Heart Attack
Long-Term Stress Linked to Heart Disease
Stress has long been thought to be bad for our health, but measuring stress is challenging. A new study overcame this hurdle by analyzing hair for the stress hormone cortisol. Dutch researchers took 1…
Heart Warnings: Baldness And Earlobe Creases
When you think about checking for heart disease what probably comes to mind are expensive exams such as stress tests on a treadmill while hooked up to a high-tech electrocardiogram, cardiac catheteriz…
Unconventional Treatment May Help against Heart …
A controversial alternative treatment for heart disease has produced surprising results. EDTA chelation therapy has long been discredited by cardiologists and mainstream medical organizations such as …
EDTA Chelation Therapy: Exonerated if not Celebr…
At 4:00 pm Eastern Standard Time on March 26th, 2013, the embargo was lifted on an article published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. It is titled: "Effect of Disodium EDTA Chelatio…
Mediterranean Diet Saves Lives
Olive oil and nuts may be the keys to a heart healthy diet. That's the conclusion of a large, randomized controlled trial of the Mediterranean diet. Spanish researchers recruited roughly 7,500 volunte…
Diet vs Drugs for Heart Health
How should you protect your heart? When it comes to diet vs drugs, which do you choose? How Effective Are Drugs for the Heart? Drug companies get excited when their medications reduce the risk of some…
Overdosing on Vegetable Oil Could Be Deadly
Dietitians have been encouraging Americans to substitute vegetable oil for saturated fats such as butter and lard. The assumption has been that polyunsaturated fatty acids found in oils such as safflo…
Is Vegetable Oil Worse than Saturated Fat?
The number one dietary evil in America today is saturated fat (sat fat). Ask most doctors and nutrition experts the one thing you should remove from your diet over everything else, and you are likely …
Must You Choose Between Diet and Drugs?
There is a reason your mother told you not to discuss politics at the dinner table. It can be disruptive and divisive. It's not that different in healthcare. These days the divide between natural heal…
Beans Are Good for the Heart
The best diet for people with diabetes has been controversial for decades. Many organizations recommend that people with diabetes limit their consumption of fat. As a result, the diet tends to be rath…
Low Vitamin D Increases Risk of Atherosclerosis …
People with type 2 diabetes are at higher risk for atherosclerosis. A new study published in the Journal of Biological Chemistry shows that low levels of vitamin D may contribute to this problem. The …
Mirror Test May Spot Heart Disease
Diagnosing heart disease is expensive and can be risky, but there may be a low-tech test as close as your bathroom mirror. Although this 10-second free self-exam has been known for almost 40 years, it…
How Bad Are Trans Fats?
Some of the most worrisome fats in human diets are the trans fatty acids found in shortening, margarine and processed foods such as cookies and crackers. Although trans fats have been removed from man…
Cheese Trumps Butter for Heart Health
Doctors have been warning their patients to avoid high-fat dairy products like butter and cheese. The fear has been that these high-fat foods would raise cholesterol levels which would increase the ri…
Is Quality of Fat More Important Than Quantity?
Recent research shows that the kind of fat we eat may have an immediate impact on the flexibility of our arteries. Junk food is often high in saturated fat. Canadian researchers compared blood flow th…
Vitamins Offer No Protection from Heart Disease
A daily dose of multivitamins does not prevent heart disease. Although a recent study suggested that taking a multivitamin may help men reduce their risk of developing cancer, researchers found no ben…
Chelation Studied for Heart Disease
One of the most controversial treatments aimed at heart disease prevention has finally been tested in a placebo-controlled trial. Many doctors consider chelation therapy to remove plaque from arteries…
Best Way to Take Aspirin for a Heart Attack
When someone is experiencing classic symptoms of a heart attack (chest pain or pressure, pain spreading to the neck, jaw or arms, nausea or abdominal pain, shortness of breath, sweating, fatigue, dizz…
Nation Lowers Its Cholesterol Level
Americans have managed to lower their cholesterol levels over the last two decades. Blood samples collected as part of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys, known by the abbreviation …
Popular Pain Relievers Trigger Heart Attacks!
