Moms Most Likely to Pass Heart Disease on to Kids - Forbes.com
: "Mothers pass on much that
is good to their children, but a new study shows there's one
gift most would rather not receive -- heart disease.A woman with a strong history of cardiovascular trouble is much
more likely to pass that legacy on to her kids than a father with
the same medical history, Swedish researchers report.In fact, 'maternal history of coronary heart disease was
almost always related to higher risk in both sons and
daughters,' said study lead author Dr. Kristina Sundquist, an
assistant professor at the Karolinska Institute's Center for
Family Medicine in Stockholm.Her team's preliminary data on the subject were presented
Thursday at a special American Medical Association briefing in New
York City. The study will also appear in the June issue of the
American Journal of Preventive Medicine."

PLEASE HELP!!!

Date: Wednesday - April 26th and Thursday April 27th
Time: 8:00 am to 1:00pm
Location: Barrow Neurological Institute Lobby
Contact Information: www.Bloodhero.com [Sponsor Code: "stjoes"]

Brain Images Link Strokes to Heart Damage :
[Abstract - National Institutes of Health]
"Ischemic strokes in two specific area of the brain appear to send shockwaves through the sympathetic nervous system to cause myocardial injury. Magnetic resonance imaging studies of patients who had new evidence of myocardial damage following an ischemic stroke indicated that infarctions occurring in the right insula and right inferior parietal lobule regions of the brain might be to blame, researchers here reported in an early online release in Neurology.

'The link between the brain and the heart in stroke patients is fascinating,' said A. Gregory Sorensen, M.D., of Massachusetts General Hospital. 'For instance, most patients with acute stroke have elevated blood pressure that returns to baseline over three to seven days. The connection is believed to be through the autonomic nervous system, but what the mechanism is has been unclear...."

When Implanted Heart Device Fails, Removal Is Risky:
[Abstract - Medscape]
"If implanted cardioverter-defibrillators (ICDs) malfunction, replacement is neither simple nor risk free. Data suggest that ICDs malfunction at a rate 20-fold higher than the pacemaker malfunction rate, which implies that these devices are more likely to be candidates for replacement, according to findings of a survey reported in the April 25 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

"

New Analysis Questions Antipsychotics' Stroke Risk [Psychiatric News]:
"Off-label use of antipsychotic drugs in older patients with dementia is associated with higher risk of strokes, but higher baseline risk or mis-classification of events may account for the difference. ..."

Triple-Drug Therapy Reduces Stroke Severity: "When ischemic strokes occur, patients who happen to be taking ACE inhibitors, antiplatelet agents, and statins may have reduced the severity. In a record review of 210 patients who arrived at the hospital within 24 hours of stroke onset, those who had been on the triple therapy had lower National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale scores and smaller lesions on imaging than patients who were on either two of the three agents, antiplatelet therapy alone, or no therapy......Patients on triple therapy were also more likely to have a shorter length of stay and better functional status on discharge...Magdy Selim, M.D., Ph.D., and colleagues at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center here reported in the April 25 issue of Neurology."
[Abstract - medpagetoday]

Merck found liable in man's fatal heart attack
A state jury found Merck & Co. liable Friday for the death of a 71-year-old man who had a fatal heart attack within a month of taking its painkiller Vioxx, which has since been withdrawn, and ordered the company to pay $32 million. Merck said it would appeal.

Merck found liable in man's fatal heart attack
A state jury found Merck & Co. liable Friday for the death of a 71-year-old man who had a fatal heart attack within a month of taking its painkiller Vioxx, which has since been withdrawn, and ordered the company to pay $32 million. Merck said it would appeal.

Mediterranean Diet May Repel Alzheimer's:
"A Mediterranean-style diet that appears to cut the risk of heart disease also may help protect against Alzheimer's disease, a new study suggests.

People who followed the diet were up to 40 percent less likely than those who largely avoided it to develop Alzheimer's during the course of the research, scientists reported.

Still, more research must be done before the diet can be recommended to ward off Alzheimer's, said Dr. Nikolaos Scarmeas of the Columbia University Medical Center in New York, lead author of the research. The diet he tested includes eating lots of vegetables, legumes, fruits, cereals and fish, while limiting intake of meat and dairy products, drinking moderate amounts of alcohol and emphasizing monounsaturated fats, such as in olive oil, over saturated fats. Previous research has suggested that such an approach can reduce the risk of heart disease....

The idea that a heart-healthy diet could also help fight Alzheimer's fits in with growing evidence that 'the kinds of things we associate with being bad for our heart turn out to be bad for our brain,' said Dr. Marilyn Albert, a Johns Hopkins neurology professor and spokeswoman for the Alzheimer's Association. The list includes high cholesterol, high blood pressure, obesity, smoking and uncontrolled diabetes, she said...."

