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Long working week 'may increase risk of irregular heartbeat'
Conclusion This study draws together data from a large group of people to investigate whether working hours could be linked to AF. It found people who work 55 or more hours a week had an increased risk of developing an irregular heartbeat. But before we jump to any conclusions, there are several important things to consider: The number of people who developed AF during this study was small: only 1.24%. That's the absolute risk of AF. Even if working more than 55 hours a week does increase your risk of AF by around 40%, it would only be increasing it to something like 1.74% – which is still very small. Only a small ...
Source: NHS News Feed - July 14, 2017 Category: Consumer Health News Tags: Heart/lungs Lifestyle/exercise Source Type: news

Beta-blockers 'useless' for many heart attack patients, study reports
Conclusion This study aimed to see whether beta blockers reduce mortality in people who've had a heart attack but who don't have heart failure or systolic dysfunction. It found no difference between those who were and those who were not given beta-blockers on discharge from hospital. The authors say this adds to the evidence that routine prescription of beta blockers might not be needed for patients without heart failure following a heart attack. Current UK guidelines recommend all people who have had a heart attack take beta blockers for at least one year to reduce risk of recurrent events. Only people with heart failure ...
Source: NHS News Feed - May 30, 2017 Category: Consumer Health News Tags: Heart/lungs Medication Source Type: news

Binge drinking could trigger abnormal heart rhythms
Conclusion This cross-sectional study found binge drinking is associated with an increased risk of having an irregular heartbeat. However, the type of irregular heartbeat found was mainly sinus tachycardia, which isn't life threatening but involves the heart beating at an abnormally fast rate of over 100 heartbeats a minute. This research also has some notable limitations: The ECG recordings from the acute alcohol group were taken using a smartphone application operated outside the manufacturer's recommended environment. The lively atmosphere within the beer tent may have caused inaccurate recordings. The population...
Source: NHS News Feed - April 27, 2017 Category: Consumer Health News Tags: Heart/lungs Lifestyle/exercise Source Type: news

The idea you can be fat but fit is 'a myth' study argues
ConclusionThis was a large prospective cohort study from Sweden, which was carried out in young adult males who were then followed for a period of around 29 years. The study found that lower levels of aerobic fitness were associated with risk of early death, but that this risk of death was greater for those with a high BMI, even if they had a high level of aerobic fitness. This study has a number of strengths and limitations. The limitations are that a large number of participants had missing smoking data and therefore it was not possible to control for the confounding effect of smoking. The lower fitness level group with...
Source: NHS News Feed - December 21, 2015 Category: Consumer Health News Tags: Food/diet Obesity Source Type: news

Could testing grip strength predict heart disease risk?
Conclusion These are interesting results from a range of very different countries, showing that people with low muscle strength may be at higher risk of dying prematurely than other people. Earlier studies in high-income countries had already suggested that this was the case, but this is the first study to show it holds true across countries from high to low incomes. The study also shows that Europeans, and men from high-income countries, on average, have higher grip strength than people from lower-income countries. Interestingly, women from middle-income regions, such as China and Latin America, had slightly higher muscl...
Source: NHS News Feed - May 14, 2015 Category: Consumer Health News Tags: Heart/lungs Medical practice Source Type: news

Running 7 minutes a day 'halves heart death risk'
Conclusion This well-conducted cohort study found running is associated with a reduction in risk of death from any cause and death from cardiovascular disease during a 15-year follow-up. It calculated running was associated with a three-year increase in life expectancy. The study also found short duration running (less than 51 minutes a week, equivalent to less than approximately seven minutes a day) or running at slow speeds was associated with a reduction in risk. As this was a cohort study, it cannot show running caused the reduction in risk of death. It is possible there were other differences between runners and n...
Source: NHS News Feed - July 29, 2014 Category: Consumer Health News Tags: Heart/lungs Lifestyle/exercise Source Type: news

Painkiller use linked to irregular heartbeat
ConclusionThis prospective cohort study claims an association between NSAIDs usage and developing atrial fibrillation. However, there are many limitations to this research.Despite this being a large prospective cohort study that followed people over a period of time, the assessments within it were predominantly cross-sectional. That means it assessed the person’s current or recent prescription of NSAIDs at the time they were diagnosed, but this cannot prove that using NSAIDs caused atrial fibrillation. A better method may have been to assess the use of NSAIDs in people without atrial fibrillation at the start of the stud...
Source: NHS News Feed - April 9, 2014 Category: Consumer Health News Tags: Heart/lungs Medication Older people Source Type: news