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Condition: Cholesterol
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Total 68 results found since Jan 2013.
Special MRI scan could identify stroke risk in people with atrial fibrillation
Atrial fibrillation is a heart rhythm disorder that affects millions of people. It can make you feel lousy. Even worse, it can cause potentially disabling or deadly strokes. A special MRI scan may — I stress the “may” — help identify people with atrial fibrillation who are at high risk of having a stroke. This could help many people with this condition to avoid taking warfarin or other clot-preventing medications for life.
A normal heartbeat starts in a cluster of cells called the pacemaker. It sits in the heart’s upper right chamber (the right atrium). These cells generate a pulse of electricity that...
Source: New Harvard Health Information - April 28, 2015 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Howard LeWine, M.D. Tags: Heart Health atrial fibrillation MRI prevention special MRI scan Stroke Stroke Risk Source Type: news
FDA strengthens warning that NSAIDs increase heart attack and stroke risk
Back in 2005, the FDA warned that taking nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) like ibuprofen and naproxen increased the risk of having a heart attack or stroke. Last week it took the unusual step of further strengthening this warning. This was done on the advice of an expert panel that reviewed new information about NSAIDs and their risks. Because NSAIDs are widely used, it’s important to be aware of downsides of taking an NSAID and to take steps to limit the risk.
Many people take NSAIDs to relieve mild to moderate pain. These medications may be particularly effective in conditions in which pain results pri...
Source: New Harvard Health Information - July 13, 2015 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Gregory Curfman, MD Tags: Heart Health heart attack heart disease NSAIDS Stroke Source Type: news
Combination of a cholesterol-lowering statin and ezetimibe lowers risk of a heart attack or stroke
High cholesterol is a key culprit in the development of cardiovascular disease, the leading cause of death in the United States and many other developed countries. We know that lowering cholesterol helps prevent heart attacks and strokes. But an unanswered question remains: how low should you go? New research published online today in The New England Journal of Medicine suggests that lower is better.
Cholesterol and cardiovascular disease
Cholesterol travels through the bloodstream in two main particles: high-density lipoprotein (HDL) and low-density lipoprotein (LDL). HDL scavenges cholesterol from the bloodstream and fro...
Source: New Harvard Health Information - June 4, 2015 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Gregory Curfman, MD Tags: Drugs and Supplements Heart Health cholesterol ezetimibe Source Type: news
Only the overworked die young
Follow me at @JohnRossMD
Billy Joel was on to something. As the singer-songwriter suggested in “Movin’ Out,” working too hard really can give you a “heart attack-ack-ack…” And, as a recent study has also shown, stroke may be an even bigger problem than heart attack in people who are overworked.
For the study, researchers from University College London compiled data on the relationship between working hours and heart attack risk in over 600,000 workers, as well as similar data on stroke risk in over 500,000 workers. They adjusted their data to compensate for individual workers’ differences due to healt...
Source: New Harvard Health Information - December 14, 2015 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: John Ross, MD, FIDSA Tags: Behavioral Health Heart Health Hypertension and Stroke Prevention Stress overworked Source Type: news
How To Lower Risk of Heart Disease and Stroke
Italy's Emma Morano will be celebrating her 117th birthday at the end of this month. She's the oldest living person in the world.
And when she was asked what her secret to longevity was, she didn't miss a beat.
Her answer? She eats two or three eggs every day.
I'm not at all surprised by Emma's long, healthy life. People thrived on eggs for millions of years.
The Myth of Eggs and Cholesterol
That is, until the 1950s, when they came under attack because they're high in cholesterol. Around that time, cholesterol was blamed for causing heart disease.
And we now know that's not true.
Choleste...
Source: Al Sears, MD Natural Remedies - December 15, 2016 Category: Complementary Medicine Authors: Al Sears Tags: Anti-Aging Source Type: news
Could exercise be as effective as medication?
Conclusion
The researchers found that there are very few trials that directly compare exercise with drug therapy for any condition. They were only able to find enough trials to be able to analyse results for four major conditions.
They found that exercise reduced death rates for people after a stroke (although this analysis has limitations and should be interpreted cautiously), and that drug therapy with diuretics improved death rates for people with heart failure. They did not find any difference between exercise and drug therapy for death rates after a heart attack or in people with pre-diabetes.
There were several limit...
Source: NHS News Feed - October 2, 2013 Category: Consumer Health News Tags: Lifestyle/exercise Heart/lungs Medication Source Type: news
Migraines linked to increased heart disease risk in women
Conclusion
This study shows a strong link between migraine and cardiovascular disease, extending the link already found between migraine and stroke. However, many questions remain.
We don't know if the results are relevant to men who have migraines, as all the people in the study were women. We also don't know if the results apply to non-white populations, as most of the women in the study were white.
Previous studies on stroke have shown that the group at highest risk is who get an "aura" before a migraine – sensation(s) that tells them the migraine is on its way.
But this study did not ask people about aura...
