Heart Health Archive

As many as one in four adults has nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), a condition marked by excess fat in the liver. Although often symptomless, it can eventually damage the liver, leading to fatigue, weakness, abdominal pain, and other symptoms. NAFLD tends to occur in people who are overweight or obese, or who have diabetes—problems that are also common in people with heart disease. Now, new research finds a strong link between NAFLD and dangerous plaque inside in the heart's arteries.

The study, in the Nov. 4, 2014, issue of Radiology, included 445 people who were admitted to emergency rooms with suspected heart attacks. Researchers used computed tomography (CT) scans, a type of enhanced x-ray imaging, to assess the participants' livers and coronary arteries. People with NAFLD were six times as likely to have high-risk plaque—the type most likely to cause a heart attack—than those without the liver condition. There are no treatments for NAFLD, but eating a healthy diet, exercising regularly, and losing weight if needed may help prevent or even reverse possible liver damage from the condition. 

Secondhand smoke exposure raises the odds of developing heart disease by 25% to 30%. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that each year, about 34,000 people die from heart disease caused by secondhand smoke in the United States. But nonsmokers hospitalized with heart disease are rarely asked about this risk, according to a report published online in JAMAInternal Medicine on Nov. 10, 2014.

Of the 214 people in the study, 33 said they'd been exposed to other people's cigarette smoke within a week of being hospitalized. And while nearly all of the participants knew that secondhand smoke was harmful to nonsmokers, about half were "not at all" worried about their own exposure. Saliva testing for cotinine, a marker of nicotine exposure, found detectable levels in 29 of 72 people tested.

Doing high-tech heart scans on people at above-average risk of heart problems sounds like common sense, but it often doesn't add much benefit to just taking necessary medications, staying fit, eating healthy, and not smoking. This is one take-home message from a study in The Journal of the American Medical Association, which involved a group of people long known to be at higher cardiac risk: middle-aged adults with diabetes.

The 900 study participants were already being treated with medication and other measures to lower their blood sugar. They had no existing symptoms of clogged arteries, like chest pain or past heart attacks. Half were chosen at random to have CT angiography, a scan that can reveal cholesterol-rich deposits that lead to heart attacks.