Heart Disease News and Research

Latest Heart Disease News and Research

Statins not effective in reducing dementia risk

According to a recently published study, the use of statins and other lipid-lowering agents by older adults is not associated with a reduced risk of Alzheimer's disease or other types of dementia.

12 Jul 2005

Menopause symptoms return with a vengence when women stop HRT

In somewhat depressing news for women battling that often miserable phase in their lives, the menopause, it appears that more than half of women who start taking hormone replacement therapy to relieve the discomfort, can expect to see a dramatic resurgence of those symptoms, when they discontinue the therapy.

12 Jul 2005

Current scientific understanding does not justify the reduction of the daily salt intake for healthy people

In a reaction to the European Food Safety Authority's (EFSA) announcement at the end of June, the European Salt Producers' Association, in brief EuSalt, maintains its position that the current scientific understanding does not justify the reduction of the daily salt intake for healthy people.

12 Jul 2005

Obese men may not process carbohydrates as efficiently as obese women

Obese men may not process carbohydrates as efficiently as obese women, a condition that can, ultimately, lead to a decrease in fitness level and the development of metabolic disorders.

12 Jul 2005

Many local health directors unsure of authority to curtail smoking

Local health department directors across North Carolina are confused about state laws covering whether their facilities can be made smoke-free, but still strongly support such policies, according to a new University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill study.

11 Jul 2005

Costs of coronary artery bypass graft surgery more than 80 percent higher in US than in Canada

Although there are no differences in clinical outcome, the in-hospital cost of coronary artery bypass graft surgery (CABG) in the U.S. is 82.5 percent higher in the U.S. than in Canada, according to a study in the July 11 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine.

11 Jul 2005

Congenital central hypoventilation syndrome (CCHS) offers clues to SIDS, sleep apnea

Imagine raising a child who stops breathing when falling asleep - and has to be reminded to visit the bathroom after drinking a Big Gulp. That's the dilemma faced by parents of children born with congenital central hypoventilation syndrome (CCHS).

11 Jul 2005

Giving oxygen may do more harm than good

Doctors and paramedics who give their patients oxygen - the most commonly administered "drug" in the world - may be doing more harm than good, a Queen's University researcher contends.

11 Jul 2005

Statins not associated with a reduced risk of Alzheimer's disease or other types of dementia

The use of statins and other lipid-lowering agents by older adults was not associated with a reduced risk of Alzheimer's disease or other types of dementia, according to a study in the July issue of Archives of Neurology.

11 Jul 2005

Study compares four standard measures for heart failure treatment

UCLA investigators found large gaps and marked variation in U.S. hospitals' heart failure treatment based on adherence to four standard quality measures. The study points to the need for hospitals to establish education programs and systems to improve quality of care for this patient population.

11 Jul 2005

Obese men may not process carbohydrates as efficiently as obese women

A new study published in the July issue of CHEST, the peer-reviewed journal of the American College of Chest Physicians (ACCP), showed that severely obese men were more carbohydrate intolerant and had less physical endurance than severely obese women, leading researchers to believe that gender plays a strong role in physical fitness and a person's ability to metabolize carbohydrates.

11 Jul 2005

Lack of a blood clotting protein may protect against clogged arteries

Reporting in the July 18 issue of The Journal of Experimental Medicine, a group of scientists in Wurzburg, Germany show that the lack of a blood clotting protein may protect against clogged arteries with no risk of excessive bleeding.

11 Jul 2005

New approach to preventing or reversing heart failure

Duke University Medical Center researchers have identified a new protein that plays a critical role in enabling the heart to respond to such external stimuli as exercise or stress, as well as in the progressive loss of heart function that is heart failure, the researchers said.

11 Jul 2005

Vioxx safe enough for Canadian market says health panel

A canadian health advisory panel says that Merck's arthritis drug Vioxx should be allowed to go on sale again in the country, 10 months after the company withdrew the blockbuster painkiller over reports that it increased the risk of heart disease.

11 Jul 2005

Genes decide the shape you're in!

According to a study by researchers at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory of identical twins, the reason why some people can eat all the chocolate and chips they want and not increase their cholesterol levels, is all down to their genes.

11 Jul 2005

Low dose birth control pill raises heart attack risk, especially in some women

A new review suggests that low-dose birth control pills, which are generally considered to be safer than the pill of the past, still carries an increased risk for heart attack and stroke.

11 Jul 2005

Fat in the bloodstream linked to heart attacks

New research, by Dr. Sotirios Tsimikas of the University of California, San Diego, has produced the first convincing evidence that a type of fat in the bloodstream can trigger the earliest conditions that lead to clogged blood vessels, the highest cause of heart attacks.

7 Jul 2005

Researchers clarifiy role of Notch protein in T-cell development

Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine have recently clarified the role of the Notch protein in T-cell development. T cells are required for many aspects of immunity, including fighting viral infections, providing cancer surveillance, and regulating multiple aspects of the immune response.

6 Jul 2005

Vitamin E fails to deliver benefits for major cardiovascular events or cancer

In an article in the July 6 JAMA, I-Min Lee, M.B.B.S., Sc.D., of Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, and colleagues analyzed data from the vitamin E component of the Women's Health Study, which tested whether vitamin E supplementation decreases the risk of cardiovascular disease and cancer among healthy women.

6 Jul 2005

Research discovers new deadly link to sickle cell disease

A new study led by a researcher at Children's Hospital & Research Center at Oakland is the first to find that an amino acid deficiency in sickle cell disease is the result of hemolysis, a process where red blood cells rupture and release their contents into the blood stream. Low availability of the amino acid arginine is associated with lung disease and death in adult sickle cell patients.

6 Jul 2005