Source: NHS News Feed - June 1, 2016 Category: Consumer Health News Tags: Heart/lungs Neurology Source Type: news
New drug shows promise in preventing heart attacks
Conclusion
This is a high-quality, well-conducted randomised controlled trial conducted in a very large number of people across multiple countries.
To date, it's remained uncertain whether evolocumab reduces the risk of cardiovascular events.
This study provides good evidence that the drug reduces the risk of major cardiovascular events in people with high LDL cholesterol levels, and with a high risk of having a cardiovascular event, who are already taking statins.
The follow-up is limited to around two years, during which roughly 1 in 10 people experienced a cardiovascular event.
The reduction in risk was shown to inc...
Source: NHS News Feed - March 20, 2017 Category: Consumer Health News Tags: Medication Heart/lungs Source Type: news
10 Ways to Keep Your Heart Healthy
No one ever had fun visiting the cardiologist. Regardless of how good the doc might be, it’s always a little scary thinking about the health of something as fundamental as the heart. But there are ways to take greater control—to ensure that your own heart health is the best it can be—even if you have a family history of cardiovascular disease.
Although 50% of cardiovascular-disease risk is genetic, the other 50% can be modified by how you live your life, according to Dr. Eugenia Gianos, director of Women’s Heart Health at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City. “This means you can greatly ...
Source: TIME: Health - October 17, 2018 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Lisa Lombardi and Jamie Ducharme Tags: Uncategorized Baby Boomer Health heart health Source Type: news
How To Avoid China ’ s Medicine Monopoly
I want to share a shocking statistic with you…
Around 80% of all the pharmaceuticals sold in America — both prescription and over-the-counter — are manufactured in China.
I’m talking about drugs for Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s, blood pressure and blood thinners, diuretics, aspirin, antibiotics, and a big chunk of the world’s insulin and diabetes drugs — just to name a few.1
We don’t even make penicillin anymore. The last penicillin plant in the U.S. closed its doors in 2004.
Americans who rely on medicine are now almost entirely at the mercy of a country whose relations with the U.S. have become more ...
Source: Al Sears, MD Natural Remedies - September 19, 2023 Category: Complementary Medicine Authors: Jacob Tags: Health Source Type: news
PCSK9 inhibitors: a major advance in cholesterol-lowering drug therapy
Every so often a medical advance comes along that rewrites the script for treating a disease or condition. After today’s announcements of impressive results of a new type of cholesterol-lowering drug, that scenario just might happen in the next few years.
The new drugs, called PCSK9 inhibitors, are monoclonal antibodies. They target and inactivate a specific protein in the liver. Knocking out this protein, called proprotein convertase subtilisin kexin 9, dramatically reduces the amount of harmful LDL cholesterol circulating in the bloodstream. Lower LDL translates into healthier arteries and fewer heart attacks, stro...
Source: New Harvard Health Information - March 15, 2015 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Gregory Curfman, MD Tags: Drugs and Supplements Heart Health Medical Research alirocumab cholesterol evolocumab PCSK9 inhibitors Source Type: news
Studies support broader use of cholesterol-lowering statins
The latest guidelines used to determine who should take a cholesterol-lowering statin to prevent heart disease appear to be more accurate and cost-efficient than the previous guidelines. That’s according to two studies led by Harvard researchers, both published in this week’s Journal of the American Medical Association.
For many years, the main deciding factor in who needed to take a statin was the level of an individual’s harmful low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL). Updated guidelines published in 2013 by the American College of Cardiology and the American Heart Association moved away from LDL and ...
Source: New Harvard Health Information - July 16, 2015 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Julie Corliss Tags: Drugs and Supplements cholesterol high cholesterol statins Source Type: news
Women With Migraines Are More Prone To This Scary Health Condition
This study provides really good quality evidence that migraine in women is a risk factor for cardiovascular disease," said Dr. Rebecca Burch, an instructor in the department of neurology at Harvard Medical School in Boston, who wrote an editorial accompanying the study, but was not involved in the research.
Migraines have a fairly small effect on cardiovascular risk compared with other known risk factors that have a much larger influence on heart disease, such as smoking, high blood pressure or high cholesterol, Burch said.
However, because migraines are relatively common, affecting an estimated 1 in 4 American women, this...
Source: Healthy Living - The Huffington Post - June 2, 2016 Category: Consumer Health News Source Type: news
Depression May Be As Bad For The Heart As Obesity
Doctors have long known of an association between psychological and physical health, but mental illness wasn’t considered to be a major risk factor for ailments like heart disease, until now.
Depression has been linked to physical health risks including digestive disorders, chronic pain, stroke and even early death. Depression is also closely tied to heart health: New research suggests that it may be one of the top risk factors for cardiovascular disease.
The relationship seems to run both ways. Patients with heart conditions are more likely to become depressed as a result of their illness, and otherwise healthy peop...
Source: Science - The Huffington Post - January 17, 2017 Category: Science Source Type: news
