American Heart Association challenges one million women to know their heart disease risk at GoRedForWomen.org! Too few women realize that heart disease is their No. 1 killer and are taking action to prevent it. But the good news is that heart disease can largely be prevented. For that reason, the Go Red For Women movement encourages women to improve their heart health while taking action to fight women?s heart disease.
Little research exists demonstrating that testosterone is both safe from the cardiovascular standpoint and effective to treat sexual dysfunction, reveal Mayo Clinic researchers in two new studies.
Tests on volunteers showed that black tea significantly improves the ability of the arteries to relax and expand, but adding milk completely blunts the effect. Supporting tests on rat aortas (aortic rings) and endothelial (lining) cells showed that tea relaxed the aortic rings by producing nitric oxide, which promotes dilation of blood vessels. But, again, adding milk blocked the effect.
A simple blood test for the protein NT-proBNP accurately predicts the risk of heart attack, heart failure, stroke and death in patients with known cardiovascular disease, according to a study led by a researcher at the San Francisco VA Medical Center.
Results from the NHLBI Growth and Health Study of more than 2,300 girls suggest that girls as young as age 9 who are overweight are at increased risk for short-term and long-term problems that increase the chances of developing cardiovascular disease. Those who were overweight were more likely to have elevated blood pressure and cholesterol levels compared to girls who were not overweight. The study also provides insight into differences between African-American and Caucasian girls.
A new study on risk factors of new-onset diabetes mellitus (NODM) following liver transplant found that a history of obesity, impaired fasting glucose and hepatitis C infection (HCV) paired with the use of a particular immunosuppressant are associated with an increased risk of NODM. Since all of these factors can be detected prior to undergoing a transplant, treatment should be tailored to the patient’s risk.
A higher level of symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder may increase the risk of coronary heart disease in older men, according to a report in the January issue of the Archives of General Psychiatry, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.
Children and adolescents who are obese or overweight have higher health care utilization and a significantly higher average of health care charges than their healthy-weight peers, according to a report in the January issue of Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.
Heart disease hits Americans who live in southern states harder than residents of other regions of the country, according to the latest annual survey of cardiovascular disease in the United States.
Recent studies show promise for significantly reducing vascular aging by inactivating TNF?, which has been linked to blood vessel dysfunction and cell death. The related report by Csiszar et al., “Vasculoprotective effects of anti-TNF? treatment in aging,” appears in the January issue of The American Journal of Pathology.