Miners used to take a canary with them into the coal mine because if the bird died, the air had gone bad and it was time to get out of the mine. Heart attack patients are like those canaries. They are…
Fire Retardant Is Linked to Heart Disease
A chemical found in everyone's home may contribute to heart disease. Perfluorooctanoic acid or PFOA is used as a stain repellent and fire retardant as well as a non-stick coating. You'll find it in ho…
Wide Waists Threaten Heart
Even people who are not overweight may be at higher risk of heart disease and other serious health problems if they suffer from abdominal adiposity, also known as central obesity or a pot belly. Peopl…
Calcium in Arteries Is Telltale Risk Factor
For years, doctors have been devising ways to predict who is most likely to develop heart disease. This allows them to treat patients at the highest risk more aggressively. One accepted way of assessi…
Heart Risk from Hip Surgery
Hip and knee replacements have become increasingly common, and physicians have felt confident about the risks of this type of orthopedic surgery. An additional threat has just been discovered, though.…
Do Nonsmokers Benefit from Common Heart Drug?
One of the most successful drugs of all time is an anticoagulant called clopidogrel (Plavix). Since its introduction in 1998 worldwide sales of this medicine have topped $60 billion. Plavix is prescri…
Do Women Benefit from Statin Drugs?
For years, doctors have been prescribing statin drugs such as atorvastatin, lovastatin or simvastatin to lower cholesterol and prevent heart attacks. But there have been questions about whether these …
How Well Does Plavix Work?
Plavix, also known generically as clopidogrel, is prescribed to prevent blood clots. People who have stents placed in their coronary arteries are often at high risk for clots that would obstruct blood…
Supplement Plus Exercise Benefits Heart
Exercise and curcumin, the active ingredient in the yellow spice turmeric, are each good for the heart. Combining them, however, has synergistic cardiovascular benefits. Japanese researchers recruited…
Chocolate as a Cost-Effective Way to Fight Heart…
Australian researchers estimate that investing about $40 a year in dark chocolate could be a cost-effective strategy for reducing the risk of heart disease. This conclusion is the result of a complex …
Yellow Spice Saves Hearts
A study from Thailand suggests that curcumins, components of the yellow spice turmeric, may be beneficial after heart bypass surgery. The research was conducted in 120 heart patients. Half got capsule…
Hot Stuff to Protect the Heart?
There's good news about spicy food. Scientists in Hong Kong report that adding capsaicin compounds called capsaicinoids to high-cholesterol chow protected hamsters from high LDL cholesterol and from p…
Adrenaline Weak in Heart Attack Rescue
In movies and TV shows, patients who experience seemingly fatal heart attacks are often resuscitated with a shot of adrenaline. Perhaps the most famous of these was in the movie Pulp Fiction when John…
Does BPA Exposure Harm the Heart?
A common environmental contaminant may be increasing the risk for heart disease. Bisphenol A or BPA for short is widespread in food packaging. It is in the plastic resin that is used to line most cans…
Chocolate for Heart Health
There is increasing evidence that chocolate might be good for the heart. A meta-analysis of 42 studies confirms that chocolate or cocoa can help lower blood pressure and improve blood vessel flexibili…
Diet Soda and Heart Attacks
Diet soda may be linked with a higher risk of heart attacks or strokes. Researchers studied more than 2,500 senior citizens in New York City and found that those who regularly drank diet soda were 44 …
Women’s Heart Attacks Underdiagnosed
If you search for the classic symptoms of a heart attack you will find: pressure or pain in the chest shooting down the left arm. References also mention a feeling of discomfort radiating to the back,…
Difference in Blood Pressure Between Arms Signal…
Measuring blood pressure in both arms may reveal unexpected cardiovascular risks. Usually, the cuff is put on just one arm or the other in the doctor's office, and the result of that reading is used t…
Improving Stent Outcomes
More than one million heart stents are placed in clogged coronary arteries each year. They are supposed to improve blood flow to heart muscles and reduce symptoms such as chest pain. This procedure ha…
Chantix May Harm Heart
A popular stop-smoking drug may be hard on the heart. The smoking cessation drug Chantix is being prescribed world-wide to help smokers give up their dangerous addiction. Smoking increases the chance …
No Heart Risk from ADHD Drugs
Adults who take drugs for attention deficit disorder do not appear to be at increased risk for cardiovascular complications. Medications such as Ritalin or Adderall are stimulants. They can raise bloo…