Respiratory health harms often follow flooding: Taking these steps can help
Tips to leverage neuroplasticity to maintain cognitive fitness as you age
Can white noise really help you sleep better?
Celiac disease: Exploring four myths
What is prostatitis and how is it treated?
What is Cushing syndrome?
Exercises to relieve joint pain
Think your child has ADHD? What your pediatrician can do
Foam roller: Could you benefit from this massage tool?
Stepping up activity if winter slowed you down
Heart Attack Archive
Articles
Who needs aspirin?
Age, family history, and other risk factors determine if daily aspirin can help prevent a heart attack or stroke.
For many of us, aspirin was the go-to medicine of our youth. Everything from headaches, colds, and general aches and pains were treated with two aspirin and a glass of water.
For decades, aspirin was widely believed to be a safe way to protect healthy adults from heart attacks and strokes. But over the past couple years, new research has questioned this premise and many doctors have already stopped prescribing aspirin for adults at low risk of cardiovascular disease.
Flu shot may lower risk of early death in people with high blood pressure
In the journals
Need another reason to get your annual flu shot? It could protect you from a fatal heart attack or stroke if you suffer from high blood pressure, according to research presented at a 2019 joint conference of the European Society of Cardiology Congress and the World Congress of Cardiology.
Previous research has found that the inflammation from a flu infection can trigger a heart attack or stroke, and people with high blood pressure are especially at high risk.
A major change for daily aspirin therapy
New recommendations could affect millions of people.
You may remember a time when taking a daily baby aspirin was almost a rite of passage for generally healthy older adults. The idea was that, for people with a low to moderate risk for heart disease, aspirin therapy was a simple and cost-effective way to help prevent a heart attack or stroke.
But taking aspirin increases the risk for bleeding in the stomach and brain (see "How aspirin affects the body").
Were the old aspirin studies wrong?
Ask the doctor
Q. For 25 years, my doctor has recommended low-dose aspirin to reduce my risk of a heart attack. Recently, he told me that new studies indicate that I can stop. What's changed?
A. Millions of people are asking the same question. I'm afraid some of them think that, when doctors change their recommendations, it means we really don't know what we're doing. To the contrary, the recommendation you got 25 years ago was based on sound scientific evidence, and so is the recommendation you received recently.
Winter weather warning
When the temperature drops, the risk of a heart attack rises. Here's how to stay safe in chilly weather.
Cold weather — especially when it's windy or snowy — can challenge your cardiovascular system. When you venture outside, the tiny blood vessels in your fingers and toes squeeze tight to shunt blood deeper into your body, keeping your vital organs nice and cozy.
To overcome the resistance from those narrowed vessels, your heart beats with extra force, causing your blood pressure and heart rate to rise. This normal physiological response usually isn't a problem, especially for healthy people.
The state of statin prescribing: Location matters
Research we're watching
If you've had a heart attack, national guidelines strongly recommend taking a high-intensity statin to prevent a second heart attack. But a study of Medicare recipients finds that where you live may affect your chances of receiving a statin prescription.
People living in New England were most likely to receive a high-intensity statin (74%), while those from the West South Central states (such as Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Louisiana) were the least likely (41%). The data came from nearly 140,000 people ages 66 and older who were hospitalized for a heart attack from 2011 to 2015. The findings were published online July 24 by JAMA Cardiology.
Protect your heart, preserve your mind?
Heart attacks may leave people more vulnerable to thinking and memory problems as they age.
Growing older often means slowing down, both physically and mentally. Just as people can't move quite as fast as when they were younger, their thinking and memory abilities — known as cognitive function — may also slowly wane.
Now, new research suggests that people who have a heart attack or angina (chest pain caused by reduced blood flow to the heart) may face a faster drop in thinking skills than people who don't experience those heart-related problems.
Ultra-processed foods linked to poor heart health
Research we're watching
Eating ultra-processed foods — such as packaged snacks, sugary cereals and drinks, chicken nuggets, and instant soup — may leave people more prone to heart disease and an early death, two new studies suggest. Both were published May 29 in The BMJ.
One study followed more than 105,000 adults for just over five years. Researchers found that for every 10% increase in the amount of ultra-processed foods people ate, their risk of a heart attack, stroke, or other serious cardiovascular event was 12% higher. The other study tracked nearly 20,000 people over an average of 10 years. People who ate more than four servings of ultra-processed foods daily had a 62% higher risk of dying from all causes compared with those who ate only two servings per day.
Red meat, TMAO, and your heart
A substance called trimethylamine N-oxide, which is produced when your body digests red meat, may raise the risk of cardiovascular problems.
Experts used to think that red meat raised your risk of heart disease simply because it was high in saturated fat. But today that picture has gotten more complicated thanks to the discovery of a metabolite — a substance produced during digestion and metabolism — called trimethylamine N-oxide, or TMAO.
According to a news article published June 11 in JAMA, three recent analyses have linked high blood levels of TMAO with a higher risk for both cardiovascular disease and early death from any cause. In one of those studies, researchers found that people with higher levels of TMAO in their blood may have more than twice the risk of heart attack, stroke, or other serious cardiovascular problems, compared with people who have lower levels. Other studies have found links between high TMAO levels and heart failure and chronic kidney disease.
Heart disease may accelerate cognitive decline
Research we're watching
If you have coronary artery disease, you may be at higher risk for cognitive problems, according to a study published in the June issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology. People with coronary artery disease have blockages in the arteries that lead to the heart. When blood flow to the heart is slowed or blocked, the result can be a heart attack or the chest pain known as angina.
Study authors looked to see whether this condition had any effect on thinking skills. They selected people with no history of heart disease and followed them for 12 years, administering three cognitive tests throughout the course of the study. Ultimately, 5.6% of people in the study experienced a heart attack or angina. Researchers found that these people were not more likely to have experienced cognitive decline before their heart episode or immediately after, but were at much higher risk for cognitive decline in the years that followed. It's not clear why this occurred, but the study authors say that doctors should be aware of this risk and should monitor people with coronary artery disease carefully.
Respiratory health harms often follow flooding: Taking these steps can help
Tips to leverage neuroplasticity to maintain cognitive fitness as you age
Can white noise really help you sleep better?
Celiac disease: Exploring four myths
What is prostatitis and how is it treated?
What is Cushing syndrome?
Exercises to relieve joint pain
Think your child has ADHD? What your pediatrician can do
Foam roller: Could you benefit from this massage tool?
Stepping up activity if winter slowed you down
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