MS: "Newspapers Called Often Wrong on Neurologic Disorders" - Mayo Clinic Phoenix
[SUMMARY - MedPageToday - PHOENIX, March 20]

"About one in five newspaper articles about neurological conditions...contains errors, according to a study by Mayo Clinic researchers.

Moreover, roughly 21% of news stories about neurological conditions contain 'stigmatizing language' that portrays the patients with these conditions as socially undesirable or reduced in personal wealth, wrote neurologist Joseph I. Sirven, M.D., of the Mayo Clinic Phoenix.

Inaccuracies included overestimating risk of mortality, presenting symptoms as more severe, or reporting unusual, atypical symptoms as the norm. Treatment inaccuracies included false claims that a therapy was curative or lack of reporting of adverse effects of therapy.

And "omission of key data is the announcement of a new treatment or scientific breakthrough with no further identification or explanation," the authors wrote.

In an editorial Jessica M. Fishman Ph.D., and David Casarett M.D., of the University of Pennsylvania, wrote that the inaccuracies and stigmatizing language identified are important because several surveys have identified newspapers as a "widely used and highly trusted source of health information."

So errors in newspaper articles "may have a disproportionate influence on individuals who place high trust in this source of information compared to other sources."

The papers included in the review were the Arizona Republic, Atlanta Journal Constitution, Boston Globe, Chicago Sun-Times, Houston Chronicle, New York Times, San Diego Union-Tribune...

The neurologic conditions included....MS, stroke, traumatic brain injury, dementia and Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, brain tumors...."

SOURCE: MedPageToday
[Primary source: Mayo Clinic Proceedings
Source reference:
Caspermeyer JJ et al "Evaluation of Stigmatizing Language and Medical Errors in Neurology Coverage by US Newspapers" Mayo Clin Proc 2006; 81:300-306

Additional source: Mayo Clinic Proceedings
Source reference:
Fishman JM and Casarett D "Mass Media and Medicine: When the Most Trusted Media Mislead" Mayo Clin Proc 2006; 81:291-292"

Mayo Clinic News Release: "Newspaper Coverage of Neurologic Conditions Incorrect 20 Percent of the Time, Study Shows" [CLICK TO READ COMPLETE MAYO PRESS RELEASE]

American Academy of Neurology 58th Annual Meeting Scientific Highlights:
"Stroke and Traumatic Brain Injury....Patients taking statins to lower their cholesterol have a reduced risk of stroke, according to an international study by researchers from Ohio and Korea. Those on statins had approximately half the risk of a first-ever stroke compared to those with equally high cholesterol but not on statins.Pure oxygen does not help the brain recover after traumatic brain injury, according to researchers in Missouri. In a study of five patients, they found that 100 percent oxygen at normal pressure did not improve delivery of oxygen to the brain or increase metabolic activity. They noted that the utility of high-pressure (hyperbaric) oxygen is still unknown."

NHLBI Health Information Materials from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute Free Guidebooks Make for Heart-Healthy Reading [CLICK HERE TO GET YOUR FREE GUIDE BOOKS
Only three percent of American adults follow the "big four" habits to prevent heart disease: Healthy diet, regular physical activity, proper weight, and not smoking, according to a recent national survey.

In order to help people improve their heart health, the U.S. National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), part of the National Institutes of Health, has issued two new guidebooks about the factors that increase heart disease risk or that may contribute to worsening existing heart disease.

Study shows how painkillers raise heart risk: "Painkillers called COX-2 inhibitors may increase the risk of heart attacks by raising blood pressure and making the blood more likely to clot, researchers said on Thursday.They do so by the same mechanisms that they use to reduce pain and inflammation, said University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine researcher Dr. Garret FitzGerald, who led the study.But the finding shows that a new generation of anti-inflammatory drugs could avoid the problem, FitzGerald reported in the Journal of Clinical Investigation...."

Blunted heart rate rise during exercise a bad sign : "In healthy middle-aged men, a blunted increase in heart rate while exercising at 40 percent to 100 percent of maximal workload is a strong predictor of early heart disease and death, Finnish heart doctors report.
'The magnitude of the association was comparable with that of other major cardiovascular risk factors,' warn Dr. Kai P. Savonen from Kuopio Research Institute of Exercise Medicine and colleagues in the European Heart Journal...." [Reuters]

Girl's heart restarted after donor organ removed: "A British girl is thought to have become the first heart transplant patient in the UK and possibly the world to have had her donor organ removed and her own heart re-started, a London hospital said on Thursday."

