyle Changes Lower Heart Risk

Five healthy lifestyle changes (not overweight/obese, low alcohol intake, healthy diet, physically active, nonsmoker) have been found to lower risk of heart disease in later life. Researchers found the opposite was true also: adding unhealthy habits or dropping healthy ones increased risks. PositiveTip: Choosing good lifestyle habits, even in young adulthood, moderates the risk of heart…

Public Smoking Bans Save Lives

Michigan's state-wide ban on indoor smoking may have helped save lives. American College of Cardiology researchers found that cardiovascular disease related hospitalizations reduced by 2% from 65,329 people to 64,002. On top of these 1,327 lives affected, in-hospital deaths related to cardiovascular disease decreased by 0.38%. The study wasn't able to eliminate all potential confounders,…

Consuming Nuts Can Lower Risk of Death

Analysis of 75,000 women in the Nurses Health Study and more than 40,000 men in the Health Professionals Follow-up Study revealed those who ate nuts once a week had a lower mortality rate than those who do not eat nuts. When nut consumption increased even more, mortality rate fell for both cancer and heart disease.…

Health Risks for Breakfast Skippers

A study of 26,902 men who were free of cardiovascular disease in 1992 revealed both skipping breakfast and eating late in the evening increased cardiovascular risk. Those who skipped breakfast had 27% greater risk, and those who ate late at night had 55% higher risk. These findings fell just shy of statistical significance after adjusting…

NSAIDs and Risk

A large meta-analysis revealed that some commonly used nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory medications (NSAIDs) increase the risk of major vascular events (mostly heart attacks) by almost one-third. Up to now it has not been clear if high doses of the traditional NSAIDs such as ibuprofen, naproxen, and diclofenac (2400, 1000 and 150 mg daily, respectively) increased risk. Patients…

Check Your Kids’ Blood Pressure!

A 27 year long Finnish study of childhood hypertension strongly indicates it may raise the risk of atherosclerosis and heart disease in later life. High blood pressure in childhood appears to lay the groundwork for heart disease in adulthood--strong evidence for primary prevention activities to be initiated early in life. PositiveTip: If your child has…

Your State of Mind and Heart Risk

Preliminary research in Denmark has found that easily distressed individuals were significantly more likely to develop fatal or nonfatal heart disease during a 15-year follow-up period. This vulnerability was measured on a 12-item questionnaire. The authors stated that this measure could be a marker for some other factors, but stress is a known risk factor.…