Tag: heart

The percentage of people with ideal heart health – measured by scoring seven lifestyle and biological markers – declined over two decades, according to a study that found people who maintain higher health scores over time have less risk of cardiovascular disease and death. The research, published Thursday in the Journal of the American Heart

Hospitalized patients who experience acute kidney injury face a 44 percent greater risk of heart failure during their first year after leaving the hospital, according to new Kaiser Permanente research published today in the Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology. Acute kidney injury is a sudden decline in the ability of the kidneys

Kendra Plumley didn’t spend her childhood running around with other kids on her street, having friends over for sleepovers, or spending lazy summer days by the pool. Instead, she spent most of her time indoors. It wasn’t a choice. She had to protect her new heart. Today, the 29-year-old from Midlothian, Texas, is making up

Meghan Markle‘s father Thomas Markle will not be attending the royal wedding. TMZ reports that Thomas suffered a heart attack six days ago, but had checked himself out of the hospital in order to attend the royal wedding. Kensington Palace announced that he was set to walk Meghan down the aisle earlier this month. However,

“What’s in a name?” William Shakespeare famously wrote in his play Romeo and Juliet. A whole lot, it turns out — at least if you’re looking at the names Shakespeare used in his plays. Widely considered to be the greatest playwright in history, Shakespeare’s works are wildly celebrated even today, more than four centuries since

By analyzing reported physical activity levels over time in more than 11,000 American adults, Johns Hopkins Medicine researchers conclude that increasing physical activity to recommended levels over as few as six years in middle age is associated with a significantly decreased risk of heart failure, a condition that affects an estimated 5 million to 6

Patients with an abnormal heart rhythm that can leave them at a higher risk of suffering from stroke still need treatment even after their heart rhythm seems to have returned to normal, say researchers at the University of Birmingham. Atrial fibrillation is the most common heart rhythm disturbance, affecting around 1.6 million people in the

Annual well woman exams by OB/GYNs provide a golden opportunity to evaluate a woman’s heart health, according to a new joint advisory from the American Heart Association and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) which stresses the benefits of collaborative care between OB/GYN specialists and cardiologists. As heart disease and stroke continue to

University of Illinois at Chicago researchers have discovered a way turn pluripotent stem cells into atrial cells, which make up the upper chambers, or atria, of the heart. The discovery will enable them to better study atrial fibrillation, the most common heart rhythm disorder also known as AFib, which originates in the heart’s atria. As

The University of Minnesota is the first institution in the state to participate in the phase III clinical trial for CardiAmp Therapy. Previous clinical studies of this therapy have been promising and have shown improvements in patients’ quality of life and heart function. The CardiAMP investigational therapy is a minimally invasive treatment for ischemic heart

From 2002 to 2013, New York City implemented a series of policies prioritizing the public’s health in areas beyond traditional healthcare policies and illustrated the potential to reduce cardiovascular disease risk. This strategy is known as employing a “health in all policies” approach. Researchers at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health catalogued health-relevant legislation

African-American patients were less likely than Caucasian patients to be treated primarily by a cardiologist when admitted to the intensive care unit for heart failure, according to a study published today in JACC: Heart Failure. Previous studies have shown that in-hospital survival is higher when patients of any race receive primary care from a cardiologist,

Women are underrepresented in clinical trials for heart failure, coronary artery disease and acute coronary syndrome but proportionately or overrepresented in trials for hypertension, atrial fibrillation and pulmonary arterial hypertension, when compared to incidence or prevalence of women within each disease population, according to a study in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

Researchers investigating a key signaling protein in Huntington’s disease describe deleterious effects on heart function, going beyond the disease’s devastating neurological impact. By adjusting protein levels affecting an important biological pathway, the researchers improved heart function in experimental animals, shedding light on the biology of this fatal disease. “Heart disease is the second leading cause

People who are 30 pounds or more overweight may want to slim down a bit even if they don’t have high blood pressure or any other heart disease risk, according to scientists at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center. In a study published in the May issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology,

Women who’ve previously experienced a heart attack have twice the risk of later myocardial ischemia provoked by mental stress when compared to men with a similar history, according to a study published in Circulation. Hawkins Gay, MD, MPH, a third-year resident in internal medicine, was a co-author of the study, which sampled 418 individuals and

High blood pressure and prediabetes together may do more harm to the body than either one alone. The first study of its type looking into the association between slightly elevated blood sugar levels and high blood pressure found that prediabetes didn’t increase cardiovascular risk by itself. But when researchers looked at prediabetes paired with high

People with obesity are more likely to develop a rapid and irregular heart rate, called atrial fibrillation, which can lead to stroke, heart failure and other complications, according to Penn State researchers. Researchers followed a large group of participants, equally divided between people with obesity and without, for eight years. They found that people with

In preclinical studies using cell models that mimicked liver cells of patients with the rare disease Friedreich’s ataxia (FA), a widely used cholesterol-lowering drug increased a precursor of HDL (high-density lipoprotein), the “good cholesterol,” according to new research published in PLOS ONE from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. Decreased HDL

Following a heart attack, the parts of the heart muscle that die do not regenerate into new heart tissue and instead are replaced by scar tissue. Using rodent models, researchers at Baylor College of Medicine are looking for a means to genetically convert this scar tissue into muscle tissue at the cellular level, which could