Healthy Heart :: Recipe for a Healthy Heart – Tips for Adults
With Valentine’s Day just around the corner, it?s a great time to take a look at the state of your heart.
Cholesterol
Cholesterol :: Cholesterol drugs, statins, Lipitor over-prescribed – The Lancet
Award-winning physician John Abramson argues that clinical trials provide no evidence of lowering cholesterol in women and elderly.
Heart Disease :: Existing research supports metabolic syndrome link to cardiovascular heart disease
For years cardiologists and other specialists have disagreed over the condition known as metabolic syndrome, a complex confluence of factors such as abdominal obesity, low HDL, or “good” cholesterol and hypertension.
Infertility :: Eating trans fats may increase infertility risk
Trans fats, unsaturated fats may increase the risk of ovulatory infertility when consumed instead of carbohydrates or unsaturated fats commonly found in nonhydrogenated vegetable oils, revealed by researchers from Harvard School of Public Health.
Brain Cancer :: Statin plus cancer drug deliver combo punch to brain cancer cells
Building on newly discovered genetic threads in the rich tapestry of biochemical signals that cause cancer, a Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center team has dramatically killed brain cancer cells by blocking those signals with a statin and an experimental antitumor drug.
Healthcare :: Health providers could save billions without compromising healthcare
Switching patients to more cost-effective drugs for cholesterol and blood pressure problems could reduce health budgets by billions without compromising clinical care, according to a study in the January issue of IJCP, the International Journal of Clinical Practice. No adverse events were reported after patients were switched — the new cholesterol drugs delivered the same results as the previous drug and the new blood pressure drugs delivered improved performance.
Blood :: Einstein’s tea leaves inspire new blood separation technique
Scientists at Monash University in Australia have developed a process for rapidly and efficiently separating blood plasma at the microscopic level without any moving parts, potentially allowing doctors to do blood tests without sending samples to a laboratory.
Trans Fat :: New fat, same old problem with an added twist?
Last month, New York City outlawed the use of partially hydrogenated oils, known as trans fats, in restaurants, a ban now under consideration in other cities, including Boston and Chicago. But novel research conducted in Malaysia and at Brandeis University shows that a new method of modifying fat in commercial products to replace unhealthy trans fats raises blood glucose and depresses insulin in humans, common precursors to diabetes. Furthermore, like trans fat, it still adversely depressed the beneficial HDL-cholesterol.
Heart :: Handful of almonds keep your heart healthy
An apple a day may keep the doctor away, but when it comes to looking after your heart, it seems that nothing does a better job than a handful of almonds. New research on almonds has found that the dry fruits are especially good for the heart, for not only do they happen to be high in several types of antioxidants, but may also improve blood sugar levels as well as play an important role in a cholesterol lowering eating plan, researchers at Tufts University have found.
Aging :: Growth hormone is not the anti-aging bullet for healthy adults
A review of published data on use of human growth hormone by healthy elderly people found that the synthetic hormone was associated with small changes in body composition but not in body weight or other clinically important outcomes. Further, people who took GH had increased rates of unhealthy side effects such as soft tissue swelling, joint pain, carpal tunnel syndrome, and, in men, abnormal breast development and were also somewhat more likely to develop diabetes.