Inflammatory-Enzyme Shown to Predict Risk of Cardiovascular Events After Acute Coronary Syndromes:
"New results from a majorcardiovascular study showed that when measured approximately 30 days after an acute coronary event such as chest pain or heart attack, elevated levels of Lp-PLA2 (lipoprotein-associated phospholipase A2) activity are an independent risk marker for death or recurrent cardiovascular (CV) events.(1) Lp-PLA2 activity has been associated with the development and progression of atherosclerosis, a process that may lead to heart attack, stroke or other serious CV events but until now, little information has been available on theprognostic role of Lp-PLA2 in patients following acute coronary syndromes
(ACS).
Results from this substudy of the PRavastatin Or atorVastatin
Evaluation and Infection Therapy (PROVE IT-TIMI 22) trial were published today
in the American Heart Association's journal Circulation."

"Typical" heart patients not represented in trials: "Patients enrolled in randomized clinical trials of coronary interventions are younger and have better cardiac risk profiles than the average patient in clinical practice, European heart doctors report. As such, they say, treatment 'can only be partially evidence-based.'"

Small Vessels, Big Problems: The New England Journal of Medicine:
"The impressive gains in stroke prevention and treatment seen over the past decade have not been evenly distributed across all types of stroke. Most advances have pertained to the approximately two thirds of symptomatic strokes that are caused by disease of the large arteries (those more than 0.1 mm in diameter) that run from the neck into the skull, the circle of Willis, and the surface of the brain. These large-vessel subtypes of stroke include atherosclerotic narrowing and occlusion of the large neck vessels, aneurysmal rupture and subarachnoid hemorrhage over the brain surface, and thromboembolic occlusion of the major vessel . . ."

MORE
Heart disease and depression seem to work together to make things worse for people who have them.

Doctors have found that not only does heart disease lead to depression, but that depression makes heart disease worse.

According to the Mayo Clinic's Women's HealthSource, about one in three people who survive a heart attack experience major depression.

Depression, in turn, can elevate cholesterol levels, increase stress hormones and elevate inulin, all of which are linked to progression of heart disease.

MORE
A robotic device that remotely controls a special cardiac ablation catheter has halted atrial fibrillation in 38 of 40 patients, according to investigators here.

They hope that robotic technology will do for interventional cardiology what it has already done for thoracic surgeons --maximize benefit while minimizing risk.

Thoracic surgeons use robotic technology to repair mitral valves through quarter-sized incisions and without the morbidity associated with sternotomy. Now a report in the April 4 issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology described the use of robotic magnetic navigation in atrial fibrillation patients undergoing circumferential pulmonary vein ablation.

READ MORE
Obesity has reached epidemic proportions in the United States. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the number of obese Americans continues to rise. In fact, 30 percent of adults over age 20-more than 60 million people-are obese, which means they are 30 pounds overweight and have a BMI, or body mass index (a mea-sure of body fat), of more than 30.
Obesity Is On The Rise

One of the goals of the National Institutes of Health is to reduce obesity among adults by more than half by the year 2010. However, current data suggests that the situation is getting worse. Due to rising rates of childhood obesity, life expectancy for the average American could decrease by two to five years over the next few decades unless major efforts are made to slow down the rising rates of obesity.

READ MORE

READ MORE: "It's true you might die of loneliness, but not until you're older.

In a new University of Chicago study of men and women 50 to 68 years old, those who scored highest on measures of loneliness also had higher blood pressure. And high blood pressure is a major risk factor for heart disease, the number one killer in many industrialized nations and number two the United States.

Lonely people have blood pressure readings as much as 30 points higher than non-lonely people, said the study leaders Louise Hawkley and Christopher Masi. Blood pressure differences between lonely and non-lonely people were smallest at age 50 and greatest among the oldest people tested.
Richard Suzman of the National Institute on Aging, which funded this research, said he was 'surprised by the magnitude of the relationship between loneliness and hypertension in this well-controlled, cross-sectional study.'"

Light drinking may not be good for you: study: Reuters.com
Researchers poured cold water on the idea that moderate drinking helps prevent heart disease on Friday, noting that many studies include teetotalers as a control group but don't ask why they did not drink.

Several major studies have found that light to moderate drinking -- up to two drinks a day on a regular basis -- is associated with a lower risk of heart disease. Some have also found a lower risk of some cancers.

But a team at the University of Victoria in British Columbia and the University of California San Francisco analyzed 54 studies and found that only seven of them differentiated between people who abstain from choice and those who may have quit drinking for health reasons.