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Total 68 results found since Jan 2013.

What to do when blood test results are not quite “normal”
Picture this: you’re reading the results of your recent bloodwork, and you notice some numbers are teetering on the edge of the normal range. Should you be concerned? “It’s tricky, because in some tests, a borderline result makes no difference. In others, it might indicate an important change in health that we need to follow or act on,” says geriatrician Dr. Suzanne Salamon, assistant professor at Harvard Medical School. About normal ranges and interpreting the numbers When you look at a printout of your lab results, you’ll find the normal ranges for each blood test next to your personal results. For example, if ...
Source: New Harvard Health Information - June 2, 2016 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Heidi Godman Tags: Tests and procedures blood test 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

Understanding the heart attack gender gap
Imagine someone in the throes of a heart attack. If you pictured a man clutching his chest in agony, that’s understandable. At younger ages, men face a greater risk of heart disease than women. On average, a first heart attack — the most common manifestation of this prevalent disease — strikes men at age 65. For women, the average age of a first heart attack is 72. However, heart disease is the leading cause of death in the United States for both genders. In fact, since 1984, more women have died of heart disease than men each year, although that is partly because women generally live longer than men. So why do middl...
Source: New Harvard Health Information - April 15, 2016 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Julie Corliss Tags: Health Heart Health Women's Health Source Type: news

A twist on the genetic link between Alzheimer’s and heart disease
Alzheimer’s disease often strikes fear in people’s hearts because it gradually erodes a person’s ability to remember, think, and learn. There is no cure, and available treatments alleviate symptoms only temporarily. An estimated 5.3 million Americans currently have Alzheimer’s disease, yet this brain disorder is far less common than heart disease. More than 85 million people in the United States are living with some form of cardiovascular disease or the after-effects of stroke, which also affects brain function. Many people don’t realize that Alzheimer’s and heart disease share a genetic link: the apolipoprotei...
Source: New Harvard Health Information - March 25, 2016 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Julie Corliss Tags: Alzheimer's Disease Behavioral Health Brain and cognitive health Genes Healthy Aging Heart Health Memory Mental Health Source Type: news

Don’t shrug off shingles
If you had chickenpox as a kid, there is a good chance you may develop shingles later in life. “In fact, one in three is predicted to get shingles during their lifetime,” says Dr. Anne Louise Oaklander, director of the Nerve Unit at Harvard-affiliated Massachusetts General Hospital. The same varicella-zoster virus that causes chickenpox also causes shingles. After the telltale spots of chickenpox vanish, the virus lies dormant in your nerve cells near the spinal cord and brain. When your immunity weakens from normal aging or from illnesses or medications, the virus can re-emerge. It then travels along a nerve to trigge...
Source: New Harvard Health Information - February 18, 2016 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Matthew Solan Tags: Healthy Aging Infectious diseases Vaccines Source Type: news

Four new recommendations for adolescent health
The yearly “check-up” is the perfect (perhaps only) time to not only see how kids are growing and give any needed shots, but to see how they are doing more generally — and help be sure that they grow into healthy, happy adults. After all, prevention is really what pediatrics is all about. That’s why the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) has a checklist for pediatricians called “Recommendations for Preventive Pediatric Health Care.” These recommendations, which are updated every few years, are based on the most up-to-date research about the health of children now — and in the future. While the latest versio...
Source: New Harvard Health Information - January 4, 2016 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Claire McCarthy, MD Tags: Children's Health Parenting Prevention 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

Do statins interfere with the flu vaccine?
Statins are powerful, unusual, and, like El Niño and Tom Cruise, not well understood. Statins have a huge upside. They improve survival after heart attacks and lower the risk of recurrent strokes. They are also the only cholesterol-lowering medications that have been clearly shown to reduce heart attacks and deaths in high-risk patients without heart disease. In addition to reducing cholesterol, statins also lower levels of inflammation in the body. Reducing inflammation probably helps statins to prevent heart attack and stroke. However, evidence is emerging that these statin effects may also have a downside, hindering th...
Source: New Harvard Health Information - November 30, 2015 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: John Ross, MD, FIDSA Tags: Cold and Flu Drugs and Supplements Health Heart Health Vaccines flu vaccine statins Source Type: news

The type of fat you eat matters!
By: JoAnn E. Manson, MD, DrPH, and Shari S. Bassuk, ScD Contributing Editors, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School If you saw last month’s news headlines declaring that saturated fat is no longer deemed harmful to your heart, you may be (understandably!) confused. After all, for years, clinicians and scientists have recommended reducing saturated fat for heart health. Is it time to rethink this advice? Hardly. Here’s the deal. The research that sparked the recent news splash was an analysis by Canadian researchers of up to a dozen long-term observational studies of diet that included a total of 90,000...
Source: New Harvard Health Information - September 22, 2015 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Contributing Editors Tags: Health Healthy Eating Fats saturated fats unsaturated fats 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

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

Half of heart disease deaths could be prevented
Heart attack, stroke, and other cardiovascular diseases kill nearly three-quarters of a million Americans each year. They are the leading cause of death, accounting for nearly 30% of all deaths in the United States. But according to a new study published online yesterday in the Annals of Internal Medicine, many of these deaths can be prevented. For the study, researchers from the Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University in Atlanta looked at cardiovascular death rates in each of the 50 states and the District of Columbia. They also tallied the rates of five so-called modifiable risk factors, or factors under a pe...
Source: New Harvard Health Information - June 30, 2015 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Patrick J. Skerrett Tags: Heart Health cardiovascular disease heart disease 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

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

More than a stretch: Yoga’s benefits may extend to the heart
As a long-time yoga enthusiast, I’m always happy to hear about benefits newly attributed to this ancient practice. Doing yoga for a few hours each week helps me feel calmer and more balanced, both physically and mentally. Now, new research suggests that my habit also may be helping my heart. A recent review of yoga and cardiovascular disease published in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology indicates that yoga may help lower heart disease risk as much as conventional exercise, such as brisk walking. As I write in the April issue of the Harvard Heart Letter, the studies in the review looked at different types...
Source: New Harvard Health Information - April 15, 2015 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Julie Corliss Tags: Complementary and alternative medicine Heart Health alternative therapy cardiovascular disease exercise yoga Source Type: news